Thoughts on Cthulhu: Death May Die?

So this has been out for a little while now, anyone around here played it? The kickstarter campaign really turned me off, but I keep seeing pics of this being played and it's got me interested in picking up the base game. Anyone have any experience with this one? Is it worth a look? Is the base game good on it's own?

I own it.

I have not played.

I was so turned off by the Kickstarter and CMON last year, I said "hell no."
And then I fell for some positive user reviews...
I'm not a big fan of pure co-ops, but the idea of playing a 2.0 version of The Others solo was appealing.

The box of plastic-crack showed up last weekend. It's a lot, like all CMON titles. Of the many CMON games I own / have owned; CDMD may be the nicest production value. The miniatures are exceptionally cast, the components are thick & slick, and the storage is pretty smart / efficient. The company's engine for product QC is on point.

I read through the rulebook, and it's pretty cut and dry. Nothing wrong with that, but consider it a "popcorn" / "beer and pretzel" affair. Despite the size of the game, it should set up in a relative short amount of time. There's a bit of jest at the expense of mental illness, so YMMV on that approach.

The six scenarios in the core game are varied enough, but each is very specific act. The scenarios capture the final moments in a pulp adventure that happen to include Cthulhu Mythos critters. So, in essence; they're the climax of an old Chaosium CoC one-shot. You and any other stir-crazy gumshoes are on the cusp on completely losing your shit while trying to thwart cultists from summoning the big bad. The big bad will most certainly show up, but it'll be so under developed - any detective still alive may be able to punch it in the face.

It's not cosmic horror. It's not existential threat, gloom and doom. It's delusional Indiana Jones attacking acolytes instead of Nazis. If Cthulhu shows up, you can bullwhip it in the nards.

It should be fun to play, but l'll probably have more fun painting it.

I've played it once. It reminded me of Mansions of Madness (1st Edition, I never played 2nd) without an Overlord. We played the first Hastur scenario and it basically came down to the final roll. I don't actually remember which way it went. I think we lost? Like MoM, there's no time to screw around. You have to optimize your actions as much as possible. It was fun, I would play it again, though I don't think I would request it.

The Adrian Smith art is top notch.

This came in at number 8 in my top 10 of the year: playerelimination.com/2019/12/31/theels-feels-a-2019-top-10/

I've played it 13 times I think and only won twice. It's visceral and unrelenting in its pace. It hurries you along like Mansions of Madness but it's entirely focused on action/combat which provides a different feel.

It's also incredibly lean as a design. How it compacts searching and enemy activations is very clever.