Games
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I got A Touch of Evil recently and went ahead and grabbed the Something Wicked expansion, so I tried a few solo 3-4p games while vegging out in my hotel the past few days. I kept thinking it was going to be "Arkham Horror Lite" (which would be good in the respects of play time and available space, but not good in terms of immersion and gameplay), but really, having played it now, it's not that much shorter or lighter of a game than AH, at least in the solo games I played. Certainly, ATOE was heavily influenced by AH... several aspects of the game are similar and the general premise is the same... but it also feels enough like its own thing and doesn't give me a feeling of being "light" in terms of its gameplay.
It's probably too soon to say, but I think there seems to be about as many meaningful decisions in ATOE as there are in AH, and I can see there being quite a few more in the competitive and team versions where your choices of researching the town elders and when to use certain cards and abilities can be crucial. In AH, you tend to react and get bounced around by everything happening, hoping to seal a gate or grab some items in between it all... In ATOE yeah, there's some of that, but there also can be more of a concerted effort towards working towards the Showdown and building up for that in a way that will be effective. Of course, in AH you have the other win option of sealing gates, and may or may not even have the final "showdown", whereas in ATOE you must have the Showdown and succeed in order to win. In one sense, I don't like not having some other goal to be working towards (the gate sealing)... perhaps a future expansion for ATOE could include some kind of concurrent or alternate victory condition... but otherwise I do like working towards the Showdown, knowing it might take a few tries before you can finish off that darn werewolf.
One thing I really like about ATOE compared to AH is the villains and how what they do is very thematic. In AH, the GOOs are so surreal and bizarre that its hard to say if it makes any difference whatsoever if one weird monster requires you to lose gate tokens if you don't pass a Sneak check, or requires you to lose a Clue token if you don't pass a Will check. And some of them have different monsters from the cup that they add effects and strengths to, but does it really make a difference which is which? In ATOE, the bog fiend makes different areas sink into the earth, restricting movement and location abilities; the werewolf attacks and bites you, which may slowly turn you into a werewolf; the headless horseman rides through the town when he appears, attacking anyone in his way, etc. It may just be that I'm unfamiliar and uninterested in the Lovecraft literature that AH is based around, so for all I know, those Ancient Ones do have mechanics that are very thematic, but in any case, for my preference, I like the way the ATOE villains function a lot.
That being said, given a few free hours and enough table space, I think I would still choose to play AH more often than ATOE for a solo game, and therefore AH would still clearly win this Trashdome for me... AH still seems to give much more of a total experience that touches on the intangible "cool" factor of what makes gaming fun. It may play you more than you play it, but it's still very involving and immersive throughout. And I don't think even with multiplayer teams or competitive play that ATOE is going to be quite as solid and entertaining of a game for me as Last Night on Earth. But I guess I'm happy to say that so far ATOE is proving to be quite a decent game for what it is, and when my table space is more limited (as it definitely is in the hotel I'm in right now), this will be a great choice.
