Monster Mansion was a Kickstarter project that is based around escaping a modular-board within 10 minutes/player(real time). It also has a hidden player role mechanic, unique characters with different stats, and different monster decks for different experiences.
The basic gameplay is that every turn, you draw from the Monster Deck (which may be a monster that follows you around, a curse/blessing, or nothing). Then you take one action (moving or attacking or healing). And then your turn ends. This continues in real-time until you escape or the time runs out (and you all die). Once you reach the exit, you need to roll 5+ on a dice to actually escape.
This game suffers from a lack of direction. There is definitely allot going on (modular board, character powers, hidden roles, time-based gameplay) but it just feels like you are waiting and reliant on your monster draw. You draw weak monsters or nothing, you advance to the exit. You draw strong monsters, you are stuck attacking, hoping not to die. And some of the random roles and cards are harsh if you fail (immediately losing 3 health when you only tend to have 4 means you are often a monsters meal next turn) to increase the difficulty.
But at its heart, this feels like a roll-and-move game, just replace the rolling with random card draws. Maybe with the steady hand of a developer rather than the excesses of kickstarter this idea could've been made allot better. At the moment, most the game just comes down to hoping to draw good cards (with no way to manipulate too much) and hoping for the best. This game doesn't offer too much extra from other games (Zombie 15 immediately springs to mind). The components, however, are really cool.
1 out of 5 Monstrous Waffles
No comments:
Post a Comment