Auf Facebook gibt es bereits einen ersten, recht ausführlichen Ersteindruck von ein paar Partien:
After playing a couple of chapters (first one twice to get the hang of encounters), some of you have asked me what I thought of the game. I won’t go into story spoilers whatsoever but I do have some thoughts.
Obviously (Ursus) bear in mind that I haven’t played it all and it’s only my opinion, so completely subjective and liable to change with more games and further progress into the story.
The brief answer is that it’s great, and really interesting.
Some of you asked what games it’s like, well, the story part reminds me a little of gloomhaven, if gloomhaven was WAY more narratively based. Imagine a gloomhaven city event that lasts an hour. But then it does also have mini sub-city events within that too. But honestly, without a board, it just reminds me of a choose-your own-adventure storybook, just like the ones I had as a kid. And that’s just great. Exactly what I hoped for when I backed it. And as for the encounters, the obvious comparison is Kingdom Death, but more as if Kingdom Death had a baby with J R R Tolkien and let George R R Martin babysit. It’s not got the grim doom of KDM, or the cruelty. It feels more like an epic summer blockbuster fantasy than a manga gore fest. Not to say there’s not darkness in it, but yes, in terms of battle mechanics, KDM is the obvious comparison, and perhaps the upcoming Aeon Trespass, from what I’ve seen of that.
Also there’s a lot of secrets and gaps in the cards and numbering of things. The rule book does explain it, but try not to panic if you find gaps in numbering, it’s intentional, and part of the game, lots of it is hidden when you first unpack it.
I don’t sleeve cards but yes, it looks like there’s tons of space in the dividers for the cards to be sleeved and sitting happily. Don’t ask me what size they are, I have no clue.
The highlights -
The narrative. It’s really well written. Probably the highest writing standard I’ve seen in a board game. It felt more like literature than a game. In a good way. The story and setting are atmospheric and vibrant, you can picture it all really clearly, and hear all the NPC’s, and your choices have consequences on both your party and the world’s characters. There’s also keywords attached to decisions which hints at these choices may have longer lasting effects past that current chapter. Honestly, the writers smashed it.
The battle flow system is very exciting and tactical, and the turns pass back and forth so you’re not waiting ages whilst someone else has a go, in fact turn order and co-operation is key, so working together to co-ordinate is encouraged. At points the difference between victory and defeat.
It’s massive. Really, really massive. In all respects. If you have a small table, you might need other places to put stuff. I really struggled to find a space to roll the dice at points. At a six seater table.
The characters are varied and detailed and distinct. Have played as six so far and haven’t found a dud one. Even the “easy” character is super cool.
The companion idea is great if you’re less than four people, and probably vital if you’re soloing and don’t have 6 hours free to play. The characters are still fun as companions, albeit not as deep to play, and it really helps keeping things running and moving forward in the encounters. Playing as four full characters in a solo or two player game might be fine for some people but it might be slow for a while until you get to grips with the rules and flow.
The battle system is great, the use of an ai deck (like kingdom death sort of) gives a thrill of uncertainty to the fights, but unlike KDM, it has a nice mechanic where the enemy’s behaviour changes and develops as you wound it more - it develops new attacks and reactions as you move through the fight, whereas KDM reduces the variation as you fight on, I preferred Oathsworn’s choice of adding new things in different stages, as that made sense to me, the creature or whatever getting more angry and desperate as it becomes more wounded. The encounters are very exciting and don’t outstay their welcome, it always felt like I’d sneaked victory at the last second, and that it could have easily not gone our way at multiple points.
The attacking system has a nice gambling mechanic, the more dice or cards you draw, the more hits you can do, but the higher chance of missing by drawing blanks, that never got old, every single attack has meaning, danger and uncertainty. Edge of seat stuff, even when it’s not your turn.
The concerns -
Please don’t hate me, but the multi-piece models are fiddly. And delicate. I can only imagine the amount of replacement requests the support team are going to get for joins that aren’t quite right. Movement is tricky at points and you need to be a bit gentle otherwise you’ll leave an arm behind. Or, in my case, a head. Obviously you can fix it by glueing but you’d lose the armoury vibe they’re going for. I’ve only found one bad connection and will be sending a support request. But it’s not a huge deal.
The player boards would benefit from indentation. There are a lot of tokens and dice standing in as HP markers, and reaching across the table can be dangerous if you have loose or long sleeves. I found myself standing at points just to not get in the way of my own tokens.
Because you’re making decisions of where to go, some plot threads are unfinished by the time you get swept into the encounter, but I think that’s the nature of telling a story where the player has choices. It’s just not always clear that going somewhere will effectively shut off a plotline you might be interested in, because most of the time all you have to go on is a location number. It’s completely understandable but left me wanting to go back and finish something off where the game was pushing me forward.
In conclusion - for a first game from a developer, it’s incredible. A complete smash hit. The level of detail and scope and art and just overall fun and thrills - it’s all working and doing exactly what you want it to.
Could it be honed? Yes.
Are there typos on the cards and in the rule book? Yes.
Does it favour people with lots of space and a massive playing space? Absolutely.
Is it the best thing I’ve played all year? I feel like it might be. It’s certainly up there with Sleeping Gods, because whilst that game is more concise and polished and portable, Oathsworn is an absolute screaming barbarian warlord witch of a game, that demands your attention and respect. There’s honestly nothing quite like it.
The world is fascinating, the tale is impeccably told, the characters are memorable, and the enemies (the ones I’ve seen at least) are fantastically varied, detailed and challenging.
It’s a resounding yes from me, personally.
Hope that’s helpful.
