A shining example
MASSIVE DARKNESS 2: HELLSCAPE
Designer: Alex Olteanu & Marco Portugal | Publisher: CMON Global Limited
WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
◗ 6
Hero dashboards
◗ 6 Hero bases
◗ 18 Level pegs
◗ 18 Dice
◗ 6 Hero miniatures and cards
◗ Spell amulet dashboard
◗ Elements dashboard
◗ 4 Element trackers
◗ 2 Spirit references cards
◗ Frost spirit token
◗ Flame spirit token
◗ Shaman effect cards
◗ Berserker dashboard
◗ 14 Ranger arrow cards
◗ Paladin dashboard
◗ 3 Consecration tokens
◗ Thieving tools bag
◗ 24 Rogue tokens
◗ 2 Rogue effects cards
◗ Stance token
◗ 8 Double-sided game tiles
◗ Darkness marker
◗ Darkness Tracker board
◗ Double-sided boss dashboard
◗
62 Enemy miniatures
◗ 78 Skill cards
◗ 220 Item cards
◗ 24 Mob cards
◗ 12 Roaming monster cards
◗ 30 Door cards
◗ 6 Shadowbane set cards
◗ 2 Bridge tokens
◗ 6 Level tokens
◗ Treasure bag
◗ 313 Gameplay tokens
Massive Darkness 2 is not the straightforward sequel that fans of the original might have expected. While the game retains its dungeon crawler origins, the base game of Massive Darkness 2 is no longer a campaign. Instead, it is made up of a series of scenarios with pre-determined layouts and different objectives. Refreshingly, the objectives expand beyond ‘kill all the enemies’ type of scenario.
However, the true excitement of Massive Darkness 2 comes from the characters. Gone are the days when asymmetric abilities, different equipment and levelling up generates enough excitement in gameplay for several hours at a time. Sure, Massive Darkness 2 has that too, but it also takes a step beyond that. Characters don’t simply come with their own strengths and weakness, their play style is dramatically different, creating their own mini games within the shell of the dungeon crawler. Ranger, for example, uses a push-your-luck mechanism for its ranged attacks. When they fire an arrow, the player turns over cards from their dedicated deck, trying to get seven arrow signs. They can stop drawing cards whenever they want, but if they get less than seven, the attack is also not as powerful. Overshoot and get more than seven arrows, and the attack gains bad consequences. Yet, hit the bullseye – precisely seven arrows – and you get to deal powerful, deadly, amounts of damage to the enemy. Shaman uses resource management mechanics, to manipulate elements to add powerful bonuses to his attack. Wizard uses a rondel to cast their spells, which can be upgraded over time. Rogue uses a draw bag to pull out modifiers to their actions and manipulates the contents of their bag as the game progresses.
While the core mechanisms for each character are easy to understand and execute, their synergy with character ability cards grows as they level up during the scenario. There is also a good variety of abilities, so from game to game, players can play each class differently. Depending on the scenario, the character can go from level one to level five in one sitting, allowing players to experience the whole breadth of their capabilities across a single mission. This is largely why the scenario style structure makes absolute sense for Massive Darkness 2. As every character is so different, you want to try them all and individual self-contained scenarios allow players to do that without starting a whole new campaign.
The enemies also rise to the challenge of the formidable heroes. Each enemy has their own attacks and behaviour, some of which are enhanced through randomly drawn equipment that the characters will get if they defeat that foe. The enemies go from mob monsters with simple, predictable mechanics to wandering monsters and bosses that have unique and powerful attacks and moves. All enemies are, of course, represented by stunningly detailed miniatures of all sizes that make for an impressive table presence.
With this sequel, Massive Darkness 2 takes a massive leap in the dungeon crawler genre. It takes the basic core of character miniatures travelling across tiles and rolling piles of dice, and elevates it into gameplay that is constantly evolving, rewarding players with new things to do and to try, while offering surprises, both welcome and challenging, every step of the way. Perhaps, the only downside of this cornucopia of goodness is that you will need to free up a lot of table space.
ALEXANDRA SONECHKINA
WE SAY
An improvement on the dungeon crawler genre in every way, Massive Darkness 2 offers plenty of variety and evolving gameplay, while remaining accessible to players of all levels of experience.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED MASSIVE DARKNESS...
It is rare to see a sequel that expands so much on the platform of the original. Massive Darkness 2 takes the base of the first game and develops into something very exciting and new.