Massive Darkness 2: Hellscape Review - with Tom Vasel
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ก.ค. 2024
- Tom Vasel takes a look at Massive Darkness 2!!
Intro 0:00
Overview 1:43
Final Thoughts 19:30
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BGG Link: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3... - เกม
Thank you for doing a review of just the base box .
Tom is the master of boiling it all down and putting it into layman's terms. And I usually agree with him. This one just looks FUN...something we lose track of in the hibby somehow. Thanks, Tom. Intrigued by the option to just play scarios or get the book.
you need to bring in that promised sound engineer!
Great review and thanks Tom! Good points for set up and the fun!
Awesome! My wife and I are absolutely loving this one, so I'm really happy to hear it's a hit with your family and at the studio.
Thank you for the review Tom!!
I love this game and I love painting the amazing miniatures. They definitely improved from the first one. So glad I backed this one.
Great review, although for 1/4 of the video, it sounded like Tom was underwater with some mic/audio issues. Wasn’t expecting this game to be such a big hit. Very interesting. I am so oversubscribed for dungeon crawls but this is intriguing.
Tom nails everything I’ve experienced in his recap. It’s a … massive… upgrade from the original. And it is FUN. #nailedit
I don't know if it was just me, but I was experiencing some pretty significant audio issues in this review
Same
This would've been a nice one for the 4-square.
Definitely
Couldn’t agree more…😁👍🏼
Cool - I'm a little more enthused now to open my copy and start painting it up.
It makes me so happy to hear you like this game so much! I haven't started playing my copy because I want to paint it first... and I went all in... hahaha
I wasn't overly excited about the Hellscape theme either. One of the extras was an add-on to convert the original Massive Darkness content to MD2 to get that more classic fantasy theme as well as a conversion pack for Zombicide Black Plague and Green Horde monsters and heroes for even more variety. Good times :)
I went all in in this just for the cheap (~$1.50/mini) minis to use in DnD as I really liked the art direction. (Never had backed CMON before. And honestly likely never will again...) I normally prefer 18xx/heavy euro style games, but was happy to discover that I like fun light dice-chuckers too!! I have no experience with other games in this genre, but my wife and I have really enjoyed this!
A little sad I have to proxy any MD1/Balck Plague content, but that's not too big a deal.
I will be painting this for the next 5years, though...
I followed my guts and went all in. Still have to play it but already had fun painting it
Played it and was totally worth it
@@nobbynobbs8182 wow you came back and updated your comment 9 months later haha
I'm still waiting for my copy to be delivered 😕 but really looking forward to it now
Sounds interesting. Btw there are some audio issues
You guys should do a review/ preview for league of dungeoneers. Looks awesome and is due to be delivered soon.
I bought this at retail and am having a blast with it. Even without the KS extras, there's a lot of content and variety in the characters. Biggest issue I have is the setup, it takes longer to setup and teardown than for me to play a solo game. In Multiplayer this doesn't bug me, but I won't play this one solo because of it.
Not problem with eldritch horror, half hour or more set up but like 3 or more hours of suffering.
I haven't seen Tom gush like this in a while 😆
Yep. I didn’t back this one as I wasn’t that impressed with the first one. But after seeing some early reviews I broke down and got the retail version, and glad I did. May be may favorite dc now, and I’ve played tons. It’s just fun! So much cool loot and abilities, yet they never get overwhelming. Difficultly is not super high, but does ramp up well, unlike the first game. Great game even just with the retail box. (Though those extra character boxes do look interesting, hmmmm…)
Can someone explain how this is different from a Imperial Assault? Looks very similar in terms of mechanics
How did he put everything in the core box? All the counters and so just don't fit in the box
I cant wait to get my copy!
Glad you reviewed this cause I no longer feel bad about not backing it. I think this game just isn't for me. There are wayyyy too many components for me. Setup seems to be a bit of a mess. I'm don't know enough people who would be patient enough to play through this with me right now.
I backed an all-in hoping it would be fun like Death May Die... Seems like it was a good bet!
Now I have to do more than unbox and organize it. :)
Im so glad you finally did the review!
I LOOOVE this game. im so happy you do too!!
Loved the value and the complete mini collection MD 1 & 2 provide. The game itself sounds fun, a big improvement, and I've got go to minis for every generic rules set or fantasy RPG.
You should be able to get the missing things in retail now. I got everything and it's really fun. You should have the upgrade kitthat allows you to combine MD1 with MD2!
also haven't noticed any of the old kickstarter exclusives included in the upgrade or crossover pack. while personally a bit disappointing, certainly makes acquiring additional content much easier for new players
Great video!
2:12
So, at the beggining of the game you get to pick between the red pill and the blue pill?
Hi Tom whats your comment on range hero attacks non-range enemies but the enemies can still attack back? I understand you always have enemy die regardless of what type of attack you do even if enemies are melee and your doing range attack.
I thought that would bother me, but it just gives you a sense of danger, and ranged attacks aren't automatically better then. I don't know, it just works for me.
Looks great.
But I stay with Descent 2ed.
This game was a hit at our house!
A lot of audio breaking up during review
Sound clipping in places
Wow shocked to hear the second one is good. The first one was so bad I immediately sold it. And I went ALL in on Kickstarter and was so disappointed. It was as if they didn’t even play test it, I’m so burned by the first one I won’t be looking to purchase the second game but I’m glad they were able to make something decent out of it because the miniatures are incredible,
i own the first massive darkness so i really dont know if i get this one, i spended a lot of money in the first one, is it worth to own both?
If you get the upgrade kit to use all your MD1 stuff in MD2 then it is totally worth it. None of your MD1 investment is lost then :)
@@herr_L. ok ty for the answer
Some audio issues this video
Imagine feeling good and powerful in a dungeon crawler.
Glad I backed this one, still haven't received it. Unfortunately just got burncycle, wish I hadn't backed it. Oh well you win some you lose some with Kickstarter.
burncycle is great. You should be able to easily sell it for what you paid. You can probably even get a bit more back.
It's more evolved than the previous one.
It doesn't seem to be a difficult rule.
This looks like fun, but the Kickstarter with shipping and VAT was just beyond me. Hopefully it goes into the DT library so I can try it when I go to a con. :)
Board game shipping is what kills Kickstarters for me
The only missing for me is exploration cards.
I'm surprised that CMON would make fragile minis given how that is their bread and butter. They know how to make good minis.
Did you just say 'cruel axe'? :D
This game is awesome. If you hated Massive Darkness 1, for any reason, you might love this one. I give it a 10/10 vs a 5.5/10 for MD1. This is a casual dice chucker, great for when you don't want to get wrapped up in a campaign.
The amount of content for this game is astronomical. Having gone all in on both 1 and 2, and having all the zombicide fantasy. Some of the zombicide characters are so strong.
That's pretty cool that you can cross play your content
@@kumanight used to be pretty common with old terrinoth/mannera boardgames, but ffg abandoned the practice for some reason
I love you guys but the audio for this review was pretty bad. Especially for a review that people are going to be excited to see :( please don’t take this comment with bad intent, big fan of the channel.
Awesome, muito legal
I am glad I decided to bet on an All-In pledge!
Boy, this sure looks like my Black Plague game. Is it by the same company?
How does this compare with the 1st one? Because in the first one the leveling was so off. On lvl 1 it was really hard, and on level 5 everything was a walk in the park.
It's a bit better. But it still has that from "Zero to Hero" mentality. Which is a feel good for the player. You want to work your way up to being powerful. It's not overly complex and punishing
Man, I love this game, I have everything for it, including everything from the first game and all Zombicide Crossovers, the amount of content is ridiculous, I hope you guys at DT have all the stuff some pf the coolest classes are from expansions, like the necromancer or the shapeshifting druid. The biggest downside is for most people it would be a little hard to get everything, if you missed the KS it's kind a huge blow. And regarding the whole angels vs demons theme it's a shout out to Diablo 3 including the expansion with the cutesy things, there's a secret world in d3 where you fight teddy bears and unicorns too.
Even if you "managed" to get the KS : The price = lol. Plus it's kilotons of plastics you'll never paint and it takes a wall to store. It's just too much.
I mean there is "too much" and then there is massive darkness 2, which is like a step above and beyond.
@@macbait9902 😆 That's the CMON model. Crowdfund More Or Never
@@VaultBoy13 Yeah I know. It's plain stupid in my opinion. I mean, everything has to be extrem nowadays.
Planet dying, inflation is going crazy everytwhere with more and more poors by the day. We're talking about how to use less plastic, but then there is the boardgame Industry, which is selling hundreds of plastic figures for hundreds and hundreds of euros.
Want to get a game ? You'd better be FOMO'd protected because otherwise everything's over 150€, going up to more than a ecking thousand euros. For a boardgame, that you'll never play all the content you bought.
People are straight crazy.
@@macbait9902 Yeah that's literally most CMON Kickstarters
The only thing I wasn’t able to get after the ks was the 3D pack because people are asking a ridiculous amount so I 3D printed replacement and even 3D walls for the dungeon and it looks great.
The first version of this game was, well, not great. It had amazing miniatures, but the gameplay of the first edition was horrible. The classes all played nearly the same, certain roaming monsters were overpowered (with some equipment), a lackluster campaign mode, and no bosses.
This version of the game took all of that feedback and made something really good. You do need to pickup the Heavenfall to get access to the campaign mode, which in this version a considerable amount of effort was put in. There are also 5 other classes that bring something different to the table, of course sold separately. Bosses really take the game into the direction of Diablo meets tabletop.
One more positive for picking this up, is that if you went all in with the previous version of the game, there is an upgrade pack currently available to take all the old heroes and monsters into this new version, albeit you will still need to have a base MD2 to play the core game to get access to the all the new class components.
Hey Tom, would you say the game is too easy? It has been an opinion that has been widely shared on BGG.
First of all, I don't think games have to be too hard. I like games that are fun. This isn't easy for me, but it's not hard. it's just right.
@@thedicetower I really appreciate your response, Tom. People can get too hung up on "hardcore games" indeed. This one looks like a fun time. I am glad to read that you don't find it too easy though.
I trusted you on Project Elite and have never regretted it :). It is a great game. I just ordered Massive Darkness 2. I am eager to try it out.
Man I’m bummed I missed this one
I heard the legendary paranormal investigator DARK STEEL is making an appearance in it?
How replayable is the game given its not a campaign?
It has a lot of replayability. There's a solid amount of sceneries and a good amount of variety between the 6 characters in the core box. CMON has released more scenarios for free online as well.
@@kumanight Thanks a lot for your input. Gotta admit I have been watching video all night since watching Tom's video. Seriously thinking of picking the game up. 2 questions for you if you don't mind ? What are your thought on difficulty? There seems to be a consensus around that it's a fairly easy game, which I don't mind as sometimes it's nice to be able to relax while gaming. Though, if it is TOO easy, my playgroup might get bored. 2nd, do you have any expansion and if so, any that are serious must have?
Highly replayable, and the devs are trickling out bonus scenarios on the official page on their site. The first game also saw a decent bit of bonus scenarios and homebrew, and if you don't want to set up a written scenario, you can always just randomly set up a dungeon, lay out some doors, an end goal, and jump in. It's an absolute blast, and much more crunchy than the original game.
I wish I could get into the Zombicide system but whatever people find fun about it, just doesn't reach me.
Perfect Diablo boardgame.
How do YOU know..?
I play Massive Darkness 2 & Diablo.
@@chrisesposito5530 Cool.
Tom I know you'll say you'll get to a review when you'll get to it but when are you all gonna review Nemesis Lockdown?
I don't think it was a good idea that the art-style for this is similar to Zombicide. Also I wonder if me and Tom are dungeon crawl compatible. I guess I need a copy of this game to find out.
Wow - first comment. Interesting Tom likes this game so much. The first game had its good points but the games were long and somehow you leveled up too fast to become too powerful.
Yum, battered leather.
The theme was a huge letdown for me.
My goty so far.
Excellent review! I agree with most of what you say, but still don't love this game. I find that combat has too many steps for a system that is still relatively simple. Worse of all, I find that this game doesn't allow for many "crazy" moments, like I get in Zombicide or Cthulhu Death May Die due to the lack of randomness, disparity of enemies and level of power that characters quickly reach. I will be selling my Kickstarter copy. I love the minis and unique characters, but ultimately, it does not create memorable moments like the aforementioned games do :(
Ouu im the 666th like? Im on a highway to hellscspe.
Great review! Enjoyed it. Personally, I think MD1 is a much better game. It's simpler and just as much of a fun monster-bashing, loot-getting game, and a zero-to-hero, one-and-done game. Glad people are digging the new one, even if I really don't like it. :)
Tom, the berserker is actually a female!
Glad it's a good one but done with CMON entirely.
oof that sound
first
Not sure how I feel about Yet Another CMON Kickstarter (^TM) where the "core" retail game is only 1/5 of the actual game and the "true" game is gated off behind $300 of Kickstarter exclusives.
Waaat?
For $100 i got so many boxes that makes no sense. Not sure your complaint applies to this game tbh. Extra content is not needed at all if you got the basic pledge
I have to agree with Micha on this. You only need the core to play and have fun. The rest is just icing. I pledged at the Heavenfall level (Core + one expansion) at around $130 and got 8 boxes. The base pledge would have been 7 boxes for $100. MD2 might have been the last CMON deal for a long while. My only regret is having to find shelf space for it.
Yeah their retail to KS ratio always seems way off. If they released this other content as expansions it wouldn't matter but some of their games they simply won't.
Core box is good value for $120 CAD. Tons of minis, lots of content. Don't miss the extras at all.
Thank you for the review.
1. There are audio problems (scratching noises) during the video.
2. If you watch the following video
th-cam.com/video/rV23IXWdDOY/w-d-xo.html
- 03:00 start from -
you get the impression that...
"NO WAY THIS GAME WORTH A SEAL OF EXCELLENCE !!(?)!"
Regarding no. 2: that guy is playing really poorly, as he’s going into a 1-on-5 battle with a low-health character who has no reroll abilities. And even still, there are resurrection tokens for just this purpose. If anything, the game skews on the “too easy” side, not too difficult.
Yeah i like dungeon dive alot, but i dont have the issues he has with it.
@@cbazler Actually Daniel (from Dungeon Dive) has a huge experience with dungeon crawlers..
I think that what bothered him the most was that THEMATICALLY, those situations which clearly weren't rare - have NO SENSE.
@@wishmeheaven How isn't it thematic? We have characters who can trigger all kinds of defensive abilities when we're attacked, so why can't the monsters? The black dice represent their own special defensive abilities. Presto, there's your theme.
What's nice about the black dice is that you are never "safe" and you always need to go into battle with something up your sleeve: a healing potion, a defensive/die-nullifying ability, rerolls, etc (in fact, the combat rerolls aren't that powerful without the black dice, as they are often the dice you have to worry about the most!)
@@cbazler You meant "What isn't thematic according to Daniel..?"
If I remember correctly, he said that somehow your armor has no effect when you're attacking, which if It's true - it sounds... At least - questionable (if not weird), and he also wondered how can a boss hit you from a distance with.....
A sword..?! 🤔
Unplayable at 6 players. They did a horrible job scaling the difficulty with more players. You start with 5-7 HP. You fight a mob with 6 creatures, 6 black die, 6 potential damage. You can die in the first round of combat--when you attack them! Has anyone actually had a successful game with 6 players?
I almost backed, but super glad I didn't. Played a friend's copy a few times and none of us liked it, with some actively disliking it. Lots of "cheap" little toys, but the game itself was suuuper boring. Thankfully he was able to sell it and make a little profit even. Sounds like plenty of people are enjoying it though, so that's always a good thing!
I've now thrown Descent in the trash.
which edition?
@@gordo6908 Tom called in and told me to throw Descent Legends Of The Dark in the trash because MD2 was better.
I've now traded it off 🤣
Oof...I think Descent is a vastly superior game, so I need to get to your house before trash day!
@@michaelmueller260 Tom called into my show and told me to throw Descent in the trash.
th-cam.com/video/XlTiwdzCk3s/w-d-xo.html
There is no way this is a 10/10. Ive had about 7 other players play my copy and it gets a meh from everybody. There is no value in the mini's because you spawn a full group that gets wiped out instantly, then repeat repeat repeat and all the table space is taken up by minis that got taken out and didnt do anything meaningful. I played with all the content. Sure i got a huge load of boxes of mini's for cheap but the game they are in was really lacking.
Well, I never said it was a 10/10. It's a 9/10. And I love it!
We get it, you don’t like the hellscape. But it works is fantastic. I’m a demon/ darkness fan so for me the theme and how demons and angels are in a way hostile because they are more concerned with their own war is super cool. It give the cosmic dread that I get with Lovecraft stories and inspired games. These two major forces are waging war and we are kind in the way.
Tried it and was not impressed. Felt like the heroes becomes too powerful too quickly. And too much loot didn't felt this great, partially because the heroes are powerful. I never felt in danger when we managed the risk carefully: stakes were low. I would argue it's a good casual game: it's like a quick snack not a great meal.
I get why people love this game, but hardcore gamers or people that want to strategize will be disappointed imo.
Agreed...except that we didn't find it worthwhile as a casual game either. Tons of junk in the box, but the game is empty. Clearly lots of folks enjoy it though, so I'm happy for them.
I was a bit disappointed with the first one, which I went all-in for. This one I skipped entirely. The change in art direction, the unappealing theme, and the bad taste I had from the first game all contributed to this decision. I already have plenty of large, plastic-filled CMON games, so even if this game IS BETTER than its predecessor, I'm not sad I passed on it.
My sentiments exactly.
God it looks so boring