New Descent, we'll know more on the 22nd!

By Cotgrave, in Descent: Journeys in the Dark

I really don't know how they could turn this one around. This might indeed flop because of visuals alone if the game isn't over the top in any other category.

Ok so it is the artwork...

THE APP IS TOTALLY MANDATORY TO PLAY.

the more i see, the more my hype feel sad

Edited by ringofox

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^Even this seems to require less setup time.

Edit: Are Twitch comments closely moderated? Every comment there seems positive to extremely positive and most first reactions here leaning to the negative side from what I see.

Edited by Brutalien

"we push the boundaries, app, app, app, and 3d components"

wow... seriosly?

all the money went to the app.

miniatures are awesome.

What a letdown.

The artwork looks cheap. But the models look good, though.

But NO OVERLORD?? No, FFG. Just no. My play group is starting the Jabba's Realm campaign tomorrow. We actually quit Gloomhaven halfway through, because we were missing the competitive atmosphere we have with an overlord. And the whole idea of BOARD GAMING is to spend time away from your COMPUTER SCREEN.

Unbelievable.

Just now, Sidious78 said:

What a letdown.

The artwork looks cheap. But the models look good, though.

But NO OVERLORD?? No, FFG. Just no. My play group is starting the Jabba's Realm campaign tomorrow. We actually quit Gloomhaven halfway through, because we were missing the competitive atmosphere we have with an overlord. And the whole idea of BOARD GAMING is to spend time away from your COMPUTER SCREEN.

Unbelievable.

totally agree... today awesome miniatures is something normal to see... im not buying toys, im not buying videogames... this is stupid. All the game mechanics are based in the app companion.... stupip setup time,bad art and graphic design.... overpriced.... all bad guys

1 minute ago, ringofox said:

totally agree... today awesome miniatures is something normal to see... im not buying toys, im not buying videogames... this is stupid. All the game mechanics are based in the app companion.... stupip setup time,bad art and graphic design.... overpriced.... all bad guys

Agree as well, but still, what sells?
However, even if I switch perspective to the marketing side... I don't see how this can be thoroughly successful. It just doesn't carry the Descent name to a good place for me.

7 minutes ago, Sidious78 said:

And the whole idea of BOARD GAMING is to spend time away from your COMPUTER SCREEN.

Exactly!

They should call it Descent 0.5!

Ok. Just catching up here - had a meeting to finish so I am way behind.

First take. Ok, not Descent 3.0. Little else is overly surprising based on FFG approaches in design for awhile.

The Tile art desperately needs a look. How could you make a Dungeon/Wood/Lava, etc., look so uninteresting?

Edited by Cotgrave

I agree the artwork is underwhelming. Hopefully since there is so much being put into digital content they allow players to add different art to update the player cards, or have a store where you can purchase themed decks of the item and character cards with a whole new art style. YES, that sucks that it would be very EA, but that would be something I'd invest in, depending on cost.

I hope the 3 terrain could be considered optional, that the board would work flat as well as 3d, or can be stored 3d to cut down on setup time.

I hope they have updated 2nd edition character sheets so I can play as characters I know, or even character cards for my Runewars characters that I have stacked up, or Runebound 3rd edition characters as well. I think this is the biggest letdown to me that the heroes are all new. Maybe I missed it, maybe this is later in time so those heroes died off.

Honestly, with new consoles coming out this winter, my biggest choice I make is setup a board game and know I'll have to tear it down afterwards, or just jump right into a video game. With this being run by an app, it's really teetering on the video game, or physical toys to game, style, which, in my mind, will make it even MORE about setup time and tear down time, since I could jump into Horizon Zero Dawn, or any other co-operative game I have, which sets up instantly and tears down instantly. Maybe consider having an option of a digital overlord, where a PLAYER gets to make some decisions on the app as the overlord to make it again a 1 vs all game.

I do like the improvements to gameplay, resting sucks in any game.

i am wondering how heavy regarding tactics/complexity that game is ?
looks it is more narrative than puzzle oriented.

I don't want to instant-judge on a 1 minute video but "hmmmmmmmm..." If this is app driven please let there be a PC release like Road to Legend. I will admit, with my group it's always been easier to get people to play the Road to Legend version rather than the 4v1, and I've played a ton of both.

The 3d stuff looks cool, like c'mon lets have some childlike wonder here right? That's fun and I love it and how dare you say cardboard trees on a board aren't fun, but I know Decent 2nd setup time is already horrendous so I'm hoping it's not a Lego construction each quest.

I don't hate this at all but I really am hoping there is some really massive design revelations in this app/game, cause there's a ton that's pretty iffy that others have already pointed out.

Wow. What a massive disappointment.

The artwork style is... bad. I can overlook it for a great game, but it sucks that part of what I love about Terrinoth games is lost in this.

Lot's of good sounding things, but there is a complete purchase block in the game design. They said on the stream that it comes with one long campaign, and that's it. There is no random generated one off quest generator. Worse, you can't just jump into an existing quest of your choice for a single experience play session. If you want to play, you are either starting the campaign over and replaying the same beginning repeatedly, or you are continuing an existing campaign, picking up where you left off.

That is a complete failure of game design to me. It means we can't experience this game without the same group of people each time, or starting over repeatedly. Even with the same group, sometimes we want to just play a one off session with different characters or classes. This doesn't allow for it. This is a non-buy from me for sure until that gets remedied. I like the idea of it being designed not to be the race that RtL is, I like the 3d terrain, I like the quality of life improvements they mentioned like the LoS tool, crafting sounds great. I can overlook the art direction for all that. But I'm not paying for a campaign only experience game because it simply will not get enough play to be worth the money.

5 minutes ago, Kaaihn said:

It means we can't experience this game without the same group of people each time, or starting over repeatedly. Even with the same group, sometimes we want to just play a one off session with different characters or classes. This doesn't allow for it.

On the contrary it does permit it. You can change character , add or subdue characters between sessions

Artwork is a non-starter for me. It looks like they are going to come out with Descent: The Saturday Morning Cartoon. I would have loved the artwork to be more serious to set a better mood. Maybe like Blood Rage style. Instead it looks like Pokemon Go in a dungeon.

2 minutes ago, Tintaglia said:

On the contrary it does permit it. You can change character , add or subdue characters between sessions

I think he's referring to the fact you don't have full choice as to which session you play, only the ones that are available, based on how many campaigns have been started and how far you've gotten in each campaign. Also if the campaign truly is based off of previous choices, your session might be different because of a previous session meaning no clean slate sessions except the first one.

news on ffg site posted !

175$ Price tag?!?!?!?!?!? ROFL NOPE!!

The new 3D cardboard terrain is cute, I really like that. Better miniatures, hopefully in scale with Runewars, that's good. I didn't really notice the floor tiles at first, they don't wow, I suppose, maybe they'll look better in real life. The artwork is different, but I've been around long enough to know that everybody hates new styles of artwork when they see them the first time because they're different. I doubt this new style will stick around in future Terrinoth games, I think Descent 2nd was fine to stick with for this universe, but we'll see.

I'm just not sure about an app based game. I want to see it in action and reviewed several times before I'll have any faith that I will actually enjoy it. I get the pure co-op, that's what's popular, and the campaign based play, this is their Gloomhaven competitor, but I just haven't seen an app-based FFG game that really appeals to me.

Also I hope they're not planning on pricing this over $100. It would be uncompetitive at anything much above that.

EDIT: $175? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA! Never mind. This is a non-starter for me.

Edited by frankelee
8 minutes ago, Tintaglia said:

i am wondering how heavy regarding tactics/complexity that game is ?
looks it is more narrative than puzzle oriented.

Discussion suggested it's a bit of both.

Like the sound of the game but agree about the tile artwork, it's quite generic and lacking those extra little details- more like 1e than 2e, however this does have an advantage- generic means if you want a pile of armour in the corner you can have a pile of armour in the corner, if not there's nothing suggesting something that isn't there in the current situation, if it's drawn on the tile then you've given the location that flavour, so pros and cons both ways- detailed can be too much detail if it doesn't fit even though it may look better artistically yet generic is more flexible (it's then just the floor/ground upon which you build) and 1e journeys had very generic tiles, yet still worked game-wise. Generic may also help gameplay- yes you don't get the extra detail, but also there's no confusion- it's really clear really quickly what terrain is being interacted with and this may even have benefits for people's differences of vision- just a theory but may be the case.

So mixed feelings overall visually but I think it's still going to be fun and there's a hint it's not replacing 2e journeys- they've confirmed them as being separate entities (why they didn't know about 2e reprints is kind of beyond me- you'd think that would be high up the list of anticipated questions, as 2e still seems to be selling and the app still being popular I think it may continue to exist, with working on a big fan project for it I hope so as I may have the collection but others out there still want certain elements of it and it's not like I'd be able to rework it for 'legends', but I'm still carrying on with it as I don't see 2e ceasing to be played whatever happens)

Queue more lengthy threads about third edition (please no, I think this possibly was originally going to be 3e but took a different path, maybe there will still be a 3e but FFG would really need to be able to hit, ideally exceed, the hype bar. Still hyped for 'legends' though even though it's 'unexpected' in different ways, some good, some not so good, although I think the positives will outweigh the negatives, people can enjoy the new game as well as 2e (and for some of us 1e and Battlelore and....) or just enjoy whichever Terrinoth games they enjoy- they are all quite different experiences :) )

1 minute ago, frankelee said:

Also I hope they're not planning on pricing this over $100

Ahem - $174.95

Nuff said.