
There is no "save" mechanic in the middle of a scenario, you can only stop playing between scenarios. This is not a game to play quickly for 1 hour, not unless you have a dedicated gaming table on which you can leave the game. Of course showing the game off on YouTube adds hours, but even regular players will have to reserve at least 3 hours to play through a single scenario. In the playthrough videos linked above, the players are completely surprised how long the first scenario is, and end up with a 7-hour video. You don't even know how long the scenario is. You don't know what is going to happen in the scenario once you reach your first goal. You don't know how many successes it takes to open that chest. You don't know what damage type a monster is weak against, until you hit it with that damage type for the first time. The Descent: Legends of the Dark app makes heavy use of "hidden information". All on an interface that works great for a single player taking all decisions, but has absolutely no mechanics for different players wanting different things. Between quests you are also supposed to buy and sell crafting materials, spend money on recipes, use recipes and materials to craft weapon parts, and then equip them.
#Descent legends of the dark 3d print tv
That works great for one player, to some extent for two players side by side, but for 3 or 4 players you basically need some extra hardware to cast the app on a nearby TV screen. Instead it has written dialogue you need to click through.
#Descent legends of the dark 3d print full
Imagine a table with 4 players sitting on the 4 sides: How do you make sure that everybody gets the full experience of a story told by an app on a phone or tablet? The obvious solution is voice acting for all narrative, but the Descent app doesn't have that. But while I don't hate apps, I don't think the Descent board game app is the best it could be. But for solo play, having a computer handle everything is just so much faster. I did buy the Gloomhaven video game on Steam, despite owning the board game. I would absolutely buy the Descent: Legends of the Dark video game on Steam, if it existed.

Much of the controversy and hate towards Descent: Legends of the Dark is about the game relying heavily on an app. And when you have the full complement of weapon upgrades, armor, skills, and consumables, and you are getting into a dance of powering attacks by loading fatigue tokens onto your cards, and then flipping those cards over to get rid of the tokens, Descent becomes a game of mechanical beauty. The further you get into the game, the more parts of the game are revealed to you. But beyond the show, Descent is also a surprisingly deep tactical combat game, with some quite interesting game mechanics. Paint your miniatures, and you can turn Descent into a display that will make heads turn at a gaming convention. Also, miniature-heavy games become truly spectacular when the miniatures are painted. And the American Style games are a lot more watchable than Euro games, where a lot of the action happens only in the heads of the players. I've studied the game by playing with just the app, and by watching people play the full game on YouTube.

Is Descent: Legends of the Dark a good game? I think it is. The original Gloomhaven doesn't have a tutorial at all, which is why for new players I would always recommend buying the cheaper and more accessible Jaws of the Lion version, which uses the same combat system. At least at the start you follow relatively simple rules on moving a couple of squares and rolling dice to attack.

Descent is also a lot more accessible, gameplay-wise. The American style games have a stronger focus on style, which is why Descent has fantastic miniatures and 3D terrain, while Gloomhaven has cardboard standups and flat token terrain. Descent is an American style game, with more randomness, and more built-in scenario surprises. Gloomhaven is fundamentally a Euro game, in which you plan three moves ahead based on the cards in your hand. But they do fall on different sides of the Eurogame vs. To somebody not playing board games, the two big boxes might look similar. So, how does Descent: Legends of the Dark compare to Gloomhaven? That is in fact not such a straightforward comparison.
