{"id":21705,"date":"2021-10-21T00:04:51","date_gmt":"2021-10-21T00:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=21705"},"modified":"2021-10-20T21:05:28","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T21:05:28","slug":"gloomhaven-pc-macos-boardgame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2021\/10\/21\/gloomhaven-pc-macos-boardgame\/","title":{"rendered":"Gloomhaven (PC, MacOS, Boardgame)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Several years ago, Glooomhaven burst onto the boardgame scene to wide acclaim.\u00a0 Quickly selling out and then reprinted, this boardgame currently sits at number 1 on the Boardgame Geek list of all-time best boardgames.\u00a0 It is a beast of a game, weighing in at about 20 pounds of cardboard, cards, and plastic miniatures.\u00a0 While the heart of the game comes in tactical battle scenarios, playable in an hour or two, the overarching story includes role-playing aspects like character growth and branching storylines to provide gamers with upwards of 150 hours of game time. As a \u201clegacy game\u201d the game includes envelopes and boxes that are sealed at first and are opened up as the game is played.\u00a0 While it has won the hearts of many gamers, a common complaint is simply how much time it takes to set up a new scenario.\u00a0 Cue\u2026 a digital version.\u00a0 Gloomhaven is now available in digital form on Steam and GoG.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The digital edition is faithful to the boardgame.\u00a0 It is a combination of squad-based combat and a choose your own adventure storyline. Players begin the game as one of several class characters and are given a personal, long term goal. The game plays out in scenario-based combat on a slowly revealed hex grid, but completion of a scenario leads onwards to new scenario options. Combat revolves around playing two cards from your hand and using one for movement and one for attack. Used cards are discarded and can typically be picked back up by taking a short rest. However, one card is removed from the scenario for each short rest so players\u2019 available cards grow progressively smaller. If you\u2019re reduced to less than two cards you are considered \u201clost\u201d and are done for that scenario.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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As with the physical version, as players complete scenarios and make story decisions, new areas open up to explore (appearing on the game map), reputation is tracked, as is the power level of the city of Gloomhaven (opening up better gear and higher level characters.) The game box is full of \u201cunlocks\u201d that bring in new story elements, scenarios, monsters, and perhaps most importantly \u2013 new characters. While only a few characters are available at the start, when a character fulfills their personal, long term goal they MUST retire and a new type of character is unlocked (there are 17 of them.) You can start again with the same character class if you must, but it would be a different character (new magic items, skills, experience, etc..)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The base storyline has around 50 scenarios, but many side quests and other options can almost double that.\u00a0 I conservative estimate would be at least that many hours of gameplay is available in the game.\u00a0 Beyond the campaign (where you can replay scenarios if you need), the digital game has a unique \u201cGuildmasters adventure\u201d with 160 different missions that can be played with a group of characters you can mix and match as they grow in power. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Like the boardgame, digital Gloomhaven can be played with one to four characters (more than one is really recommended) as a solo game or cooperative.\u00a0 Online co-op play is also available for up to four players (each player gets one character.)\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Verdict:<\/b><\/p>\n

Gloomhaven is a very deep, rich game but only for those willing to make the investment to get caught up in the campaign.\u00a0 The core of the game revolves around tactical combat in each scenario.\u00a0 While there is plenty to explore and unlock, one has to enjoy the combat portions or the game will grow quickly stale.\u00a0 The game could best be compared to a tactical, turn based \u201cAmerican\u201d style RPG featuring a party of adventurers that grow in power as you play.\u00a0 There\u2019s definitely a story here, but it takes a back seat to tactical combat.\u00a0 On the other hand, the digital version is great for boardgamers who have grown weary of the extended setup process or have found it difficult to get their friends together at the same table.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Kid Factor:<\/b><\/p>\n

This is a complex game that has a few more mature story elements that appear in the campaign.\u00a0 Nothing especially egregious (you can usually be nice or mean with some bad consequences) but something to be aware of for younger gamers.\u00a0 I am not aware of bad language or risque graphics, but it has its share of ugly\/scary monsters.\u00a0 It has around a 12+ rating which I think is fair, both for complexity and maturity.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Several years ago, Glooomhaven burst onto the boardgame scene to wide acclaim.\u00a0 Quickly selling out and then reprinted, this boardgame currently sits at number 1 on the Boardgame Geek list of all-time best boardgames.\u00a0 It is a beast of a game, weighing in at about 20 pounds of cardboard, cards, and plastic miniatures.\u00a0 While the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-game-reviews","category-unplugged-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21705"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21713,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21705\/revisions\/21713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}