Month: January 2025

Unstoppable: A Solo and Two-Player Cooperative Deck-building/Crafting Game. A Review.

Unstoppable is a cooperative deck-building/card-crafting game! This was #4 on my Top 10 Anticipated Cooperative Board and Card Games of 2025! This was on Kickstarter back in June 2024, and delivered to me Saturday January 17th, 2025! I backed it, expecting it to arrive later in 2025, but it actually delivered early! (It originally promised February 2025). Amazing!

This delivered with three playmats, the Tyrant’s End expansion, and the base game: see above.

So what is Unstoppable? The game describes itself as a Roguelike Momentum Deckbuilder … meh, that’s an okay description, but I’d prefer to call it a deck-building/card-crafting boss-battler instead (I think it’s just “hot” to call games “roguelike” at the moment).

Be clear that this game ONLY supports 1 to 2 players before you get too excited; this game reminds me of a more tightly-coupled Astro Knights (see our review of Astro Knights here and here): Unstoppable still has that sci-fi  feel, that deck-building feel, and that boss-battling feel … just like Astro Knights, but it also has some really different ideas.  What do I mean by that? Let’s take a look below!

Unboxing

The Unstoppable base box is actually not that big; see Coke can for perspective above.

This is a deck-building game (and card-crafting: we’ll touch on that in a second) , so there are a ton of cards: See above.

There’s also some money tokens (credits, far right: I mean, this is a deck-building game, so you have to buy SOMETHING to upgrade your deck), hit point tokens (middle: you gotta do damage to take out minions on the way to the big bad boss), and some action point tokens (far left: yes, this game has action points too!).

There’s not THAT much in the base box; mostly cards and tokens and a few larger mats.

Playmats

I can hear some of you asking … “So Rich, why are there three playmats?” An excellent question.

The playmats are double-sided.

One side of the playmat is a single player mat. This is where one player’s cards, play board, threat, tokens, etc. goes. See above.

The other side of the playmat is where the main upgrades (this is a deck-building game, remember?), the core cards, and the big bad boss you battle lives. See above.

The reason there are three playmats is because the game is either 1-player or 2-players! Each player gets a mat (2 mats) and the big bad boss gets a mat (for up to 3 mats). See below for a 2-Player set-up:player 1 on left, player 2 on right, upgrades/boss on top.

So, to be clear, the playmats cost extra money; they don’t come with the game. Were they worth the extra money? So, I paid $100 for the base game, 3 mats, and one expansion. I like how they mats organize the game, but strictly speaking you don’t need them!

The rulebook DOES show how the game sets-up without the mats, so you don’t need them. But I liked them; much like the Aeon’s End: The Descent playmat was so useful, so too was the playmat for Unstoppable. But maybe you should see if you like the base game before you go investing all the $$$ for the playmats and expansion … keep reading …

Rulebook

I am a little grumbly with this rulebook. There are about 3 or 4 things that it could have EASILY done to make it SIGNIFICANTLY better.

The good news is that it gets an A- on the Chair Test.

It opens up and sits perfectly well on the chair next to me, making it easy to consult. So, they definitely did that right: see above.

The Components page (on the left above) is “okay”. The first real problem is … how do you set this up? There is a discussion (right side of the page) about “how you set-up and sleeve” the game, but THERE IS NOT A SINGLE PICTURE describing it! I was able to figure it out, but people who have no idea what card-crafting is or even deck-building will be completely lost with these directions (far right side of the page). A single picture might take this game from unplayable to playable for certain people. And a little picture would have made me happy; show me how the decks fit together. Please? I feel like the description above wasn’t quite enough.

The set-up was pretty good: see above.

The next place I had problems was the card anatomy. Here, the Defense and Bonus areas on the Threat Cards were poorly described. The problem is that most Threat Cards use the SKULL symbol, and it’s not clear what that means (the skull on the Threat Cards is a different color and/or outline than the reference card: we discuss more below). A simple example describing one combat would have helped that.

The rest of the rulebook is pretty good.

I also really wanted a game summary on the back; I ended up paging through the gameplay pages over and over as I played; it would have been nice had those been summarized on the back.

This rulebook was … ok. I just wanted a few more examples, a few more discriminators, and a few more pictures in the rulebook to help me get into the game. After a little trek onto BGG (see thread here), I feel like I got my questions answered, but the rulebook could have been better.

It worked. Mostly. Except for set-up. It could have been significantly better with a few extra pictures.

Storybook

There is a storybook for the game.  You don’t need it to play the game.  It’s just flavor text.  I never read it, and I feel bad for not reading it?

Sleevening

Like I mentioned in the rulebook section, it was more work than I expected to get this game into playable shape. It took me about an hour or so? Basically, you have to “sleeven” the game and put a bunch of cards into sleeves.

Let’s be clear: the sleeves come with the game! Although this is “mostly” a deck-building game (you can build a deck, add better cards, and cull lesser cards: See our Top 10 Cooperative Deck-Building Games for more discussion of deck-building games), it is also a card-crafting game; this is a term that came into parlance with another of John D Clair’s Games: Mystic Vale (although this is a slightly different flavor of that idea). This game is built for you to put cards inside the sleeves, and have multiple cards together at the same time.

Once the cards get going, they will have two sides: a core side (above right: the GOOD side) and a Threat side (above left: the BAD side). There we actually two cards inside the sleeve! This basically allows the GOOD side and BAD side to vary independently.

The GOOD sides are what the characters can do in the game: deal damage, shield themselves, etc. See above.

The GOOD cards tell you which BAD cards they pair with; see the backs above (well, the intro cards do, once you start playing, you get random BAD cards).

The Threat cards (the other side) will be the bad guys that the players fight during the game. These cards, when defeated, will turn over and flow into the GOOD guys hand on the good side!

You might ask “Why do we have these weird rules and weird backs/fronts?” It’s to support UPGRADES (and allow the fronts and backs to vary independently, but that’s a complex discussion).

Probably the coolest part of Unstoppable is that you can UPGRADE a card: it stays attached to the card … in the sleeve! The reason these cards are so WEIRD-shaped is that the upgrades go into the right part of the card and basically stay attached/stay in the card sleeve so that card is better for the rest of the game!

See above as we try to choose between two UPGRADES: Do I want to making it Repeating or add a 2000w Arc Capacitor? The repeater gives me three separate shots, but the capacitor gives me one big shot!! Which do I want?

I choose the capacitor! See as I slide it in …

… and see as it augments my card! Pretty cool!

This is the core crafting mechanic of the game; this is the cool gimmick.

Gameplay

Each player chooses one character to play: see above.

The back of your card indicates which specialized cards you start with (and a little flavor text).

The player sets-up with their starting deck: three special cards and 7 standard “starting” cards. They set-up on the player side.

Your deck goes on the character mat, with Armor and Hit points being tracked.

You also set-up three Threats you must deal with in your personal space. You start with three cards in hand, three action points, and three Threats to deal with.

To play a card, you need to be able to pay the Action point cost (in the upper right corner).  Playing Strike gives you a simple 1 hit point of damage.

You do damage to one of the three Threats: see above (more of them if they are FAST); if any of these Threats survive to the next round, they will do Damage to you!

If you take out a Threat, the card FLIPS to the GOOD side and comes into your hand! That’s right, you don’t really draw from your deck: the main way to get new cards in your hand is to take out Threats! That’s very interesting!

Of course, this is a deck-building game, so you have to get new cards somehow.  Basically, every turn, you get to choose one of three (you draft) the three cards where the BLUE LEVEL marker is (see above).  There are 6 levels of core cards, with higher levels being obviously better!

Every time you empty your deck, you level up and move the level marker up. (There are also ways to move the level marker up quicker, but only temporarily). Leveling-up is a fun time; you get to CULL a card, move the level marker up, and anticipate some new “better” cards!

This is a boss-battler, so you have to take out the BIG BAD BOSS; depending on which one you choose. See above. Interestingly, you can only do “boss damage” (see it blurred below) when you kill certain threats from your deck. These special threats get added every time you level up (and you usually start with 2 of these “boss threats”: see Below.)

There’s actually quite a bit more to the game, but that’s the basics.

Build a better deck and craft better cards! Take out local Threats on the way to taking out the Big Bad!

Solo Play

So, this game is definitely built for solo (thanks for following Saunders’ Law), with 2-Player being the secondary mode. See above: even the font hints at that disparity (SOLO is all big)!

I ended up playing about 10 games of the solo game in the first few days after I got this game! There are three bosses that come with the game, and I was able to defeat each one … after I lost a few times. (There are ways to up the difficulty, and there are 4 characters to play with to give the game more replayability)

It takes a little while to get into the “flow” of the game. There are a lot of rules, there are a lot sections, but there are a lot of decisions (in a good way) to make too.

For example, there are 4 factions in the game that all play VERY differently! If you have multiple cards of a faction, they can “support” the other cards and make them more powerful! I tended to get the Silver faction (the little diagonal raven) in my first few games. But there is also worth in getting multiple factions, especially with the UNITE keyword which gives you special on how many different factions you have in play/in hand!

My favorite decisions in the game came when I was stuck; it was pretty clear that I was going to die and lose, but if I could upgrade my cards JUST RIGHT before I went into battle, I could stay alive! The UPGRADES, and the fact that you can do them anytime on your turn, really make it so you can pivot and be smart! I really appreciated that I could feel clever. Deck-building games tend to have some randomness in them, but the UPGRADE mechanism is what kept me from being too grumpy with that randomness.

I will say that the solo player doesn’t have to do too much work once the game is going, but the set-up and ESPECIALLY the tear-down is a lot of work! Going through your entire deck and separating the core cards and threat cards is so much work. Besides the “unsleevening” (which was a sub-optimal experience), the tear-down is one of the biggest “oofs: that’s a lot of work” in the game. See above as I tear apart the decks!

There are a lot of rules, a lot of Icons, a lot of factions. I appreciated that, by playing this solo, I could learn the game and take whatever time I wanted. I could then teach my friend. Not friends, because the cooperative mode is ONLY 2-Players.

Cooperative Mode

Yes! Thank you! Unstoppable has a cooperative mode with NO Communications Restrictions! I get so tired of having some obscure rules to obscure the communication when playing cooperatively with my friends! I said this in Everdell Duo (see review from a few weeks ago) and I’ll say it now: let me and my friend(s) talk! We play games to play, laugh, talk, strategize, and have fun together! I am so glad we don’t have to worry about any Communications Restrictions as we work together! Thank you Unstoppable for allowing full communication!

The rules for 2-Player are in 1.5 pages (pages 13 and 14: see above); the idea is pretty straight-forward: each player is playing multi-player solitaire for the most part. The BIG BAD BOSS has twice as many hit points (for scaling to 2 players), so both players still have to do “about” the same amount of damage and play “about” the same amount of game.

Most of the 2-Player cooperative game proceeds simultaneously, as both players play out their turns at the same time. (This helps keep the game flowing quickly). The only times where the two players must worry about the order they play is (1) when drafting the new card (players are allowed to choose who drafts first), and then (2) in the Main Phase, the game uses Player Selected Turn Order (one of our favorite mechanisms), where players can intersperse their plays however they want! This is fantastic! Me and my friend can decide the best way to take out Threats together! The only prerequisite is that the entire action must “finish” before the next one. (We found we could even do the Main Phase simulataneously many times as well!)

Although the players can talk through how to play together, the only way they can help each other is to eliminate Threats (by attacking their battlefield) for each other … and that’s it! There’s no sharing of any resources (credits, cards, armor) or anything else. So, this is very much multi-player solitaire.

In my first two-player game, I lost because my friend has a bad draw and couldn’t recover … if I just could have given him a few credits, he would have survived! So, although you can talk and strategize together, you can’t help each other out THAT much. The game is balanced pretty well for the solo player, so it’s rare you can actually “eliminate a threat” from your friend without screwing yourself, at least in my experience.

I liked the 2-Player cooperative mode, but I wish there was a little more cooperation: this is generally a multiplayer solitaire experience. Even sharing credits might have made this feel just a touch more cooperative without changing the gameplay too much … it’s even thematic! “I’ll wire you some credits!” This is a minor house rule that would I suggest to make the game just a little more cooperative.

Things To Look Out For

As I played a bunch of games, I ran into some issues that I feel I should point out; maybe I can make your experience better.

What does the Skull mean? When you see the SKULL on the Threat (MONSTER) card (see above), that means “use the current level number on the BIG BAD Boss card“. You might miss this the first time through because the Reference cards have the SKULL as a black on white, but every single Threat card has the SKULL as white on grey like the example above (or white on orange) … so you don’t correlate that they are the same symbol because the colors don’t match!

…Even more confusing, the marker on the BIG BAD BOSS map is red. So, these symbols don’t color-coordinate at all! When the RED token is on the 1, it means “1” (for the Defense of the Monster above). There was never a clear example of this in the Rulebook, and the lack of color-coordination can can be confusing, so just be aware of the issue. Once you know this, it’s easy.

Boss Cards Shuffle Weirdly: Because the Boss Damage cards (see above) don’t ever have a Core (GOOD card) inserted in with it, they shuffle weirdly. I tended to get all the BIG BAD BOSS cards at the front or back of the deck because they are just “lighter” and shuffle differently in your deck. Go out of your way to make sure you shuffle your deck well (maybe a pile-shuffle) so that you don’t have all these cards clump together. (You DO NOT want these cards to clump together)

You can put the cards in backwards! See above as the Viren card is in the sleeve upside down. You know this because the card next to it is correct with the Core card extruding out the top. If you put a core card in here, it won’t line-up correctly.

…Have the opening on the Threat cards on the TOP so the Core cards can just slide in; see above.

Multiple Attacks vs. Adding: It’s still not clear if each Orange Swirl is considered a separate attack or just additive. If I add the Repeating, does each attack get the addition of the card it augments? Probably not? Also, since there is (currently) no notion of damage reduction in the game, 3 single attacks of 1 and 1 single attack of 3 will be the same against one opponent, but the Repeating will obviously be better IF if it really is 3 separate attacks (which is probably why it’s more expensive). I am using deduction (based on what I know about the game) to figure this out, rather than having the rules tell me. That frustrated me a little.

When Defeated: What does it mean when the “When Defeated” shows the Attack icon for the Boss Threat cards? See above! Does the Boss Threat have a Death Curse and do 4 Damage to you as it dies? Or do you get to do 4 Damage to another threat? It’s not clear. After playing about 10 games, I am pretty confident it’s a true bonus for the player: because the Boss Threats don’t come back into your hand (they do Boss Damage), they don’t help you with other threats, so you need the Bonus damage to be a HELPER! So, it’s a true bonus; you can do 4 damage to something else! If it were the other way around (with the Threat doing 4 damage to you), this game would be called Unbeatable instead of Unstoppable because it would be so hard!

What I Liked

Factions: The factions in this game really added a lot of flavor to the game. I mean, this is a deck-building game, which we’ve seen tons of. The four different factions really added some new flavor to this genre.

Threat and Core: The fact that the core cards and the Threat cards are tightly coupled was really interesting! Granted, this is the core gimmick (pun not intended) that makes this stand out (with the card-crafting), but it does work.

UPGRADES: At the end of the day, the UPGRADE system worked so well; this is the fundamental reason this game stands out. You can upgrade your cards independently, and that’s a really interesting decision! Adding the UPGRADES on an ad-hoc basis saved me many times, and it really makes you feel clever when you upgrade and turn a 3-Action Point card into 1-Action Point card!

Looks: The game looks good. And the playmats really do help.

What I Didn’t Like

The Introductory Experience: The introduction to this game and the “sleevening” weren’t great experiences. I am very worried they would turn off a less-experienced player to the point of abandoning the game. It reminded me a little of my first experience with Marvel Legendary many years ago … if a friend hadn’t helped me with my first game, I may have given up on it! Just a few more pictures and explanations, please? (Another game I really liked from last year, Union City Alliance (a co-op deck-builder) had this same problem: see here).

Tear-down: The game moves quickly as you play, but tear-down in this game is a lot of work: you have to separate many many cards from their sleeves.

Ambiguities: There were just enough ambiguities in the game that I was frustrated a few times.  Again, I wish the rulebook had a few more examples,  a few more pictures, a few more discussions, maybe even an index.   In this review, I tried to point out problem areas so hopefully they won’t trip you up.

Theme and Comparison to Astro Knights

How much theme is here?  There’s about as much theme here as in the base Astro Knights game; although I think I would give it to Astro Knights for feeling just slightly more thematic.  

Although, If we were comparing it to Astro Knights: Eternity, I would definitely say Eternity is more thematic … mostly.

Although the thematic element depends on which BIG BAD BOSS you fight!  In your first few Unstoppable games, you should fight The Harbinger then The Triumvirate (in that order).  Those games teach you the technical mechanisms of the game.  The final boss (Duomo’s Menace: see above) actually has a little story and some choices! See below!!

There is a deck of 21 cards (see above) and you make decisions (like a Choose Your Own Adventure story) as it takes you through different parts of the deck!

Minor spoiler above (that’s why it’s sideways), but it’s the first decision you would come to … see above.  These decisions take you through different parts of different stories!

There’s a bunch of different endings (don’t look too closely above) for that adventure!  The final boss Duomo’s Menace has quite a bit of theme and feels like a little adventure!

Would I recommend Astro Knights or Unstoppable? They are both great sci-fi cooperative deck-builders, but it depends on what you want!  Astro Knights is a little simpler and plays more people (at 1-4 players).  Unstoppable is more difficult and plays fewer people (1-2 players).  Astro Knights, especially if you are playing the Eternity expansion, feels more thematic, but, Unstoppable has slightly better gameplay with its card-crafting mechanic …and it does have a thematic adventure for the final boss!!  As a cooperative experience, I would give the edge to Astro Knights because it feels more interactive.  In the end, I have both and like both!

Conclusion

Yes, I liked Unstoppable! Quite a bit! It’s definitely staying in my collection for the solo game, but I can see it being ideal for playing 2-Player with my friend Joe!

The deck-building and card-crafting aspects of this game are unique and this brings some new ideas to that genre: upgrades, defeating cards to draw them, special boss damage … to name a few! To be clear, the main gimmick of this game (the card-crafting) DOES WORK and it works well.

I really did like the playmats and would recommend them, but they do make the game more expensive; strictly speaking, you don’t need them.

Overall, I’d have to give this a 8.5/10. I want to give it more, but the “unsleevening” experience and the rulebook could have been a little better.

Top 10 Solo Board and Card Games of 2024

What makes a good solo game? I find them when I typically start playing solo games to learn that game cooperatively for my friends. If a game starts to enchant me and I can’t stop playing it solo … there’s something to it! All the games on this list were games I played solo to teach my friends … but then I kept playing! Some of these games will end up on either my Top 10 Cooperative Games of 2024, some but of them will end up on my Top Cooperative Expansions of 2024, but one things for sure … they are all great solo!

For more great solo games, see last year’s list: Top 10 Solo Board and Card Games of 2023!

Honorable Mention:  Solo Project PEGASUS Campaign for Marvel United 


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After getting Marvel United Multiverse Season 3 with all of its content, I was very taken with the Campaign Decks (see below and see review here), but I was saddened to learn there was no campaign for the Project PEGASUS saga (see above)!

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 So I spent many many weeks developing my own campaign using all of the Marvel United content!   This is a print-and-play campaign for Marvel United! I played this campaign solo over and over and over again (multi-handed with 2, 3, and 4 characters) as I playtested all the the different combinations of characters! There is no game I played more solo this year than the Marvel United: Project PEGASUS campaign!

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It’s awkward to put this on our list since I developed it, but I had so much fun playtesting it solo over and over for weeks and weeks, I had to acknowledge how much time and how much fun I had with this!  If you liked the Marvel United Campaign Decks and wanted more, check out the free Project PEGASUS Campaign here!

10. Skytear Horde: Monoliths

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Now, Skytear Horde: Monoliths is a standalone expansion in the Skytear Horde universe!  This is a great little solo and cooperative tower defense game!  But you might ask: “Why isn’t this on the Top 10 Cooperative Expansions of 2024 instead of this solo list?”  That’s a very good question!  It’s because, although this is a really good expansion with great components and cards, the game really works best as a solo game.

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We tried it cooperatively (see our review here), and it was just okay. It’s significantly better as a solo game!  It feels like most of the balance and playtesting was done as a solo game, so it can’t really go on our Top 10 Cooperative Expansions of 2024 list …  because it really is best as a solo game.

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It’s got some great components and some really great art!  Take a look at our review here to see if this is something you might like!

9. Batman: Gotham City Chronicles + Solo/Cooperative Expansion
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So, you can’t play Batman: Gotham City Chronicles solo without both the base game (which came out years ago) and the Solo/Cooperative Expansion (which came out this year)!  In order to get to the cooperative game, I had to wade through learning the original base one vs. many game, then learn the solo game, to finally learn the cooperative game! Whew!
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Now the cover of the Solo/Cooperative Expansion looks great! See above!

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But there were some major production issues with the expansions as: 1) The English translation still had some scenarios in French!  And 2) The binding on the solo/cooperative rulebook is terrible!  It’s impossible to hold open!  See above as I came up with a kludgy workaround for that!  Objectively, I feel like I had to give this game a 5.5/10 since the production had issues!

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Yet, even after all those issues (and the sheer complexity of the game), I still enjoyed being Batman in this solo romp around Gotham City!  Subjectively, I gave it a 7/10 because I felt like I was Batman!  Because of the production issues, this has to fall close to the bottom of the solo list, but I still enjoyed this overall!  See our review of Batman: Gotham City Chronicles Solo/Cooperative Mode to see if this might be something you enjoy!

8. NYC: Emergency Room
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This might strike you as an odd pick: A Medical Mystery game!   I picked this up at Target and really enjoyed playing through the mysteries of the game!  Instead of solving a boring old murder mystery (sarcasm here: I loved my murder mysteries), you are doing research, asking questions, running tests, and trying correctly to diagnose a patient!  

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There’s only a limited number of mysteries per box (see the envelopes above), but if you ever wanted to play a medical mystery and diagnose like Gregory House, this is the game for you!

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I love my murder mysteries (remember: Suspects made the #1 spot on my Top 10 Solo Games of 2023), and this was a great spin on that genre!  See our review here to see if it’s something you may like!

7. Everdell: Duo

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I wasn’t expecting to like Everdell: Duo as much as a I did!  My first playthroughs were a bit “clunky”, as the game has some fiddly bits and documentation issues you have to get through.  But once you “get” how the game works, it’s quite fun! (I also never played the original Everdell)

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To play solo, you have to man both the tortoise and the hare as they build their respective cities!  See above!  There’s a lot of thought about when you share, when you place workers, when you buy, and when you draw cards!  You are looking for the combos to help both the tortoise and the hare!  It might “seem” like both the hare and tortoise are playing multiplayer solitaire games, but as the game opens up to you, there’s more collaboration between the two than you might think!  

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That delicious (solo) collaboration plus the beautiful components and the cute vibe of the game put this on my solo list!  I am just as surprised as you are that this made my solo list!  My only concern (which is why it’s at #7) is that can be at the whim of the card draws, but most of the time there are so many ways to pivot around that! See our review here to see if this might be something you like!

6. Rise of the Unfolders: Tidal Blades 2

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I didn’t know a lot about the original Tidal Blades when I backed this, but Tidal Blades 2 looked like a fun little cooperative dungeon crawler.  Holy Cow! I was blown away about how good the gameplay were and how great the components were!

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As silly as it sounds, they did such a great correlating the colors, giving bases for the monsters, and generally making the cards very readable!

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But the coup de grace was the card system where you could choose a card, a row or a column, activating everything there!  This was such a unique and different combat system, it really made this game stand out.  The game is better with more people, but I had such fun playing through (most) of the campaign solo!

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See our review of Rise of the Unfolders: Tidal Blades 2 to see if this game might be of interest to you!

5. Robinson Crusoe: Collector’s Edition (primer)

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This is an odd duck of an entry; the Collector’s Edition of Robinson Crusoe arrived this years (3 years late, which made a lot of people angry) and had some amazing minis and components … for a worker placement game that probably doesn’t need them!

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See above for one of the Sundrop worker placement tokens!!  Did I really need this?  Nah! But did I love it? Ya!

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In the end, the reason this made the list (besides how stupidly nice it looks) was because of the Introductory Campaign Scenario Book!  I love Robinson Crusoe, but I hadn’t played it in 5 years! The Introductory Campaign gave me an excuse to enjoy a nice 5-Game campaign in the world of Robinson Crusoe!  Over about a month, I’d play a scenario on a weekend and just have a good old time in this world.   Good times!  It reminded why I like Robinson Crusoe so much!
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Check out our review of the Collector’s Edition of Robinson Crusoe to see if this might be something you might like! 

4. Marvel United: Campaign Deck.  Dark Phoenix Saga

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The Campaign Decks (see above) came with Season 3 of Marvel United: Multiverse.  These decks takes all your Marvel United content (and I mean ALL of it) and gives you some “stories” or campaigns to run through.

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The Dark Phoenix Saga is a campaign centered on the X-Men from issues #131-137 back in the Byrne/Austin/Claremont days. This campaign takes you through a story, lasting 5 battles (or more) as the X-Men fight the Hellfire club, others, and (spoiler!) deal with Jean Grey turning into Dark Phoenix.

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This was a heart-breaking, soul-wrenching campaign as I played through one of my favorite Marvel X-Men stories!  I can’t share too much, but it was a great solo experience over a number of days.

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See our review of the Campaign Decks to see if this might be something you might like!  Some spoilers included, but they should be well marked!

3. Aeon’s End: The Descent

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This one was a late comer and almost didn’t make our list! It came in late late November, just before Thanksgiving!  I ended up playing cooperatively with my friends and had a grand old time, but the solo experience was truly phenomenal!

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First of all, Aeon’s End: The Descent has true solo play (which makes it a lot easier to jump into)!  And all the new Mages and ideas it adds to the system were … surprisingly fresh! Even after 8 years, this standalone expansion breathed new life into the Aeon’s End system!

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But, at the end of the day, it was the new module called Friends and Foes that made this stand out so much!  This new module adds new ways of winning and losing with some interesting ideas, but what it does best for me was mitigate the problems with Variable Turn Order!  

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Playing through the four Chapters of this narrative campaign was a thrill!  The story was pretty good (once you got into it), and the new ideas generated throughout were fantastic.  I played a different mage in every chapter and just had a ball figuring out how to play each new mage!  Sure, you can play this campaign with many people, but I really enjoyed unravelling this story as a solo play.  See our review here of Aeon’s End: The Descent to see if this might be something you enjoy!

2. Sammu-Ramat

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Any other year, this probably would have been my #1 game of the year!  I went back and forth a number of times, so this could easily be my #1!  Sammu-Ramat is basically a cooperative euro-puzzle game; it immerses the players into Queen Sammu-ramat’s rule of Assyria in 9th century BC, as guided by her advisors.

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It’s kind of a war game, as you fend off invaders, but it’s also a euro game gathering-resources games, but it’s also a logistics puzzle as you try to balance keeping the kingdom defended and fed!

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You can play either a one-shot (which is a great way to jump in), but it really shines as a 5-game campaign where you leave the game state as set-up for the next game!   This game was such a great surprise!  I adored playing it solo, especially through a campaign (although it needs a little house-ruling).   I really wish it could have made my #1 spot because it was so good. See out review of Sammu-Ramat here to see if this is something you might like!

1. Set A Watch: Doomed Run

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This game has no right to be the #1 spot; this is a giant campaign game in the Set A Watch Universe.   First of all, of the Full 7 Game Campaign games I played, I ended up playing two of them cooperatively!  So, that means I only played 5 of the games solo! 

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And to play the campaign, you must have ALL The Set A Watch Content! And I mean all!! (Including the Outriders deck)!  This means: Set A Watch, Set A Watch: Swords of the Coins, and Set A Watch: Forsaken Isles!!!  See how it takes up one half of my table just to separate the different games above?

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And Set A Watch also has the solo problem that “you must play 4 characters”, so that’s not ideal either: see above as I try to operate 4 characters!

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Despite all that, this game spent 11 days taking over my table, and I had a ball playing through it mostly solo!  Once you know Set A Watch, especially solo, it’s such a fun game!  I know, this really has no right even being my favorite solo game of 2024, but I had so much fun playing it (mostly) solo, it has to be #1.  See our review here to see if Set A Watch: Doomed Run might be something you enjoy!

Wandering Galaxy Review: Who’s Wandering Here?

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To be clear: you are wandering the Galaxy, but it turns out the Galaxy itself is wandering (if you believe the intro text)! Wandering Galaxy is a cooperative adventure game for 1-6+ players and it is set in spaaaaaaaaaace!  This is a silly cooperative game that kind of feels like Firefly if it were a comedy (with just a little bit of Star Trek thrown in). (I mean, Firefly is already kind-of a comedy, but I digress). (But this may be too many parenthesis).

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Wandering Galaxy was on Kickstarter back in July 2024, and promised delivery in December 2024.  And you know what?  They made it! My copy arrived about December 20th, 2024!  With some qualifiers … see below …

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See above: So, the game wasn’t QUITE done, but the only thing left unfinished was the App. My physical copy arrived but the app still needed some work.  To be fair, I was able to play some of the game before the end of December, so it’s enough to say “Eh, close enough”.  I’ll call it on time.

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Let’s be clear!  Wandering Galaxy requires an App (or the Entry Book … more discussion later if you are violently opposed to an App).

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They say “App”, but it’s really more of a web portal situation: point your web browser at WanderingGalaxy.com and go!  It reads the text to you!!

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So, what is this?  Wandering Galaxy is a cooperative campaign game with many different mechanisms: story-telling, worker placement, bag-building, deck-building, pickup-and-deliver, and even a little bit of a real-time!   It is both paradoxically a lighter game and a heavier game!  The gameplay is light and fluffy and moves along quickly, but there’s a lot of stuff underneath the hood that keeps this from being “just” a dumb little game!

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What do I mean by this? Let’s take a look below!

Unboxing

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So, this is a pretty standard sized game box, about Ticket To Ride sized. See above with Coke can for perspective.

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There’s a decent amount of stuff in here! See above!  Lots to punch out!

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There’s a lot of tokens to punch out! Whew! Luckily the game includes some bags!

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There’s also a fair number of cards in the game: remember how I said this was a deck-building game? There are the cards for your decks!

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I got the sleeves for this: 9 times out of 10, if a game says it’s a deck-building game, you should probably sleeve it.  (This might be the 10th game).

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I spent WAY TOO Much time sleeving all the cards. See above!!!  This card-sleeving was one of the first things I did when I got the game.  I will say, after a few plays, I am not entirely convinced that this game needs sleeves.  If you didn’t get the sleeves, meh, don’t stress: I don’t think you needed them.  (I am addressing this to my friend Kurt who didn’t get the sleeves).

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But there is a nice box for holding all the cards, with little dividers that clearly mark sections.  And it looks like it would fit WITH or WITHOUT sleeves just fine.  Little tip: it may look like some cards are missing (because of missing numbers), but probably not!  Some are missing for “future expansion”:  Check this BoardGameGeek thread for more details: Anyone missing cards?

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There’s a lot of other punch outs for the stations … see below.

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There’s a lot here, but it is very cool looking!

Rulebook

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This rulebook … isn’t great.

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It flops over on the edges, probably get it a D on the Chair Test.

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In the end, I had to use the standard workaround of putting out two chairs with the spine in the middle.

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There’s a lot of stuff in here, but I also found there was a lot of stuff missing.  For example: The travel section discussions were unclear: Do you spend 3 power on each section? Do you have to stop in each section on your way to your destination?  The answer to both questions, according to this BoardGameGeek thread, is yes!!!  I think you will find yourself on BoardGameGeek a lot when you have questions!  Apparently the designer is very responsive on BoardGameGeek if you have questions, he answers quickly … so that’s good.  There is also a Discord channel (mentioned when you bring up the app).

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What I found is that the App is very good at helping you set everything up!  I tended to use the App for all my set-ups and only use the rulebook to look up a few rules.  In general, the App taught “most” stuff.  A lot of things were in the rulebook (and there’s even an index)!  But there was still a lot of stuff missing that you will have to look at BoardGameGeek for … Another example: What does a damage token do?  It’s unclear unless you read this BoardGameGeek thread!!

So, quick summary: use the App when you can, use the rulebook with the index if you have to, then use BoardGameGeek if things are still unclear.  You might go to BoardGameGeek more than you like. 

Story-Telling

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Everyone gets to play a different character in this game!  The art and style of the minis sets the tone for the game: see above!!  It’s very nice art, but with just a hint of silliness.

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Each player chooses a character to play: there are quite a number of characters, and they each have their own special sheet.  See Muze above … that was my first character!!! I ended up making a copy of the character sheets (using my crappy home copier; it was good enough) so I didn’t mess up the original sheets that came with the game.  (There are a number of these sheets included with the game, but you can either print them yourself or just order more sheets from the web site if you don’t want to sully the sheets).

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These character sheets are two-sided; the back has your “back-story” (no pun intended).  You fill out the little questionnaire on the left, and that informs your Story So Far… (on right side of the sheet).  This gives you some items and sets the tone for your hero!  This is part of the Story Telling aspect of the game.

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There’s also a sheet for the spaceship (I also made a copy as to not mess that up either).

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Of course, the App itself has most of the story!  It’s pretty cool; it’s narrated with different voices and is pretty funny.

I would say, first and foremost, this is a Story-Telling game.  All the other mechanisms in the game support that central tenet.  You are all characters being swept up in this space opera!

Worker Placement

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I’d say the next mechanism that you feel is the Worker Placement part of the game.  The Location book (above) has the location on the left and the Worker Placement spots on the right.

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Players look closely at the Icons on the worker placements places and place their dudes there.  This is cooperative worker placement, as you are all trying to work together to get certain things done.  To avoid too much “analysis paralysis” or “Alpha Playering” here, the players have 45 seconds to place their dudes!  (That’s the extent of the “real-time” part of this game.  if you were worried about me saying real-time, relax!  You can almost even ignore the real-time part … it’s really just to keep people from taking TOO LONG to play their dudes …)

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Once the dudes are placed, the right hand side of the page shows in detail what each action does.

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Sometimes your action triggers some text in the App; it gives a number (like 133, see below) and you lookup that entry in the App!

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You spend a decent amount of time here on the Worker Placement pages. It wasn’t until my third game that I realized that the Combat also happens using the Worker Placement system …. what? Yep! You head to a special page where you are in “Combat!” Your actions move the ship (so enemies are in view), fire guns (port, starboard, ahead), or even work the ship to repair damage!

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This Worker Placement system seemed to work pretty well, and it’s cooperative.

Deck-Building

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A lot of the game revolves around Skill checks … using your deck!  (I told you there was deck-building in here!)  When you need to make a Skill check (say Muze needs to SNEAK), you draw cards and add up the symbols that match that check!  SNEAK needs blue stars and red hands, so Muse has 3 above.   To be clear, the more symbols, the better!  (You can also use PERK tokens, the little Saturn token, for extra plusses, but you do have to discard those)

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There’s also Items you can “hold” between hands, which you can choose to “help” in your Skill check.  That’s kind of a neat gizmo in the deck-building mechanism.

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At certain times during the game, you have a chance to add cards (or cull) you deck based on the actions you take!  There’s a nice set of 4 improvement card (above the the book, see above and below) that you can choose from!  I mean, it’s deck-building: you have to be able to improve your deck!

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Campaign

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This is a campaign that can last … as long as you want it to!  There is also deck-advancement, as your deck build survives between games of the campaign (luckily, you lose things like Injuries that can clog your deck).

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So, when you finish your current game, you can just be done, or save off the game to play again later!  Nominally, your first full adventure (spanning many games) will be paying off the loan for your ship!

Bag-Building

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Even though there is deck-building in here (a deck for each character), there is also a bag-building portion! See the bag in the bottom right corner above!

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When you travel through space, you typically pull tokens from the bag to see “what happened” as you travel through space!!! (See the tokens you can pull above). Generally, travelling through space is tough on your ship as you take little bits of damage as you travel.

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You can take time at Space Ports and other places to “Work the Ship” to help fix it back up (putting tokens back in the bag).  It’s not a huge mechanism in the game, but it is important to be aware of what’s in the “travel bag” and try to keep it cleanish so that you don’t take too much damage as you travel.  The bag also controls threat, which is how the game can end … poorly.

Star Trek

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I said there was some Star Trek vibe in here as well … there is!  There are 6 “positions” of the ship that must be manned by the characters!   One player is the Engineer, one player handle Logistics, … Operations, Science, Navigation and Security!  In a game with fewer players, some players will have to man multiple stations!

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This reminds me of the characters sitting around the bridge of the Enterprise, with Spock manning the Science station, Worf manning the Security station, and Paris manning the Navigation station! (Look, I didn’t say WHICH Star Trek …)

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Cardboard!

We’ve already seen this “station” idea in Forgotten Waters (see our review here) and Freelancers (see our review here)! Thematically, it worked great in Forgotten Waters (as pirates worked together to man the “stations” of a ship), and less so in Freelancers.

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Thematically, it works really well here too.  Basically, the stations help keep everyone involved in running the ship and contribute to the theme: we are flying a space ship together!

Pickup And Deliver

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One of the main activities in this game is pickup-and-deliver: you are a space-faring crew wandering the stars, looking for adventure, but usually you are delivering stuff to make ends meet!

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The Jobs you get (above) inform where you go on the star map (see below) by marking them with little waypoint markers.

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The yellow waypoint marker is the yellow job (Escort Shipping Barge).  This pickup-and-deliver mechanism sort of guides were you go in the game.  If you don’t like pickup-and-deliver, you might still like this game, as there are so many other mechanisms in the game.  If you do like pickup-and-deliver, then you will be happy.

Solo Play

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So, Wandering Galaxy embraces the solo player!  (Congratulations on following Saunders’ Law!).  I am surprised a little because the previous games in this series (Forgotten Waters and Freelancers) supported solo mode, but they were bastard step-children solo modes that were only supported by consulting the some arcane rules on the web site!  Okay, maybe I am exaggerating a little when I say that, but Wandering Galaxy really does embrace solo play.

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The rules and the App support solo play as a first-class mechanism!  The app asks you how many people are playing and helps you set-up the solo game in the normal flow! 

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The solo player still operates one the main characters: see above as I operate Muze … (notice I made a copy of the sheet…)

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…. but the solo player gets to control two Sidekicks (see Bugs and Tress above).  These Sidekicks aren’t “full characters”, but they are much much easier to operate.  Normally, I don’t like solo rules that go too much outside the normal flow (I usually prefer to play multi-handed solo), but the app was so helpful in setting this up and getting to solo play that I didn’t mind!

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So, when the solo players does Worker Placement actions, the solo player plays his player, and the two Sidekicks as well.

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This means the solo player is also controlling all six stations!  Interestingly, you still have to assign one station for each of Bugs and Tress.  See above as Bugs and Tress each have a station (to their left).

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See above as I have the 6 stations, my character Muze, Bugs and Tress, the Worker Placement book, the map of the Galaxy and the App open!  Whew!

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And then the solo player still has to manage the cards (see chair on the left with the card box) and the ship (see the table on the right with the ship)!  And, occasionally the solo player must still consult the rulebook!  See as the Rulebook sprawls across two chairs …Whew! 

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… and it’s actually not that bad.  Sure, there’s a lot of stuff to manage, but the App takes you through the game pretty darn well.   I played my first few games solo, and I had a good time.  I never felt like the ongoing maintenance (to keep the game moving forward) was too much work. 

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Setting up is a bit of work, as is tearing down (see above), but again, the App helps guide you through it.  I’ll be honest, the Rulebook for this game looks daunting (with set-up and rules), but let the App guide you and just use the rulebook when you “have to”!

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I thought the solo game worked well, even better than Forgottten Waters or Freelancers. I jumped right on and had a grand time. I would definitely play this again solo.  I honestly think the App made the solo play that much better.   

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What about the Sidekicks Bugs and Tress in the solo game?  They really are easy to operate: you just use your deck but get slightly different bonuses (depending on which character: Bugs is good at Piloting for example).  They kind of remind me of characters on Star Trek you see in the background all the time, but don’t get much development.  They aren’t full “main” characters who get their own story arcs … like “unnamed Corporal 2”.  For example, when Bugs or Tress would get REPUTATION (a fun way to move a character story forward), they just get a PERK token instead. Poor Bugs and Tress.  Maybe they’ll get higher billing in the next Star Trek show.  (We only have 13 shows, we need a 14th Star Trek show starring Bugs and Tress!!!) (And yes, I added extra exclamation points there, because that’s how strongly I feel about poor undeveloped Bugs and Tress!!!!)

Cooperative Game

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My crew showed up, ready to take the Galaxy by storm!  The crew was originally supposed to be a full complement of six, but space sickness and space madness and space baby-sitting caused us to winnow down to just three.  But what a great crew they were!!  Too bad the spaceship exploded on the pad.  But I digress … 

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Cooperative play worked really well.  Luckily, I had played the game solo enough to smooth out some of the rules (even still, there were ambiguities as we played which were frustrating).  Part of why this game works very well for a cooperative game is that each player owns their own station, which keeps them in involved as they play! And each player has their own character with their own worker placement token!  So, players are always involved (via the station and worker placement) as well as connecting (as they “bond”) with their character, and making shared decisions about the fate of the ship and crew!!! (More exclamation mark for you!!!)

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My friend Teresa liked her character so much that she took it home as a souvenir!

We ended up playing a one-off, but once my group regroups, I suspect we will settle in for a fuller campaign.  It is nice that you can play this as a full campaign or just a one off.

Sense Of Humor

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Just so you know: this game is kind of silly.  The story is silly, the voices are kind of silly, and even the first player token (I chose the Christmas Tree) is silly.    If you were looking for a grim-dark Star Trek game, that’s not this.

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The game has a sense of humor, but it’s not just ALL silliness.  You still have to build your deck, make smart decisions, deal with damage on your ship, pickup and deliver stuff, place workers, and generally make a lot of decisions.  But the undercurrents of the game … are a little silly.

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Even though Wandering Galaxy is silly, it’s still not quite as silly as Freelancers or Forgotten Waters: those games just seem to have sillier stories and sillier resolutions.  So, if you were just slightly annoyed by the silliness of Freelancers or Forgotten Waters, maybe Wandering Galaxy is a better choice for you … but it’s still silly.  Just not as silly.

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You know a game is silly when it brings out the silliness in you!  When we performed the Skill checks, we started singing the Lucky Charms cereal theme songs!  “Blue Stars, Yellow Eyes, Purple Brains!  Frosted Lucky Charms, they are magically delicious!”

Entry Book

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Some of you might have been very non-plussed by the necessity of the App in this game.  Well, if you like reading text from books, there are Entry Books available!   The Entry Book isn’t QUITE done at the time I received my copy, but it will be.  In the meantime, I did pickup the the Forgotten Waters and Freelancers Entry Books (those were part of the Kickstarter).

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Basically, all the reading and entries that the App does  is encapsulated in the Entry Book.  There’s something kind of nice about having a “backup” for this: I have had some games where the App goes dark (Rising 5, I am looking at you); with this Entry book, you can always still play the game if the App goes dark.

My friend Joe actually prefers the Entry Books: he uses these games for his English classes, as it encourages reading out loud!

What I Liked

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Supports Multiple Players Well: the game really works well with many player counts.  The station system helps keep everyone involved, even at higher player counts.   I am glad to see the Solo mode as a first class object.

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Story:  Really, this game is all about the story.  How do you want your adventure in space to proceed?  Life is what happens when you are making plans, especially in space!  Every player is involved as they explore, but generally the story just unfolds and everyone is along for the ride.  If you want to play a space opera rather than watch one, this is a good choice.

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The App:  Despite the app not being quite done (some of entries didn’t have full voice acting, and some entries were incomplete), the App worked quite well.  I think it’s really evolved and easy to use, especially for set-up and first play!  (I mean, they have had 2 iterations to get this right). It’s also good to know there is a backup Entry book in case the App ever goes dark …

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Sense of Humor:  I really like the silliness in this game.  It’s not quite as funny as Freelancers (which was much sillier) or Forgotten Waters, but it was funny.  Caveat Emptor: you may not like the silliness.

What I Didn’t Like

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Ambiguity: By far the biggest complaint is the ambiguity in the Rulebook.  There’s just too many places where things are NOT well specified. We’ve mentioned at least three things in this article alone where we had to go to BoardGameGeek to find the resolution!  The game still works, but it’s very unsettling to have just a few too many places where the rules are poorly specified.  Some of this is because maybe the game came out early; the App still needs some work, and maybe they will fix-up the ambiguity in the App. Unfortunately, the Rulebook can’t be amended (unless they put up a version 2.0).  Just prepare yourself to look stuff up on BoardGameGeek.

Conclusion

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I liked Wandering Galaxy and so did my friends!  It’s the next great game in the Crossroads games series (after Forgotten Waters and Freelancers).  It’s probably the most complicated of the three games, but it’s possibly the most thematic of the three.   Be aware that that there are a lot of mechanisms: deck-building, campaign, bag-building, pickup-and-deliver!  … but the game feels paradoxically both heavy and light!  The game glides along as you enjoy the story, with some heavier mechanisms behind the scenes.

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An App is required to play … unless you have the Entry book (at the time of this writing, the Entry Book for Wandering Galaxy is not out, but should be soon (the Forgotten Waters and Freelancers books are already out).  Despite the App not “quite” done at the time of this writing, it did a marvelous job bringing us into this world. It even embraced the solo player well!

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This is a great light-hearted cooperative adventure for you and your friends! It’s not “quite” as silly as Forgotten Waters and Freelancers, but it’s still pretty silly.

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This is probably an 8/10. The only real problem with the game was the ambiguities that kept coming up: If you are pick-up in this game, I suspect you will be looking up a lot of stuff on BoardGameGeek. But, since the App is a dynamic entity, hopefully they can address a lot of those issues within the App itself. Hopefully, by the time you read this, the App will have fixed all those problems and this will rise to a 8.5/10. It’s a really fun game.

A Review of Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread. Part I: Unboxing, Set-Up, Solo Play, And First Impressions After 20 Hours of Play

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Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread is a cooperative adventure campaign set in a fantasy universe.  This was on Kickstarter back in August 2021, and promised delivery in December 2022.  

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It arrived at my house Dec 30th, 2024!  So, it’s about 2 years late!  I mean, I have been looking forward to this for some time: it was #6 on my Top 10 Anticipated Cooperative Games of 2022!

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Has this been worth the wait? Let’s take a look!

Unboxing: Day 0 (December 30th, 2024)

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This is a big mama-jama of a game! It took up the entire delivery box with no extra room! As soon as this game came in, I went to the game room and immediately opened it up!

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See the Coke Can above for scale! It’s HUUUGE!

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It’s is just chock full o’ stuff.

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There’s even a list on the side how to put this back together (I still recommend taking pictures as you unbox) because it’s so big.  Oh yes, there’s also a list of everyone who backed the game on Kickstarter.  Do you see my name there?  (No, I don’t either … that is a tiny font!)

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The rulebook is a reasonable size and has great art: it’s right on top.

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There’s some punchouts below the rulebook: these are REALLY nice punchouts: they are thick cardboard and very well notated (and readable).  These are all tokens that come out slowly as you play: you don’t have to punch things out until you need them (which is kind of nice).

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And what’s all this?  So much cool stuff!

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There are some tokens (red for damage, orange for “wear-and-tear”, and combat dice) as well as some minis.

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The minis are HEADLESS!  You heard me! No head! See above!

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You choose a head that matches the character you choose!  

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So, if you choose this guy with this body, you can make the mini!  This is a cool idea, but I felt like I had to be very careful as a I put the head in … I was kind of afraid I’d break something!  They did work, but … just be careful.

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There are a lot of boxes in different colors; each color is correlated to a “Path”, or a type of character (Class) you take.

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There’s essentially 3 boxes for your Path: the card boxes (below), the Treasure Chests (far right) …

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And the long thin boxes (above).  These are all for your character!

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But I want to end my unboxing the same way I ended Day 0: setting up the card and map decks.  These card decks (see three boxes above) control how the game unfolds: the stories, the combats, the twists, the turns … all of the game is in these three decks.

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One of the first things you have to do is put the backers (see above) in the card boxes to indicate where different sections start and end. 

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This is literally one of the first directions in the quick-start: “Insert Dividers” .. see above.

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So, at the end of my first day of unboxing, I ended up putting the dividers in.  This was … more work than I expected, as the card decks have a very precise way they need to be set up.  I think I spent a good 30-45 minutes inserting the dividers (don’t laugh! It’s true!).

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There’s also dividers for the maps (which we’ll talk about in the Day 1 section below) that you have to insert.  Really! It’s more work than you might expect to put in these inserts!

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So, at the end of Day 0, I got all the dividers set-up and the basic game unboxed.  Overall, I probably spent 2 hours to get to this point.

Starting First Play: Day 1 (December 31st, 2024)

NOTE: Some of the stuff here might be considered spoilers, as it’s from the Quick Start Guide, but it’s the first things you see, so it’s not much of a spoiler. Feel free to skip this if you want to be completely surprised.

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We didn’t focus on this too much in Day 0, but there is a really nice Quick Start Guide (see book above) to guide the players through the game.  

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This Quick Start Guide is 16 pages  long … yes, let that sink in … a Quick Start Guide that is 16 pages!  That’s because the rulebook is 36 pages!  And yet, the Quick Start Guide does a GREAT job getting you into the game!  I spent Day 0 setting up the decks and maps (which is described on page 1 on Quick Start Guide).  The next page has the components! The components are interestingly listed in both the Quick Start Guide (see above) and the Rulebook.  I mean, a good list of components and correlating text is ESSENTIAL to any good rulebook, so I am all for this!

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The next step, which I spent a lot of Day 1 on, is Character Creation (see page 4 of the Quick Start Guide above).  This guides you through the process of choosing a Path (Rogue, Cleric, etc, basically a Dungeons and Dragons Class).

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I chose the purple boxes, so I am a Rogue! (you actually get to read the summary of each type if you want more info before you choose). The small card box contains a d20, some colored cubes, and cards describing your skills. See above.

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The long thin box (above) contains your character sheets (below) … which are all double layered boards!

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See above as my Rogue has his skill tree board (left), character board with skills and inv (right), and the the character profile (above, right), and the more descriptive skill cards (above, left).

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At this point, you also choose your name, character mini, head (which still sounds weird), and race. See above.

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Your Race (I am human, see above) choice also get some special abilities (the Human gets a free re-roll every so often).

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This process of choosing characters was really well done!  They even give you a hint how combat will work: see how one sheet has an armored profile which armor covering areas?

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The next step has you start into the world!  This game is combination of exploration, combats, and puzzles and quests!  You start on the WorldMap (“the Basin”, see above) and explore, looking for stuff!

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There is a REALLY NEAT mechanism for discovering the hexes: the hexes are inserted in, but you can “push” on the right of the hex and pop it our easily, as there is a little ledge underneath the hex!  This makes it VERY EASY to pop out a new hex!  The world starts unexplored, except for the Exile’s camp!  See above!

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When you explore a location (like the Exile’ camp), the game will direct you to use some of the maps that come with the game!  The maps are LNG (long), MED (medium), SML (small), and BIG (big). See above.

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One side of the maps describes the scene with words and text!   See above!

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Then you flip it to the other side!  And then you explore the maps at that Location!  At that maps are POI (Points of Interest), FOE (foes, potentially), NPC (Non-player characters), and other stuff!  You interact with the place by moving to them (if you start a board with a FOE … you start combat immediately!  We aren’t quite there yet!)

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Interacting with a NPC (or POI) is basically the same: everyone interested goes to that Location!  You get their card and read it!  The first NPC you encounter is Guild Leader, Thades!

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Then one player “roll plays” the card to another group, and the group makes decisions!  See above as the group can ask about the GUILD, the SQUILLS, PRACTICE DUMMY, or LEAVE!  Basically, this interaction  is kind of like some of the point-and-click adventures we’ve seen before (see our Top 10 Cooperative Point-And-Click Adventure Games)!  

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And sometimes these interactions will point to a new map, a new card, a new KEY (a way to keep track of open adventures), or other stuff!  See above as we head into our first combat!

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This game definitely has a lot of combat in it!  We are fighting the Practice Dummy!

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Where does the little Practice Dummy come from?  The Fig Box of course!

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Each FIG box has a bunch of closed windows, so we can’t see what’s coming … we can only the window for the mini we want!

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That’s right!  The minis are all “hidden” until you encounter them!  So cool! (Advent Calendar!)

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So, at this point, we switch to ANOTHER rule book, The Combat Example book!

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Every single Path (character Class) has a different combat example book! See all 6 of them above!  That’s right, you have a specified walkthrough FOR EACH DIFFERENT Class (Path)!!!

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This is really cool, as it kind of tells you how the character works!  The Rogue-like Class (I mean Path) is very much about hiding and laying traps!  This 4-page tutorial takes you through one combat with the Practice Dummy, showing you all the different things you can do!

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Basically, the combat alternates between the Bad Guys (the Practice Dummy here) and the Good Guys (you and your group).  

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A deck controls what the Bad Guys do: usually either upping the THREAT level or actually attacking using the current THREAT level!  The more THREAT there is, the more intense the attacks by the Bad Guys!

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When the Bad Guys attack you, they “hit” automatically (unless you have some mechanism like the Rogue to stay hidden) and do damage based on the die they roll.  The Practice Dummy rolls a RED die, and hit you square in the middle! See how the die specifies where it hits?  

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We saw a similar mechanism for hitting back in Sleeping Gods (see our review here)!  This as one of our favorite parts of Sleeping Gods!  It seemed like such a cool combat mechanism to have your body “mapped” for hits!

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The Bad Guys have a similar system, where they have an array of “hits” and you only kill the Bad Guys if you hit every spot!

EDIT: Some people complained about SPOILERS, so I turned this picture into a link instead; it shows a more complicated monster, but it does reveal a monster you haven’t seen yet. SPOILER in this picture: click on the link if you want to see it
SPOILER: shows a more complicated monster

Later Bad Guys have significantly more spots that contain damage points, so they are harder to kill!  (Minor spoiler in the picture above, but trust me, you won’t see this one coming!)

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See above as I have taken out the Practice Dummy!

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So, I was able to explore a little part of the world and have my first combat!  And I was still only halfway through the Quick Start Guide!  However, I ran out of time.  This was a good 4 or so hours of set-up and exploration and play.  But that Combat Guide is SO GOOD!!! I loved that!  I really felt like I understood combat after that!

Rewards, Level Ups, and Exploration: Day 2 (January 1st, 2025)

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So, now halfway through the Quick Start Guide, I had all day to play on January 1st!! I got my rewards (some experience points) and moved on. Incidentally, Experience Points make it easy to level up and upgrade your character. Let me repeat that: You get to Upgrade your Character!

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I was able to explore the Location a little more, and found a neat little cave in the same area.  This found me a KEY (think keyword) that allowed me to get off the map and move on to more explorations.

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Just like NPC, the interaction with a POI feels like a Video Game!!!

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The Quick Start Guide also talks more about KEYS and STATE CHANGES (a way to keep track that you have completed quests).  A STATE CHANGE represents something “changed” in the Adventure and the way the card deal with that.

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Next, you get to go to a town and heal up.  For those of you who have done any Dungeons and Dragons, towns are very important waypoints to heal and get new stuff!  In this case, the Exiles Camp also allows you to Level-UP!  The back of the Path card has a Level Up Guide! 

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I chose to make a copy of it, so you didn’t make the pristine cards (you can also download these and print them).

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Levelling-Up is a great time for the Adventurer, as they can choose new upgrades to their abilities!

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They can also choose a new Skill from their Skill tree (if they have the prerequisites)!

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Now, after levelling up (and healing), we are ready to explore the world!  The explore deck above is used to tell you how exploration is going!

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Basically, depending on what terrain you are traveling through, you may have simple success travelling or some hardship!!  See the card above, as Mountains, sea, and sign posts/roads are just a simple travel, but Plains,Grassland, Forest and Ice you become frustrated!

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Basically, you may to flip some of your tokens to represent the hardships.  It’s not too big a deal when you start your travels, but it’s possible the hardships will start overtaking you if you don’t rest after too many travels! I thought this mechanism was fairly thematic and simple and interesting!

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At this point, the Quick Start Guide ended and I was ready to take on the world!  The Quick Start Guide takes you through so many of the games mechanisms so well, I didn’t feel the need to read the rulebook!!  I learned Travel, Days and Resting, Points of Interest, Non-Player Characters, Combat, Experience, Levelling Up, WorldMap Travel, Location Travel, Town Actions, Floors and Stairs, Events, Character Creation, and so much more!

Exploring the World (Day 3, Day 4, …)

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From this point on, I was exploring the world myself, levelling up, and find the stories of this land!  Arydia has ended up on my table continuously for about 6 to 7 days.  Some days, I would play for hours, or some days it would be just one combat.  But I couldn’t bring myself to put it back in the box  …. there is a SAVE mechanism, but it’s still a lot of work to SAVE and LOAD it back.  It’s just easier to keep it out.

Rulebook

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Great rulebook. 

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It droops just a little, but the rulebook is so well done, I am willing to overlook that.

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Honestly, I didn’t need to rulebook (because the Quick Start Guide was so amazing) unless I was looking up a rule! And guess what??  There’s an Index!  There’s a pretty good Index on the last page! So, this rulebook delivered and became a good resource when I needed it.  

Let’s be clear, this is a complicated game, so there are always questions that don’t get addressed (what’s the order of operations of a combat hit if the last hit damages a point what heals another point?  Does the heal happen before the final death?), but in general, I was pretty happy with this.

In fact, the Quick Start Guide and Combat Guide gave me SO MUCH Confidence to just jump in!  The Rulebook with its Index worked well when I needed it.  This is one of the better documented games I have seen in some time. Kudos!

What Is This? Do You Know What Ultima IV is?

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What is this game?  If I had to describe this to someone who played Video Games in the 80s, I’d tell them that Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread reminds me so much of Ultima IV for the Apple II and Commodore 64!   If you have ever played Ultima IV, you know what this is!  It’s a game where exploration is a major component of the game! 

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You explore the big map (like in Ultima IV) and the little maps (like in Ultima IV). 

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Your interaction with NPC and the environment feels like the way you interact with NPCS in Ultima IV!  “I am the king of Eros!  I am all about Honesty!” “Tell me about Honesty!”  The keyword interaction system just feels like Ultima IV!

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And the combat, which is an important part of the game, feels a little like Ultima IV combat!  You interact on a Grid and move about! 

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But Ultima IV is all about the Quests and exploration as well!

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But, if you are a more modern gamer and have no idea what Ultima IV is, I’d tell you that this feels like Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion … with more story and exploration.  Jaws of the Lion is a fantasy exploration and combat game with great onboarding … sound familiar?  Now, don’t get me wrong, I like Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion (see our review here), but I always felt like there was too much focus on combat.  Sure, there was always some exploration and such, but at the end of the day, it felt like most of the hours you invested into the game were mostly combat!

Possible SPOILER picture, so turned it into a link: Possible SPOILER: picture in a town with a combat yet to be seen

I feel like the little stories and quests and puzzles in Arydia are more … fun?  That’s why I make the Ultima IV comparison: the end all of Ultima IV is to pursue the quests and stories, with combat being some part of that, whereas Gloomhaven (all of them) seem to have so much more gameplay focused on Combat.

Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread feels like the board game manifestation of the video game Ultima IV! 

Solo Play

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So, Aydia: The Paths We Dare Tread has a solo mode (thank you for following Saunders’ Law)! And guess what?  It’s a true solo mode: one player playing one character!  (Although the Rulebook does mention that you can play multiple characters, but it will just really slow down the solo game).

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This game works so well as a solo game. In a few places in the text, there are slight adjustments for solo games (the RP: Role Play Points, for example, allow the Solo Character to hold more RP than normal), but in general the games seems to scale just fine. Like we said earlier, this game has great documentation, so they few places (like Role Playing Points) where there are adjustments for solo play, it’s very well documented!

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Combat seems to scale fine, as the Combat alternates between Bad Guy and Good Guy (one from the party).  For example, consider a 4-Player game: in four turns, the Bad Guys goes 4 times, and each member of the party goes once.  For a solo game, this balance stays: the Bad Guys go 4 times and the Good Guys go 4 times … it’s just the solo player goes all 4 times!  The only thing I worry about is that the solo player might have too few hit points, as a 4-Player games would have 4x the hit points!  What balances this out, of course, is that all upgrades get applied to the solo character, so he tends to be more of a superman as he levels up …

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Frankly, this was a great solo experience.  I have played probably about 20 hours as I write this, and I have really been enjoying this.  I like the Video Game feel of exploration and combat.

This will probably make my Top 10 Solo Games of 2025.  

2024 or 2025?

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This delivered to my door Dec. 30, 2024.  I got through “a lot” of the Quick Start Guide on Dec 31, but finished the Quick Start Guide in January 1st, 2025.  So, is this a 2024 game or a 2025 game? BoardGameGeek lists the date as 2025!  Since it is SO CLOSE to the end of the year … and a lot of people on Kickstarter haven’t gotten their copy yet, I am calling this a 2025 game!  

What I Liked

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Hidden Minis: The way the figures are only revealed one at a time through an Advent Calendar like mechanism is pretty great. I have no idea what I am fighting until I open the little door from the Figure Box!

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The Card System: The state of the world is handled in the three card boxes above. What adventures have you seen? What NPCs have you talked to? Where have your Travels taken you? This system seemed to work so well! Rather than getting caught up in a big book full of cross-references, this card system makes the adventure “bite-sized” so you never feel too overwhelmed by the text! There’s just enough adventure on the cards to keep the game interesting, but not enough text to be overwhelming! (I am looking at you, My Father’s Work as an exemplar game with too much text…).

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Quick Start Guide: This guide works SO WELL for introducing the players to the world.

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The Combat Guide: The fact that there is a combat guide tailored to each type of class (Path) in the game is tremendous! Each class (Path) has such a different play style, it’s great to see Arydia embrace all the different styles! It’s like having 6 different experts in Cleric, Rogue, Mage, etc! This just works so well!

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The Adventure: I love that this game is all about adventure too! The cards present stories and interactions that make this feel like a Video Game! Ultima IV!

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Levelling Up: As you explore this world, you get to level up and become better! You choose skills that get better and better, and you may even change direction in your skill tree! One of my major complaints about Sleeping Gods is that you never felt you you were getting better, but just barely getting by (and I had a similar complaint about Lands of Galzyr, but we never reviewed that). Here in Arydia, you absolutely get better, and you feel like you have a hand in choosing the direction! You feel involved as you become more powerful! I just feel like that’s so engaging!

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Well-Thought Out: The production is amazing and well thought out. Everything in the game seems to be a well-thought out decision. How does this game go together? There’s even a guide on the side of the box.

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Combat: The combat in Arydia is interesting and different, but it’s not the entire focus of the game (like Gloomhaven’s combat is).  I like the combat, but I don’t feel like it takes over my life. I can explore when I want, and do combat too!

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Resettable: You can reset the game back to its pristine state: this is not a legacy game.

What I Didn’t Like

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Overwhelming: Sometimes I felt overwhelmed. When you explore a new Location, you have to find all these maps, then all these POI and NPC, and all these new minis, and set everything up. Sometimes it was just a little overwhelming. Some of this would probably go away in the cooperative game with more people to share the load, but there is a lot of maintenance by the solo player to keep this game going.

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Only One Save Game:  There is only game going ever.  Period. The state of the card boxes represents the majority of the state of this game.  You can’t have multiple games going on!  We were able to have a solo game and a cooperative game simultaneously running in Tidal Blades 2 (see our review here), but only because most of the state was in the sheets and some cards.  Here in Arydia, you can only have one game ongoing.

Conclusion

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This solo game took over my life for about one week! I love Arydia: The Paths We Dare Dread! It was definitely worth waiting for (from the #6 on our Top 10 Anticipated Cooperative Games of 2022!) even though it took two extra years to arrive! This is a 8.5 or 9/10! This feels like an exploration Video Game that I kept coming back to!

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Unfortunately, I can’t say anything about the cooperative game (from 2-4 Players) because I have only played the solo game!   As great as this game is, I can’t have multiple games going on at once!

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So, now that I have played the solo game and really enjoyed it … I are going to reset the game back to the pristine state (this campaign is resettable) so that me and my friends can try the Cooperative Game!  This makes me very sad, as I will lose all progress in my 20+ hour campaign!  

If you see a Part II review of this, you will know that I broke down and reset the game to be able to play cooperatively with my friends!  If, on the other hand, you never see a Part II of this review ……… well, maybe I didn’t want to lose my progress … and I selfishly kept playing the solo game …

Let’s see what happens!