Common readers of BGQ already know my love of open world video video games. To not should be compelled right into a linear path, however in a position to simply discover the place you are feeling is the dream. And no recreation did it in addition to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (besides the comply with up Tears of the Kingdom). This was a recreation the place you might do absolutely anything. Do you need to climb a mountain? Go forward, no want to seek out predefined climbing areas. Need to head proper for the ultimate boss the second you get out of the coaching space? Folks have achieved that in a velocity run.
There have been a number of open world board video games previously (Earthborn Rangers and seventh Continent come to thoughts), however now, Stonemaier Video games is throwing their hat into the ring. A ardour undertaking of designer Jamey Stegmaier for over 8 years, welcome to Vantage. It’s a recreation that guarantees to allow you to chart your individual path over 800 interconnected places and 900 different discoverable playing cards. It’s an formidable recreation, however does it obtain its objectives? Let’s discover out.
Be aware: I’ll try to make this evaluation as spoiler free as attainable.
Gameplay Overview:
The gameplay in Vantage is fairly distinctive. The rulebook walks you thru the fundamentals and the flip construction after which simply type of units you free. Gamers are given the construction and it is advisable simply type of discover your method.
However the fundamentals are that you simply (and any fellow gamers) have crash landed on an alien world. You might have a personality, some fundamental expertise, a touchdown location, and a bunch mission. After that… ¯_(ツ)_/¯
On a participant’s flip, they take an motion from one in every of three choices:
Each location card has actions tied to every of the six major expertise within the recreation. In the event you take the blue motion, you might be doing one thing involving motion… climbing, swimming, sliding, and many others… In the event you take the orange motion, you might be interacting with somebody or one thing. And so forth.
In the event you don’t need to take the motion in your location card, you may take one in your participant grid. These are made up of your character card and stuff you discover alongside the way in which. Maybe you’ll improve this merchandise you discovered to make it higher or chat with a companion you met alongside the way in which.
Lastly, you can too simply stroll. Each location has a compass rose and you may simply journey to one of many different instructions.
When you determine on an motion, one other participant will open up the related booklet and browse the narrative part. These are brief, often only a sentence or two. However every entry lists the problem ranking. The important thing factor right here is that each motion will succeed. The query is how a lot of your assets it would spend (both well being, time, or morale).
So, climbing that cliff could also be difficult and require you to roll 5 cube. However you may mitigate dangerous rolls through the use of open areas in gamers’ grid of playing cards. And even take away cube from the roll by spending talent tokens forward of time. However as soon as your roll is finished, you discover out what occurs and your flip ends.
How does Vantage finish? That’s a superb query. As a result of that’s actually open as nicely. If one in every of a participant’s tracker tokens reaches zero, the sport can finish (though it does provide an possibility for a one-time do-over). However extra doubtless, you’ll finish the sport by ending your mission, or possibly a purpose you picked up alongside the way in which.
Sport Expertise:
I do know we’re solely about midway by means of the yr, however Vantage is definitely going to be the front-runner for probably the most revolutionary and distinctive board recreation of the yr. Our first recreation took shut to three hours… however quite a lot of that was us simply determining what we had been doing. We picked up the fundamental flip construction fairly rapidly, however after that, we stumbled round rather a lot making an attempt to determine simply what we must be doing. Vantage isn’t a recreation that units you out with a purpose and a time restrict to do it (ala Unsettled). Certain, you’ve obtained a mission to start out with, nevertheless it’s under no circumstances unusual to disregard that and chart your individual path.
And one of many nice issues concerning the recreation is that you simply by no means fail to do one thing. The sport makes use of cube if you carry out actions, nevertheless it’s to not see if you happen to succeed. As an alternative, it’s to try to reduce the fallout. Maybe there’s a locked door I need to get previous, however I’m not very proficient on the related talent. In different video games, you might waste time rolling and rolling, making an attempt to get the matching symbols it is advisable decide the lock. However not in Vantage. If I try to get by means of the lock, I’ll. The one query is how a lot time, morale, or well being all of it price me.
And actually, that’s a terrific feeling. It takes the “really feel dangerous” moments from talent checks and turns them round. As an alternative of feeling such as you’ve wasted a activate a foul roll, you as an alternative succeed however should pay a steeper worth than you need. It jogs my memory of campaign-style video games that “fail ahead”. As an alternative of forcing you to replay a mission you failed, it as an alternative, strikes you alongside within the story however with maybe a penalty.
Talking of campaigns, Vantage shouldn’t be a marketing campaign recreation. Every session is a one shot journey… however on the identical planet. So after some time, you might start to recollect places. Is that good? Possibly. You would possibly arrive on a card you bear in mind from the previous, and know if you happen to chat up the native sentient, it’s going to rob you. So as an alternative, you assault it first and reap the bounties. However since each card has 6 completely different actions (one tied to every talent), you may take alternate routes if you attain a card you’ve visited in a earlier recreation. And I ought to point out that you may solely ever take an motion as soon as on a card throughout a recreation, so after you’ve achieved one thing on that card it’s time to maneuver on.
I’ve to confess, I’m impressed with what Vantage accomplishes. That is probably the most open world recreation I’ve encountered on my tabletop exterior of a job taking part in recreation. It permits you to go anyplace and do absolutely anything. I’m going to keep away from spoilers, however suffice to say, there are a lot of distinctive places to go to within the recreation, lots of which might be actually surprising.
I actually don’t have quite a lot of issues to complain about with Vantage. The largest criticism I can see is that it doesn’t scale all that nicely. I feel Vantage performs finest on the backside finish of its vary (1-3 gamers). Whereas turns aren’t sophisticated, in case you have 5-6 gamers, there might be a little bit of downtime between turns. Gamers will want to consider what they need to do, discover the related guide, take their check, work out the place to put cube… It’s only a bit a lot on the greater finish of the vary, so maintain this one for if you’ve obtained a tighter group.
The one factor I can say is that the sport received’t be for everybody. There may be an previous saying that “Life is a Journey, Not a Vacation spot” and that applies completely to Vantage. In case you are a participant who likes preset objectives and optimizing your option to them, then this isn’t the sport for you. However for many who need to embrace a little bit of wanderlust and see the place issues take them, you will get misplaced on the planet of Vantage.
Last Ideas:
Vantage is an extremely formidable recreation that you may spend hours and hours exploring. I’ve performed it rather a lot since I obtained it, and I nonetheless really feel like I’m simply scratching the floor of what it provides. The sport makes no bones about the truth that this can be a recreation so that you can discover and uncover issues. The rulebook even suggests ignoring the mission card to your first recreation and simply see what’s what (which is stable recommendation).
I’ve performed nearly each Stonemaier Video games’ launch because the early days of Viticulture, and for me, Vantage stands atop the mountain. Each within the uniqueness of its gameplay and simply the pure enjoyment I’ve gotten out of taking part in the sport. In case you are an explorer at coronary heart, go and seize this one.
Last Rating: 4.5 Stars – A singular recreation drops gamers in a wierd world and tells them to determine what they need to do with their life.
Hits:
• The closest I’ve seen to a really open world board recreation on our tabletops
• Heaps and plenty of replay worth
• Fast, snappy turns
• Narrative textual content doesn’t get in the way in which
• By no means fail an motion!
Misses:
• Downtime on the greater participant rely.
