Gloomhaven

This title began its life as a fantasy board game that combined elements of a strategic tabletop miniature and card game with the grand scope of an epic role-playing campaign. Gloomhaven quickly found an audience of diehard fans and has been a critical hit since its release. Now the game has made the transition to the digital realm, bringing with it a slew of options, enhancements, and other features that somehow manage to improve on an already near perfect gaming experience. Its onscreen presentation has sharp visuals and animation that breathes real life into the world of Gloomhaven. It's not just eye candy though. The video game lets players dive right into the adventure, skipping any sort of setup and breakdown needed in the physical version. It also takes care of the number crunching of things like combat resolution automatically, instantly factoring in the necessary modifiers from both sides of the skirmish and keeping the flow of the game moving along. Plus, thanks to the game's online features, would-be adventures can gather together from anywhere in the world.

The Gloomhaven board game is not a casual affair by any means. The gameplay mechanics can be overwhelming, especially to newcomers to the classic pen and paper role-playing genre. Since the digital version is faithful to its physical counterpart, it can be equally overwhelming. The in-game tutorials try their best to explain the basics of the gameplay, but seem to skip over some important nuances. This is important since the game generally handles resolution on its own, leaving no option to stop and refer to the rulebook for an explanation. Oftentimes, when things don't go as planned, players are left scratching their heads trying to sort out why some card power or ability wasn't able to be used. With practice comes understanding though, and these instances become few and far between. And thanks to the deep Campaign mode, which has players coming back time and time again to continue the legacy of their party members, as well as a Guildmaster mode that features a buffet of more bite-sized quests for on the fly action, there's always a reason for a Gloomhaven game night.