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I won't go into game details in this review as there are plenty of articles out there. Instead I will try to give a short overview and pros/cons of the game.
I bought Elder Sign because I'm into board games and the Cthulhu mythos but didn't want to buy Arkham Horror as I'm rarely have enough people to play it (and I'm hesitant with games that have a large number of expansions).
I'm happy to own Elder Sign but frankly I wouldn't buy it again. It's not a bad game but it doesn't deliver what it supposed to do.
You expect it to be a Cthulhu themed, co-op game that plays quick. All of these is true but Elder Sign leaves mixed feelings because the execution of the overall game lacks a higher gaming sensation. In a nutshell: Elder Sign is a beautifully illustrated Cthulhu Yahtzee where everbody plays together against the clock.
Pros:
Great art - FFG recycled fine art from their other Mythos games
Good material - the special dice alone look tempting
Nice theme - the Cthulhu Mythos is successfully implemented
Play time - it plays quick
Player number - it can be played well with 2 or more people
Variation - due to the mix of different characters, rooms and boss enemies most sessions are different
Cons:
Co-op feels flat - it's more like everybody fights the same evil on their own terms and from time to time a fellow player heals you.
Simple game mechanic - it's Yahtzee with Cthulhu dice
Too easy - the game is much too forgiving. It's hard to lose at all (like 2 times out of 10 games) and many people have houseruled the game to make it harder and more challenging. And here comes the ugly side: making it fit your taste of challenge requires more thinking than learning the rules.
Will I trade my copy of elder Sign away?: no, it's too beautiful and I like Cthulhu games
Will I regularly play it? No, it's underchallenging and there are better casual games that are more fun to play.
I hope this helps you to understand what you might expect from Elder Sign... and what not.
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Paul Sinkovits
United States
Glendale
Arizona
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I can't say I disagree with any of this, but I still love the game. I've been keeping my fingers crossed that FFG comes out with an expansion to fix most of the complaints.
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David Boeren
United States
Marietta
Georgia
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An expansion isn't a good solution I think, it would still leave the base game with problems.
What it needs (IMHO) is an update to the rules to stiffen up the game first so it can stand on its own, THEN look at an expansion.
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Mike Urban
United States
Los Angeles
California
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The 'co-op feels flat' was the game-killer for me, the one time I played. It didn't feel like a co-op so much as it felt like everyone taking turns beating at the game until it fell over in submission. The mechanics are OK - felt like Risk Express, really. Which I'd probably prefer to spend the time playing.
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Dave Maynor
United States
Spokane
Washington
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I thought co-op felt flat also until I realized there were a few rules we were playing wrong. A big one being the spells. While it can be a bit too easy to win depending on what cards are drawn, and what your rolls are like, we have had a few brutal losses lately that are making me rethink how 'easy' this game is.
Good quick review.
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Steve Duff
Canada
Ottawa
Ontario
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I'm going to keep tilting at windmills here, I've yet to see an easy game. I play by the rules and the faq, always with 3 or 4 characters. Played again just the other day to see if an easy win would pop up, but nope, a last second win with 8 of 9 doom tokens out, one card away from a loss.
I plan on moderating a play-by-forum game here, so I can see how one of these easy games is supposed to happen. Maybe it's just poor strategy on my part, but I don't think I'm poor at the game.
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Kevin B. Smith
United States
Margate
Florida
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Several of the early reviews and posts complained that the game was way too hard. Then things shifted, and now most feel it's too easy. I have the sense that different people have been playing with different interpretations of the rules, but hopefully those have all been sorted out by now.
I would love to see your results, Steve. I haven't tried the game myself, so can't weigh in with an opinion. I will say that most cooperative games seem a bit harder to me than they do to most people, leading me to believe that I'm of slightly below-average skill at such things. I still love them, though.
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Dave Maynor
United States
Spokane
Washington
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If you start with Cthulhu as the GOO... and you get 2 dice locked on your first turns, and a midnight effect... the game is nigh impossible. There are just so many random elements that the game has wild swings in difficulty, and I am OK with that.
Maybe we can post specific orders of cards, and chosen investigators, and compare difficulty. But at the end of the day, the dice change all of that anyway.
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Mr Derrp!
United States
Crystal
Minnesota
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Too easy? You may have some rules missing or not following them all. Don't take that the wrong way. Things like advancing the timer, spawning monsters when required, locking die, doing the Mythos cards..
As far as co-op, don't you guys assist at all on the harder cards? We find a fair mix of each of us 'doing our own thing' but some situations arise when you are out of spells, the red and yellow dice are locked, monsters have spawned, mythos cards have spawned nasty midnight effects and there is a card out that is almost impossible to do yourself.
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Chris Lawson
United Kingdom
5m. from M3J4
Hampshire
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UnknownParkerBrother wrote: I plan on moderating a play-by-forum game here, so I can see how one of these easy games is supposed to happen. Maybe it's just poor strategy on my part, but I don't think I'm poor at the game.
I'm one of the people who find the game easy so I would like to be in on a PBF run. BTW, there would be no need for a Moderator in the game so there would be no reason why you couldn't be one of the players.
i3ullseye wrote: If you start with Cthulhu as the GOO... and you get 2 dice locked on your first turns, and a midnight effect... the game is nigh impossible. There are just so many random elements that the game has wild swings in difficulty, and I am OK with that.
I would agree that with a start like that then the game would be difficult but the odds of that happening are small. I would just admit failure and start again 
But you are correct, the game design is such that the game can swing one way or the other (i.e easy or difficult). I think this is due to poor design, the feedback is such that if you are in a hole then it becomes even more difficult and if you are sailing it then it becomes easier.
Ostadan wrote: The 'co-op feels flat' was the game-killer for me, the one time I played. It didn't feel like a co-op so much as it felt like everyone taking turns beating at the game until it fell over in submission.
The lack of co-op is one of the failures of the design. There are ways to encourage some co-op play but it is mostly in discussion of what Adventure to tackle next and efficient use of Spells (so other players can make use of them).
Ostadan wrote: The mechanics are OK - felt like Risk Express, really. Which I'd probably prefer to spend the time playing.
The comparison to Risk Express is a good one because the core Elder Sign mechanism is a direct steal of Risk Express.
Whoever (Richard Launius, Kevin Wilson or Corey Konieczka) claims to have "designed" the core die rolling / task completion mechanism should be ashamed of themselves, because they just stole it direct from Risk Express.
The chrome around the game makes it (IMHO) a more interesting game than Risk Express, so the designers did a good job on that but it seems to me that they just didn't playtest the game at all (or very little). It is due to this lack of playtesting that resulted in a lot of the problems the game has (lack of co-op, too easy (for me at least), poor rules).
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Paul S
United Kingdom
DARK IN HERE, ISN'T IT?
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xris wrote: I would agree that with a start like that then the game would be difficult but the odds of that happening are small. I would just admit failure and start again
As someone else who has been puzzled by the "too easy" take on this game, I'm wondering whether the remark above isn't part of the problem.
The game can be devastatingly difficult if you have a tough start. But as Xris says, the common approach to that is "start over". So by definition the only games that are running to a conclusion are those that start easy.
If you want harder games, don't give up when the start conditions are hard, is my advice. I've had some horrible starts, but beating those is the best kind of success.
Just a thought. I also am in a minority in thinking that the iPhone app Omens is easier than the BG. It's probably a YMMV thing
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Jared Orlando
United States
Georgia
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I owned the board game first and then bought the iPhone app. Sold the game on eBay because the iPhone app was more fun and really gave you that haunted museum feel. Buy the app not the board game....
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Mark Thomason
United States
Washington
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Shelfwear wrote:
I bought Elder Sign because I'm into board games and the Cthulhu mythos but didn't want to buy Arkham Horror as I'm rarely have enough people to play it (and I'm hesitant with games that have a large number of expansions).
So AH definitely has a lot of expansions... but I don't know what you mean when you say you rarely have enough people to play it.
AH plays just fine with 2 or 3, and even with one player if you're the type who likes to play solo games. Indeed, while it can technically play 6 or 8 (and realistically, as many as you have time and space for up to 12 or more - just slows it down) it really plays best with less than 6 - the best games I've had (and the fastest in under 2 hours) have been with 2-4 people.
And you don't need all the expansions. The copy I play has one big and 2 little expansions, but we frequently play with just the base game and it's fine - if you end up playing a lot and get too good, the expansions help increase the challenge, but they're not necessary.
I don't know Elder Sign, haven't played it yet, so I don't know how to compare the two, but if you like Cthulu mythos, I'd definitely recommend you give AH a shot - there's no minimum number of players, for sure.
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Posted Fri Feb 24, 2012 10:17 am
