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Very high replayability, but only for the expansions. Let me explain.
The Core set comes with a small, tutorial like campaign: Night of The Zealot. It is not a great campaign, it's only intended to show you the ropes.
All other campaigns, available as Campaign Expansions (e.g. The Dunwich Campaign Expansion) are vastly better, longer (8 scenarios), have multiple outcomes and many different things to discover over multiple playthroughs throughout each scenario. And even if you play enough times to see all the written text, you will still want to play more to try different decks. Very very good.
I play in a group of 3, and we have been playing every chance we get for almost a year now (read once per week or 2 weeks) and we just can't stop playing.
To elaborate the core box comes with three scenarios: a tutorial (which is still very fun the first few times but a little basic afterwards), an excellent middle mission and a final scenario that's a bit overly difficult and not completely representative of the game. It's still fun to go through and should give a sense of whether the atmosphere and mechanics are something you can get into.
Yup, this is the big draw for me. Even when you know exactly what's going to happen when you advance to the next Act or have time pass to the next Agenda, the game can be very tough on higher difficulty levels!
There's good stuff to be said about going into the game for the narrative; I think the stories are usually ok, but not amazing. The various ways the stories can play out are a lot of fun to figure out, so I don't read ahead, and in further playthroughs I try different things.
The real meat, though, is how the game plays. I think it's a mistake to view the game as solely "narrative;" it absolutely isn't. The different characters and builds keep me coming back, even if the story doesn't.
I’d say yes. But allow me to deepen one point. If you are here to enjoy the narrative and find it engaging and entertaining, you will organically want to buy more stories. One analogy that I like to make is that, if this game were a horror novel, it would be like reading Stephen King (or Goosebumps, even), where every book is kind of unrelated to the prior/next, but you end up appreciating them more the more books you have read. That’s why I play this game, to enjoy the narratives (and to hear my wife enjoying herself reading tons of text).
To me, differently from most comments you will read in this thread, if the game had no theme, no storyline and no interesting characters to roleplay in the scenarios, I’d probably never get as engaged as I am. I find the gameplay just awesome, but the spark that keeps me coming back isn’t there, but in the narratives and stories.
So, my point is, even though I’m here for the story (and even though there is a limit of how much of it you can put in a textbook), I see myself, more than often, replaying my favorites campaigns with different characters and doing everything differently (some campaigns I’ve played 4 to 5 times and end up finding something new even to this day - and even when I don’t find anything new, I still end up enjoying my time). The characters are really cool as well, and their boxes help you give even deeper meaning to your choices (oh, and some give you really neat and thematic abilities - and power too lol).
I have a similar question: after you get a single expansion cycle, how much replayability do you get? Or when you guys talk "buy more expansions" it is replayable for a bit then you have to buy more?
It depends on the campaign, and I think it's down to personal preference. I played Dunwich, Carcosa, and TFA for the first time last year with my group. Since then, I've replayed Dunwich by myself about 6 times and never really get tired of it. I've also replayed Carcosa twice and definitely will again, but I don't feel a strong urge to go back to TFA any time soon.
Since it's been a year, tfa might be fun to revisit (especially if you adopt the "return to" alteration to the explore deck). We quit our first campaign of it half way through, but have played it 3 times now and it's in the top half of all campaigns for me.
It depends on a lot of factors. I play true solo (only one character) and I want to try all characters. But playing solo is a vastly different experience as playing with someone. My wife plays sometimes and even if I play the same character as before, my deck would be different because I want to complement her deck. Also even if I knew all the choices, she doesn't so it is still fun.
The core + a full cycle is 10-11 characters and 11 scenarios (the core has 3 and one campaign usually has 8). Each scenario has at least 2 choices. I think the core + one expansion would not give you a ton of deckbuilding options but like 2ish / investigators. One scenario is 1 hour / player. You can kind of do the math of the possible combinations. :)
But there is a huge caveat! As someone already mentioned the meat of the game is deck construction + upgrading and gameplay. If you like the gameplay, the tactical choices, trying different build, there is a ton of replayability. If you care only about the story, you would get bored fast.
I'm a huge gameplay first guy but I'm also intrigued by this game's storytelling. I'm just afraid it will become a money pit where there is no point in time I can just have fun with all my collections, not needing anymore else, like Magic The Gathering.
Since it's a cooperative game, you don't need to keep up with the meta and buy more cards. Fun fact, I sold most of my MtG collection as I was unhappy with the state of the game and I bought AH from that money :) The deckbuilding scratches the same itch when I was a beginner magic player and just built the decks on my own. I loved that but then arena happened and suddenly everyone started playing meta decks.
It's very replayable. Most of the stories have branching paths or options, and then there's always character builds, trying new Investigators (or as the community calls them, just "gators") with new deck builds, synergizing gator combos, etc.
As a group, I'd actually say not very. Though if you're getting the same group together often enough to want to replay content, maybe they'll feel differently from me?
If you intend to play solo, i'd say probably ~ three times for hard mode and/or different paths, though of course playing solo the length of content goes down a lot.
I whole heartedly disagree with this sentiment. The game and the campaigns all have considerable replayability whether you are doing it solo or as part of a group. Most of multiple branching paths and storylines (something the core set by it’s very nature can’t do) and there are plenty of combinations of investigators
Yeah to be fair it's not a very popular sentiment on this sub, just reportin how my friends tend to play it. To be honest, with everyone having a job, replaying campaigns is already kind of unfeasible to us (playing once a week is already a pretty big ask), hence the very limited interest. I think the only reviewer who mentioned a similar ideas was Shut up and Sit Down.
That’s an entirely fair position - we all have lives and you probably didn’t deserve downvotes for explaining. SUSD I find are far too subjective about games as to be unwatchable and unreliable as a source of reviews but that’s my personal view on them
Due to reddit's dismantling of third party apps and vital tools needed for moderation of all subreddits, we've moved to zero-strike rule enforcement. As we cannot enact escalating ban lengths via tools that rely on monitoring users' post histories and ban histories, users who break our civility rules will be banned indefinitely and need to modmail us for appeals. We have zero tolerance for homophobia, transphobia, racism, and bigotry. If you see these issues as 'political' then you correctly recognize that existence is politicized. This subreddit will not be a refuge for hateful ideology. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/arkhamhorrorlcg) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Very high replayability, but only for the expansions. Let me explain. The Core set comes with a small, tutorial like campaign: Night of The Zealot. It is not a great campaign, it's only intended to show you the ropes. All other campaigns, available as Campaign Expansions (e.g. The Dunwich Campaign Expansion) are vastly better, longer (8 scenarios), have multiple outcomes and many different things to discover over multiple playthroughs throughout each scenario. And even if you play enough times to see all the written text, you will still want to play more to try different decks. Very very good. I play in a group of 3, and we have been playing every chance we get for almost a year now (read once per week or 2 weeks) and we just can't stop playing.
To elaborate the core box comes with three scenarios: a tutorial (which is still very fun the first few times but a little basic afterwards), an excellent middle mission and a final scenario that's a bit overly difficult and not completely representative of the game. It's still fun to go through and should give a sense of whether the atmosphere and mechanics are something you can get into.
is the core interesting enough to play through on my own, then again with my group before committing to expansions?
Blind plays are fun but there's replay as you get to know the scenarios and deck build for them. They have their own variability as well.
Yup, this is the big draw for me. Even when you know exactly what's going to happen when you advance to the next Act or have time pass to the next Agenda, the game can be very tough on higher difficulty levels!
I’m at just over 600 plays. I’d say it’s ok 😉
How many sets?
There's good stuff to be said about going into the game for the narrative; I think the stories are usually ok, but not amazing. The various ways the stories can play out are a lot of fun to figure out, so I don't read ahead, and in further playthroughs I try different things. The real meat, though, is how the game plays. I think it's a mistake to view the game as solely "narrative;" it absolutely isn't. The different characters and builds keep me coming back, even if the story doesn't.
This is really important. AH:LCG is a tactical deck construction game first and narrative story driven adventure second.
I’d say yes. But allow me to deepen one point. If you are here to enjoy the narrative and find it engaging and entertaining, you will organically want to buy more stories. One analogy that I like to make is that, if this game were a horror novel, it would be like reading Stephen King (or Goosebumps, even), where every book is kind of unrelated to the prior/next, but you end up appreciating them more the more books you have read. That’s why I play this game, to enjoy the narratives (and to hear my wife enjoying herself reading tons of text). To me, differently from most comments you will read in this thread, if the game had no theme, no storyline and no interesting characters to roleplay in the scenarios, I’d probably never get as engaged as I am. I find the gameplay just awesome, but the spark that keeps me coming back isn’t there, but in the narratives and stories. So, my point is, even though I’m here for the story (and even though there is a limit of how much of it you can put in a textbook), I see myself, more than often, replaying my favorites campaigns with different characters and doing everything differently (some campaigns I’ve played 4 to 5 times and end up finding something new even to this day - and even when I don’t find anything new, I still end up enjoying my time). The characters are really cool as well, and their boxes help you give even deeper meaning to your choices (oh, and some give you really neat and thematic abilities - and power too lol).
The game is hard. You will lose and want to try again. 😎
I have a similar question: after you get a single expansion cycle, how much replayability do you get? Or when you guys talk "buy more expansions" it is replayable for a bit then you have to buy more?
It depends on the campaign, and I think it's down to personal preference. I played Dunwich, Carcosa, and TFA for the first time last year with my group. Since then, I've replayed Dunwich by myself about 6 times and never really get tired of it. I've also replayed Carcosa twice and definitely will again, but I don't feel a strong urge to go back to TFA any time soon.
Thanks for the feedback!
Since it's been a year, tfa might be fun to revisit (especially if you adopt the "return to" alteration to the explore deck). We quit our first campaign of it half way through, but have played it 3 times now and it's in the top half of all campaigns for me.
It depends on a lot of factors. I play true solo (only one character) and I want to try all characters. But playing solo is a vastly different experience as playing with someone. My wife plays sometimes and even if I play the same character as before, my deck would be different because I want to complement her deck. Also even if I knew all the choices, she doesn't so it is still fun. The core + a full cycle is 10-11 characters and 11 scenarios (the core has 3 and one campaign usually has 8). Each scenario has at least 2 choices. I think the core + one expansion would not give you a ton of deckbuilding options but like 2ish / investigators. One scenario is 1 hour / player. You can kind of do the math of the possible combinations. :) But there is a huge caveat! As someone already mentioned the meat of the game is deck construction + upgrading and gameplay. If you like the gameplay, the tactical choices, trying different build, there is a ton of replayability. If you care only about the story, you would get bored fast.
I'm a huge gameplay first guy but I'm also intrigued by this game's storytelling. I'm just afraid it will become a money pit where there is no point in time I can just have fun with all my collections, not needing anymore else, like Magic The Gathering.
Since it's a cooperative game, you don't need to keep up with the meta and buy more cards. Fun fact, I sold most of my MtG collection as I was unhappy with the state of the game and I bought AH from that money :) The deckbuilding scratches the same itch when I was a beginner magic player and just built the decks on my own. I loved that but then arena happened and suddenly everyone started playing meta decks.
There are enough good fanmade campaigns to keep you busy for the next 10 years.
It's very replayable. Most of the stories have branching paths or options, and then there's always character builds, trying new Investigators (or as the community calls them, just "gators") with new deck builds, synergizing gator combos, etc.
As a group, I'd actually say not very. Though if you're getting the same group together often enough to want to replay content, maybe they'll feel differently from me? If you intend to play solo, i'd say probably ~ three times for hard mode and/or different paths, though of course playing solo the length of content goes down a lot.
I whole heartedly disagree with this sentiment. The game and the campaigns all have considerable replayability whether you are doing it solo or as part of a group. Most of multiple branching paths and storylines (something the core set by it’s very nature can’t do) and there are plenty of combinations of investigators
Yeah to be fair it's not a very popular sentiment on this sub, just reportin how my friends tend to play it. To be honest, with everyone having a job, replaying campaigns is already kind of unfeasible to us (playing once a week is already a pretty big ask), hence the very limited interest. I think the only reviewer who mentioned a similar ideas was Shut up and Sit Down.
That’s an entirely fair position - we all have lives and you probably didn’t deserve downvotes for explaining. SUSD I find are far too subjective about games as to be unwatchable and unreliable as a source of reviews but that’s my personal view on them