Customer Reviews

The Hobbit - The Defeat Of The Evil Dragon Smaug

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

 

 

not overly challenging, but that's not to say it is necessarily "dumbed down"; this makes a reasonable game for children and parents. the box says ages 10 and up, but my 7 and 9 year old sons enjoy it, especially since i recently finished reading the book "The Hobbit" to them, and we also recently saw "The Lord of the Rings" movie at the theater. (i'm currently reading "The Fellowship of the Rings" to them to continue the saga of course.) amazingly, they remember many of the elements from "The Hobbit," and this comes in handy since at various points during this boardgame, one's knowledge of the book will prove useful. reading the book is probably not necessary, but it does provide a bit of an advantage, as the player will be called upon to answer riddles and recite poems/songs (don't worry, the riddles are presented with multiple choice answers, and the recitations are only 2 to 4 lines of verse). the game does a fairly decent job of representing Bilbo's journey from the Shire through the Misty Mountains, Mirkwood, Laketown, then the Desolation of Smaug itself. activities in the game are all based on events in the book, though not necessarily in any particular order, since the "event/adventure cards" are drawn randomly; but there is a variety of adventurous situations to imagine, and a little bit of luck and planning can pay off, with the help of "Gandalf's Gifts" cards, which represent various useful items, equipment, resources, and even companions -- for instance, the wonderful elven knife Sting (a sword for a hobbit!) and the One Ring itself! successful resolutions of adventures result in individual experience points; along with these, players collect jewels to represent wealth and additional experience. during adventures, players must decide whether to utilize any available resources, if called upon, or take a chance with the unique spinner to resolve the adventure. in the end, the players face Smaug himself and attempt to pilfer as much of the dragon hoard as possible.

overall, my family has found it quite fun and it makes for a nice evening of entertainment at home after dinner. during out last session, we even played the soundtrack of the movie during our game! very neat. i'm contemplating other related products (Lord of the Rings board game or even the tabletop battle game).

I bought this game for my 6-year old daughter, as she loves the book. She enjoys the game, but I suspect it will only be a few plays before it dawns on her how shoddy this game is. It looks beautiful, and from the packaging it looks to be a game of quality, but this is one of the least well-designed games I've ever played.

As the previous reviewer stated, there has obviously been little or no testing of the gameplay. There are lots of cards and jewels and other trappings which essentially obscure the fact that this game is about as rich in gameplay as craps. That is not an exaggeration.

The list of faults to this game are so numerous I don't even know where to begin. SAVE YOUR MONEY!...

The two-star rating is because for young children (age 5-7) who know the book, they might get a little enjoyment out of remembering events in the book which are represented in the game, but on the other hand, the game must be played with an adult because there is a lot of reading, and I think the adult must have an alcoholic beverage nearby to get through this tedious thing.

For those who've read THE HOBBIT, this delightful board game is a great deal of fun, featuring characters, places, and situations lifted directly from the text. Simple enough for children of 8 or 9 to grasp, but complex enough to engage adults, the game plays quickly and (best of all) cleans up quickly, with a place for every little trinket and playing piece in the box.

Some of the amusement factor would necessarily be lost without some grounding -- not a great deal, but at least one reading's worth -- in the book, but for those who enjoy Tolkien's introduction to Middle-Earth, THE HOBBIT is a excellent companion to that work. It's really the next best thing to having been there and back again with Bilbo Baggins and his company of dwarves.

After playing the terrible Harry Potter games with my sister, I didn't want to hear the word, wizard, for awhile. Then I sat down with her and played this game, and loved it. I am a huge J.R.R Tolkien fan and love both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The instructions are very lengthy, but very clear, easy to refer to, and detailed. The object of the game is just like the journey in the book,pass through lands like The Shire, The Misty Mountains, The Carrock, Mirkwood, Long Lake, and the Desolation of Smaug, and attempt to steal the evil dragon Smaug's horde of diamonds and jewels. The game can be short, or long and is bound to please anyone. It's worth the expensive price, believe me!

Being a devoted board game fan and a long time Tolkien fan, I couldn't wait to try out this game. And what luck, I found it on sale for $15.00! I excited went home, opened the box, and was very happy with the components, everything was great looking. That's the last time I enjoyed anything to do with this game.

Simply put, this game really stinks. I even talked my girlfriend into trying it and she agreed. So based on the unusually high retail price, I figured I could sell it quickly. Not so, apparently the word was out that this game was terrible. I couldn't even sell it on ebay after numerous times, even for as low as $10. Finally, after having the game posted for many months on a popular board game website, I managed to sell it for $4. I'm still surprised anyone actually bought it, even for $4.

To call The Hobbit Boardgame a boardgame would be an insult to all boardgames everywhere. It plays as if it were slapped together over a lunchtime and never playtested. The game somehow manages to combine little to no strategic elements with slow gameplay!

I could not think of how to design a worse boardgame than this one, especially associating it with such a valuable and fascinating property as The Hobbit. It is a shame the designers of this game didn't at least play the outstanding Lord of the Rings boardgame. If they did, then they certainly didn't learn anything about good game design or entertaining game play.

This game is great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!