Board Game Review Descent: Journeys in the Dark

REVIEW by Sandra
Descent: Journeys in the Dark

The basics of the game
You and your party of up to 4 players explore the dungeons, kill the monsters and be rewarded with treasures. You can get better equipments from treasures or buy them in town with gold from your adventures.

One of your friend will be the Overlord. The Overlord only has one purpose: To kill your party with the monsters that he spawn and with a lot of other tricks up his sleeve.

How to win the game:
Kill the big, bad boss in the final battle.

How to lose the game:
Lose all your quest tokens.

Review of the game
When I first tried out this game, I was skeptical. Like other members of the female species, I wasn't into adventures of killing dragons. It was a slow Sunday, so why not give it a try? Uncle Ho is the Overlord and I with 2 other players are the heroes for the day.

The first thing I noticed was the quality of the game pieces. These game pieces were made to last. I was given some heart tokens representing my life counts and 3 quest tokens. There are also tokens representing potions, silver and gold coins. For the Overlord, there are skeleton tokens representing Threats, which the Overlord can use to create new challenges for the heroes.

Each player is dealt a card representing your character, similar to the character sheet in RPG, except this is pre-printed. There are 20 different heroes: warrior, spellcaster, archer, etc. I was a warrior. Big and strong, I am.

Uncle Ho places interlocking tiles (again, very good quality) to represent the dungeon we are exploring. It was a small empty chamber with 2 doors, one directly in front of us, the other on our right. There's a portal which connects the dungeon to town. Yes, very similar to Diablo. Every time you run out of heart tokens, you "die" and get resurrected in town. No, you don't lose your equipment, but you do lose a turn.

No monsters in the first chamber, but we do have to decide which door to open. Since I am the big and strong one (and therefore might not be too bright), I chose the door directly in front. Uncle Ho smiled devilishly. It opens to another big chamber with many, many monsters. My 2 other party members were not as amused.

And so the game has begun...

3 hours later:
We slayed the dragon in the final battle. It was no easy task. I have "died" several times, so did my team members, but we had so much FUN! We had fun killing the monsters, and the Overlord had fun spawning the monsters. We lost track of time, actually. The game is that good.

I can't wait for my next adventure.

Should I get it?
This is a great party game that lasts a good 3 hours or more. This is like Dungeons and Dragons RPG with miniatures and a game board. Or like Diablo... unplugged.

If you are looking for a fun time with a group of friends from both gender, this is the game for you.

Where can I get it?
Store:
Come to Two Headed Dragon, your local friendly game store, located at 5017 Yonge St. on the 2nd floor.

Telephone:
Call Two Headed Dragon at 416 221 5004 and order it. We will send the game to you with free shipping (within Ontario).

Expansions:
Interested in getting the expansions to this game? You can also get them from Two Headed Dragon.
Descent: The Well of Darkness
Descent: The Altar of Despair
Descent: The Road to Legend
Descent: The Tomb of Ice