Friday 21 October 2011

Legend of Drizzt Unboxing

Don't you fail me now Drizzt!!!

So yeah, when I first looked at getting some Dungeon Crawlers a few months back I turned to the Dungeons and Dragons Adventure System Games, Castle Ravenloft and Wrath of Ashardalon, they're not terrible games, but neither are they brilliant games. No, I'd say they were average I guess. I even inflicted them on girls, Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. So I really did give the first two games a thorough going over, and despite them having pretty solid mechanics and components the whole experience fell some way short of actually what we as a group of gamers wanted. They also felt a little bit soulless,  a devoid of flair or character. So I'm hoping the third in the series of D&D Adventure Games, 'Legend of Drizzt' can address some of the issues that I personally had with the first two games, in short I'm hoping it's third time lucky for Wizards of the Coast.

After removal of the lid, you are rewarded with this view

Take the 2 rulebooks out and the first 5 card sheets and you'll see this

Remove the plastic box divider and you'll see the remaining 8 card sheets

All 13 card sheets, containing floor tiles and tokens

The game has two decks of cards, normal and advanced

All 33 bad guys. These look slightly better than the previous games.

There appears to be a wider selection of good guys!

Right, I know I haven't played the game yet, but there are a number of things that have got me a little bit excited for this latest D&D Adventure System Game:

  1. The wider selection of characters is a bonus. The lack of choice in the other two games did let them down. Sure it's not the 20 odd options you get with Descent, but it is a welcom boost nontheless.
  2. The floor tiles. In the previous two games, Castle Ravenloft and Wrath of Ashardalon, I criticised the floor tiles for quite frankly being bland, and totally devoid of any character. The floor tiles in this box are actually quite characterful a detailed. I can't stress enough how important a good looking board is to the enjoyment of a game.
  3. The inclusion of two decks, one normal and one advanced should hopefully solve the issues I had of Castle Ravenloft being too easy and Wrath of Ashardalon being spot on, in terms of challenge but totally devoid of the character Ravenloft had.

Yeah, I think Wizards of the Coast could possibly have listened to various criticisms and maybe, just maybe they've got the mix right with this one. We can but hope, and after some rigorous Dungeon Crawling I'll let you all know. Peace out!

6 comments:

  1. You beat me to the unboxing. My copy is back ordered currently since I was looking to get it at the lowest possible price. The earlier 2 games are pretty mechanical mainly due to the lack of anyone in charge on the bad guy side. I bet with 2 or 3 games now you could start crafting much better themed adventures.

    I have been playing it with my 5 year daughter. I dropped the encounter cards since this more an exercise in reading the number on the die and talking about adding the attack value and comparing to the AC.

    Maybe Drizzt will storm Castle Ravenloft once the new game arrives.

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  2. Sorry my good man!!! lol ;)

    I pretty much agree with you over the first two. But having played Gears, where the A.I. cards work so bloody well and so convincingly I have to say I think that if done properly the D&D games would be really good. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that WotC with the Legend of Drizzt have finally got it right.

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  3. Hey, just wondered if you got to play this game much yet, and how it compares to the 2 earlier games in the series? :)

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  4. @Pacific, yeah I've got to play it a fair bit actually and I have to be honest and say I'm quite enjoying the game. WotC have made some gameplay changes and also dropped some interesting scenarios in there and right now I'm looking to give it a good score. They've also made the floor tiles look a damn site more characterful as well. I'm writing up my review of it right now, and its looking down the barrel at a pretty good score I think.

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  5. Great thanks for that mate! Looking forward to the review :)

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  6. @Pacific, funny you should say that I'm just finishing it up now!!!

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