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 capable of simply discover the place you’re feeling is the dream. And no sport did it in addition to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (besides the observe up Tears of the Kingdom). This was a sport the place you would do absolutely anything. Do you wish 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? Individuals have performed that in a velocity run.
There have been just a few open world board video games up to now (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 sport that guarantees to allow you to chart your individual path over 800 interconnected areas and 900 different discoverable playing cards. It’s an formidable sport, however does it obtain its objectives? Let’s discover out.
Be aware: I’ll try to make this overview as spoiler free as doable.
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’s good to simply type of discover your approach.
However the fundamentals are that you just (and any fellow gamers) have crash landed on an alien world. You could have a personality, some primary expertise, a touchdown location, and a gaggle mission. After that… ¯_(ツ)_/¯
On a participant’s flip, they take an motion from certainly one of three choices:
Each location card has actions tied to every of the six essential expertise within the sport. In the event you take the blue motion, you’re doing one thing involving motion… climbing, swimming, sliding, and so on… In the event you take the orange motion, you’re interacting with somebody or one thing. And so forth.
In the event you don’t wish 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 belongings you discover alongside the best way. Maybe you’ll improve this merchandise you discovered to make it higher or chat with a companion you met alongside the best way.
Lastly, you can too simply stroll. Each location has a compass rose and you’ll simply journey to one of many different instructions.
When you resolve on an motion, one other participant will open up the related booklet and browse the narrative part. These are brief, normally only a sentence or two. However every entry lists the issue ranking. The important thing factor right here is that each motion will succeed. The query is how a lot of your assets it can 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 unhealthy rolls through the use of open areas in gamers’ grid of playing cards. And even take away cube from the roll by spending ability tokens forward of time. However as soon as your roll is completed, you discover out what occurs and your flip ends.
How does Vantage finish? That’s an excellent query. As a result of that’s actually open as nicely. If certainly one of a participant’s tracker tokens reaches zero, the sport can finish (though it does supply 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 best way.
Recreation Expertise:
I do know we’re solely about midway via the 12 months, however Vantage is definitely going to be the front-runner for essentially the most modern and distinctive board sport of the 12 months. Our first sport took shut to three hours… however quite a lot of that was us simply determining what we had been doing. We picked up the essential flip construction fairly shortly, however after that, we stumbled round so much attempting to determine simply what we ought to be doing. Vantage isn’t a sport that units you out with a purpose and a time restrict to do it (ala Unsettled). Certain, you’ve obtained a mission to begin with, but it surely’s under no circumstances unusual to disregard that and chart your individual path.
And one of many nice issues concerning the sport is that you just by no means fail to do one thing. The sport makes use of cube once you carry out actions, but it surely’s to not see should you succeed. As an alternative, it’s to try to reduce the fallout. Maybe there’s a locked door I wish to get previous, however I’m not very proficient on the related ability. In different video games, it’s possible you’ll waste time rolling and rolling, attempting to get the matching symbols it’s good to decide the lock. However not in Vantage. If I try to get via the lock, I’ll. The one query is how a lot time, morale, or well being all of it value me.
And actually, that’s an awesome feeling. It takes the “really feel unhealthy” moments from ability checks and turns them round. As an alternative of feeling such as you’ve wasted a activate a foul roll, you as a substitute succeed however should pay a steeper value 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 a substitute, strikes you alongside within the story however with maybe a penalty.
Talking of campaigns, Vantage just isn’t a marketing campaign sport. Every session is a one shot journey… however on the identical planet. So after some time, it’s possible you’ll start to recollect areas. Is that good? Possibly. You would possibly arrive on a card you bear in mind from the previous, and know should you chat up the native sentient, it’s going to rob you. So as a substitute, you assault it first and reap the bounties. However since each card has 6 completely different actions (one tied to every ability), you may take alternate routes once you attain a card you’ve visited in a earlier sport. And I ought to point out that you could solely ever take an motion as soon as on a card throughout a sport, so after you’ve performed one thing on that card it’s time to maneuver on.
I’ve to confess, I’m impressed with what Vantage accomplishes. That is essentially the most open world sport I’ve encountered on my tabletop exterior of a job taking part in sport. It allows 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 areas to go to within the sport, lots of which will probably be actually sudden.
I actually don’t have quite a lot of issues to complain about with Vantage. The most important grievance 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 difficult, if in case you have 5-6 gamers, there will probably be a little bit of downtime between turns. Gamers will want to consider what they wish to do, discover the related e book, take their check, work out the place to put cube… It’s only a bit a lot on the larger finish of the vary, so maintain this one for once you’ve obtained a tighter group.
The one factor I can say is that the sport received’t be for everybody. There’s 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 method to them, then this isn’t the sport for you. However for many who wish to embrace a little bit of wanderlust and see the place issues take them, you will get misplaced on this planet of Vantage.
Closing Ideas:
Vantage is an extremely formidable sport that you could spend hours and hours exploring. I’ve performed it so much since I obtained it, and I nonetheless really feel like I’m simply scratching the floor of what it affords. The sport makes no bones about the truth that it is a sport so that you can discover and uncover issues. The rulebook even suggests ignoring the mission card in your first sport and simply see what’s what (which is stable recommendation).
I’ve performed nearly each Stonemaier Video games’ launch for the reason that 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.
Closing Rating: 4.5 Stars – A novel sport drops gamers in an odd world and tells them to determine what they wish to do with their life.
Hits:
• The closest I’ve seen to a very open world board sport on our tabletops
• Heaps and plenty of replay worth
• Fast, snappy turns
• Narrative textual content doesn’t get in the best way
• By no means fail an motion!
Misses:
• Downtime on the larger participant depend.
