Review Descent: Legends of the Dark – The Betrayer's War
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PLOT
The Betrayer's War takes place after the events of Tales of Darkness. If you don't have a completed Tales of Darkness campaign saved, you'll have to go through a "short" (if the rulebook is to be believed) cut-scene before the game, which is actually 40 minutes long, making choices, making decisions, etc. .Keep that in mind.
The adventures of our group began with the pursuit of a thief in a watchtower. After that, the plot becomes more open; we are trying to capture the locations of the various factions scattered across Terrinoth to help Waikar the Betrayer defend Terrinoth from the dragons and Uthuk I'Lan.
We haven't finished the campaign yet, but it feels like Traitor's War is paying more attention to each individual hero and the group as a whole. The story of each character is better developed than in Tales of Darkness. Moreover, what is especially pleasing, it is woven into the gameplay. Scenarios not only focus on individual heroes, but often change their playstyle in new fan-made ways. In particular, with the help of upgrade cards, which are tied to new types of tokens; For example, darkness (umbra), curtain (shroud). The first gives special bonuses to certain characters (yes, Chance will learn to essentially teleport), and the second allows you to dodge the character's target enemies.
Regarding the components. In "Traitor's War" new, experienced versions of the heroes we know appear, and the bad ones also look great. Some plot enemies have their own special minion, and they appear more than once throughout the story. There is also a giant, impressive dragon miniature. And a new three-dimensional terrain that is used in various scenarios. I will not spoil much; I'll just say that the first three scenarios manage this terrain in very interesting ways.
The authors perfectly integrated the plot into the script. We encountered many scenarios where it was interesting to follow the development of the plot from beginning to end. Traitor's War makes even more use of the program's narrative capabilities, interactive terrain, miniatures, and other components.
There are many dialogues here. In some scenarios they tie in well with the action (which I like), but others will have a bunch of dialogue at the beginning and/or end. Not that this is a serious flaw, but sometimes annoying; After all, we have a board in front of us, and players want to play, not read. So while overall the story is good, sometimes (but not very often) it slows the game down excessively, which isn't very nice considering each scenario takes 2+ hours.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay in "Traitor's War" changes in an ambiguous way, as far as I'm concerned. What I loved about Tales of Darkness was that it was actually a light hearted version of Bleak Harbor. Ditto for parties with natives who aren't ready/willing to delve into the deep strategies of Bleak Harbor. "Fables", on the other hand, offered similar impressions of fantasy adventures (and looked much more solid on the table) without too many problems. I explained the rules very quickly: "You just move and then attack or explore."
In Traitor's War, players have so many options from the very beginning that it feels overwhelming. Descent's gameplay isn't as deep as that of Bleak Harbor, so it's hard for newcomers to remember and effectively use the stacks of cards that are immediately thrown at them. Managing experience cards won't be a problem for Tales of Darkness veterans, but keep in mind that introducing newcomers to the game through this campaign will be difficult.
CONCLUSIONS
If you want an enhanced and larger version of Tales of Darkness, then Traitor's War is for you. The plot is better intertwined with the gameplay, the new versions of the old heroes are more interesting, the villains are more interesting, the scenarios are also interesting and varied, the decisions you make have more significant consequences. Beginners, however, will have a hard time at first, but if you add 1-2 new players to your group, then by the end of the first scenario, they will most likely get the hang of it.