Doom: The Board Game Review

Doom: The Board Game is based on the hit PC and X-Box game of 2004, Doom 3. Doom 3 is itself an updating of the original games, rather than a continuation of them - with a bare bones plot playing second fiddle to the gorgeously detailed, highly atmospheric imagery. All of the games concern hellish beasts working their way into our dimension after meddling scientists accidentally create a portal into what may well be Hell. As a lone space marine, you are trying to survive against all the odds. Played from a first person perspective (and while the original Doom was not the first game played in this way, it was the game that really opened up the possibilities for visceral, immersive gameplay in the genre, and remains a totally seminal game), the Doom games are all fast paced, violent and very, very addictive.

Which brings us to the board game translation. Kevin Wilson is no stranger to converting PC titles to board game form, having already had a crack at it with the popular Warcraft: The Board Game. Warcraft featured modular boards and different scenarios, which is quite a neat way of bringing the feel of numerous 'levels' from the computer to the table. Doom does exactly the same thing - one full five mission campaign is included with the game, and players are encouraged to create their own. Fantasy Flight are also starting to post new scenarios free of charge on their website, further adding to the replay value of the game. Each mission of the campaign included in the box can be played alone, or played in turn as part of the campaign - with marines keeping certain skills and equipment between missions, as well as 'levelling up' using points accrued for killing enemies during the game. This is also a smart way of introducing a video game style sense of progression into the board game.

The game can be played by two to four players, with one player playing as the 'Invaders' (the bad guys) and one to three players playing as the marines (no prizes for guessing that they are the good guys). The Invader player has the scenario hidden from the marines, and has the responsibility of setting up each area of the modular board (according to the setup diagram in the scenario guide) as the marines explore the facility as well as reading out any 'flavour text' from the scenario guide. The 'flavour text' isn't always necessary but does add to the dark atmosphere of the game. Objectives for each side vary depending on the scenario, but the first scenario in the game sees the invader player attempting to get 6 kills (or 'frags' as they are known in Doom), and the marines attempting to escape the facility. It's incredibly challenging to play as the marine player, but in addition to extra scenarios, Fantasy Flight have also posted difficulty 'mods' on their site so that players can tailor the experience as they see fit.

One aspect of the game that I was worried about was the different types of custom dice - i'm not totally against dice rolling but after another PC-to-board game translation was nearly derailed due to the battle system using lots and lots of dice (yes, i'm talking about you Age of Mythology!), I was mildly sceptical about Doom. It turns out that my fears were unfounded - the dice in Doom are an excellent way of determining damage and calculating range, with different coloured dice, and therefore different weapons have different combinations of them - so each weapon has different proficiency at range, damage, ammo consumption etc. It's very well done and unlike the combat system in Age of Mythology (which, admittedly, it is incredibly different to) it never slows proceedings down.

No review of Doom would be complete without mentioning the miniatures - there are lots of them, and some of them are huge! They're detailed, weighty and they add a lot to the experience - it's great to set up a room as the invader, putting all of the weapons, power ups and doors out and then watch the look on the faces of the marine players as a huge creature is placed in the room they have just opened! They certainly add a sense of danger, and can be very intimidating indeed. Just wait until you see the size of the Cyberdemon in comparison to the little humans - the marine player learns to dread seeing certain monsters, and the Cyberdemon is the biggest of big bads!

One big complaint that I have is a bit of a nitpick to be honest - there's so much stuff in the incredibly heavy package that once everything has been punched out for use, there doesn't seem to be a lot of room in the box for it. It does take some serious lateral thinking to get everything back in there and close the box properly - which is almost a game in itself (so what am I complaining about eh? Two games for the price of one!).

Doom usually plays in a couple of hours (depending on the scenario, but two and a half hours is usually an average length of time to play), and doesn't ever feel like it's going on too long. There's generally always something to do for everyone, with the invader planning his next ambush or the marines co-ordinating their attack/escape plan. It's a very satisfying game to play, especially long term - nothing beats finally getting through a long, hard campaign with just a frag or two left before the invader wins. It's recommended to any fan of the video game - despite not being as fast paced or frantic as a video game (something that is hard to translate to board game form), it does hit all of the right atmospheric beats, not to mention the aesthetic feel of the game. It's reasonably simple to play and learn, which may put off hardened strategy gamers - it isn't exactly the deepest game in the world, by any stretch of the imagination. Then again, gamers familiar with Doom the video game aren't going to be expecting a deep, strategic experience - so consider yourself warned: hardened strategy gamers need not apply.

Top marks to Fantasy Flight for attempting something a little different with Doom - it's a nicely customisable experience which provides quite a tense, visceral game that is aesthetically very close to the source material. Incredibly high production values mean a seriously heavy box filled with great miniatures and very well produced boards and bits, which further increases the sense of value for money that Doom provides. A brilliantly tense experience that is not for the squeamish...

Summary

Presentation: Top notch production values, as can always be expected from Fantasy Flight Games. Nothing to sort the components into once they have been punched is a bit of a nightmare though. 9.0/10

Clarity of Rules: Easy enough to learn despite the Cyberdemon-sized rulebook. Nicely laid out with plenty of illustrated examples. 9.2/10

Game Length: Slightly too long and drawn out for the type of game it is - but this can be adjusted by playing shorter scenarios. Laying out each room as it is entered adds considerably to the downtime. 6.8/10

Value: An incredible amount of components included, with brilliantly sculpted plastic miniatures - some of which are positively gargantuan. The ability to create scenarios or use ones found on the web adds much to the value of the game. 9.6/10

Overall: A great, scary hellbeast of a game, let down slightly by the time it takes to prepare each room on the map. 8.2/10 (not an average)

Review by Jason M. Brown

Darth Tater Update

We received some good news today; we will be receiving a delivery of Darth Tater’s very soon. This shipment will allow us to cover all existing orders placed as of this email (25th of July 2005). Your Darth Tater will be shipped as soon as they arrive.

We thank all customers for thier patience and good humor in this matter.

Call of Cthulhu CCG Review

HP Lovecraft, despite never achieving recognition or widespread acclaim for his work during his brief lifetime, is arguably more popular than ever in the 21st Century. It's not surprising that in an age of shadowy terror and fear of the unknown that Lovecraft's fiction would prove to endure. His influence can be felt in works from the likes of Stephen King, Brian Lumley and Ramsey Campbell (all of whom have, I believe, written unofficial stories that can be tied into Lovecraft's Mythos), as well as in both the Hellboy comic books and movie (the cosmic gods - the Ogdru Jahad - are obviously modelled on the Great Old Ones of the Mythos) and, bizarrely, in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels (the ichor god Bel Shamharoth is a parody of Cthulhu).

Lovecraft's short stories are readily available in different collections from numerous publishers - often with useful and informative annotations - various video games are currently in production that take the Cthulhu Mythos as their inspiration, the Call of Cthulhu pencil & paper RPG is widely available, a new version of the classic '80's board game Arkham Horror has just been released, and with the Call of Cthulhu CCG we have the second CCG based on the works of Lovecraft (Mythos was the first). I'm not sure what he'd make of the cuddly Cthulhu toys or Cthulhu slippers though...

But I digress. The Call of Cthulhu CCG is an attempt at marrying the dark and terrifying world of the Mythos to the world of the CCG, and for the most part is very successful. Players either use preconstructed decks (the Premium Starter Set is highly recommended as this contains totally fixed decks that are balanced for play against one another, whereas individual 'Investigator' or 'Mythos' Starters contain a certain amount of random cards, which makes them awkward to use for new players) or create their own from the hundreds of cards already available by buying booster packs. A deck of fifty cards is the minimum required when constructing a deck, but there is no maximum. The object of the game is to win stories by pitting your characters against those of your opponent. Once a player has won three stories, they win the game.

Players each begin with three Domain cards, which they attach resources to in order to pay for cards to enter play. With the starting hand of eight cards, three are used as resources (one per domain). A particularly interesting mechanic of the game is that each card doubles as a resource by placing it upside down on a domain with the faction icon displayed. This avoids what Magic players seem to call 'Mana screwage', but as the only CCG i'm familiar with other than Call of Cthulhu is Pokemon, I liken it to not having enough 'Energy' cards in your hand at any time. In any case, it's the same principle - basically having each card double as a resource means that as long as your deck isn't totally ineptly constructed, you will always be able to place a resource in order to pay for cards to be put into play.

Each turn, players first refresh any exhausted characters (exhausted characters are placed sideways - readied characters are face up in an upright position) and restore one insane character of their choice (insane characters are placed sideways, face down), as well as 'untapping' any domains that have been drained (domains are drained in order to pay to put cards into play - a counter is used to show which domains are drained and which are still able to be used). After the refresh phase, the active player draws two cards. The resource phase follows this - in which a player can choose to attach one card to a domain as a resource. The operations phase follows this, in which characters and support cards can be brought into play.

The story phase then follows. During the story phase, the active player chooses to commit (or not!) characters to any of the three story cards currently in play, in an attempt to win success tokens at those stories. Once a player has five success tokens at any story, he wins that card and can execute the powerful effect of the card (but this effect must be carried out by BOTH players). As soon as a character is committed to a story, it is exhausted. The opponent must then choose which stories he wants to defend and commits characters accordingly. Once each player has committed their characters, the 'struggles' are resolved on the story cards, in the order on the cards. First up is Terror - players add up the total of all the Terror icons their characters have - the loser must choose a character to go insane. Next is Combat - fairly obviously, combat icons are compared here - with the loser choosing a character to wound (most characters can only take one wound before being killed, with dead characters being relegated to the shame of the discard pile!). The Arcane struggle follows, with the winner of this struggle being able to instantly ready any one character committed to that story. Investigation is the final icon struggle, with the winner of this struggle gaining one success token. There then follows a skill success check - each player adds up the total skill of all their committed characters - the active player wins a success token at that story if he wins the skill check, and the defender succeeding merely stops the active player gaining the token. Once all three stories have been resolved in this manner, characters are uncommitted (but still exhausted where applicable) and play passes to the next player.

Call of Cthulhu is easy to learn and plays relatively quickly - for my first game with a deck I constructed, the game lasted just thirty minutes or so. Even without first hand knowledge of the Cthulhu Mythos, it is still an enjoyable game. My only opponent so far has been my girlfriend, who has never read Lovecraft but who nonetheless greatly enjoys playing. Over several games, we seem to have one a roughly equal number of times (she tends to favour a deck that leans towards the Investigators, whereas I go for more Mythos based decks) - which has made it seem to us that it is a very well balanced game even with the ridiculous amount of cards available (for the record, I have been beaten with a deck containing Agency/Miskatonic University cards when my deck contained Cthulhu himself as well as several powerful Cthulhu servitors).

The theme is beautifully interwoven - the Mythos characters really do seem overwhelming at times - it's quite satisfying (even as a Mythos player!) to see the humans triumph against such seemingly impossible odds. It's worth noting that factions can be mixed and matched any way the player chooses when constructing a deck (thus creating hybrid decks containing professors, cops and monsters for example!) but in order to keep the theme together to a certain extent, some characters are Heroic or Villainous...and one will not work with the other (if a Villainous card is in play on your side, a Heroic one cannot be brought into play, and vice versa).

The Call of Cthulhu CCG is brilliantly illustrated - the cards have a great 1920's 'period' feel to them, with lavish painted illustrations on each one. These illustrations perfectly capture the feel of Lovecraft's chaotic universe, and for such a large set of cards the paintings are for the most part consistently brilliant. I can think of one, maybe two illustrations that struck me as slightly indistinct or unimpressive, with the rest being great across the board. Fantasy Flight should be immensely proud of themselves for assembling such an obviously talented roster of artists, all of whom seem to be firing on all cylinders. I guess Lovecraft's Mythos is incredibly inspiring to the artists involved!

Having not had much experience with CCGs except with Pokemon (which I adore, coming from a background in video gaming both personally and professionally), I can't honestly compare Call of Cthulhu with other CCGs. What I will say is that the mechanics of Call of Cthulhu seem to be very elegantly designed and well thought out - the resource card mechanic in particular really stands out as being a particularly superb piece of design. The story cards, with the icon struggles they bring, are also fantastic - adding action and tension at every turn.

In short, I think that Call of Cthulhu is a superb game. Even given any reservations you may have about CCGs and the bottomless pit of spending that they seem to incur, Call of Cthulhu is well worth checking out - the Premium Starter Set plays very well out of the box, with a balanced pair of decks representing six of the seven factions available - and at a very reasonable price (the excellently designed decks contained within this set means that buying Booster Packs isn't the necessity that it is for other CCGs). The fun gained from buying extra boosters and finding Ancient Ones such as Cthulhu in them can't be underestimated though...neither can the enjoyment of creating a deck, as any CCG player will attest to. Also worth noting is the fact that rare cards don't seem to be the all powerful beasts that they can be in other games - many common cards in Call of Cthulhu are pretty powerful, so there seems to be less of a problem with players paying their way to victory with this game.

Due to the excellently interwoven theme, great mechanics and excellent graphic design, as well as fast paced gameplay and the availability of the Premium Starter Set, Cthulhu comes highly recommended both for fans of the Mythos and those gamers who have never even glanced at a Lovecraft story or a pair of Cthulhu slippers.

Summary

Presentation: One of the most consistently well illustrated CCGs I have ever seen. Brilliantly atmospheric artwork, perfectly evocative of both theme and the time period it is set in. Stunning. 9.8/10

Clarity of Rules: A fairly complex game is explained clearly and with enough examples to make learning the game very easy indeed. A few timing issues do crop up - but everything is adequately explained in the rules to avoid much confusion. 8.9/10

Game Length: Usually no more than around 90 minutes, with many tense situations every step of the way. Very addictive! 9.3/10

Value: The Premium Starter decks are two fixed and very well balanced decks (including rare cards) for a reasonable price. Single Starters are not as good, given that some random cards are included. 7.8/10

Overall: For Mythos fans, this is a no-brainer. For CCG fans, this is a total breath of fresh air - with some unique and interesting mechanics and a superbly tense experience, this is not to be missed. Anyone yet to try either Lovecraft or CCGs should start with a Premium Call of Cthulhu Starter Deck - I can't recommend this game highly enough. 9.8/10 (not an average)

Review by Jason M. Brown

Update - Legend of the Five Rings RPG 3rd Edition

We now have new stock of the L5R RPG 3rd Edition, thankfully this batch is fine. All existing orders will be shipped asap.