Impressions from Clank! Catacombs

 I have mixed feelings about Clank. When I wrote about it before, my opinions ranged from "newbie-friendly and thoughtful deckbuilding hybrid" to "threadbare mechanics, too many turns wasted." I haven't played the other games in the series: Clank! In! Space!, Clank from legacy and add-ons. Of the games from this author, Paul Dennen, I was much more attracted to Dune: Empire.

 That's why Clank! Catacombs reminded me of reuniting with an old friend - or rather, an acquaintance - who has become a lot cooler over the years. Although maybe I just changed. Already after five minutes it became obvious that the old friend, as before, is a little strange and strange.

 If you've played Clank, you'll get the hang of it quickly; at the heart of its Clank! Catacombs is practically the same game. You are a thief breaking into a tomb to steal as much treasure as possible (good thing you have a bottomless sack) before the local dragon turns you into toast. This is a game about stealthy movement through the catacombs ... well, implemented quite abstractly. It's just that certain actions - for example, beating a skeleton or a runner with catacombs - cause a noise that adds the corresponding dice to the dragon's bag. Periodically, you pull a few cubes from the bag and someone can get hurt. Little by little, the wounds accumulate (well, besides the dragon in the catacombs, there are other dangers). Some thieves successfully escape with the loot, others are less fortunate. And some die at the very exit, which is almost as profitable as escaping alive. After all, why do you need legs if you're rich?

 Clank has some pretty exciting mechanics: a mix of try-your-luck with deckbuilding, which can seem strange and random, but at the same time is very addicting. Unlike most deckbuilders, here your deck randomly inflates as you find companions, treasures, magic books, and all the junk you bought on the market simply because there was a free action and there was nothing else to do. There are very few ways to clear your deck, so the trash cards you start with will likely stick with you for the rest of your adventure. Sometimes it's annoying, especially at the start, when, with bad timing, you can drop a bucket into the depths of Moria and wake up a scaly lair just because you stood very noisily in place. However, this is Clank. All its pros and cons have been preserved.

 With one exception - by card. A beautifully thought out map.

 The map represents Clank! Catacombs are catacombs, and definitely deserve a special mention and an exclamation point. The idea is generally simple: you do not lay out a ready-made map, but gradually explore the tomb, opening tile by tile. Each tile has eight tunnels that loop around each other, bend in unexpected directions, or lead down deeper into the catacombs. There are also blocked tunnels that can be opened with the help of another innovation - the unlocking of a resource useful for moving. You will also encounter monsters that will bite you if you do not kill them. In addition to empty rooms, you will come across a variety of treasures: from small ones that give minor bonuses to large ones that need to be extracted from the chest with the help of picks, and dungeon prisoners that make it easier to find new loot. The game also has rooms that reset your movement points, markets where you can buy goods, portals for fast travel.

 In general, the effect is impressive. In the original Clank, everything was pretty much the same, but with a fixed map, you quickly found optimal routes, safe tunnels, and places to avoid. Here you are wandering in the dark. You can walk through a tunnel for a long time and then get stuck, you can encounter three monsters, although you expected to meet only one, you can wander into the deepest catacombs in search of a portal. And now you have finally found the desired tile! The dragon is getting closer. You are bleeding. You haven't been to the market for a long time. You can jump into the portal right now... but there's some valuable loot waiting for you just around the corner. One more step down that corridor and you'll have enough treasure to win. After all, everything will work out for you, right?

 I'm not sure what happened: whether Clank improved or I softened and grew to love this random mix of deckbuilding and hand management. Certainly, the innovations make Clank more interesting. I would even say that you should look at deckbuilding in a new way. On a fixed map, it was easy to find yourself in a crazy situation where you were dropped cards with no movement. In the new Clan, this is also possible, but the role of randomness has decreased. You are fighting on several fronts at the same time: with your trash deck, with the map, with the prospect of having a valuable artifact snatched from under your nose, even with your own greed. Please note that for the artifacts that give the most points, you will have to climb into the deepest tunnels. Previously, for a safe return to the surface, it was necessary to monitor how many cells there were before the exit, and also hope for the mercy of randomness. Now there is a new layer of strategy - tangled deep tunnels: how to move through them in the optimal way to push a pile of treasures and return to a safe place before the dragon roasts you all?

 And then someone puts a card on the market that forces everyone to return the tile where they are. The labyrinth rearranged itself. Your plans are ruined. And yet it is so thematic that there is no point in getting upset about it. Altered dungeons are fun. Clank has always tried to be a fun game, but it has failed in the past.

 Overall, as I said before, Clank! Catacombs is very similar to the controversial original from 2016. Almost the same types of cards, the same dependence of your health on the noise you make, the same gameplay.

 But I prefer to lay out Clank! Catacombs. Not sure if it beats the original head on, but it's more fleshed out and with more interesting dungeon exploration. Looks like Dennen can do more than just Dune.