Kingdom Death: Monster vs Aeon Trespass: Odyssey

REVIEW

 I've read a lot of reviews on ATO, and often they start with the disclaimer that "I have played / not played Kingdom Death: Monster". Not sure how helpful this will be, but I thought I'd write my ATO review as someone who is very familiar with KDM.

 I've gone through so many KDM campaigns (both successful and not so successful) that I've lost count of them. I have all the expansions from the first kickstarter and went all-in on the second kickstarter. KDM is still my favorite game and I'm looking forward to the Gambler's Chest and everything else (it's just a shame I have to wait so long).

 As for ATO, I initially invested in it to keep me occupied while waiting for the second KDM kickstarter to arrive, as I already knew Poots would be developing KDM for a long time (although I had no idea it would be that long). I ordered just the base, thinking it would just be a KDM in an ancient Greek setting; practically a reskin. I'm now 30 days into the ATO campaign and I'm happy to report that I was wrong.

 The key difference lies in the names of the games themselves. Kingdom Death: Monster focuses on monsters. Every year you choose which of the available monsters to fight, prepare for the battle with all your might and then fight. After the battle (if you won, of course), you process the carcass, take the resources obtained by sweat and blood back to the settlement, and next year everything is repeated. The plot here is gloomy, dark, scattered with crumbs throughout the campaign. The story consists of events and situations that you remember; For example, how one survivor died a terrible death and the other survived against all odds. You yourself shape the plot during the game, create the history of your settlement and your survivors. Rando Calrissian was sent to the company of 3 other newcomers to certain death as cannon fodder, but he acquired acid palms and tore monster after monster to pieces with his bare hands and teeth. Athena Topless refused to wear the breastplate, but still endured blow after blow, year after year. Of all the games I know of, Kingdom Death is the best at generating stories like this.

 And Aeon Trespass: Odyssey is a long, painstakingly crafted journey with a great story and plenty of adventure. There's a complete story waiting for you and as much art as you can find in almost any interpreter, including even other games with long campaigns. While there are elements of choose-your-own-adventure to the story, overall the narrative is fixed. Yes, you'll be fighting Primal monsters on a regular basis, but the fights are just a means to an end, and they mostly happen at intervals. They are needed to test your readiness for the troubles ahead and to provide you with resources for ship and equipment upgrades. In general, everything is focused on the plot. We spent about 60% of our time exploring the world around us and doing storybook adventures.

 Of course, ATO's mechanics are heavily inspired by KDM - especially the AI decks and Primordial body parts - but these mechanics are applied in a very different way than in KDM. All the KDM mechanics help you prepare for the next battle with the monster, and all the ATO mechanics (at least the ones I've seen so far) help the plot. So these two games do not compete with each other, but occupy different niches in my collection. ATO is clearly inspired by KDM, but it's a different game at the same time. However, in terms of difficulty of mastering and amount of fiddling, ATO even surpasses KDM. For me, this is not a minus, just a statement of fact.

 Overall, KDM is a game that encourages you to create your own stories and memorable moments, while ATO is an adventure that awaits you (and a great adventure, in my opinion). In KDM, you're fascinated by crafting new gear, settlement development, and stories from the lives (and deaths) of your people. In ATO, you are fascinated by adventure, exploration of the surrounding world, and story progression. It can be said that in KDM the plot unfolds mainly on a micro level, while in ATO it is mainly on a macro level: an epic narrative that tells a ready-made story (however, during the campaign you will have to make decisions, so that your story will differ from that of other players).

 If you haven't played either and are thinking of getting one, I hope you found my review helpful. The decision should be made based on what kind of plot you are interested in, but you can also choose based on the attractiveness of the setting; both games are great and deserve places in the collection.

 I will not consider what I would choose if I could only choose one thing; KDM is still my favorite game of all time, but I'm so glad I owned ATO and was wrong to assume it was going to be a KDM clone. My only disappointment with ATO so far is that I didn't order cycles 4 and 5 during the kickstarter campaign and now I have to spend more on them.