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…
I’m not familiar with the comic Manifest Destiny. I don’t need to be. The concept of Lewis and Clark embarking Westward with the ulterior motive of slaying monsters is totally righteous. I’m a St. Louisian; we grow up learning about Lewis and Clark and giggling at their dog Seaman. This concept of twisted reality just…
I’ve been thinking about semi-cooperative games again. These are of course games where players switch between modes of cooperation and competition, often incentivized one moment to work as a group, and another to secure a selfish victory. While many abhor this board game sub-genre due to its fragility and unreliable structure, they’re some of the…
Distant Skies is the sequel to Ryan Laukat’s finest work, Sleeping Gods. Both are narrative driven cooperative experiences that capture a similar feel to open world video games like Breath of the Wild. This is a standalone release that requires no contact with the prior title. It promises a more streamlined and refined system. The…
Look, Kasper Lapp’s Fun Facts is nominated for the prestigious 2023 Spiel Des Jahres, but it’s not going to win. That doesn’t matter. A loss doesn’t diminish this absolutely fantastic release. Similar to Repos Productions’ previous breakout hit, Just One, this title slots into a very rare category of cooperative party game. It also happens…
Apologies to the faithful, but I don’t hold the Zombicide series in high regard. I’ve played several iterations on this system, and it’s never done much beyond stir the bacteria in my gut. Despite my adoration for several of their titles, including the exceptional Ankh, I am also critical of publisher CMON Games. Specifically, I’m…
Gascony’s Legacy is all wrong. In the current climate these types of games come stuffed with minis. Not three or four, but a whole damn tray and even better if there’s a second underneath. Here there’s nary a mini in sight. To snub the prevailing ethos in such a manner is almost offensive. That sense…
Player Elimination 