One in every of my favourite video games of 2024 was the hidden gem that was Hellbringer. It completely encompasses the “loot Piñata” really feel from online game dungeon crawlers like Diablo. Create a personality, kill some monsters, and get tons and tons of loot. The most important knock towards the sport was its slightly tough rulebook, which made studying the sport a little bit of a chore.
Hellbringer is again, although as designer/writer Maxime Gauthier is prepared with the primary enlargement (together with some upgrades), titled Bestiary & Forbidden Spells. Is that this a worthy addition to this roguelike card recreation? Let’s discover out.
Enlargement Overview:
In our preview copy, there have been 2 principal issues included. First, there may be the brand new content material. A small field referred to as Bestiary & Forbidden Spells. It consists of 2 new courses, the Alchemist and the Necromancer, together with 40 new monsters, together with elite ones. Additionally included are a bunch of recent objects and spells.
The opposite factor the writer included was an improve package for the version of the sport. This was a large pile of substitute playing cards (primarily for readability or for iconography, based on them). It in all probability took me an hour to unsleeve and resleeve the brand new playing cards. Nevertheless it’s good to have the improved textual content. The opposite factor included was an upgraded rulebook, which was to deal with one of many principal ache factors of the core recreation.
Gameplay with the Enlargement:
So let’s get to the brand new stuff first. The 2 new courses are actually fascinating to play. The Necromancer is mainly a glass canon. He has a paltry 20 life and 5 armor, however he will get entry to the brand new black cube, that are rather more lethal (going as much as 15). He, as you may also anticipate, can have further pets when they’re undead. Correctly kitted out, this man can deal out some critical punishment.
The Alchemist, alternatively, is extra of a help character. She comes with potions to start out with, which can be utilized to buff assaults towards monsters. Whereas she won’t be as thrilling to play because the Necromancer, she will make a superb occasion a lot better. By no means underestimate the advantage of a very good help character.
We did play our first recreation with these two as our solely heroes, and whereas we received (barely), I in all probability wouldn’t advocate that combo. Neither of us was very tanky, so it was a variety of work making an attempt to maintain these two weaklings alive when large assaults got here down the road. However paired with a few of the core recreation characters, both of those characters shall be actually helpful.
The brand new monsters and kit have been an awesome addition as properly. Hellbringer is a recreation that thrives on its selection, and it’s at all times thrilling so as to add extra to the combo. The brand new spells are equally highly effective, however some include drawbacks. Corresponding to Hell Grasp, which helps you to roll 6 of the lethal black cube, however forces you to discard a loot card if it’s profitable in killing the monster. These sorts of tradeoff spells at all times make for some fascinating choices in the course of the recreation.
The principles do say that you could play with each of the core recreation expansions to make use of this one. In order that requires each the Loot & Retailers and Quests & Occasions in play. I don’t normally play with each expansions, as that may bathroom down the sport a bit, but it surely wasn’t too unhealthy utilizing all 3 expansions. That being mentioned, in the event you simply wish to use the brand new characters and objects and aren’t involved in going through the elite monsters, you might simply slot this content material in with the core recreation and be tremendous.
Lastly, let’s speak in regards to the improve parts. Whereas swapping out the playing cards, I randomly in contrast a few of the previous and new ones. For probably the most half, many of those are readability upgrades (higher textual content or icons). Some have been steadiness modifications (extra cube, and many others…). When you combine these in, you received’t have to fret about them once more. The rulebook seems to be a greater reference. I’m not 100% positive, as I’m very conversant in the gameplay in Hellbringer, so I don’t want to make use of the rulebook to study the sport anymore. I largely used it to only search for a guidelines query if I had one, which I used to be in a position to simply do. I’d advocate downloading a PDF of the rulebook to see if it really works higher for you.
Last Ideas:
Hellbringer is an underrated recreation that extra individuals must be taking part in, so I’m glad it’s getting not solely a reprint but in addition an enlargement. The brand new content material is implausible, and I actually like a few of the Diablo-themed monsters (why howdy, Mr. Butcher). In the event you’ve been inquisitive about this one, now’s your probability to seize a duplicate. And in the event you already personal the bottom recreation, getting this enlargement is a no brainer.
In case you are trying to get a duplicate of the Hellbringer reprint or to get a duplicate of this enlargement, Hellbringer Bestiary & Forbidden Spells launches on Gamefound on October fifteenth. So head over to the marketing campaign web page for extra data.
