Mansions of Madness Second Edition is a story-based game. It is a sort-of sequel, sort-of re-implementation of the First Edition, but makes one major change that makes the game its own thing. That is by including an app.
The big change is the app. This takes care of all the upkeep, randomisations of monsters. But more importantly, it changes the game from a one-versus-all game to a co-operative game by taking care of all the monster and story telling elements.
The game is a dungeon crawl. It has mainly dice-based resolution based on character traits, with each character having a special ability. The game is pretty standard in this regard. The only wrinkle is that the you also track your sanity, with you getting a secret insane goal that may put your at odds with the rest of the team.
However, having an app handle all the storytelling and book-keeping really makes this game shine. The fact it is co-operative and the app automatically randomises and adjusts the scenarios is great. At its heart, it is a story-telling game and the app is great for this.
The one downsides are that the dice mechanics are really generic. The components are also very ordinary for the price, particularly the miniature bases. For a storytelling game, these actually actively detract from the overall atmosphere. For the cost of the game, these really should've been better.
4 out of 5 Mad Waffles.
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