![]() ![]() Mansions does what it can to extend interest. It's like re-watching a cheap horror film: still hokey fun but all the scares and surprises are gone. ![]() So when you eventually win at any given adventure, interest in replaying it plummets. But learning how to quickly and safely find key items and characters in each scenario is critical to the replay appeal. So is the rate at which you risk spreading out to explore versus the safety that's found in numbers. Ensuring each character gets outfitted with the gear to make the most of their stats and abilities is important. It's not the only place your decisions can make a difference. With so much hidden information and most of the mechanics being dice rolls, learning how to pull the levers in each adventure is key to the strategy. Yet that fixed structure is a big part of what keeps the game interesting. ![]() More so once you understand how each scenario unfolds and what you have to do to win. Once you've explored the same house a couple of times over, the thrill of discovery dives down. There's also a limited variety of map layouts: at least one scenario always uses the same one. You'll find that for all the narrative variety on offer, each has an identical structure each time. Second time you attempt a scenario, after an inevitable initial failure, things begin to fall flat. The degree of detail is unprecedented and utterly captivating. Fleeing from a deranged mob, desperately gleaning evidence while you wait for your rescue to arrive. Slamming doors to trap hideous monsters in a burning mansion as you escape with occult tomes. Yet from this, the most extraordinary adventures unfold. Most of the mechanics boil down to rolling dice trying to accumulate as many successes as possible. Here the division between quickstart rules and a longer reference works like a charm, getting you up and playing in no time. You even solve some puzzles on screen in the form of tile-sliders and Mastermind style conundrums.įirst time out of the box the result is exhilarating. ![]() Story drapes everything like a shroud: each action and encounter gets clothed in context and each scenario has a bare-bones plot. The app then lays out the map as they explore, adding clues, monsters and layers of narrative as they go. Players pick a scenario from four of varying lengths. While using an app to turn a co-operative game into a richer role-playing experience isn't new, this takes it to a new degree. Making sense of it is enough to drive you insane.Īt the core of the confusion is the software which drives the game. It provides adventure and mystery while actually being quite repetitive. It offers the sense of close co-operation between players but has little real meat or strategy. It feels bold and inventive, yet has an obvious design lineage to its original edition and to other app driven games from Fantasy Flight. This new edition of Mansions of Madness is a box full of paradoxes. ![]()
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