Why is that so? Descent: Legends of the Dark is basically a "Kickstarter board game", but without Kickstarter or another crowdfunding platform. It is the attempt of an established board game company to make something with the same scope and success as the crowdfunded Gloomhaven. If this is a commercial success, we might see more of these big box, expensive, more complicated board games produced with traditional financing instead of crowdfunding. At the very least it will push the envelope what companies think they can get away with regarding board game price point, and the related quantity and quality of the components in the box.

So, how does Descent: Legends of the Dark compare to Gloomhaven? That is in fact not such a straightforward comparison. To somebody not playing board games, the two big boxes might look similar. But they do fall on different sides of the Eurogame vs. Ameritrash divide. Gloomhaven is fundamentally a Euro game, in which you plan three moves ahead based on the cards in your hand. Descent is an American style game, with more randomness, and more built-in scenario surprises. Both types of games can be good. The American style games have a stronger focus on style, which is why Descent has fantastic miniatures and 3D terrain, while Gloomhaven has cardboard standups and flat token terrain. Descent is also a lot more accessible, gameplay-wise. At least at the start you follow relatively simple rules on moving a couple of squares and rolling dice to attack. The original Gloomhaven doesn't have a tutorial at all, which is why for new players I would always recommend buying the cheaper and more accessible Jaws of the Lion version, which uses the same combat system.

Is Descent: Legends of the Dark a good game? I think it is. I've studied the game by playing with just the app, and by watching people play the full game on YouTube. And the American Style games are a lot more watchable than Euro games, where a lot of the action happens only in the heads of the players. Also, miniature-heavy games become truly spectacular when the miniatures are painted. Paint your miniatures, and you can turn Descent into a display that will make heads turn at a gaming convention. (Too bad I can't paint at all). But beyond the show, Descent is also a surprisingly deep tactical combat game, with some quite interesting game mechanics. The further you get into the game, the more parts of the game are revealed to you. And when you have the full complement of weapon upgrades, armor, skills, and consumables, and you are getting into a dance of powering attacks by loading fatigue tokens onto your cards, and then flipping those cards over to get rid of the tokens, Descent becomes a game of mechanical beauty.

Much of the controversy and hate towards Descent: Legends of the Dark is about the game relying heavily on an app. Critics say that it is a video game. Unfortunately for me, it isn't. I would absolutely buy the Descent: Legends of the Dark video game on Steam, if it existed. I did buy the Gloomhaven video game on Steam, despite owning the board game. But for solo play, having a computer handle everything is just so much faster. But while I don't hate apps, I don't think the Descent board game app is the best it could be. Imagine a table with 4 players sitting on the 4 sides: How do you make sure that everybody gets the full experience of a story told by an app on a phone or tablet? The obvious solution is voice acting for all narrative, but the Descent app doesn't have that. Instead it has written dialogue you need to click through. That works great for one player, to some extent for two players side by side, but for 3 or 4 players you basically need some extra hardware to cast the app on a nearby TV screen. And it's not just a narrative. Between quests you are also supposed to buy and sell crafting materials, spend money on recipes, use recipes and materials to craft weapon parts, and then equip them. All on an interface that works great for a single player taking all decisions, but has absolutely no mechanics for different players wanting different things.

The Descent: Legends of the Dark app makes heavy use of "hidden information". You don't know what damage type a monster is weak against, until you hit it with that damage type for the first time. You don't know how many successes it takes to open that chest. You don't know what is going to happen in the scenario once you reach your first goal. You don't even know how long the scenario is. I find that a bit excessive. In the playthrough videos linked above, the players are completely surprised how long the first scenario is, and end up with a 7-hour video. Of course showing the game off on YouTube adds hours, but even regular players will have to reserve at least 3 hours to play through a single scenario. This is not a game to play quickly for 1 hour, not unless you have a dedicated gaming table on which you can leave the game. There is no "save" mechanic in the middle of a scenario, you can only stop playing between scenarios. And, unlike Gloomhaven, the app doesn't allow you to replay a scenario unless you start the whole campaign over. That is in line with the American style of the game, in which much of the scenarios is based on surprises, and a second playthrough would be much, much easier.

But in spite of all that, I would buy and play a Descent: Legends of the Dark "light" version with no miniatures and no 3D terrain for the price of a typical Fantasy Flight Games board game, e.g. Lord of the Rings - Journeys in Middle-Earth (which I hated), currently for $80 on Amazon, or Mansions of Madness at $70. I'm not buying the actual Descent: Legends of the Dark game for $175. Because that is basically paying a hundred bucks extra for 3D terrain and miniatures. And yes, the HIPS miniatures of Descent: Legends of the Dark are of extremely high quality compared to other board games. It is just that I am not that much of a miniature guy, and I'm happy with the comparatively low resolution stuff I can print on my own 3D printer. Especially since I don't paint miniatures.

But that is just me. While I did back a bunch of Kickstarter games, I never did it for the miniatures. And I stayed away from the really expensive Kickstarter games with tons of miniatures, like Kingdom Death: Monster for $400. Instead I backed Lands of Galzyr, for €70, with wooden meeples. But hey, over five thousand people backed Kingdom Death: Monster, and other miniature games attracted even more backers. So I think Descent could do well. Kickstarter has its advantages, but also its disadvantages, for example in terms of availability of the game after the Kickstarter. Some people will walk into game stores and end up buying Descent because the game is on stock, and on display. I'm pretty sure a clever games store owner can have the miniatures painted by somebody and put up a Descent display that just wows every gamer that sees it. And fortunately, people who fall in love with the miniatures will end up with a pretty decent board game as well. For people who don't like miniatures, the $175 price tag is a bit prohibitive.