Tuesday, April 02, 2024

#68: Voidfall (Mark's Top 100 2024)


Voidfall

  • rank: 231
  • rating: 8.6
  • published: 2023
  • designer: Nigel Buckle & Dávid Turczi
Print Status
  • in print
Why It's On The List
  • Normally, I’d balk at a game with a non-random combat system and heavy intertwined mechanisms – but the theme of defeating the Voidborn is so tightly woven into the design & flow of the game that I find myself lost in the world and the puzzle of trying to expand my civilization’s capabilities whilst fending off the encroachment of mind-altering evil. 
Tips & Tricks:
    • You have to know two things about this game going in: first, there's a LOT going on and it's going to be overwhelming. Second, for as heavy as it is, it's not a tremendously long game - 2 hours as a solo game and 3 hours or so as a two player competitive game.
    • I don't care if you're the savviest gamer in town, you should NOT skip playing the tutorial. It's an actual game with an excellent guardrail system that gives you a pretty full tour of the complex game system without sending you down a railroaded pathway.
    • It takes a bit to get used to the combat system. Remember: the "battles" in this game are multi-year wars, not a single battle. (It's a highly abstracted and non-random system... but it works well in the context of the game.)
    • All but one of my plays of Voidfall have been solo - and that system (which is similar to the cooperative system) works like a charm.
    Extras
    • The copy pictured is the Galactic edition - which has cool miniatures and lots of other bling. The underlying game engine is strong enough not to need the bells & whistles.
    • Along with a team of fellow writers at the Opinionated Gamers site, I hosted an extended conversation about Voidfall.
    • This is the first of four games on this countdown with design work from Dávid Turczi and the first of two games from Nigel Buckle.

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