Gloomhaven - roguelike dungeon-crawling adaptation of the board game

[Nifft Batuff]

Is it fun to play alone?

 

[pakoito]

Is it fun to play alone?

I have played solo both JotL and one GH campaign (~35% of the scenarios).

 

[mediocrepoet]

Is it fun to play alone?

Many posters here find pleasure solely in playing with themselves.

 

[Lacrymas]

Is it fun to play alone?

Yeah, it's basically a party-based RPG, there's no reason not to enjoy it even solo.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Grunker]

Re: Childes and wokeness, the board game sphere is incredibly woke. I usually roll my eyes at dexers who bemoan wokeness in vidya games, it's really not that bad. But I can't watch literally any board game reviews by people who are otherwise fantastic reviewers without them mentioning three times through the review how depicting ancient arabs in a strategy game is evil racism (looking at you, SU&SD). It's incredibly tiresome. So it's not much of a suprise that Childes succumbed to that terrible crap.

In fact, it sadly might be a prudent business decision for him seeing how the boardgame milieu is completely infested by that shit.

Is it fun to play alone?

For me, it goes like this:

4-man: Most enjoyable from a social perspective, but can get a bit sloggy unless your friends are very familiar with the game (because turns and turn debat will take too long). However it's still a great mode simply because drinking beers with your hombres on Discord while playing this game is one of the most fun co-op experiences I've ever had.

1-man: It's more fun moment-to-moment because you don't have to wait for 3 people (again unless your friends are really good), but my advice is to use a maximum of 3 characters unless you've got a ton of reps with the game. Even with 3 characters the amount of choices and things you have to process each turn is massive.

2-man: As a rule of thumb, this is the most enjoyable moment-to-moment experience I've had with the game. It's easy to plan sessions, turns go by very quick and you've got A LOT to think about with two characters without being overwhelmed - and with all that you even get the full 4 character experience. Definetely recommend people having a 2-man campaign running alongside whatever their main campaign is (solo or 4-man).

 

[Parabalus]

1-man: It's more fun moment-to-moment because you don't have to wait for 3 people (again unless your friends are really good), but my advice is to use a maximum of 3 characters unless you've got a ton of reps with the game. Even with 3 characters the amount of choices and things you have to process each turn is massive.

I can second this.

With no prior Gloomhaven experience starting it solo with 4 chars was pretty tough, had to retry some scenarios and play on the default difficulty until learning the ropes.

Difficulty stays up there too outside of some broken combos.

 

[Grunker]

It's also just a matter of the amount of information and scenarios you have to process that makes singple player 4 characters kind of unwieldly. Honestly I think my favourite Gloomhaven experience is trending towards the two player one.

 

[Parabalus]

Too many characters to settle for just a 2 char party.

Found physical to be surprisingly fun with just 2 people though, goes faster. For 4p digital feels nicer.

 

[Grunker]

Too many characters to settle for just a 2p party.

Found physical to be surprisingly fun with just 2 people though, goes faster. For 4p digital feels nicer.

Too many characters? Not sure I understand

I like 4p digital like I said, you just have to wait for your turn sometimes. 2p feels like a nice middleground between flow and still having the multiplayer component (plus no overwhelming 4char control).

 

[Parabalus]

Too many characters to settle for just a 2p party.

Found physical to be surprisingly fun with just 2 people though, goes faster. For 4p digital feels nicer.

Too many characters? Not sure I understand

I like 4p digital like I said, you just have to wait for your turn sometimes. 2p feels like a nice middleground between flow and still having the multiplayer component (plus no overwhelming 4char control).

There are what 16,17 classes + 4 from JotL now?

Gotta catch them all, goes slower with just a 2p party.

 

[Grunker]

Too many characters to settle for just a 2p party.

Found physical to be surprisingly fun with just 2 people though, goes faster. For 4p digital feels nicer.

Too many characters? Not sure I understand

I like 4p digital like I said, you just have to wait for your turn sometimes. 2p feels like a nice middleground between flow and still having the multiplayer component (plus no overwhelming 4char control).

There are what 16,17 classes + 4 from JotL now?

Gotta catch them all, goes slower with just a 2p party.

But much faster than a 4 man which you mentioned yourself?

Also I think you're exaggerating. In my current 2p game we've had 3 fairly short sessions and unlocked 5 characters.

 

[Parabalus]

Too many characters to settle for just a 2p party.

Found physical to be surprisingly fun with just 2 people though, goes faster. For 4p digital feels nicer.

Too many characters? Not sure I understand

I like 4p digital like I said, you just have to wait for your turn sometimes. 2p feels like a nice middleground between flow and still having the multiplayer component (plus no overwhelming 4char control).

There are what 16,17 classes + 4 from JotL now?

Gotta catch them all, goes slower with just a 2p party.

But much faster than a 4 man which you mentioned yourself?

Also I think you're exaggerating. In my current 2p game we've had 3 fairly short sessions and unlocked 5 characters.

Meant for solo digital play, where you have to cycle through all the characters yourself.

 

[Grunker]

Too many characters to settle for just a 2p party.

Found physical to be surprisingly fun with just 2 people though, goes faster. For 4p digital feels nicer.

Too many characters? Not sure I understand

I like 4p digital like I said, you just have to wait for your turn sometimes. 2p feels like a nice middleground between flow and still having the multiplayer component (plus no overwhelming 4char control).

There are what 16,17 classes + 4 from JotL now?

Gotta catch them all, goes slower with just a 2p party.

But much faster than a 4 man which you mentioned yourself?

Also I think you're exaggerating. In my current 2p game we've had 3 fairly short sessions and unlocked 5 characters.

Meant for solo digital play, where you have to cycle through all the characters yourself.

Then you did misunderstand me

I was talking about *2 players*

 

[Red Hexapus]

For me the optimum number of players in this game is 3. Enough to have some nice combinations and cooperation betwen the players, and some unlocks (retirements) go at a relatively normal pace as compared with a 2-player party (or 1-player two-handed). Haven't really felt the wokeness in Gloomhaven, even though it normally irks me (both in video games and board games) e.g. I think removal of Indians in the 2ed Great Western Trail is stupid. 4-player game, both digital and tabletop is a slog, as you have mentioned.

Also, as a comment, it's not worth playing the digital multiplayer version at the moment. There are constant desyncs, and the AI for each enemy tends to take up to a minute to act (with the worst offenders being the Drakes).

Also bugs, lots of fucking bugs, I bet the code for the digital version is a mess.

 

[Grunker]

There's no wokeness in Gloomhaven - the accussations of such is about Frosthaven, the sequel that Childres is developing. Haven't followed development myself, so couldn't speak to it. But I wouldn't be surprised given how much it's infested the general boardgaming populace.

Also, as a comment, it's not worth playing the digital multiplayer version at the moment.

Nigga WAT. My best video game purchase of 2021, not even close

There are constant desyncs, and the AI for each enemy tends to take up to a minute to act (with the worst offenders being the Drakes).

Haven't experienced a single desync in 200+ multiplayer hours. Haven't seen it raised as a big issue in the Discord either. Do you mean something else than actual desync, like crashing? The game is pretty poorly optimized for older PCs, so I wouldn't be surprised if you're crashing under those conditions. There's a very notable difference playing with friends on good PCs and older PCs, which is frankly kind of retarded given the game's graphical fidelity.

In all my groups, I have one player who CTDs every once in a blue moon, but his internet and PC is really shoddy so I'm not sure it's the game. The turn-time for certain monsters is the game's only real core problem in my opinion, and for something like Drakes it's a big one. But it's an annoyance and certainly not something that destroys an otherwise amazing game.

 

[Red Hexapus]

There's no wokeness in Gloomhaven - the accussations of such is about Frosthaven, the sequel that Childres is developing. Haven't followed development myself, so couldn't speak to it. But I wouldn't be surprised given how much it's infested the general boardgaming populace.

Thanks for claryfiying, I thought you meant GH. Haven't followed Frosthaven either, but if what you say is true that's discouraging.

 

[Grunker]

There's no wokeness in Gloomhaven - the accussations of such is about Frosthaven, the sequel that Childres is developing. Haven't followed development myself, so couldn't speak to it. But I wouldn't be surprised given how much it's infested the general boardgaming populace.

Thanks for claryfiying, I thought you meant GH. Haven't followed Frosthaven either, but if what you say is true that's discouraging.

It's not me saying it - like I said I haven't followed Frosthaven developement at all. I was responding to this:

I recently picked up the tabletop version of this a few weeks ago and have been having a great time with it, although I'm probably going to be passing on the upcoming Frosthaven release as from what I've seen the creator has succumbed to retardation over the past few years since the original games release. Is the PC version (of Gloomhaven) a 1-to-1 gameplay conversion and does it have any unique aspects or new campaign that would make it worth picking up?

Care to elaborate what kind of retardation? I need to know that because I like this game (pc version, at least) and It would be great to know when to stop buying dlcs and sequels.

The creator of Gloomhaven is this guy named Isaac Childres and everything released so far for specifically Gloomhaven (Gloomhaven, Jaws of the Lion and Forgotten Circles) is fine. The problem starts to arise with the new game / expansion to the game-world he's been working on called "Frosthaven" which is supposed to be released at some point in the near future (although it's been delayed many times since the original Kickstarter happened). Throughout the development of Frosthaven, Isaac seems to have fallen in with the "woke" crowd, has hired a "cultural consultant" for the new release to help him make sure no one is offended by anything and also put out a statement on the Kickstarter not to long ago where he essentially called everyone who doesn't support "Black Lives Matter" a racist who hates Black people and is now one of those types of woke TTRPG newfags who assert that Orcs are supposedly derogatory representations of Black people, ect. So as a result he spoke on how he's taking the game in a new direction where there will be no "racism" or "bad" races and blah, blah, blah, blah and all the rest of the typical woketard talking points, ect. i.e. a game world where everyone is the same, everyone has the same strengths, there are no differences at all between all the fantasy races and everything is booooooorrrriing.

 

[Red Hexapus]

Nigga WAT. My best purchase of 2021, not even close. Haven't experienced a single desync in 200+ multiplayer hours. In all my groups, I have one player who CTDs every once in a blue moon, but his internet and PC is really shoddy so I'm not sure it's the game. The turn-time for certain monsters is the game's only problem, and for something like Drakes it's a big one. But it's an annoyance and certainly not something that takes away from this game being amazing.

Same here for the best purchase, but the crucial part in what I wrote is "at the moment". Have you played the game in the past two weeks, after they pushed the large update? Before that, we've had no problems except for the occasional bugs and a desync once in a blue moon. Now it's a drag, with how slow the enemies act.

 

[Grunker]

Nigga WAT. My best purchase of 2021, not even close. Haven't experienced a single desync in 200+ multiplayer hours. In all my groups, I have one player who CTDs every once in a blue moon, but his internet and PC is really shoddy so I'm not sure it's the game. The turn-time for certain monsters is the game's only problem, and for something like Drakes it's a big one. But it's an annoyance and certainly not something that takes away from this game being amazing.

Same here for the best purchase, but the crucial part in what I wrote is "at the moment". Have you played the game in the past two weeks, after they pushed the large update? Before that, we've had no problems except for the occasional bugs and a desync once in a blue moon. Now it's a drag, with how slow the enemies act.

Ah, sry. I misunderstood. That sounds ass. I played the week before last week with no issues, but I haven't played for 9 or 10 days. So that might be it.

 

[Parabalus]

There's no wokeness in Gloomhaven - the accussations of such is about Frosthaven, the sequel that Childres is developing. Haven't followed development myself, so couldn't speak to it. But I wouldn't be surprised given how much it's infested the general boardgaming populace.

Thanks for claryfiying, I thought you meant GH. Haven't followed Frosthaven either, but if what you say is true that's discouraging.

There is extreme diversity in GH though - some might consider that woke.

Especially in light of FH.

 

[Grunker]

There's no wokeness in Gloomhaven - the accussations of such is about Frosthaven, the sequel that Childres is developing. Haven't followed development myself, so couldn't speak to it. But I wouldn't be surprised given how much it's infested the general boardgaming populace.

Thanks for claryfiying, I thought you meant GH. Haven't followed Frosthaven either, but if what you say is true that's discouraging.

There is extreme diversity in GH though - some idiots might consider that woke.

fixed

 

[ERYFKRAD]

There's no wokeness in Gloomhaven - the accussations of such is about Frosthaven, the sequel that Childres is developing. Haven't followed development myself, so couldn't speak to it. But I wouldn't be surprised given how much it's infested the general boardgaming populace.

Thanks for claryfiying, I thought you meant GH. Haven't followed Frosthaven either, but if what you say is true that's discouraging.

There is extreme diversity in GH though - some idiots might consider that woke.

fixed

So much diversity it's a freak show.

I don't really give a damn.

HOWEVER.

The barbarian uses a shield. This game is therefore an unplayable piece of shit. 1/10, will remove the single point next week when I feel less generous.

Spoiler

Honestly though this is a thinking man's game so I foresee this game is gonna take a lot of my time.

 

[Parabalus]

There's no wokeness in Gloomhaven - the accussations of such is about Frosthaven, the sequel that Childres is developing. Haven't followed development myself, so couldn't speak to it. But I wouldn't be surprised given how much it's infested the general boardgaming populace.

Thanks for claryfiying, I thought you meant GH. Haven't followed Frosthaven either, but if what you say is true that's discouraging.

There is extreme diversity in GH though - some idiots might consider that woke.

fixed

So much diversity it's a freak show.

I don't really give a damn.

HOWEVER.

The barbarian uses a shield. This game is therefore an unplayable piece of shit. 1/10, will remove the single point next week when I feel less generous.

Spoiler

Honestly though this is a thinking man's game so I foresee this game is gonna take a lot of my time.

You'll really like lightning bolt.

 

[Grunker]

There's no wokeness in Gloomhaven - the accussations of such is about Frosthaven, the sequel that Childres is developing. Haven't followed development myself, so couldn't speak to it. But I wouldn't be surprised given how much it's infested the general boardgaming populace.

Thanks for claryfiying, I thought you meant GH. Haven't followed Frosthaven either, but if what you say is true that's discouraging.

There is extreme diversity in GH though - some idiots might consider that woke.

fixed

So much diversity it's a freak show.

I don't really give a damn.

HOWEVER.

The barbarian uses a shield. This game is therefore an unplayable piece of shit. 1/10, will remove the single point next week when I feel less generous.

Spoiler

Honestly though this is a thinking man's game so I foresee this game is gonna take a lot of my time.

Don’t worry, there’s another Barbarian later