Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Don't be daunted by the price (granted it's supposed to retail at $140). This game destroys all other games hands down. The sheer amount of stuff that you get in the box is impressive to the point it's almost ridiculous and it weighs nearly 30 lbs. Fair warning though that it will take you about 2 hours to fully learn the game, not to mention the time to fully get prepared to play your first game from punching out all the assorted enemy standees, tokens and map tiles. Basically don't buy this and expect to open it and be playing within a few minutes. Once you get the rules down pat and have everything sorted and ready to go it is sooooo much fun. You can play the game solo or with a group of up to 4. You start out in the town of Gloomhaven and must take on quests to proceed in the massive story the game book provides. Along the way there are optional side quests you can partake in to get more loot and experience. After each quest whether you succeed or fail, you travel back to town where you can visit the shop to spend your hard earned gold on new equipment and gear, level up your character that you are playing from the experience you gained from the quests, donate to the local church (which gives a benefit) , start a new character AND/OR take part in city events. The town itself has a prosperity level that is raised as you do specific quests. It starts at level 1 and every time it gains a new level more different items get added to the town shop to pick through for purchase. The city events are randomized and they supply an interesting story of something happening in the city that allows you and your group to make a choice on how you want to proceed with the event. The choice you make determines whether something good, bad or neutral happens to your group. This game is LONG. It takes on average 2 hours to complete one quest and there are 98 different quests in the quest book. Mind you that 2 hours is generous, for my group it typically takes about 3 hours per quest as we have much more discussion as we are delving into dungeons. As such the game is made for new people to easily join and drop from playing throughout the game if someone decides they don't want to play anymore. Also there are 6 characters to choose from starting out so if someone doesn't like the character they picked right off the bat, then they can easily switch to a different character once they get back to town. Once you finally get done partaking in the city life you draw a random road event quest card to complete. These basically act just like the city event cards I detailed earlier but with story elements more directed to life on the road. Once that is finished, you start the quest you were traveling to. You open up the quest book and find the current quest and start the setup process. Each quest has a completely different setup and they are all played on modular pieces that make up the game board. Each piece will snap together to form the current dungeon or area and there are doors throughout usually that separate the individual rooms. One of the cool things is, your group doesn't know what lies in wait on the other side of each door until one of you opens it. Then whoever is running the quest book sets up the next room for the party. Also the quest book has very thematic story elements you read as you start the quest and when you open each new door to really set the mood. There is always a specific quest goal that you must complete to beat each quest run, at which point you and your group will gain any number of items. It could be gold, experience, new locations to explore, new gear to be added to the market. All kinds of cool stuff not to mention your progression in the very awesome story. If you lose the quest, you are transported back to town to recover. The good news? You get to keep all the gold and experience you gained from the quest so you don't leave empty handed and feel like you wasted your time. However if you want to proceed in the story and open new locations/quests you must buck up and beat the quest at hand. If the game feels too hard you can easily lower the difficulty of the enemies but be warned that this also lowers the bonus experience and amount of gold you collect from enemies. I would suggest for first time players to play the first couple of quests at the lowest difficulty until you have a good grasp of the play mechanics and rules. Then after that have at it! As far as progression of the game goes, as you defeat locations and quests you will unlock new locations and more quests to take part in. There is another game board that acts as a map of gloomhaven (the town) and its surrounding land. On this gameboard you will keep track of all the locations you have unlocked and beaten via stickers that are included with the game. When you beat a location you check a little box on the sticker with a marker or pen to show you have completed it. And when you unlock a new location you find that location sticker and place it on the gameboard in its specific spot. This is also where you keep track of the towns prosperity level and any global achievements that you have completed. Global achievements are specific things that you and your team have completed during the life of the game and have an effect on the overall story and determine other quests that can be done. There are also party achievements that act in a similar fashion but to a lesser extent. As I said earlier there are 6 characters/classes that you can choose from at the start. When you start the game you randomly choose a character quest card as well. This card has some specific thing you need to complete in the game to unlock it's benefits, such as discovering a new character/class. Because of this there are numerous other characters/classes included with the game that unlock for players as the game progresses. Each character comes with its own mini as well AND each one is in its own little tuckbox so you cannot see what it is. This adds so much excitement to the game. You CRAVE the play just so you can get to the point of opening up the new box and see what's inside. On that point there are numerous other envelopes that are sealed from the onset of the game and are not opened until you completed specific objectives. As far as value goes, the time played to cost ratio is outstanding. At 2-3 hours per quest for 98 quests (plus more online) it will take MONTHS before your group finally beats the game (story). Even longer if you do every single side quest depending on how often you play. Heck, even once you beat the game there is nothing stopping a group from just picking any quest in the quest book and going back and replaying it just for the fun of it. Granted there wont be much point for the gold or story elements as you already traveled that road but for the gameplay it would be worth it. Speaking of gameplay, battling beasts and other critters in the game is very unique. Each character has a specific amount of ability cards in hand each dungeon run. It's different for each character but as an example let's say there are 13.....for each of your turns you play 2 of the cards. Each card has a top and bottom ability that you can use. On the 2 cards you play you pick 1 top and 1 bottom ability to be used, whether it's movement, setting traps, healing, casting spells or just attacking plus more. After you use the cards they either get discarded or "lost". Cards generally get lost if they have a decently powerful ability so you can only use it once during a quest and they go in a specific pile next to your character board. The discarded cards go in a diff pile and you can choose a "rest" action to collect those back but lose one to the lost pile. Basically as you traverse the dungeon, you will get more and more tired and if you ever "lose" all your ability cards and cant rest to get some back, you then become exhausted and have to head back to town, leaving the rest of the party to contend on their own. This creates a very strategic playstyle in where you only use your powerful "lost" cards sparingly when you absolutely need them. I love it. Another cool mechanic that I think alot of people miss when they play is that when an enemy attacks you for enough damage to kill you, you can choose to "lose" any one of your ability cards in your hand to prevent all that damage. TLDR: This is a game that will keep you occupied for months, possibly years. The sheer amount of content and interesting story creates enough value to keep a group intrigued and wanting to come back for more. Whether played solo or with a group, you will not be disappointed.