The ending post is going to be a bit of a mixed bag. Keep in mind that, until this point, my thoughts on the box have been more or less positive. With the exception of Absorbing Man I've loved every single villain in this box, Red Skull included! We'll get to him in a minute, don't worry! He completely and utterly destroyed me. Red Skull is not the problem with the box, cause he's a fantastic time. The problem is the problematic Expert campaign mode, which will ultimately prove to be a lightning rod for people who may still be on the fence about this game, for better or worse.
Red Skull
Dear God that was nuts. Just, incredibly insane. Red Skull's stats on Expert level, with that 3 SCH, made me stop, pause, and throw out the Spidey Aggression deck I've been touting around the for the last few posts. I knew there would be no way I could keep up with Red Skull once he got going, and I didn't even really bother trying with the Spider-Blitz deck. I turned around and built a Justice deck, focusing on capitalizing on getting rid of side schemes as quickly as possible, as well as killing minions.
And y'know what? It was working. I drew two Swinging Web Kicks right off the bat after setting up my two web shooters and knocked Red Skull off the first stage within three turns. Oh my gosh that felt great. Yeah, Red Skull's threat was a little high, and yes one of the side schemes had an extra encounter card coming out next turn, but I'd just done 16 damage and was mostly through my deck, thanks to Red Skull milling my deck twice, as well as me ending my turns with completely empty hands. I figured I could cycle through very quickly and put the Skull down for good.
First came the Sleeper, with his Guard and Toughness
And then Vulture, which threw my hand into disarray.
And then damnit if the Red Skull's encounter deck just kept exhausting all my allies, while pulling out shittons of minions.
Beaten and bruised I switched back into alter-ego form, trying to heal up with Aunt May and then come back to finish off the Sleeper so that way I could finally take Red Skull down from the 11 hp he was at. I was 10 threat away from losing, but figured I could take that and then flip back and finally nova my way through this thing.
Oh how stupid I was. Red Skull schemed for 7 threat . And then I drew Advance. Twice.
My jaw hit the floor.
What a ride, right?? That was great!! I'd like to do it again.
Oh wait.
The Campaign
Now, one would think that my stink has to do with the rule that if you lose once to Red Skull that's it, the game is over. But that's just low hanging fruit, folks. No no, I found the whole campaign on Expert to be thoroughly uninspiring. The Obligations don't provide compelling choices, the campaign itself is too long, and the upgrades were ultimately unsatisfying.
Carrying over hp between rounds would have been fine, if the Obligations weren't so punishing that I never wanted to take them. There was no choice on that front: you couldn't afford to take the Obligations and that was that. I essentially just limped between rounds, never looking at Obligations more than once, when one of my kind readers reminded me of how badly I'd be hamstringing myself. Taking some form of disadvantage for full hp was a great idea!! I would have done it with a legit choice before me! Why not just have it to where you can take a penalty to the next game: 2 cards discarded at the top fo the game for every hp restored?
This leads me to my next point: the campaign is just too long. You've got one or two too many villains, in my opinion. And that's sad, because the vast majority of the villains in this box are amazing. I had a blast with all of them, except Absorbing Man who is... surprise... more tied into the campaign mode. But the whole thing is essentially a long gauntlet. I play Arkham Horror, folks, and I don't want this game to be like that game, but a gauntlet mode really isn't what I would have liked. Putting in some branching paths would be pretty easy: if you lose a fight you have to side track to one of the side villains and then take a number of delay counters equal to the number of rounds you took to beat that villain. That's freaking tense!
The upgrades were... I found them underwhelming. Why invent cards for upgrades and whatnot when you already have the greatest asset in your possession: a box full of cards? Just allow people to grab, like, three cards from one aspect on the first win and two on the second, while giving possibly another card for the lost fights. It sounds broken, possibly, but it may work if failure is harsh enough..
I dunno. I'm not saying my solutions are inherently good, but I do think them a better fit for the modular nature of this game. That and if you're going to criticize something at least say what you think would fix it. And ultimately I found that the campaign rules went against the modular nature of the game the designers were trying to expand upon.
Wrapping It Up
The individual pieces of The Rise of The Red Skull are almost too good for the money I spent on them. Four out of five of the villains are just fantastic and I am going to enjoy playing against them for a very very long time. The new character decks are serviceable at worst, which is certainly no small praise. I would love to introduce people to this game via this box, on Basic, over and above the Core box. The Expert Mode begins to fall apart, as the mechanics the designers introduce aren't just bad but feel incomplete. And that's a real shame, because the rest of this box was most definitely worth my money and then some.
Would I recommend the box? Well, if you're looking for a compelling story mode then definitely not. This ain't it. But if you like the modular nature of this game? Oh man, not a question. Absolutely get it! I might even recommend it over the Core box for beginners, the villains are that good. This box dramatically increases the value of this game as it is: a modular rock-em sock-em LCG. I can't speak for you on that. But me? I'm going to go and do a round two with The Red Skull. That dude got the drop on me. And it won't happen again. Hope springs eternal and all that.
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