Fast forward to 2023 and Gloomhaven is out now on consoles. Having spent a considerable amount of time with the PC version, and more recently, the PS5 release of the game, I can safely say that Gloomhaven is not only an excellent tabletop game, but a great video game in its own right. That doesn’t mean that the title is free of faults, however, as we’ll explore in the rest of this review.

First things first, Gloomhaven is an incredible looking game. Rather than arduously turning all of the game’s miniatures and tiny cardboard dungeons into a more realistic RPG, the developers instead opted to stick to its tabletop roots. Instead of seeing a gigantic recreation of Gloomhaven’s dungeons and cities, we instead get a zoomed-in version of what the tabletop version of the game might look like if the doors could open and close by themselves or if the game’s several playable characters had walking and attacking animations.

"Gloomhaven is an incredible looking game."

By no means are you going to get immersed into the world of Gloomhaven to the same extent as something like Skyrim; you’ll know that you’re playing a turn-based video game with your friends. But thanks to the excellent production values, great use of color and weird and interesting enemies, Gloomhaven is successfully able to recreate the feeling of playing an epic board game or tabletop RPG with your friends.

When it comes to gameplay, there are two distinct sides to Gloomhaven. One side is the general management aspect of the game where you’re taking care of logistics like buying and selling equipment, looking for new quests, and leveling up your characters. The other side—the much meatier side—is the combat. Parties of up to four characters are thrown into a dungeon as the primary way of advancing the game’s quests, and this is where Gloomhaven really manages to solidify its own identity.

Leaving aside the differences and nuances of each distinct character, the general combat revolves around playing cards. Each character has access to a number of cards, each split into two halves, and each half having its own different effects. When a round starts, each character has to pick out two cards, being able to only use the top half of one and the bottom half of the other. Generally speaking, the top half of cards typically revolve around offensive abilities, while the lower half revolve around movement. In case you don’t want to use the full effect of one of your cards, each card also lets you use a default “Attack 2” or “Move 2” option.

"Gloomhaven really manages to solidify its own identity."

As you use up your cards, your deck gets smaller and your discard pile gets larger. Characters can elect to either use a Short Rest action, which instantly restores the discard pile into the deck at the cost of losing a random card for the rest of the dungeon, or a Long Rest action, which takes up the whole turn to do largely the same thing, allows you to pick a card to “Burn”, rather than it being random. If you get careless and “Burn” too many of your cards, that character is out for the rest of the dungeon, losing their chance to get any more loot or experience.

On picking their cards, players will also be able to look at the exact turn order, as well as what all enemies are going to do. This allows for a lot of strategic planning, especially if you’re playing with friends. Manipulating the turn order by picking the right cards for the right characters can result in some incredible attack combinations.

With the broad strokes of the game out of the way, the combat gets much more interesting once you start looking at the different characters you can play. Each character is themed around a couple of different concepts, and has a set amount of health and deck size at the beginning. The deck size is an especially important thing that players have to learn to play around. For example, the Spellweaver has an incredibly small deck size, and a lot of her cards revolve around burning the card for bigger damage numbers. The character is built around this, however, and has a card that can be used a single time in a dungeon to bring back all burned cards into the deck.

"Each character is themed around a couple of different concepts"

Gloomhaven starts things off by giving players access to five characters from the base game, along with four more from the Jaws of the Lion expansion that comes bundled with the PS5 version of the game. On picking a character, you also get to pick a personal quest for that character. Completing this personal quest, which can often take quite a long time, will retire that character, while at the same time unlocking an entirely new character you can play as. These unlockable characters often tend to feature more complex mechanics and concepts, and then players can run the gamut once more with a brand new personal quest. In its entirety, Gloomhaven has 21 total classes, with 9 being available at the beginning.

When it comes to questing, not everything in Gloomhaven revolves around diving into dungeons to take on goblins and skeletons. Some dungeons will have you take on more unique objectives, that can range from being escort missions, recovering specific artifacts, killing very specific enemies without hurting anyone else, or even just surviving an onslaught. Despite its emphasis on the combat system, Gloomhaven actually ends up offering quite a bit of variety in its quest design.

Gloomhaven also happens to have a story, and there’s a lot of content there through the Campaign mode, but ultimately, the most fun long-term way to play Gloomhaven is the Guildmaster mode. While you’ll still follow a loose narrative thread in Guildmaster mode, there’s a bigger focus on getting you playing the actual game rather than spending time reading long walls of text.

"Despite its emphasis on the combat system, Gloomhaven actually ends up offering quite a bit of variety in its quest design."

The biggest downside of the PS5 release of Gloomhaven is its control scheme. While things feel largely fine most of the time, there are some inconsistencies in how you navigate its UI that eventually build up to becoming major annoyances. For example, the game flip-flops between letting you use the D-pad to go through your deck of cards and using the analogue stick. There is also an over-reliance on holding a button down to confirm simple actions that just ultimately feel unnecessary.

Gloomhaven is an incredibly fun game, and this continues to be the case for the console release. While single-player focused players might find it fun, the game really shines when you play with other people. Parties of up to four players are encouraged by the game, and the console version also allows you to just pass the controller around for when it’s the right character’s turn. Its tabletop-styled visual aesthetics go incredibly well with its incredibly nuanced card-based combat to create one of the best digital board game experiences out there.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

The console version announcement is accompanied by a new trailer showing off some of the game’s accolades. Sadly, the announcement hasn’t revealed what consoles the game is coming to. It is likely that the console versions will include Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5. It is also possible that Gloomhaven will come to Switch as well.

Gloomhaven, currently ranked 1 on BoardGameGeek’s rankings, was a Kickstarter project that saw release to wide critical acclaim. It features an intricate combat system that makes use of cards for the use of abilities, and lacks dice rolls.

The digital version of Gloomhaven also recently saw the release of the Jaws of the Lion expansion, which adds a whole new campaign to the game that integrates into its main campaign, along with four new playable characters with their own unique mechanics.

Gloomhaven is currently available on Steam and GOG.com for PC and Mac.

https://twitter.com/AsmodeeDigital/status/1527257770524700673

Flaming Fowl Studios’ Fable Fortune will be leaving Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview on February 22nd, finally going free to play with its 1.0 update. The collectible card battle launched last year for PC and Xbox One as an Early Access title but has seen numerous tweaks and content additions. Now it’s finally ready for everyone to play.

There will still be patches and content to come though. Update 1.0 brings new content with more information on the same coming with the official launch. There will also be a Road-to-Release event for those who hopped in during Early Access to play until the official launch.

If you log in between 2 PM GMT, February 19th and 2 PM GMT, February 20th, you’ll get the Fancy Crazy Cat Lady card. February 20th’s login reward includes the Fancy Restless Spirit card while February 21st offers the Fancy Bloody Auguar card and Fancy Card Pack. If you’re curious about paying for the game, it’s available via Early Access for $14.99. Stay tuned for more information when the game officially releases.

"Classic Fable mechanics like Quests and Morality were also a natural fit, as they really played into the dynamic of choices and consequences that drives any good CCG or RPG."

What was it like working on the Fable brand after Lionhead Studios shut down? What is the current situation with regards to licensing the brand from Microsoft?

We were all devastated by the closure of Lionhead, but in the aftermath we’ve tried to ensure that we treat the Fable brand with the care and respect that it deserves. We’re big fans of Fable and we know that there are a lot of enthusiastic Fable fans out there, so we want to do right by them by making Fable Fortune a rich and authentic adventure in Albion. Microsoft have been kind enough to let us use the license to continue developing Fable Fortune but they still hold the keys to the Fable franchise as a whole, so I couldn’t say what else is happening with the Fable brand.

What motivated the idea of a collectible card game, especially since Fable has been so deeply rooted in RPG mechanics till now?

Fable Fortune was originally pitched out during the development of Fable II by Mike West, the Creative Director of Flaming Fowl Studios. Mike’s original idea ended up morphing into what became the Fable II Pub Games on Xbox Live Arcade. He later pitched the idea of a standalone collectible card game out again, but this time as a companion game for Fable Legends. This picked up traction pretty quickly and myself and the rest of the team at Mediatonic were brought in to help design and develop it.

Mike saw a collectible card game as a great opportunity for players to engage with the Fable universe in a very different way. Having said that, if you were to map out CCGs and RPGs on a Venn diagram I think you’d find that they have a lot of crossover. Agonizing over important decisions, powering up your character and creating the perfect loadout are all important elements of both genres. Classic Fable mechanics like Quests and Morality were also a natural fit, as they really played into the dynamic of choices and consequences that drives any good CCG or RPG.

Which heroes and villains can players look forward to playing as? Will there be any surprises, like characters from Fable Legends?

We dug pretty deep into the annals of Albion when we were designing our cards, so I’m happy to say that Fortune features characters from all across the Fable franchise. From major players like Jack of Blades, Reaver, Logan, and the Guildmaster to lesser known characters like Kalin and the Spire Commandant. Not to mention that we’re packed to the rafters with hobbes, chickens, balverine, hollow men, gnomes and other assorted creatures. We even have some fan favourite characters from Legends which pack a pretty serious punch like the Inga, Leech and Shroud.

The Heroes that you can actually play as are all original creations that are still deeply rooted in the lore of the Fable universe. For example, Temple, our Gravedigger Hero, actually gets her power to summon hollow men from the animated skull of her great great great grandfather Norman, which she carries around with her. Norman himself was a powerful necromancer rumored to have penned the Normanomicon – the Book of the Extremely Dead from Fable II.

"We’re committed to making Fable Fortune the best card game that it can be. We have a pretty extensive list of features and content that we want to add to the game in the future."

Tell us how the alignment system works and how either path can influence a player’s hero and deck.

During each battle you will embark on a series of Quests of your choosing. These Quests are mini-objectives which will influence your deck-building choices or in-game strategy. With every Quest that you complete, you are given the opportunity to make a Good or Evil narrative decision. Doing so will alter your character’s appearance and demeanor in a classically Fable ‘horns or halos’ fashion. For example, the Good version of Temple has mastered herself and silencing the nefarious Norman by bandaging his mouth shut. If she goes Evil, she succumbs to Norman’s influence and becomes a vessel for his dark necromantic powers.

What this means mechanically is that your Hero’s unique Hero Power will change depending on your choice, allowing you to tailor your play-style to be more aggressive or defensive mid-battle. We also have a bunch of Morality cards in the game, which are special cards that transform and gain unique abilities based on whether you are Good or Evil. Both of these mechanics add an extra layer of depth to each battle as you seek to complete your Quests and pick the optimal Morality the situation that you’re in.

Games like Hearthstone have been criticized for relying too heavily on RNG when it comes to cards. How does Fable Fortune circumvent this to provide more skill-based games?

This is something that we really took to heart during the design process. We made efforts to remove as much unnecessary randomness from the game as possible so that players felt like they were winning games by making the best decisions rather than just by rolling the right number on an invisible dice.

The Guard mechanic is a good example of this. In Fable Fortune, you can spend some resources each turn to place one of your units in Guard. This forces your opponent to destroy that unit before they can attack your Hero or other units. Having access to Guard each turn means that you’re able to rely on your wits to defend yourself, rather than just hoping that a defensive card is already in your hand or waiting on top of your deck.

How have you dealt with PvP mode, specifically with regard to issues like matchmaking, connection quality and so on? What updates can players look forward to in the future?

A solid PvP experience was a big priority for us. We put a lot of effort into developing our matchmaking systems, which we are now being refining as we head through Early Access to ensure that we strike a good balance between match quality and matchmaking time. Similarly, match stability and connection speed is something that we have a keen eye on to ensure a smooth experience for our players.

We’re committed to making Fable Fortune the best card game that it can be. We have a pretty extensive list of features and content that we want to add to the game in the future. You can check out our dev roadmap to see what we’re currently working on and what’ll be added further down the line.

"The team all spend time reading the various forums, reviews, and support tickets to make sure we hear everything that players are saying about the game. It’s addictive!"

What can you tell us about the co-op mode and its contents? Are you planning other unique modes and experiences for players (like perhaps a solo campaign)?

In co-op mode, you and a friend (or a helpful stranger!) team up and take it in turns to fight against a villainous boss from the darker corners of Albion, like the Lady of Rosewood or Nostro from Fable I. You share a single board of units, so if you play a Feral Squirrel on your turn then I can use it to maul the boss’ face when my turn comes around. It’s a great way to introduce new players to the game as you can teach them the ropes using our in-built suggestion systems while you work together towards a common goal.

The response to co-op so far has been fantastic and our players are always asking for new bosses to take on. Something else that has come up often is that players want a single player story mode so they can learn more about our Heroes and their role in the Fable universe. This is something that we’re really excited about as well, so we’ve shifted it up our list of priorities based on the feedback that we’ve received. Watch this space!

Can you tell us about some of the special events and PvP leagues that players can partake in? What are the challenges of hosting these while the game is in early access?

Each month heralds the start of a brand new PvP season. You can compete against other players in PvP battles to climb through a series of PvP leagues. Ascending through the leagues earns you card packs or high rarity cards which you can use to expand your collection.

We also have a regular rotation of events that you can participate in to win cards. These events all have mutators which mess with the rules of the game. For example, giving all characters with mustaches bonus stats, or making cats explode and deal damage to your opponent when they are destroyed. These events are a great way to let off some steam between hardcore PvP or co-op sessions. When you’re in Early Access, it can be a challenge to run multiple events while ensuring both good match quality and speedy matchmaking times. This is where those matchmaking controls that I mentioned earlier come into effect, which so far have eased these problems significantly.

With all the complexities that a CCG presents, how will early access help the development team to iron out bugs? What kind of timetable have you set for those who enter early access with the game?

The team all spend time reading the various forums, reviews, and support tickets to make sure we hear everything that players are saying about the game. It’s addictive! Being in Early Access is hugely important to us because it gives us a chance to gather important feedback from our most dedicated players. This lets us realign our priorities to make sure that we’re putting the most effort into what the community is asking us for. We’re looking at remaining in Early Access/Game Preview for 3-6 months while we gather feedback and make improvements before we transition into a free-to-play Open Beta.

Though we’re still a ways off from a full launch, are you currently planning additional cards and heroes in the future?

Absolutely. New content is the lifeblood of any good card game, so we already have 100 new cards and two brand new Heroes lined up to join our existing roster of six. Pretty soon in the live game we’re going to start adding roughly one new card every week that will be up for grabs as prizes from upcoming PvP seasons and co-op challenges. They’ll also be available from card packs if you don’t manage to pick them up just by playing. We think this constant flow of new content will be vital in ensuring that the meta-game is always evolving and you always have new cards that you want to add to your collection.

"It’s always hard to predict the console market. The Xbox One X is certainly a serious piece of hardware."

The game will be receiving Xbox One X support. Is native 4K and 60 frames per second on the cards?

That’s definitely what we’ll be shooting for. This work is pretty early in the planning stages, but we’ve done some initial testing and will be digging deeper once the dust settles on our Early Access/Game Preview launch to see what we can do there.

Xbox One X features a high end GPU. What kind of benefits does it give to developers compared to the Xbox One?

Ultimately, the added oomph of the GPU included with the Xbox One X will be pivotal in providing a smooth 4K experience. The greatly increased number of pixels in an Ultra HD display means that a lot more lighting and effects calculations need to be performed before presenting the final image to the player. The fact that the new GPU is nearly 4 times as fast makes this a possibility.

The Xbox One X features plenty of RAM too. 9 out 12GB is available to developers…which is undoubtedly more than the average found in gaming PCs. How has this helped you?

Unlike in a desktop PC the Xbox One and Xbox One X enjoy a shared memory architecture. This means the memory can be divided between the CPU and GPU as the developers need. When bringing the title to Ultra HD resolutions we’ll need the increased memory on the GPU in order to make room for higher resolution textures for crystal clear images.

Given that the Xbox One X is powerful in its specs, do you see a longer life cycle for it?

It’s always hard to predict the console market. The Xbox One X is certainly a serious piece of hardware. If I had to guess, I would say that this will be the last ‘update’ that we’ll see to the current generation of consoles as efforts shift towards planning for the next generation, but I could be wrong!

Now we have Fable Fortune, a collectible card game from Mediatonic and Flaming Fowl Studios developed with Microsoft’s blessing. If you’re a stickler for the world of Albion, then this is the closest you’ll get to revisiting it.

"Those who’ve played Hearthstone or even Gwent will know the drill."

The utter charm of the game’s art-style sticks out and looks incredibly sleek even in the game’s Early Access state. For people like me who never really got into the Fable universe, many of the more elaborate references may go over their heads. At this stage, there isn’t too much of a story to cling on to but I can appreciate the personalities on offer.

As noted, Fable Fortune is a collectible card game. Those who’ve played Hearthstone or even Gwent will know the drill. Earn card packs, customize decks or choose from six pre-made deck types that are represented by heroes. There’s the Gravedigger, Knight, Alchemist and Shapeshifter among others, each possessing their own cards. Heroes have the distinction of possessing special abilities and can also earn unique cards. From there, you enter a battle, choosing four cards to start with.

Three Gold is doled out at the beginning of the match which is used to dispense your cards onto the field of battle (better cards require more Gold, which is earned as the battle progresses). Each card has an Attack and Health rating along with unique functions. Some are straightforward like Stunning Slash which deals 1 damage to an enemy unit and applies the Stun effect. Others like the Debt Collector deals damage to a unit and upon surviving, provides a single piece of Gold to you. Coupled with the sheer range of cards for each hero type (with over 250 cards in total) and varying play-styles, there’s quite the diversity at launch.

"What is about Fable Fortune that sets it apart from the pack? As it turns out, quite a lot."

You can also customize decks, choosing a hero type and selecting the cards you want. This allows Neutral cards to come into play as well and Fable Fortune will let you save up to eight decks in this fashion. Of course, for any hardcore CCG player, this is all standard fare. What is it about Fable Fortune that sets it apart from the pack? As it turns out, quite a lot. Along with training, you can either indulge in PvP or enter a co-op challenge.

The co-op challenge is meant for PvE players and cobbles two players together as they battle a single AI “boss” of sorts. Organize tactics with your partner is the key to winning. If you’re not in the mood to actually talk to your partner, it’s possible to tap cards on their deck as suggestions to play. This is a pretty unique approach but if you don’t want to listen or become incapable of communicating, then you’ll both ultimately lose.

Other unique features include the ability to choose quests before starting a match. There are three to select from at the start and they’re pretty simple to execute. Spend gold on units, use your hero’s ability a set number of times and so on. By the time the quest is resolved, you can choose a Good or Evil path which either confers extra damage to an ability depending on a target’s health or grants life drain if a target is killed respectively.

"Fable Fortune may not reinvent the wheel when it comes to collectible card games but it offers a unique universe with compelling mechanics…"

Prove your allegiance to either side three times and it will be possible to morph some cards for more noble (or diabolical) purposes. This provides even more variety to the experience and is a neat little twist to the established CCG formula. While choosing a specific path doesn’t exactly have as far-reaching moral effects as in the Fable games, it’s still a unique property that gives Fable Fortune some added flavour.

As an Early Access game, Fable Fortune still has a lot of content planned like a proper Tutorial System, more arenas and bosses, more cards, daily bounties and so on. What’s currently here is pretty well polished though more in-depth tutorials would have certainly been appreciated. Also, while the co-op challenge is a unique and fun mode that rewards coordination and teamwork, I did wish for a 1 v 1 mode against the AI just to operate on my own. Even a questing mode with its own story would have been a major plus. I am looking forward to the Special Events though which offer unique rules to further mix up gameplay.

Fable Fortune may not reinvent the wheel when it comes to collectible card games but it offers a unique universe with compelling mechanics, strategic card battling and a rewarding system that benefits all hero types. Whether this will convince those who aren’t normally into CCGs to actually give them a shot remains to be seen. For those who are interested, Fable Fortune is very polished with fairly good performance. I’m looking forward to how it shapes up over the coming months especially when it makes the transition to open beta.

This game was previewed on PC.