Customer Reviews

World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Having played (and enjoyed!) FFG's other World of Warcraft boardgame (henceforth WoWBG) many times, we thought we'd give the Adventure Game version (henceforth WoWTAG) a try. It was a lot more than just a pared down retranslation of the larger game; in fact, WoWTAG was an entirely different kind of game.

Both games tackle different aspects of the online game whose name they borrow. WoWBG fantastically implemented the different character classes: the feeling of leveling up characters, learning spells, and evolving one's talent tree. Teamwork was also a big emphasis and mobs were all represented with little plastic figurines (or dolls, if you like). Questing, however, solely involved kill quests.

WoWTAG involves less of the minutiae of character management and focuses more on translating the feeling of Azeroth's atmosphere. There are travel quests, kill quests, and pvp quests. And the rewards one picks up are much more diverse. The game uses a system of limiting one's geographical boundaries based on one's character's level (much as the online game does) - we found this helpful for keeping us from biting off more than we can chew.

Having played all four character classes, we're happy at how differently they play and yet how they really do seem to balance well. We're looking forward to the release of other character packs as expansions next month--which we're also hoping will allow us to bump the max number of players up from four to around six (four tends to limit who we can play with). WoWTAG also moves at a much quicker clip than WoWBG, which tends to bog down in later rounds when players become embroiled in much more complicated fights.

When comparing the two games, my wife (who's never played the online game) prefers WoWTAG--as WoWBG is slightly more complicated than she'd prefer. I personally prefer WoWBG (though not by a huge margin) mostly because I really enjoy the character-building aspect of that game (and like putting together a nice frost mage or a feral durid!).

And of course, both of us prefer Puerto Rico! (but since you can't always play the same game, both WoW boardgames have found happy places in our round of backups.

As a former World of Warcraft player and a long-time board gamer, I was anxious to see how this more affordable, quicker version of the humongous World of Warcraft board game pared down. The box is awesome, the rules are tight, and the components are top notch when they are present. Present, you ask? Well, they decided to print the cards double sided. This way you do a task/quest or fight an encounter and on the other side is the item you found. It makes for awkward card handling and less repeatable future game plays (you'll know if a task is worth the effort).

The game requires you to take on one of the familiar Warcraft classes and each class gets a host of skills/spells to help it along. Unfortunately, some classes just play better on this ruleset than others. This makes for lopsided games rather quickly.

The theme of Warcraft highlights the best of intentions and the worst of gameplay. The board is sectioned off into levels. Green for beginners, yellow for harder, red even harder and so on. Because of the size of the board, there are only a few spaces you can move that will be 'green' level when you start. A few bad encounters early and you are stuck pinned in. If you can't beat the level boss to move to the next tier, it is miserable.

The game truly feels like warcraft in theme. They did an awesome job of tailoring game mechanics to board mechanics. It just does not have the fun element. It is interesting as a game conversion, but fails as a game.

This game is a fun twist on World of Warcraft. For those that are familiar with Runebound, it is similar, but it is also a lot different. Combat is simplified. The quests are closer to quests that you would see in the Online game. However, this game can take a LONG time if you consistently roll poorly. Also, this game seems to push more for PvP type of play where you fight the other characters. This can be seen in several items, quests, and event cards. I wish I could play this one more often, but I have yet to finish a game in less than 2.5 hours.

Usually thematic games like this sacrifice mechanics, but I don't feel this is the case here. It isn't perfect by any means, but its good enough to earn a spot in rotation on a game day with players that aren't otherwise interested in WoW, which says something. I appreciate the simplicity of it (though I wish the difference between factions had not been completely sacrificed for the sake of simplicity, I hope FFG addresses this in the future), the ability to interact with other players and the fast pace of it.

Ignore the reviewer who gave this 2 stars. I'm not sure he ever actually played a full game of this. Characters are relatively equal out the gate, but yes, it will certainly seem like the warrior gets all the cool toys at first versus classes that require a bit more set-up and strategy to be effective later but the ranged fighters start to really shine as they gain levels and gain solid items. And yes, sometimes you get unlucky with ability card draws and items; the hunter in particular can get really jacked up without an early Beast encounter, especially if he has a handful of "Requires Samson the Bear" cards. That is a mechanic I think could've been better thought out, but it is what it is. I wouldn't go so far as to say this game isn't balanced though.

I would recommend this to players who have an appreciation for all things Azeroth, for sure. Its an easier sell to non WoW fans than the original board game was, and the expansions offer some variety when the original 4 characters start feeling stale. (There are currently 8 additional characters available at this time.)

28 pages of rules, lots of little pieces, and too many card decks. Could take someone a whole day to figure it out. Got a good laugh at how complicated they made it.