Gloomhaven

Gloomhaven
Designer(s) Isaac Childres
Illustrator(s) Alexandr Elichev, Josh T. McDowell, Alvaro Nebot
Publisher(s) Cephalofair Games (2017)
System(s) Legacy
Players 1–4
Playing time 90–115 minutes (per scenario)
Random chance Moderate
Skill(s) required Strategy, tactics, logic

Gloomhaven is a cooperative board game for 1 to 4 players designed by Isaac Childres and published by Cephalofair Games in 2017. As a fantasy dungeon crawl game with a branching narrative campaign, Gloomhaven features an enormous amount of content, including 95 unique playable scenarios, 17 playable classes, and more than 1,500 cards in a box which weighs more than 20 pounds (9 kg).[1][2]

Gloomhaven is a card and tile based game, where your hero's actions are represented by cards and where heroes and monsters move about on hex tiles representing dungeons and cellars. Each player simultaneously chooses two cards to play each turn, each of which has a top and a bottom half, and chooses the top half of one card and the bottom of the other to allow his or her character to make actions such as moving, healing and attacking monsters. Randomization, usually provided by dice, are also handled by a deck of cards.[2] While it has drawn comparisons to role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons and other dungeon-crawl board games, Gloomhaven uses game mechanics similar to modern eurogames.[3]

The game was released via Kickstarter in two separate campaigns, raising about $4.4 million in total, and delivering to backers in 2017.

Gloomhaven has received extremely positive reviews, culminating in it reaching the No. 1 spot as the top rated board game on leading website BoardGameGeek in 2017 and keeping that spot for much of 2018.[4] It also won six Golden Geek awards from the site, including for the best overall game of 2017.[5]

Gameplay

Gloomhaven is a fantasy-themed, campaign based tactical skirmish game, in which players try to triumph in combat based scenarios which scale in difficulty depending on the number of players.[6] The game is cooperative and campaign driven, with 1 to 4 players working their way through a branching story consisting of almost 100 scenarios.[7] The campaign develops in a legacy format,[8] with stickers that are placed on the board and cards and sealed envelopes that are opened when certain criteria are met.[9]

Release and reception

The game was originally sold via a 2015 Kickstarter campaign which raised $386,000 from about 4,900 backers.[7] The game was delivered to backers at the beginning of 2017, and after strong early reviews, a second Kickstarter campaign was launched on April 4th and delivered in November which raised about $4 million from over 40,000 backers.

The game was released shortly thereafter to retail for a suggested price of $140.[10][11]

The game has received extremely positive reviews. Gaming website Geek & Sundry described Gloomhaven as "a masterful design" and suggested "it belongs in a museum".[12] Matt Thrower called it one of the best fantasy board games available,[13] while noting that "Gloomhaven was the critical hit of the year."[14]

The game has been rated the No. 1 board game of all time by BoardGameGeek,[4][15] which also gave it six Golden Geek awards in 2017 for best game of the year, best strategy game, best cooperative game, most innovative game, best solo game, and best thematic game.[5] The SXSW Gaming Awards named Gloomhaven its tabletop game of the year.[16] The game also won the Scelto dai Goblin (goblin's choice) award for best game of the year.[17]

Gloomhaven was selected by both a jury and fans as the Origins Game Fair Best Board Game of 2018.[18]

As of early August 2018, the game had sold about 120,000 copies.[19]

Expansions and digital edition

Gloomhaven: Forgotten Circles has been announced as an expansion to the game, introducing a new character class, the Diviner, and more than 20 new scenarios.[20]

Asmodee has announced the upcoming release of a Gloomhaven video game, which is loosely based upon the board game rather than being a direct translation.[20]

References

  1. ↑ Gaynor, Michael (March 28, 2018). "Virtual Reality Will Keep Your Board Game Crew Together". motherboard. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
  2. 1 2 Harry, Lou (August 1, 2018). "THow To Win At Gen Con". Indianapolis Monthly. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
  3. ↑ Zimmerman, Anderson, Mendelsohn, Aaron, Nate, Tom (December 22, 2017). "The best board games of 2017". ars technica. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
  4. 1 2 Ward, Marshall (March 12, 2018). "Heading into the bowels of Gloomhaven". Waterloo Chronicle. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  5. 1 2 Wells, Adam (March 13, 2018). "Gloomhaven Dominates Golden Geek Awards". Kotaku. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  6. ↑ Hall, Charlie (April 25, 2017). "Dungeon Masters are hard to find, that's why there's Gloomhaven". Polygon. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  7. 1 2 Zimmerman, Aaron (April 29, 2017). "Gloomhaven review: 2017's biggest board game is astoundingly good". ars technica. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  8. ↑ Law, Keith (August 24, 2017). "Gen Con 2017: The Best Games and More". Paste Magazine. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  9. ↑ Power, Ed (December 14, 2017). "Dice, dice baby: return of the board game". Irish Independent. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  10. ↑ Bodon, Sabrina (April 29, 2017). "Pittsburgh gamers say we're living in a golden age of board games". Pittsburgh City Paper. Retrieved February 28, 2018.
  11. ↑ Law, Keith (July 7, 2017). "How 6 High-Strategy Board Games Fit Into the Orphan Black Universe". Vulture. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
  12. ↑ Theel, Charlie (March 22, 2017). "Why We Played Gloomhaven For 30 Hours And Still Want More". Geek and Sundry. Retrieved August 10, 2017.
  13. ↑ Thrower, Matt (February 28, 2018). "The Best Fantasy Board Games". IGN. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  14. ↑ Thrower, Matt (December 20, 2017). "Board masters: the 11 best board games of 2017". Stuff. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
  15. ↑ Nightingale, Melissa (February 10, 2018). "Adults claiming board games as more than a childhood hobby". New Zealand Herald. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
  16. ↑ Renovitch, James (March 17, 2018). "SXSW Announces Gaming Awards Winners". Austin Chronicle. Retrieved March 21, 2018.
  17. ↑ Roeder, Oliver (April 20, 2018). "Players Have Crowned A New Best Board Game — And It May Be Tough To Topple". 538. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  18. ↑ Dean, Jason (July 31, 2018). "Fun and Games at Origins 2018". Twin Falls Times-News. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
  19. ↑ Marks, Tom (August 3, 2018). "Gloomhaven Has Sold Roughly 120,000 Copies, 60,000 More Being Printed - Gen Con 2018". IGN. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
  20. 1 2 Marks, Tom (August 3, 2018). "Gloomhaven's First Expansion, Forgotten Circles, Is Excitingly Different from the Original Game - Gen Con 2018". IGN. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.