This weekend I tried on the skin of an overlord and played a couple of so-called clashes in the second edition of Descent. I will briefly describe what came out of it. Immediately disclaim that these are the first comparative thoughts that came to mind. And I don’t pretend to be an expert on the first edition, my experience there is also small – only three scenarios.

The first thing that catches my eye is the smaller number of monster figures and super-fast (compared to the old Descent) set-up, which is a definite plus. The guys put together a small field, gave me a deck of bad cards, a couple monsters, picked my heroes, and off we go!

Once you get the hang of it, you realize where the dog is buried. The authors simply took the scenarios from the first edition, divided them into parts-rooms and called them clashes. Time saving as if on the face of it (you don’t have to spend half an hour folding a huge map), but on the other hand, when you finish one part, you have to spend time again to prepare for the next one.

What is really unfortunate is that the rich arsenal of overlord was reduced to two types of creatures per encounter, which means no choice or variety. And, as it was explained to me, it makes sense to take only certain monsters, the rest are useless and will only work as meat.

And now the saddest part – the game removed two of the most interesting tactical moments: tokens, with which the evil paid for cards and monsters (a mechanism proven over the centuries), and the introduction of these same monsters on the field in places not covered by the field of view of the heroes (many people did not like this moment, but not me). These two mechanics opened up so much room for maneuvering. The heroes had to take the right positions, plus they were constantly faced with the dilemma of whether to go to that chest or “hold” the area, preventing spooning.

Now the appearance of enemies is limited to one per round (there are exception cards) in specially designated places, and bad cards are played in any number (the limit is only on identical ones). Moreover, in these cards I didn’t notice those interesting and unexpected traps that were there before. Regarding the appearance of monsters in special places: we had a situation when I could not put a dragon on the field only because one hero was specially planted on the place of possible appearance. If such delusional antics are now considered tactical tricks, that’s sad.

One more observation – the game became too arcade-like and lost its epicness, both in terms of process and result. You can kill the fattest monster or hero in a single turn, which makes the process too random in terms of the short encounters that the scenarios are based on. Because of this, the confrontation comes off as stilted, and it’s not uncommon to know who will win after a couple rounds. Speaking of the first edition: I remember the scenarios there being much more tense (every time we were eagerly waiting for the next room to open), and they often ended with a mega-fascinating climax. I even dug up a quote from my old report:

…We reconvened and, pulling out the key, opened the rune room. All the heroes were pretty beaten up by then, and the number of Conquest tokens was running low. We had to complete the mission in a few turns, and in the last chest we were lucky enough to find an Elven helmet and bow. The helmet added + 2 to range and +1 to damage, and the bow could penetrate the strongest armor. We decided to take our chances and immediately shoot the Giant that stood at the end of the cave. The mage girl and the melee player cleared my path and field of view. Having spent all the fatigue chips, I got as close as possible and made a double attack – both shots were without a miss, and the Giant fell down before he could even move his huge club. It was a victory!

Here everything is somehow smeared, and at the end of the collision in the head there is only a questioning: “And that’s all?”. There’s nothing to remember. I only managed to walk the Dragon once, not to mention the realization of some combinations, cunning plans and immersion in the atmosphere of the adventure. Say – play the whole scenario, so I would be happy to play, but these snippets discourage all desire.

What can I say when the hero has no problem taking out the toughest Dragon for a turn with a triple attack. Where have you seen that before? I understand there, dice and all that, but here the loot cards are so strong that the point of any tactical action is lost, banal tank, and you’ll be happy. That’s what I’m saying, arcade.

Probably, many people in the second part are attracted by the character pumping and related scenarios, where the result is reflected on the following ones, and I don’t argue with it, I still play Pathfinder for the same reason, though I consider it primitive. But guys, you can’t so ruthlessly cut everything that’s interesting in a game that emphasizes the epicness of the adventure. To me, this is the case when brevity and brevity are absolutely inappropriate.

Something like that. I probably had too high hopes for the updated edition (I was frustrated by the long set-up and long games in the first one), and ended up burning out. On the other hand, Descent 2.0 has its pluses. My friends said that they had already played about 15 games with their kids, and the toy went well – short skirmishes of small ones do not tire, and the process itself is clear and quite simple. And the friends themselves are interested, of course: the development of events and all that, but they also expected more. It turns out that the main advantage of the game is that it is available for a wider audience, it can be laid out in an hour and almost with anyone. As one friend said: “I played three games of the first Descent in the first scenario. Each time – a new company, so you had to be an overlord. If you take the second, then the account is already two and a half campaigns”.

I’ve crossed the game off my Wishlist myself. If I want to go down into the darkness, I’ll take the first Descent from a friend, or open the box with Claustrophobia, there at least the cubes are unusually used. Or I’ll wait for Shadows of Brimstone. Although I think, when the negativity will fade, I’ll still take it to play with Katya, maybe, really, the campaign and late scenarios will fix the situation.