BOARD GAME REVIEW: GLOOMHAVEN (2016)

Gloomhaven is the current number 1 game on boardgamegeek.com. It is a dungeon-crawl type game from Isaac Childres, and to describe it as a dungeon-crawl is both painfully accurate and yet doing the game a great disservice. I also have barely scratched the depths of the game for its "full" review, so this is more a first impressions (even after playing for 30+ hours).

In this game, you and a bunch of your companions are playing the role of adventurers from the titular city. Every session of this, you will sit down, set up a dungeon and then try to complete it (normally by killing all the enemies). You move around a grid-based map, get experience and items, and then succeed or fail. Between missions, you can buy items, go on a small text-based adventure on the road and in the city (literally just a card with 2 options, normally), and occasionally your character will retire (allowing you a new class).

If that sounds like a dungeon-crawler, it is because it is. But if that last sentence indicated there is more going on under the hood of this game, it is because there is. Gloomhaven inherets all the flaws of old grid-based dungeon crawlers, with non-inutitive and self-defeating enemy AI, blocking on the grid, and classes falling into archetype roles (along with the old damage-is-king effect). In fact, paradoxically, it is important to remember Gloomhaven is just a dungeon crawl (rather than expecting a revolutionary experience) as well remembering that the dungeon crawl is perhaps the worst part of it.

For example, the way classes are unlocked and your character retires is new. In addition, the combat system tends to revolve around playing two cards and combining them in different ways. Levelling up doesn't so much power up your character as also give you a new card to increase your options. So while your character may be a tank or DPS, you can add some healing cards or support cards, for example, to easily fill spots in your ranks.

There is so much to talk about in this game. Hidden combat objectives, the perk system, the legacy-type elements, etc. However, it is important to note that this is perhaps the most ambitious dungeon-crawler I have played. Other games may give better pure dungeon-crawl experiences, but no other game has quite given me the same overall experience yet.

5 out of 5 gloomy waffles.