Deepvale is the hotly anticipated expansion to one of my favorite titles of 2024. Justin Keppainen’s Leviathan Wilds is an impressive indie cut that captures much of the excitement in bouldering across giant beasts. It’s The Shadow of the Colossus in board game form. Deepvale is the type of no-nonsense expansion that is unlikely to turn heads or rile up onlookers. Mainly, it serves as a return for this cherished recent release that quickly found success and sold through its print run. The leviathans are back, baby, and they are waiting to be conquered.
I’ve commented in the past that a primary function of the modern board game expansion is to reinvigorate a game’s image and push it back into the conversation. Marketing is nearly as important as gameplay now. Yes, I know, that’s an ugly statement.
With how rapidly games release and with a limited window for attention, it’s extremely difficult to cling to success and hang on. Some games see their lifespan blossom and end before they’ve even hit wide release. It’s wild. An expansion gets the content creators creating. It activates social media. It brings life back to the dead. Crowdfunding has only amplified all of this.
This means there is a sort of cynical lens in which we should view returning to the same well. I generally come down on the side that expansions often make a base game experience worse. Look at it this way, are you more or less likely to play a game once you’ve acquired an expansion? How’s that Everdell big box looking atop your shelf? What about a 10-pound Castles of Burgundy with custom miniatures?
Here’s the good news: Deepvale is not ailing. It avoids this recent trend of excess as marketing, instead offering the kind of expansion that nearly everyone can get behind – simply more stuff.
There are no new sub-systems. No new rules to learn. When breaking out the box, you don’t need to form an impromptu committee and debate the efficacy of a module or extension. Primarily, Deepvale is more leviathans. Seven of the fearsome titans.
Crucially, the spirit of the base game is intact. These are wondrous beings whose killer artwork matches their mechanical inventiveness. I have squared off against the bulk of this sets’ bosses, and continually, each new encounter impresses. They are still as distinct and clever as the original game’s foes and maintain the level of quality one would expect. Put plainly: Deepvale succeeds wonderfully.
The subtle underbelly of this new material is the persnickety question of how deep the vein goes. Will the mine exhaust anytime soon? Can Keppainen keep it up and turn Leviathan Wilds into a grand series?
I’m not sure. What I can be sure of is how smart it was to craft the expansion as an emergent element of setting. Instead of adopting a meaningless phrase as the title, it presents a new region of the world that has been discovered, one that beckons the heroes for exploration. This is Deepvale, an underground kingdom lost within twisting catacombs and now occupied by beasts of the darkness. It’s an intriguing setting and I can’t help but smile at how it pulls you in with the series of creatures presenting a loose narrative.
While it’s easy to focus on the setting and the leviathans, as these are indeed the spotlight of the game, it is a boon for Deepvale to include an additional character and class. These add to the available combinations with the base game spread, providing a nifty new power-up die mechanism that results in an ebb and flow of explosive turns. If you fold these cards into the greater set, they do not stand out as distinct or unequal, allowing for seamless play with newcomers. This is a positive of course, as it highlights how this expansion was designed without losing the ethos of the core system.
But as I said, the protagonists of Leviathan Wilds are secondary to the behemoths. These characterful monstrosities define the feel of play, and they’re the elements that leave you in awe. They are the beings that craft memorable moments and place the players in precarious situations. These colossi are the game, and Deepvale doesn’t lose that thread. It carries the torch forward and buys ever more optimism concerning this title’s future.
Looking past this expansion for a moment, I want to cogitate on the system and how I view Leviathan Wilds after spending a year with it.
It’s somewhat difficult to discuss this game because it’s a clear-cut winner, effective at conveying its themes of overcoming monumental challenges through teamwork, but it’s also not a game that knocks the air out of my lungs. It lacks some of the sophistication of a title with more grandeur, and it’s not exactly contemplative or cerebral. Sometimes games make up for that lack of density or richness with above table play or emergent qualities. Leviathan Wilds doesn’t hit those highest of notes, instead, it’s simply content with utter reliability. This mid-weight game really nestles into its cubby as an approachable yet engaging adventure game. It is consistent in its accomplishments and continually provides just the experience it promises. Nothing more, nothing less.
There is a special characteristic embedded in this game that uplifts creativity. With a light ruleset and a swathe of multi-use cards, it pushes players to use their tools in a variety of ways. You can play your cards off-turn to get another person out of a jam or give them a little boost to achieve that larger swing, but you must be mindful of depleting your hand and deck, lest you lose your grip and tumble down the side of the giant. But the method of using these precious cards in different applications conveys this sense of inspiration and discovery. You feel as though you’re putting together the solution and innovating. It’s a wonderful little burst of energy sprung from nothing.
This is an inviting, almost saccharine design that works with a wide range of players. It does so while presenting a generous amount of content – elongated with Deepvale – and relatively unique gameplay. These qualities are why this game has received such praise. As long as you’re not expecting this to be overly serious or intellectual, then it will likely deliver enough drama and interesting systems to stir the soul.
I am very content with these two boxes in tandem. Leviathan Wilds is in a great place, carefully arranged as a comfort food. While slightly long for the category, it’s filler-like in its ability to deliver solid at bats while coming in cold off the bench. You don’t need to prep the rules beforehand or overthink its application. Feel like pulling it off the shelf? Totally fine. It’s going to thrash you about and leave you feeling warm inside. That’s enough to establish its reputation and leave me satisfied.
A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review.
If you enjoy what I’m doing and want to support my work, please consider dropping off a tip at my Ko-Fi or supporting me on Patreon.
Player Elimination 