Man… do I want this game bad! There are many many reasons why Descent remained on the If Only List this year so lets get right into them.
- Descent is an expensive game. When I was looking for new games for my birthday I had never bought an FFG game so a £50 price tag was off putting because that was a lot of money to blow on a company I didn’t know much about. However, knowing what I know now about FFG and quality, for the amount of stuff in that box, Descent seems like a steal!
- Budget… Every year I get a £100 to spend on my birthday and another £100 at Christmas. As one is in November and one is in December I plan them both at the same time, often buying a core game for my birthday and an expansion for Christmas. Because I wanted Seafarers and Cities and Knights plus a lot of RPG stuff this year I had to try and fit some other games in around that and I couldn’t fit Descent neatly into either budget, which is how I ended up buying Runebound instead. Runebound, however, acted as a my first foray into FFG games and only made me wish I had Descent too!
- Size – As someone who shops almost exclusively online I get lectured at for the amount of packages our poor postman has to bring. Descent is a massive box and I just couldn’t figure out how to explain it away… Plus, with lots of old games taking up space, (I’m not allowed to get rid of them, despite most of us having out grown them) I’m not quite sure where I would put Descent.
- The Con – A major reason I didn’t buy it is because I was hoping I wouldn’t have to. Descent, in my eyes, is a replacement for the rather too simplistic Heroquest and Dark World that family and I have been playing with my little brother for the last couple of years. With both Talisman and Runebound now added to his repertoire I was hoping I could get my mum to buy Descent for him and save me the cash and aggro about how big the game is… That didn’t happen however!
- Heroquest… Only better… The reason Descent was on the list in the first place was because I was looking for a game that was like D&D but without all the roleplaying (something that is hard to get people to do). A hack and slash game with more depth than two stats and a movement value and Descent seemed to fit the bill. It would be a game I could easily play with my friends as well as my little brother and if I’m going to spend £50 on a single game that seems important.
- Expansions – To keep gaming fresh and interesting expansions are a necessity. I find it hard to keep playing the same game, like for example Settlers, so I buy expansions and add them in and take them out to vary the pace. Descent has a lot of expansions, 5 big box ones to date and it is still being supported, which is something that FFG do very very well. In fact their continued support of the Talisman line makes me want to buy into the franchise, despite how bored I am of 3rd edition.
- The Vasel – To date I’ve bought many a game from the Tom Vasel top 100 list and although I may not agree with where they belong in that 100, I haven’t regretted any of them and with Descent at #2 I can’t see how I can go wrong buying this game.
So there you have it. Descent is on the If Only List alongside Stone Age and Battlestar. I do however, of course, now own Battlestar and I’m treating myself to Stone Age for an Easter present and I am reasonably sure that Descent is on the Birthday list for November :) Luckily there are still plenty of games left on the If Only List…
Tune in next week for another Unboxed Review.
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