Post by masterdecoy on Mar 1, 2010 10:19:58 GMT 10
Opening thoughts:
Its been a while since I wrote my last review, and to be completely honest, I was trying to hold this one off until I got all the expansions for it, but FFG seems so intent of getting my money, that there is no end to the expansions in sight so I'll just bite the bullet and go off with both barrels.
This game could possibly be one of the best I have ever played despite the fact it is nigh un-winnable, has more ways to lose than you could possibly imagine and takes up an entire 4”x8” table, it has also seen far more play time than anything else from my collection, and people just keep coming back for more, I’m fairly sure this goes down to the immense detail and flavor put into the game, as well as the fact that the game runs itself.
So to the meat of the subject, It is a co-operative game based on the original fiction by H.P Lovecraft, The game is set in the 1920’s in a small town in America called Arkham, the players have just discovered an ancient and mordacious being is awakening from an eternity of slumber, the disruption caused by this event is ripping portals open through which a legion of monsters spew forth to wreak havoc on the unwitting populace of Arkham.
Game Overview:
Keeping in mind I now own 6 of the 7 expansions I will try not to let this get out of hand but there is a lot to go over, so first I will explain each section of the game and then at the end explain what the expansions add to the experience.
First of all, the group will need to decide which of the ancient evil ones is waking up, there are 8 to choose from, each with varying abilities for their cultists and game altering rules specific rules.
Each player must then choose a character; this in itself could take a while as there is over a dozen unique identity’s to choose from, all typical archetypes of the roaring 20’s, each with their own hefty back-story of how they came to be investigating the ancient ones cult as well as varying special powers, stats and starting items. Our experience has led us to categorize them into 3 different “main roles”
Portal closers: whose main job is to explore the other worlds and close portals.
Fighters: whose main job is to keep the monsters numbers in check.
Support: whose main job is to rack up money and items for the other players.
Each character has 6 stats divided into 3 groups, typically speed and sneak, fight and will, lore and luck, the genius part about this mechanic however is that each stat has a range of 4 potential numbers that can be adjusted throughout the game depending on what is needed at the time and balancing your stats will be a key part of the game experience because as you increase one stat, the stat which it is grouped with will decrease, for example if I increase my speed, my sneak will go down by about the same amount.
Each character also has 2 different types of Hitpoints, stamina and sanity, which if either reach 0, your character has met an unfortunate accident, and while not out of the game, it will slow you down considerably. Characters can die permanently, however this is rare.
Play consists of 5 phases: Upkeep, movement, Arkham encounters, other world encounter and mythos. Each player completes their actions for the phase before moving onto the next phase, so co-ordination and negotiation are king.
During the upkeep phase players may ready any items, spells and skills that where used in the previous turn, paying any additional costs required, Use any special abilities that must be used in this phase, and generally perform character maintenance. This is also the only phase in which you are able to adjust your stats, so you must plan your turn here or suffer the consequences.
The movement phase sees the characters moving about the game board, killing or avoiding monsters and grabbing clues to help seal gates, it is important that players co-ordinate efficiently so combat characters clear paths for portal closers and support characters to get where they are going, this can often be difficult due to the first player shifting to the player on the left at the end of every turn.
During the Arkham encounters phase, characters will have events occur at whatever location they are currently at, this will often involve a skill check of some sort to avoid bad things happening, or some sort of reward. Events are highly random, drawn from one of 9 different decks representing the 9 different districts in Arkham. Each card has the 3 major locations for the district on it with a different event on each card for each location so it is unlikely you will get the same events twice in a game unless multiple characters repeatedly go to the same district. Players will also travel through open portals in this phase.
The other worlds encounter phase is very similar to the Arkham encounters phase. Each player currently in another world draws cards from the other world encounter deck until they find one that matches one of the colour’s that represents the world they are in. Like the Arkham encounters card, the other world encounters card will have 2 different locations printed on it as well as a generic everywhere else event, these encounters, like the Arkham ones, will generally involve a skill check to get a nice reward or prevent something bad happening.
Finally the mythos phase is where the game does its own upkeep phase, A card will be drawn from the Mythos deck and it will contain all the information required to advance the game. Typically a new portal will open and monsters will spawn out of it, monsters will move about Arkham based on their type following either black or white arrows printed on the map, clues will appear at locations and some type of major event will occur, these range from monsters ambushing people in streets, the citizens of Arkham fighting back, items for sale in back alleys and imposing penalties and bonuses in subsequent turns. Particular nasty events will require the characters to sacrifice what seems like unreasonable amounts of items or resources within a turn limit or suffer crippling penalties.
The major mechanic which forms the backbone of the game is the skill checks, almost any action will require a skill check of one type or another in order to progress. Fortunately these are easy and intuitive. The player in question will be told to make a certain type of skill check for example an event may require the player to make a speed check to escape a monster chasing them. That player than tallies up his characters current stat for that skill, plus any bonuses conferred by items, skills, events or spells. Next the player collects that many D6’s and rolls them, each score of 5+ is 1 success. Most checks only require 1 success to progress, but harder ones like fighting tough monsters may require 2 or more.
There are 3 official ways to win: close at least 1 portal for each player and have no portals open, Sealing 6 gates or fending off the ancient one once it has awoken.
There is really only 1 way to lose, to have the ancient one awaken and the characters lose the battle against it, but there is many ways to reach this climax for example: having too many portals open, allowing the doom track to fill entirely, allowing the terror level to reach peak, and just taking too damn long to win results in the fight against the ancient one, and it’s hard, an uphill battle at best and a slaughter at worst.
Each expansion generally adds a new mechanic that if left unchecked will result in the ancient one awakening. Some add new characters and ancient ones, all add new monsters, some add mini bosses that speed up the ancient ones awakening one way or another, and all add new mythos, encounter cards and items. 3 add new boards representing the neighboring towns of Arkham; very few of them will add ways to help the players, and one of the later expansions makes the end boss fight much more involving, if not excessively difficult by adding random events to it.
Component Overview:
When you open the core box of Arkham it is full of FFG usual high standard and colourful cardboard chits and character sheets galore. There are a dozen or so decks of cards and a, what I feel, too large game board for what it is.
1/3rd of the games playing time will be in setup, so organization is a key factor to this game’s components.
I was disappointed by the fact that they chose to use cardboard markers for characters rather than miniatures, but I can also understand why this was done to keep the costs down.
Frequent use of all the components has seen little to no where on anything bar the character tokens.
Closing thoughts:
Arkham horror, especially with its multitude of expansions, is one of the best experiences you can imagine. I cant think of a better day spent than with a group of friends desperately scrambling about the board in a vein attempt to master the game. Despite the sheer difficulty of the game (which only gets harder with each extra expansion), this game is a winner in respect that the players are constantly negotiating and discussing the best course of action at any one time.
The game reeks of theme, the game is basically written in flavor text so each event is personal and involving.
The sheer customization will ensure that no 2 games ever play the same, after you pick up the expansions there are literally thousands of event cards, over 50 characters to choose from and at least 30 bosses to fight you’ll have plenty to keep coming back for, that itself however is one of the major drawbacks of the game, there are so many different decks of cards and mechanics, you are not likely to utilize even half of them in one game. Storage and transport becomes a real problem after the 2nd or 3rd expansion. The different expansions will dilute the core Arkham ones and so some expansions will go completely unused for entire games and book keeping becomes a major part of the game
With those quibbles aside, I would recommend picking up as many expansions as you can, they all add something different and keep the game fresh time after time, However I have easily spent over $500 on this game and its expansions as well as transport options and protective sleeves for the endless amounts of cards, so the cost will add up over time and this may deter many.
The game is defiantly worth a look, and more than likely worth your money.
Components: 3/5
Game play: 5/5
Replay Potential: 5/5
Theme: 5/5
Price: 3/5
Overall: 5/5
Its been a while since I wrote my last review, and to be completely honest, I was trying to hold this one off until I got all the expansions for it, but FFG seems so intent of getting my money, that there is no end to the expansions in sight so I'll just bite the bullet and go off with both barrels.
This game could possibly be one of the best I have ever played despite the fact it is nigh un-winnable, has more ways to lose than you could possibly imagine and takes up an entire 4”x8” table, it has also seen far more play time than anything else from my collection, and people just keep coming back for more, I’m fairly sure this goes down to the immense detail and flavor put into the game, as well as the fact that the game runs itself.
So to the meat of the subject, It is a co-operative game based on the original fiction by H.P Lovecraft, The game is set in the 1920’s in a small town in America called Arkham, the players have just discovered an ancient and mordacious being is awakening from an eternity of slumber, the disruption caused by this event is ripping portals open through which a legion of monsters spew forth to wreak havoc on the unwitting populace of Arkham.
Game Overview:
Keeping in mind I now own 6 of the 7 expansions I will try not to let this get out of hand but there is a lot to go over, so first I will explain each section of the game and then at the end explain what the expansions add to the experience.
First of all, the group will need to decide which of the ancient evil ones is waking up, there are 8 to choose from, each with varying abilities for their cultists and game altering rules specific rules.
Each player must then choose a character; this in itself could take a while as there is over a dozen unique identity’s to choose from, all typical archetypes of the roaring 20’s, each with their own hefty back-story of how they came to be investigating the ancient ones cult as well as varying special powers, stats and starting items. Our experience has led us to categorize them into 3 different “main roles”
Portal closers: whose main job is to explore the other worlds and close portals.
Fighters: whose main job is to keep the monsters numbers in check.
Support: whose main job is to rack up money and items for the other players.
Each character has 6 stats divided into 3 groups, typically speed and sneak, fight and will, lore and luck, the genius part about this mechanic however is that each stat has a range of 4 potential numbers that can be adjusted throughout the game depending on what is needed at the time and balancing your stats will be a key part of the game experience because as you increase one stat, the stat which it is grouped with will decrease, for example if I increase my speed, my sneak will go down by about the same amount.
Each character also has 2 different types of Hitpoints, stamina and sanity, which if either reach 0, your character has met an unfortunate accident, and while not out of the game, it will slow you down considerably. Characters can die permanently, however this is rare.
Play consists of 5 phases: Upkeep, movement, Arkham encounters, other world encounter and mythos. Each player completes their actions for the phase before moving onto the next phase, so co-ordination and negotiation are king.
During the upkeep phase players may ready any items, spells and skills that where used in the previous turn, paying any additional costs required, Use any special abilities that must be used in this phase, and generally perform character maintenance. This is also the only phase in which you are able to adjust your stats, so you must plan your turn here or suffer the consequences.
The movement phase sees the characters moving about the game board, killing or avoiding monsters and grabbing clues to help seal gates, it is important that players co-ordinate efficiently so combat characters clear paths for portal closers and support characters to get where they are going, this can often be difficult due to the first player shifting to the player on the left at the end of every turn.
During the Arkham encounters phase, characters will have events occur at whatever location they are currently at, this will often involve a skill check of some sort to avoid bad things happening, or some sort of reward. Events are highly random, drawn from one of 9 different decks representing the 9 different districts in Arkham. Each card has the 3 major locations for the district on it with a different event on each card for each location so it is unlikely you will get the same events twice in a game unless multiple characters repeatedly go to the same district. Players will also travel through open portals in this phase.
The other worlds encounter phase is very similar to the Arkham encounters phase. Each player currently in another world draws cards from the other world encounter deck until they find one that matches one of the colour’s that represents the world they are in. Like the Arkham encounters card, the other world encounters card will have 2 different locations printed on it as well as a generic everywhere else event, these encounters, like the Arkham ones, will generally involve a skill check to get a nice reward or prevent something bad happening.
Finally the mythos phase is where the game does its own upkeep phase, A card will be drawn from the Mythos deck and it will contain all the information required to advance the game. Typically a new portal will open and monsters will spawn out of it, monsters will move about Arkham based on their type following either black or white arrows printed on the map, clues will appear at locations and some type of major event will occur, these range from monsters ambushing people in streets, the citizens of Arkham fighting back, items for sale in back alleys and imposing penalties and bonuses in subsequent turns. Particular nasty events will require the characters to sacrifice what seems like unreasonable amounts of items or resources within a turn limit or suffer crippling penalties.
The major mechanic which forms the backbone of the game is the skill checks, almost any action will require a skill check of one type or another in order to progress. Fortunately these are easy and intuitive. The player in question will be told to make a certain type of skill check for example an event may require the player to make a speed check to escape a monster chasing them. That player than tallies up his characters current stat for that skill, plus any bonuses conferred by items, skills, events or spells. Next the player collects that many D6’s and rolls them, each score of 5+ is 1 success. Most checks only require 1 success to progress, but harder ones like fighting tough monsters may require 2 or more.
There are 3 official ways to win: close at least 1 portal for each player and have no portals open, Sealing 6 gates or fending off the ancient one once it has awoken.
There is really only 1 way to lose, to have the ancient one awaken and the characters lose the battle against it, but there is many ways to reach this climax for example: having too many portals open, allowing the doom track to fill entirely, allowing the terror level to reach peak, and just taking too damn long to win results in the fight against the ancient one, and it’s hard, an uphill battle at best and a slaughter at worst.
Each expansion generally adds a new mechanic that if left unchecked will result in the ancient one awakening. Some add new characters and ancient ones, all add new monsters, some add mini bosses that speed up the ancient ones awakening one way or another, and all add new mythos, encounter cards and items. 3 add new boards representing the neighboring towns of Arkham; very few of them will add ways to help the players, and one of the later expansions makes the end boss fight much more involving, if not excessively difficult by adding random events to it.
Component Overview:
When you open the core box of Arkham it is full of FFG usual high standard and colourful cardboard chits and character sheets galore. There are a dozen or so decks of cards and a, what I feel, too large game board for what it is.
1/3rd of the games playing time will be in setup, so organization is a key factor to this game’s components.
I was disappointed by the fact that they chose to use cardboard markers for characters rather than miniatures, but I can also understand why this was done to keep the costs down.
Frequent use of all the components has seen little to no where on anything bar the character tokens.
Closing thoughts:
Arkham horror, especially with its multitude of expansions, is one of the best experiences you can imagine. I cant think of a better day spent than with a group of friends desperately scrambling about the board in a vein attempt to master the game. Despite the sheer difficulty of the game (which only gets harder with each extra expansion), this game is a winner in respect that the players are constantly negotiating and discussing the best course of action at any one time.
The game reeks of theme, the game is basically written in flavor text so each event is personal and involving.
The sheer customization will ensure that no 2 games ever play the same, after you pick up the expansions there are literally thousands of event cards, over 50 characters to choose from and at least 30 bosses to fight you’ll have plenty to keep coming back for, that itself however is one of the major drawbacks of the game, there are so many different decks of cards and mechanics, you are not likely to utilize even half of them in one game. Storage and transport becomes a real problem after the 2nd or 3rd expansion. The different expansions will dilute the core Arkham ones and so some expansions will go completely unused for entire games and book keeping becomes a major part of the game
With those quibbles aside, I would recommend picking up as many expansions as you can, they all add something different and keep the game fresh time after time, However I have easily spent over $500 on this game and its expansions as well as transport options and protective sleeves for the endless amounts of cards, so the cost will add up over time and this may deter many.
The game is defiantly worth a look, and more than likely worth your money.
Components: 3/5
Game play: 5/5
Replay Potential: 5/5
Theme: 5/5
Price: 3/5
Overall: 5/5