Dave Maynor
United States
Spokane
Washington
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So, I read a lot of reviews on BGG. Even for games I have had for years. I really just like to see what other people like, or dislike about games. Sometimes a comment will be made that sparks more interest in the game for me. Sometimes a comment recommends a new way to play it, or points out something I was doing wrong. But all in all, I like reviews. Love it or hate it, I get a lot of enjoyment and information out of them.
So here I am trying to finally give back.
Over the past year, I have been gaming a lot more than in the past. Sure, video games and the L5R CCG have always been pretty steady for me, and a good L5R/HERO RPG when I can keep aq group together. But we have made Game Night a family institution around here. The whole family (myself, the wife… and son -age 15- and daughter -age 13-) now game 1 or 2 nights a week with local groups. It is a great family activity.
This also means we have played (and bought) far more games in the past year than I have in a long long time. So I have decided maybe others get as much out of reading reviews as I do. I am not at the point where I log every play yet… that would be dozens per week if I counted all forms of gaming.. but I think writing reviews of the games we play the most could be fun, and might be informative to other BGG readers.
First up…. Elder Sign
Preface: There are plenty of component and play reviews, that’s not my focus here. This is entirely my opinion and experience with the game, and how I think it fares for my collection, and how my family and extended play group like it.
Overview: We should all know this by now. Creepy things are going down in Arkham, and our investigators are trying to save the world from unspeakable evil. If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is the same theme/story behind all the FFG Cthulhu titles… and the RPG… and all the stories of HP Lovecraft for that matter. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Only minor details have changed. While the investigators are the same as Arkham Horror, this time the search is focused on the Museum in Arkham. The investigation takes place each night after the museum closes, and various adventure locations (mostly museum exhibits) are where the action takes place.
The core mechanic of this game is rolling unique dice, and trying to fulfill the lines on the adventure cards one at a time. As a task is completed, those dice are place on that task on the card, leaving fewer dice to roll to try to complete the remaining tasks on the adventure. Some call this a very ‘Press your Luck’ type game, but I have issue with that label. In typical PYL games, you can stop and take the completions/points you already have… like Cosmic Wimpout. In this, once a task is attempted, you have to continue until you succeed and gain the rewards, or fail and suffer the consequences.
This isn’t rolling like King Of Tokyo (another family favorite) or Yahtzee, but there are clue tokens that can be used in the game that give you that style of roll and keep when spent. While this in and of itself would be a very simple game, there are elements to track like the clock advancing, doom tokens heralding the awakening of the Great Old One, items and allies to use to help ‘hold’ some dice or allow you to roll extra dice, etc…. What could be a very simple game actually has enough complexity added to make it more interesting than just a round of rolling dice.
Presentation: Ok, first and foremost, many will notice a lot of this art is recycled form the other Arkham titles. But you know what, the art is fantastic! Sure, the same investigators are here, and the same Great Old Ones… even the same monsters.. but the presentation is superb. The only negative I would have is the thickness of the cards, they tend to be a bit flimsy. Not enough to make it too risky to handle them, but enough that bridge shuffling might best be avoided.
And all of this IS cards. The game is basically a lot of cards, a set of dice, and some tokens to track things. No game board, no point tracker, nothing extra. All the art is great, and the quality of card is good. Some of the pieces are a tad small, but nothing too unmanageable.
The nice thing about this, I have my entire game fitting in one plastic multi slot container (craft isle at Wal-Mart!) for easy portability. I printed the rules and FAQs in a smaller format to fit them in their also, and it is a great game to travel with.
Playability: The rules, while poorly written in the initial release, were a bit clearer after the FAQ was released. It will take only one play to get the flow of the game, but probably 3 or 4 plays to remember every smaller rule that might crop up, or the timing issues on Spells and such. That said, this game is very easy to teach and to learn. If we ignore the thematic text (which many do… that’s another topic…) even younger audiences can play this quickly enough. With a bit of guidance form the older players, perfectly acceptable since this is a co-op game, younger players will have a blast rolling the cool dice and looking for weird symbols.
As for that text, if you read the cards, and the monsters, and the mythos cards, this game has all the theme in spades. Many people might lose sight of this, and there is nothing wrong with just playing the game purely by the mechanics of what is on each card to roll. But if you read the cards, and then consider what each die result really represents, this game actually has a great narrative. That narrative changes dramatically with each play however. While in AH you randomized portals, and which GOO you faced… in ES you even randomize the areas you adventure in.
This random placement of so many elements is both good and bad….
The Good- the game is always different. You can’t try a set strategy and have it work every time. Also, even on the apparently easiest tasks, a bad roll can make you suffer. If you are not a fan of luck in your games… well… why are you playing a dice game anyway at that point?
The Bad- I agree with many who thing the game is often too easy. This is probably my only real negative opinion on this game, and this comes with some caveats. We have had a few games where the GOO chosen, the opening adventures and the starting mythos card has actually killed multiple investigators before they even got their first turn. So if we adjust this games difficulty up, we have to be careful not to put these harder layouts completely out of reach, while trying to increase the difficulty of those easier layouts some. No small task with the amount of random elements in this game.
FUN: But is the game fun? You bet it is. Everyone we have played with has wanted to give it another shot. Admittedly, the hard core AH fan wasn’t blown away, but he was intrigued enough to want to try it one more time before writing it off at least. It can seat 8 players, and no one is ever left out of the game until the end. Turns go fast enough to where downtime is minimal once a few of the players know the basics of play, and you never feel out of the game.
One key here is that it is a co-op game. On each players turn, table discussion about who is best equipped to handle something, or how to use abilities and spells to help each other accomplish the more difficult tasks keeps most people involved. Unfortunately, the more active you are at this, and the more teamwork people engage in, the easier the game becomes. Yes, an expansion needs to come along and fine tune this, but it is certainly fun.
Overall Opinion: I almost love this game. I like it a lot, and the whole family enjoys it. We been playing this more than King of Tokyo and 7 Wonders since I got it. We even pull this out before Dominion right now. I am sure some of this is because of it’s new shiny phase, but I really do like how easy it is to get so many people involved without too much AP slowing things down with this game.
I bought some 8 sided die in Blue and Red. I use these instead of the Sanity and Stamina tokens to track those stats for the investigators, and this speeds things up a bit. Digging for those little heart and brain tokens wasn’t adding anything to the game, so the dice help this stay more on focus for us. But games have taken from 45 minutes to under 90 minutes, and that was with 7 or 8 players. That’s a good balance of time put in to the amount of fun we get out of it.
I would say if you like horror themed games, but aren’t always willing to sit down and play Arkham Horror for hours on end, give this a shot. I am not running off to sell my AH, but I haven’t felt the urge to pull it out of the closet and play it either since I have picked this up. But as long as your expectations are realistic going in… it is a lighter dice game, not a marathon exercise in futility hehe… I think you will like it. And with expansions, it can only get better.
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Mike Slabon
Canada
London
Ontario
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I totally agree with your review. The game is fun and people whom I have introduced it to like it and want to play it again. I've played many games and have experienced a few easy wins,but also some tough ones where multiple investigators die, or where we got down to needing only a few elder signs with no doom tokens and had everything go to hell in a few turns. Elder Sign needs an expansion and a revised rulebook.
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Brian Fay
United States
Waukesha
Wisconsin
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Great review. I actually picked up this game after getting the Elder Sign:Omens iOS game. The rules in the board game, mirror much of the iOS game and I think made it easier to teach.
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Alessandro Maggi
Italy
Rome
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Great review. I had the digital version for Android for a few weeks and decided today to buy the real thing. I don't have Arkham Horror, and even though I was tempted to get that one instead of ES, I'm pretty sure that this one is going to be played by more people than just myself!
Artwork is truly terrific, and the Mythos got me again at full power (I even successfully managed to start another playthrough of Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth after so many years!).
I really hope we'll get as much fun out of it as you do. 
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Marc Anthony
United States
Berkeley
California
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I never thought about using dice for counters. Great idea!
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