Gloomhaven Review - with Tom Vasel
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- Опубліковано 11 лип 2024
- Tom Vasel shares his thoughts on the fantasy epic, Gloomhaven!
00:00 - Introduction
12:08 - Final Thoughts
BGG link: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1...
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"Greater than the sum of its parts" is the best way to explain this game. You can take it apart and say "this game did that better, and this game did that better!" but the simple fact is that Gloomhaven hasn't left my table since I got it. I haven't played any other games since then... I've thought about it, but then don't when I'm like "Or I can play this scenario"
10/10 is indeed well-deserved.
Gather 'round... children. Tom Vasel was scared to do a component drop for Gloomhaven.... Mwahahahahaha.
He would have broken his table :P
I hunted down this vid just to see the box dump );
My favorite part:
"The cards can be modified as time goes by, which is fffffff...really cool!"
It must have been tough for Cosmic Encounter to watch this review from the shelf behind.
One could say Cosmic Encounter feels... alienated
Hahahaha, I loved this comment
He didn't mention though: you need a separate table specifically for Gloomhaven in your house to play it properly.
Or take really good pictures...
Always enjoy insightful commentary on my favorite game!
Where's our component drop, mister?
ImperatorZed it's all I wanted for Christmas
ImperatorZed so much dissapointed... I command him to upload a separate component drop video!
He considered doing a component drop for this game...but he figured doing so would probably break the world so decided not to.
He started one, and then they had an Earthquake in Peru, so he stopped.
crouilla1 hahaha you sir just made my day 😂
Your enthusiasm is infectious!
I really like this format of no separate rules explanation and showing components while you talk about them later. Consider using it more :) Plus this is just fuel on the hype train, but I for one got a ticket ;)
Would love to know if Sam came around to liking the card mechanics, he seems frustrated with it during the initial impressions video
Tom. What a great review. Especially because you Just talk about it. I love it.
Darkest dungeon is the computer game that you are looking to play if you want something similar to Gloomhaven.
Darkest dungeon is a good game
I’m late to the game haha but that comparison.... is more than enough to convince me to buy this! Darkest Dungeon is amazing.
That's the best ending to a review I have ever seen!
Would love to see an updated review when you "finish it".
0:19 Tom says "Gloomhaven" 5 times in 16 seconds lol
I thought I was the only one who noticed :D
Tom, I love that you repeated your comment about "If you're going to play solo, you'd play a computer game." When you then say you love this, it carries a ton of weight. A lot of us don't have groups to play with, but fortunately, we have a lot of games like this that are fantastic to play even without others. Also, when you said this isn't for everyone, I agree completely. I can't imagine a group playing this enough to get through it. Although I suppose you can have people jump in and out since characters at different levels is handled very well.
I have a group of players that come and go (there's 6 of us!) and it works great. As the party changes, the way you have to play your character changes too. I play solo and with friends and the feeling is different every time, and it's awesome. Everyone's excited in every session and don't want to miss it on the developments of the story. We even consult certain decisions over whatsapp lol
Very Cool! I'm highly jealous although I'm having a blast by myself.
Dude I love your reviews. Thank you.
In terms of setup and storage - I found that a few of the DVG counter trays and an accordion file (for the map tiles) speeds things up dramatically. It's much easier to set up the map tiles when you already have them in labeled, alphabetical folders.
You remember all those times when I kept telling you how amazing it was? And each of those times I went away thinking "I really dont know if Tom is going to like this or not..." Well, this video answers that question :)
Question, I am a backer, and do know about the removable stickers, but would you (or anyone on this chat) recommend the separate removable stickers? Or, like Tom said in the video, is it possible to just 'start over again' by putting everything back in the box and replay the 100 hours with different chioces and be able to ignore the stickers that are on the board.....? I've remained mostly spoiler free. So I really don't know how much the stickers mess up the game or if having stickers enhancing cards etc would mess up the start of a new campaign....
Thanks anyone who replies! :)
How would you compare it, not necessarily in mechanics (possibly), but in feel, to Mage Knight The Board Game?
Agreed! The feeling of your character totally changes depending on who you are playing with, also.
Glad to see Tom likes it! Gloomhaven is one of my favorite games
Congrats Isaac!
Can you do a video comparing dungeon-crawl games, please. Specifically Sword and Sorcery and Gloomhaven, but including any others that compare. Please?!
I miss the gavel.
I'm glad you like the game, Tom!
Played it for first time tonight. 3 hours. Only completed first scenario. Was worth every penny. This game is the real deal. It's amazing.
Great review. I liked how you just talked about the main / interesting mechanisms and just gave your thoughts throughout the whole video. It is a nice change, especially as I tend to skip rules explanations unless the game is good these days.
I remember first seeing this game back in August or September of 2015 on Rahdo's channel and instantly loving it. It was the first Kickstarter I ever backed and I am so happy for it. I am only a few scenarios deep, but my group and I love it. 2 of my group are long time DnD players and even they are in love with it. Anybody hesitating on backing it, just go for it. If you think you will like it then you will.
And can we give a HUGE shoutout to Isaac Childres. This is the second game he has ever published and it is an absolute home run. I am a fan of his first game Forge War, although I think it needs a 2nd edition to smooth out a bit, but still an excellent game. I just cannot wait to see what Isaac has planned for the future of Gloomhaven and other original games. He will have a new game Founders of Gloomhaven coming to KS in the next few months.
I think long-time RPG'ers, like pencil-and-paper types, will love this game more often than not, compared to the average gamer. Role-players tend to be more willing to commit to a long-term game.
It's definitely not for everyone (setup, commitment) but it is a hit out of the park for Isaac, and the gaming community. I think one that can stand on it's merits for some time to come.
I look forward to his next one, 'Founders of Gloomhaven'.
Honest review thank you.
Tom, I'm glad you found a game you love. Have fun playing!
Never nightmare. Words to live by.
"I know how that race operates;
I know how those guys are."
-Tom Vasel, 2017 (@4:12)
Absolutely empathize with playing everything on easy !
Could you please post a link for the game insert? I'm pledged for the second round and can see the benefit of having the pieces laid out neatly. Many thanks.
Sehanine Moonbow You can find it on meeple realty. It's sold out though, they got a restock yesterday and it went quick. You can sign up for gloomhaven town alerts on their main page. They sent out notices on Friday that they would restock the next day, which is nice to plan ahead. I also pledged second printing, but in no rush since they aren't shipping for a few months. It's $59, so definitely a bit costly, but it will be quite useful in easing setup.
Go to MeepleRealty.com . I believe the insert itself is called Gloomhaven Town. I have the insert and would highly recommend it. Although i found it to be a real pain to put together.
here you go www.meeplerealty.com/store/p93/Gloomhaven_Town_%28compatible_with_Gloomhaven%E2%84%A2%29.html
i swear i saw another insert company also made one but I can't remember which one. I thought it was Broken Tokens but it wasn't.
It's nice but not necessary. If you have money to enthusiastically dump on things like this, and you get a lot of enjoyment from having your stuff laid out like that, go for it I guess. But practically speaking it's not gonna save you much time compared to the common approach of 1) dollar store accordion binder for all the tiles alphabetically 2) baggies for each monster type standee/cards/statcard 3) a bag for all the campaign stuff 4) dollar store plano tray for all the fiddly bits. Under $10 and pretty much the same.
Mountie tom always gets his man!
i think i really love playing this game with my wife, BUT i never tried playing any game of this type. someone any idea what we can try first to see if we like this kind of co-op adventures?
Mage Knight is an excellent game that hits a lot of the same notes as Gloomhaven, but without the ongoing campaign/story/legacy elements. It's also not as expensive, and is my personal favourite (with the Lost Legion expansion). My ex and I must have played it 10 times at least, and she loved it too.
Solo???? Welcome to the dark side Tom. LOL
Yes! We have cookies!
Awesome, now Tom can join us solitaire gamers for a game...wait...well...;o)
From this review, I'd venture to say you would really enjoy Kingdom Death. See if you can find someone with a copy already put together.
Man, We played on normal level in the first mission and we failed the mission twice. The second time we failed it we, just one character left in the fight. There was one elite archer left on the board with 2 HP left. The our character was at full health but was exhausted because she ran out of cards. It was tragic.
How sword & sorcery compares to it?
This guy is my favourite reviewer so far.
very nice! What a stellar review! I've got to check out more of this---.>]
I really love the idea of these kinds of games, im a little late to the party for these games, and theres only one version i can find for £100 and i cant justify that, any games similar that isnt expensive?
The way he describes the combat reminds me of Mage Knights card management puzzle. Man I really want Gloomhaven! Great review Tom!
I love mkbg too, but gloomhaven just totally replaced it. I have mixed feelings about it because i really liked mkbg, but gloomhaven takes it to a new level.
Nicolás Andrés Martínez-Conde Schell Well shit, now I'm getting hyped. MK is one of my top solo games and Gloomhaven totally looks like it may take that spot now. Thanks for the feedback!
It's the same feeling managing the cards, and the asymmetry is really fun. It is however, more random, and it's very combat-centric. So there's merits to both games.
Sounds like a perfect game for a PC port. Solo and long setup time.
Long setup time, tons of markers and the movement,combat and bookkeeping for enemies can be really annoying.
It kinda is and it's called Divinity: Original Sin 1 and 2. But ya porting the actual board game would be great.
there aready are tons of pc games of this - tons of fantasy RPG's. This is basically playing a fantasy DD game without a GM.
Haha and now they have a PC port. Looks like you're a psychic
Saw today that Gloomhaven on steam/pc is being released in 2019.
Tom, why didn't you throw the pieces all over the table at the start of the vid? :)
No component drop? =(
Is this something where you need the same people each session to continue? Like a d&d campaign?
I just bought it, and I still haven't actually sat and played it, but from what I've seen in various videos you don't need the same people or characters to continue the campaign because when a new person joins your game they level according to the city of gloomhaven. I forgot which specific video covers this, but if you look up more of them, they explain it better.
I missed the kickstarter, that basically means there's no way for me to get this game right?
no, it's in retail now. same as the kickstarter version minus 1 solo mission.
I don't know - I'm tempted by 2nd printing, but I wasn't blown away by my first demo. It was alright, but a long setup/takedown, subpar components plus a very long game (each scenario taking at least 2 hours if not closer to 3 hours depending on size of group / tactics discussion) is a put off. I don't deny it's amazing value for money though, but maybe I'm getting burnt out on dungeon crawls now being the same old "hack and slash" every time regardless of IP used.
If you have Tabletop Simulator, you can play the new scenarios that Isaac puts out every few days during the reprint campaign. Most of the setup is already taken care of. And even though most missions are "kill all enemies", there are a lot of other missions that have other objectives you have to accomplish. I can't say how many however, as that would be giving away spoilers, but with over 90 missions, there's a fair amount of variety in mission objectives. The newest mission in the Kickstarter series is a rescue mission for example. Not to mention a lot of scenarios have special rules that need to be followed throughout the mission. Such as being disarmed to start the fight, for example. Granted it still all results in a lot of monster mashing :)
Gaming With Geo I know this is an older video but I'm looking for a game along the lines of this one as in legacy system, rpg feel, character progression, each character is unique just to name some of the things that make this game sound like it'd be a lot of fun. The only thing though is in my group of friends I know a few would be put of by the magic that is involved in the game. Would you happen to have a suggestion for a game that might be similar to this game but doesn't have magic in it? It could have characters with special abilities, super powers or what not still just as long as magic wasn't a part of the game. Myself and my group are never into board gaming so any suggestion is appreciated.
I am seriously thinking of backing the second printing on Kickstarter now.
DO IT
Hopefully they should have enough capital to print sufficient extra copies for retailers. However from the first print run, they only had 8% of the needed product to fulfill preorder demand. It's entirely possible that this will be hard to find after the KS ends. And if you don't like it, you can probably sell/trade it at little/no loss.
Icarus19911991 I've been wary of Kickstarter but since this is a second printing, so people have gotten to play it, and after reviews like this... Everything Tom and others have been saying about it makes it sound right up my alley. I think I will! Plus they are projecting to ship in August. I never liked the idea of backing something that's going to ship a year later!
Icarus19911991 Well I did it and I don't think Ill be disappointed. Now the wait begins! Oh and I guess I should tell my girlfriend.
@@fenshing I know this thread is old, but I'd like to know what you guys think of it? I finally broke down and bought a copy. Hopefully I'll get to try it out soon.
Do you first edition players agree with the difficulty assessment? I plan to start our campaign of second edition Gloomhaven with a mixed group of experienced and inexperienced boardgamers. We would like to start on normal, but we don't want to spoil our experience by making it too hard.
If you have even a single person who's played the scenario first to give tips it'll be fine. It's hard in context of new players but once you get how things work you'll be OK.
The first and second scenarios are honestly a fairly difficult start. I'd give them a go on the normal difficulty, but if you guys get destroyed don't feel bad bumping the difficulty down. After those first two it gets much easier for a while.
This is true as well, learning the mechanics of combat + your specific character(s) will make the first scenario even harder than it already is, so going down in difficulty may offset that.
It's not really as difficult as Tom says it is. Sorry Tom :) Me and my group had some difficulty for our first 12 missions or so, but it turns out we were playing it on hard without ever realizing it. Still even on hard we won about half the time.
I played with a group of three and none of us had played munched gloomhaven before. We beat the first scenario in a hour and a half and it was not to hard. We played on normal difficulty btw
so the stickers on the board arent a big deal?
No. The only use the board has is to hold the location/achievement stickers you've earned from playing. And to keep track of town prosperity, which you can just keep track of elsewhere if you'd like.
Mmm. thinking co-op games. Reminds me of four games.
Warhammer Quest Adventure Card Game; simple rules but complex to master. 4 player game is brutal!
Dead of Winter; playing hard mode story, with no traitors and personal goals are revealed to all.
Super Dungeon Explore, Arcade Mode.
Mechs vs Minions.
I don't know much about games. Is this like D&D where you don't win or lose the game? You just play through scenarios and quit when you like? Also, can you put the game away when you're done playing, or do you have to keep it out and set up?
This is a strategy game with light but interesting roleplay story elements. You can put the game away after each scenario. You play as characters that have goals that will cause them to retire so as you play you unlock new characters and items, meaning that the team roster will change vastly over time. The town and your party (each retirement upgrades your next character) effectively level up over time. You play many similar but somewhat different scenarios, all while slowly making small but discrete advancements to the power and narrative state of the game.
A suggestion: how do you feel about showing more of the game while you speak instead of youself? The viewers would get a better impression of the game if they actually saw the board, the pieces and the design. ive seen a couple of character sheets and a couple of tokens. I have no idea how large the game is, how many pieces it has, how complex the rule book is and how overwhelmingly large the playing board can become.
An item drop would have exceeded the UA-cam video length limit.
Great review. Congrats
I was impressed by my one play of Gloomhaven, it does seem to be part of the hard to win difficulity camp however. Great to see you excited by a game with solo play options
I still have no idea what this game is.
Think of it basically as Descent, but on a much larger scale. A massive 200+ hour solo/co-operative dungeon crawl campaign.
I dont like Descent. :-( Will I like this?
I'm not sure really. Do you like dungeon crawl games in general? If so, then I'd say check it out as it's definitely its own beast in that regard. Granted pretty much all dungeon crawls are the same in the long run (kill everything) with other objectives sprinkled in. Gloomhaven is no exception to that. But this one is more thinly than any other dungeon crawl I've played before since all your skill cards have four potential uses on them. The top half ability, bottom half ability, top half base damage attack, bottom half base movement. Each round you play two cards and half to decide which one of the four abilities per card you want to use. But you can only do the top half of one card and the bottom half of the other. Makes for some interesting decisions at times. Not to mention some abilities make you lose that card for the rest of the fight, to go along with you losing a card everytime you have to rest to refresh your hand. There's always a timer going. I could go on and on lol. It would probably be easier if you tried it yourself (if you have Tabletop Simulator on PC you can play the missions the designer is releasing every few days during the reprint Kickstarter with rules included) or watch a full game being played. Maybe that'll help you decide. Hope that helps in some way.
Hard to say. The card-based combat is really unique and I wouldn't say it feels that similar to Descent at all. Do I move 4 spaces and poison everybody I cross, and then use my weak attack on this guy; or do I waste this loot card to move 2 spaces and do a strong attack to take out this guy? Oh, but if I use that strong attack, I will lose that card for the rest of the mission. Is this the right time to lose that card? Ok, now that I've made my decision, do I want to try and go before the enemies or after? If I go afterward, they might move the wrong way and completely mess up what I had planned. But my earliest card wasn't one of the ones I chose for my plan.... ack, what do I do???
If that kind of decision making sounds interesting, it might be worth checking out even if you don't like Descent. If it sounds too thinky, you probably won't enjoy it because it's essentially something like that on every turn.
120,000 views? Wow
What is the deceit game he keeps referencing? I can't find it
It's called Descent: Journeys in the Dark
curious how much quicker you can set the game up with the insert from meeple reality
I sorted all the pieces with regular stuff and it works great (the setup becomes a LOT easier just sorting all the components), so my guess that an insert will work just as good at least (and fit better in the box in the process.
Jason Wayne Speicher Yeah I'm not sure either. The insert is great for fitting everything in the box, but I like to keep things sorted by what I'll actually need for scenario setup. I feel like the insert won't be able to both optimize setup AND fit everything in the box, so I'm sticking with my own system of Plano boxes, counter trays, and Ziploc bags.
Well howdy cowboy. Nice hat. 🤠
Amazing, just like everyone was saying.. Gonna be harder to buy it now, yikes! $125 up here just to reserve it (Canada), but damn well worth the price. :D Kudos to those who are already playing this! Wow..........
There is actually a reprint kickstarter right now if you want to jump in. So if you back it you should get it pretty cheap compared to resellers
Kickstarter price and pre-order price in Canada is virtually the same. You may save a dollar or two pre-ordering it actually vs kickstarting .
Wait. Did he say 100 hours ? I had no idea. I need to get this.
Actually it's more then that. Over 90 campaign scenarios plus random scenarios, with most missions lasting around 2 hours each for our group.
What about solo? is it two hours plus for a solo run ?
Really depends on how many characters you use, and how long you take to decide your actions. I use two characters in my solo plays and it usually takes around an hour or so. Less characters means less enemies on the map so it's a quicker game for the most part. Plus the more you rest during a mission the faster it'll go since you lose cards from your hand each time, and with your hand representing your characters life points you can see how that would be a problem losing them so fast. But like all things mileage will vary for each player.
I love Dark Souls, bring it on!
It is.
10 :O !
this game better be as good as all the hype it getting. I backed the 2nd edition so I guess I'll find out for myself in time..
was it as good?
@@Vijay-tg7hf - He started playing...and never stopped.
There's way more more than a 100 hours of play in the core set. There's over 90 scenarios and a playing it once you have it down is 2 hours. First game with set up and tear down and teaching was four hours.
Solo is the best way to play ;)
It would be insane if this dethrones cosmic encounter....Probably wont, most likely be #2
I foresee that. Maybe Tom won't admit it at first, but soon he will.
Yep. It's his new #1...
Still #1...
I came into the hobby looking for more fantasy games. But I do prefer generic fantasy, but I get look past that. However, I do not like puzzly games, and am not a fan of tactical games. The deepest I like for tactical games would be the Dungeons and Dragons Adventure System Board Games. Now if someone asked me to play I would, and may like it. But this is not a game I would pursue.
I will stick to Tomb, Talisman, Runebound, Prophecy, & Cutthroat Caverns.
how come you didn't dump all the parts all over and hammer it about? haha
Tom is displaying what it looks when you first fall in love with a partner.
Goomhaven?
Have you ever said a word so many times in your head, that it doesn't sound like a word anymore?
Tom said 'Gloomhaven' 6 times in 15 seconds. 00:22 - 00:37
Gloomhaven is a great game. Like Tom said it's a great game to play solo. I backed the first kickstarter and I am also in the second one. Definitely get the organizer from meeple realty. It takes the agony out of setting it up and holding all the pieces in this 22 pound monster.
Nick Jackson what’s the difference between the first and second one?
Wow, that is some insanely high praise. Breaking many of the normal Tom Vasel traditions it sounds like in terms of solo gaming and such. Glad we ended up backing this game.
About the difficulty, i'd rather finish the campaign in easy mode than losing all my group of players because we have to re-do the same scénario 3 times and everyone gets bored.
where's the game
is this guy mac demarco's uncle?
Yeah he is
@@ramon2008 ok
GalenAus lol!!!
If you ever spent 50+ hours in World of Warcraft.. Buy this game!
what if you favorite part of wow was ganking horde players? :p
Then you were probably doing it as a group. We all know Alliance can't PvP their way out of a wet paper bag.
best boardgame ever
This is definitely going on my buy list. I know with a long setup I for one will probably set it up after I finish a session so that the next day's quest is ready to go. Been doing that a lot lately with my campaign style games. I don't own decent. Considered it recently but since this game may replace decent for Tom I think this replaces me buying decent all together. Looks like another game I need to add to the buy list. Probably 2nd on my buy list.
if only this game had the miniatures like dark souls, but it doesn't. As far as these type of games goes, I'm good with D&D Temple of Elemental Evil and Legends of Andor.
Man this shits on Legends of Andor
A better Castle Ravenloft eh
Agreed 100% Tom. I agree with your small negatives and I think it is important to point them out, but oh man are they worth it.
10 despite all those cons? The set up time alone I would deduct the score at least a 1.
Rip. I would love this game, but not my family...
KS of 2nd print still going - if interested... www.kickstarter.com/projects/1350948450/gloomhaven-second-printing?ref=nav_search
Chris Henderson Thanks for pointing that out. I've never backed anything on Kickstarter but this might be the first.
Welcome! I got in on his 1st KS...he's got another game in the works too, so keep watchin'...
Chris Henderson I pulled the trigger and backed it! My girlfriend is interested in playing too. She was impressed by the sheer amount of content in the game when I showed her. It is rather massive!
Yeah I backed the first edition as well and am so glad that I did. I'm picking up another copy during this campaign just to play strictly solo so me, and my group, can play the first copy. I'm interested in seeing more of Founders of Gloomhaven in a month or two, but seeing as it's mainly competitive I may pass on it. But Isaac did say he's working on solo rules for it so we'll see. Then again I loved his only other game, Forge War, as well. So he's got a great track record so far in my opinion.
It will be interesting to see how this review affects the funding total.
Looks like Kripp
- giant fantasy disguised adventure puzzle - modular board with particular location -
variable evolutive character specific powers - intricate action cards over dices - cooperative but way better in solo...
Apparently, Mage Knight is passing the torch. Good
Is there at least a way to show play in a way?
He has a full playthrough on this channel.
The thing is that anything you watch will have some amount of spoilers. There are playthroughs out there tho, but Gloomhaven is more than a game, it's a
gaming experience.
Brand new characters we never saw before. One that is good at fighting and healing! (So a cleric...)
One that steals and has arrows! (So a rogue...)
Omg... i want this game so bad!!! Sadly it will take forever before it is translated in french! :(
gloomhaven is simply one thing: addictive =) we are on 60+ plays by now!