Pros

• Mystery adventure game
• Pop-up book style rooms
• Artwork
• Developers project management experience
• Price
• RPG Lite

Cons

• Replayability
• New Kickstarter company
• RPG Lite

The Page

So I point out in the cons that this is a new kickstarter company, but looking at the layout of everything, this isn’t someone who isn’t familiar with Kickstarter, they clearly know what they are doing with the layout, the graphics, the shipping, and everything, so while it’s always a con, I think it’s more of a con because it might be delayed more than some other Kickstarters, not because I worry about them not fulfilling.

I like the diversity in the cast of characters in the game as well. It’s better than a lot of games where it’s your standard fantasy cast. They seem like fun characters and a good group to play with. While I’d definitely say they fall into tropes for RPG’s, I think that works well.

But let’s chat about this RPG element a little bit. This is something that always concerns me in these type of games. I know that T.I.M.E. Stories has this as well as a kind of selling point. I think games like those can have it, but it’s generally brought by the players, it isn’t something that is inherently part of the game. Unless you’re talking about dice rolling for checks, which really isn’t an RPG element to me, I get that’s where it comes from, but not enough to be called that.

Back or Brick

This one is a tough one for me. The game looks beautiful, but I need to sit down and watch videos as to how this plays and see people’s thoughts on it, because I worry about the game element itself. With that said, I think that the price point is amazing and the game, even without it ever being played, is such a beautiful piece of artwork that it probably could be bought and displayed just for that. I think I’d more likely be in on this game with less hesitation if my kid wasn’t a toddler right now and was 7 or 8 years old. I worry that it might just be one that sits on the shelf for a while until that point in time, which is 5-6 years down the line. I have it notifying me for the final 48 hours, and I’m going to be keeping an eye on it, plus, GloryHoundd and DrGloryHogg are going to be discussing this one Friday as part of their weekly Kickstarter video, linked here, and I’ll be in the chat, hopefully, discussing it with them and hearing other peoples thoughts to help me figure out my own. Right now it’s a brick, but that’s mainly because I want to look into it more, but I could easily see this switching to a back.

How about for you, is this a game that looks interesting to you? Are you going to back it?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.

According to the Kickstarter page, Down to Hell is a faithful reproduction of hack and slash video games put into board game form.

Pros

• It’s not just standees, so they aren’t trying to make $2 million just on that
• Skill tree
• Feels like Diablo the board game
• Scenario based

Cons

• Cooperative and competitive
• Claims to have new mechanics
• Feels like Diablo the board game

Thoughts on the Page
For a first time Kickstarter company, they are doing a good job of laying out the page in a way that makes sense. fairly often being a first time company is a red flag for me, but they’ve clearly put time into doing this and have made it looked polished and professional. That’s why I didn’t put the first time company as either a pro or a con, because they seem like they know Kickstarter fairly well. And they’ve clearly planned it out well in terms of what they can afford and by not making everything minis shows good restraint on their behalf.

However, I do want to address some issues that I see with how they present the game. First, this is clearly a Diablo ripoff, and that’s fine, if they make it unique enough. But I feel like they haven’t, not just from Diablo, but from board games like Gloomhaven and others as well. Nothing I read through remotely suggests that they have new mechanics in the game and that’s a problem. It makes me wonder how much they’ve played board games or if they are video game fans who wanted to try and make a video game a board game.

Back or Brick
For me, this is a brick. I think the concept of the game sounds interesting, but I am very worried about it being derivative of a number of games both board and video. And a claim that it has new mechanics, that makes me worried that they’ve played maybe 10-15 different games, few of them dungeon crawlers and so they think they’re doing something really new, when in reality they are doing something that is going to feel old. Now, I don’t want to assume to much, but that was the feel of the game for me, it could be good, but this screams of a risky back to me, not of it coming out, but that you’re going to end up with a good and balanced game that doesn’t feel like it’s been done a ton before and better.

Is this a game that you’d back or is it a brick?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.