You could bear in mind from my Tainted Grail evaluate from a number of years in the past that I used to be really extra excited to play Etherfields than I used to be Tainted Grail on the time.

So having had Etherfields in my possession for therefore lengthy, why is it taking me till simply now to each play and evaluate this recreation?

Good query!

The lengthy and wanting it’s that this recreation confronted and uphill battle with me from the start. And this wrestle was actual and never factor.

But first, let’s discuss in regards to the recreation itself.

What precisely is Etherfields?

It was initially panned as a Dreambuilder—that’s to say, a deck builder fashion recreation that could be a persistent-world marketing campaign set in a world of goals. It was fairly a catchy theme and advertising and marketing gadget again then, and in a method it nonetheless is. 

The Kickstarter description was intentionally enigmatic in its descriptions, which made it each one way or the other complicated when it comes to what to anticipate from gameplay in addition to concurrently charming and mesmerizing. It just isn’t fairly often that the advertising and marketing fanfare can pull on my curiousity in such a style.

However, inside these misty descriptions lurked a creature of chaos and disappointment. Much of what I used to be to come back to expertise from Etherfields was simply as structurally in-cohesive as dream itself. 

Now I can’t go into vivid element for the principles, as there are (now) loads of movies and FAQs that delve into that higher than I can, and extra to the purpose, I do really feel it could be a waste of time. 

What can in actual fact be stated is that every participant will selected one among 4 characters (or 5-6, in case you bought the reaper or thorn knight expansions) every with considerably distinctive beginning decks and talents. You are then set about in uncovering the thriller of why you might be all trapped on this dreamworld, a shadowy and warped reflection of actuality the place you don’t have any reminiscence in anyway.

The most important (base degree recreation) characters out there are the :

Tough Guy—a warrior, brute power sort

Specialist—gradual and methodical, however sensible and highly effective long run capabilities

Free Spirit—bends the principles of the sport to her benefit

Gambler—grasp of alternative and taking an opportunity

The very first thing that I seen when opening the Wave 1 materials from Kickstarter a number of years in the past have been the abundance of care that wanted to be taken in sorting and arranging the sport playing cards and tiles. Hundreds of playing cards that can’t be checked out to keep away from spoiler content material, however every needing to be meticulously sorted in an alpha numerical style ( I-01A, I-01B, I-01C, I-02A….II-01A…II-15A…and many others).

Not realizing intuitively how the sport is to be organized and sorted, your first time round it is vitally a lot a problem simply getting issues as a way to play the sport the primary time. And this isn’t one thing that modifications in any respect by way of the bottom recreation’s 40+ hours of recreation time, as you can be always needing to take out and place again recreation tiles in very particular preparations. My first level of statement is that this may really result in fairly a little bit of downtime when within the midst of fixing goals in the course of a recreation, and even firstly of 1—simply if you lastly thought you had the sport arrange, you might abruptly have to fluctuate up the board once more!

Now that the sport has been mildly synopsized, we are able to speak about how we really feel in regards to the recreation.

And I need to say that total, I’m personally fairly dissatisfied, as is my gaming group.

On a person degree, I bear in mind my pleasure for this recreation on Kickstarter (and in my Tainted Grail evaluate) and whereas I can say that from a advertising and marketing standpoint, they introduced Etherfields in such an enigmatic method that one couldn’t assist however be sucked into their world. 

All in all, the sport has failed to fulfill my expectations, and in the end feels extra like a nightmare than a dream in lots of instances.

Let us delve extra into these shortcomings :

First issues first, whereas the sport itself pertains to goals, one factor I all the time count on to be clear are the principles , which on this case are something however lucid and sadly simply as dreamy of their presentation because the theme itself!

I feel we could have a contender for the worst Rulebook design ever. And that claims one thing. 

And it actually doesn’t take a number of effort and looking on the ‘internet to find that many different individuals really feel the identical method.

When I first bought the sport in my palms two years in the past, I considered delving straight into the sport, however the rule ebook was complicated sufficient even then that I made a decision to place off studying the sport till issues have been rectified. Because there was already backlash towards the sport guide’s first version, which led to them saying they might create a brand new rule ebook to ship out with the Wave 2 content material, and two years later, the “revised” guidelines (which have been designed to additionally tackle sure gameplay considerations in addition to be extra “clear”) are right here and simply as complicated as the primary version. And in some methods, the revisions create extra issues in what they meant to “fix” within the recreation stability, maybe going too far within the different route to rectify issues…

Really, the sport is a multitude to be taught and kind by way of. There are so many cases the place the guide itself does an insufficient job of explaining sure issues, and whereas to a level that is to be anticipated (the sport tries to show you whilst you play it), there are simply such a plethora of eventualities that left us scratching our heads that it was—and nonetheless is—very off placing. 

The quantity of effort we put into distinguishing between Slumbers vs Dreams and Dreamscapes, and when to set sure tiles up vs take them out actually measures as much as misplaced time in our lives. Even defining one thing so simple as “discarding” had us questioning ourselves time and time once more as to what the creators’ intention was with tips on how to deal with such a seemingly “simple” process. 

Truth be instructed, there are various participant created sources that do a greater job of presenting the principles than Awaken Realms has, and this shouldn’t be the case. 

Even after “thinking” I understood the principles, I ended up having to look at a 90 minute setup tutorial simply to ensure I accurately bought the gist of issues. And normally I’m the kind that all the time insists on solely utilizing written procedures as a result of I do really feel these are essentially the most vital elements to get proper.

Then there’s the horrible recreation board format, which also needs to get an award for worst design ever. 

And this adversely impacts issues in lots of respects. Because the tile and playing cards are each small and comprise textual content that’s equally minuscule. Compound this with the aforementioned poor board format and you’ve got a state of affairs the place all of the pertinent maps and playing cards are so equally far-off from everybody that nearly nobody can discern what the playing cards say, what actions could be executed on them and many others, with out displacing all of the tokens and minis on them and selecting them up.

And that doesn’t even rely all the “small” playing cards which are typically superimposed over the tiles at oddly skewed angles,which in the event that they ever turn into disoriented, can provide a really completely different illustration of what actions could be executed there.

Heaven forbid that you simply purchased sleeves that add glare to make issues much more unreadable on the map. 

Seriously, did anybody play check with the unique board, how did this go unnoticed? If you look right here, many individuals are even reducing up the unique board to make their very own , extra usable modular boards, and I quantity amongst these individuals.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2543019/modular-board

One of the principle criticisms individuals have of Tainted Grail is that there are cases the place it feels “grindy” , and Etherfields isn’t any completely different in sure conditions (Slumbers and strolling on the Dream Map). However, not like Tainted Grail, with out a central narrative to carry it collectively, Etherfields begins to collapse, basically turning into nothing greater than a sequence of one-off eventualities the place you might be simply attempting to see what the following “Dream” is.

And don’t get me unsuitable, each single Dream is radically completely different than the others which are introduced. Some have you ever attempting to catch cockroaches, others coping with being chased down by canines, and so they all function vastly completely different mechanics the place the playing cards you’ve gotten can all the time be utilized in distinctive methods relying on the Dream you might be in.

But seeing how the following dream is “different” is about all there’s to sit up for within the base recreation.

Realistically, individuals count on to bond with their character if they’re going to be in a 40+ hour marketing campaign with them. With virtually zilch when it comes to character growth, it’s actually exhausting to search out the justification to push ahead on this recreation. And this actually additional highlights some extent I made in Tainted Grail, which I rated solely about 7 out of 10 within the gameplay division. However, the sport was compelling sufficient to see by way of to its finish. We felt no such compulsion in Etherfields. This solely exemplifies how important a central story is binding a marketing campaign recreation.

Worse, the trail to the top of the sport (there’s an ending) can really be destroyed in case you unlucky sufficient to misread the principles and add/take away the unsuitable playing cards/objects from the sport. And as famous the alternatives to make such errors are plentiful.

And whereas I completely cherished shopping for and portray all of the minis in Arena : The Contest and even Tainted Grail, normally all the additional minis I bought for Etherfields felt fairly uninspiring and due to this fact ineffective given the frequency issues wanted to be shifted out and in of play. We simply modified to utilizing tokens to avoid wasting time ultimately.

What Etherfields promised was a “Dreambuilder” sort of deck constructing dungeon crawl (which was considerably stylistically excessive on my checklist of “wants” in future recreation designs in case you ever learn my Mage Knight evaluate), however this ended up falling flat in its implementation. I suppose we must wait to see the final word achievement of my dream.

I want that I may evaluate a recreation solely on its creative benefit, as a result of that’s the place the sport actually delivers. The artwork completely sucks you into the world with its ethereal, macabre vibe and actually is likely one of the most important causes I purchased into Etherfields throughout its crowdfunding.

Alas, I can not fee a recreation solely on its creative worth, and nor can I ignore evident flaws. Etherfields will get hit exhausting the place it issues most, the gameplay, which is simply too muddied by lack of fine implementation of guidelines and supplies in addition to lack of compelling narrative. In the top , it finally ends up struggling the identical type of Kickstarter bloat that I described in Dungeons of Infinity, and solely goes to indicate that merely raking in tens of millions of {dollars} of funds doesn’t make the inherently superior recreation.

Final Score 

6/10