Descent: The Road to Legend App in Review

Read more...

Ha, I never thought about the sports game analogy but that is right on the money...it can feel like some kind of football thing, trying to avoid blockers to get to a goal.

I really like the app but it needs more work...there's so much potential for it that isn't realized yet. There is no reason, for example, that you can't run a Roguelike-style game. Set the parameters, generate the game. It isn't like the narrative parts of the scenarios are all that important.

After playing Forgotten Souls, it is pretty clear that the app is really just kind of automating some of what it did in paper...which is fine, but there's more the app could (and should) be tracking. I can see a full AI developed where the game acknowledges board positions and statuses.

The peril thing is supposed to be rebalanced, but at first it was pretty bad. "All heroes take 8 damage". Two turns in a row. Yeesh. Not a good way to set up a timer mechanic.

I keep debating whether or not adding more expansions is worth it or not. But I really like it with the app. That said, Silver Tower is still this year's dungeoncrawl masterpiece. It does more with narrative and exploration using just a couple of cards and written paragraphs.

OK, how does Mikey Barnes get to read it but I just get a 404 error when I click the link ??

Sounds like your F:AT Premium payment was DECLINED.

Southernman wrote: OK, how does Mikey Barnes get to read it but I just get a 404 error when I click the link ??

I get the same error when I click on the link. If I look at my submitted content I can view the article there, but I don't think it's actually live yet. It's in some sort of weird limbo state perhaps. Maybe Barnes can view it because he has certain admin rights or something.

Michael Barnes wrote: Sounds like your F:AT Premium payment was DECLINED.

Looks like I'm in FAT-xit ... and I didn't vote for it !

Checked again - yep, payment still hasn't gone thru.

What does the Scale-o-matic 6500™ say?

On a scale of Lou Ferrigno’s Hercules to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Conan the Barbarian

Descent: Road to Legend rates as HAWK THE SLAYER

Hi praise, indeed! If I were into Descent, I'd now pick this up despite my digital misgivings.

I'm glad you're digging it, Egg. Anything that keeps us enjoying what we already have is a big plus one as I see it.

That all sounds pretty awesome. I used to have all the Descent 1.0 stuff, but eventually soured on it. Descent 2.0 w/ RTL app sounds tempting, but the sandbox approach to Dungeon Saga with Adventurer's Companion is still tempting me more.

I can see a full AI developed where the game acknowledges board positions and statuses.

No, just no. That means some hardcore info feeding into the app or a map scan style input which is taking the app thingy way too far even for me.

Great write up, especially covering the tweaks they have made already and your suggested tweaks.
I'm a bit disappointed that it doesn't (yet ?) have campaigns from the physical games available, maybe using your game ID serial number to unlock a download. I have three long and two short campaigns in my collection and have only played one of each so I suspect that we'll still play with the OL to get to play these.

That's funny. I hid my wife's engagement ring in runebound 2nd edition. Board games make the best hiding places.

@ Southernman - I'm curious what they're going to do with the current value of the expansions out there. Right now if you're strictly playing with Road to Legend you get access to more heroes, more hero classes and more monsters. Also, each box will unlock an addition quest. I think it would be very cool if they could re-jigger the expansion campaigns into the Road to Legend mode. That would be a hell of an incentive to buying them. So far I've held off on adding any of them to my collection because I just can't justify them. I simply won't play them in the 1 vs all mode. Instead, I purchased one of those heroes and monster collections to add some more figures to the game. I think it would be awesome if at Gen Con they released an expansion that was Road to Legend specific. I'd buy that in a heartbeat.

@ Barnes - Yeah, I need to get my Warhammer Quest minis put together so I can begin experiencing that. I just haven't had the time. It's taunting me from my shelf.

Also, to sort of clarify my glowing review for Road to Legend it was more of a response to how the game basically went from being unplayable to being pretty damn good. At this point though, I'm not sure what the best Dungeon Crawler out there is. It very well could be Silver Tower. I still don't think it's Descent. Descent certainly put it's name on the list though, which is saying something.

I will say that if FFG decides to get motivated and implement "Road to Legend" for Imperial Assault then I'm going all in on that. I'd sell Descent and never look back. One thing I keep coming back to is just how fucking bland the fantasy is in Descent. I keep hearing about how weird n' trippy Silver Tower's fantasy is and frankly it seems like a breath of fresh air. Terrinoth has to be one of the most uninspired and bland settings ever cooked up. There is nothing really interesting going on at all. It's all just standard high fantasy stuff that we've seen 100 times before.


So I was doing some digging and apparently since Road to Legend debuted, Descent products have been flying off the store shelves. Despite that the game doesn't seem all that popular around here. People move onto Imperial Assault? There's got to be a few of you out there that still have the thing on their shelves. Is Road to Legend not enticing enough to pull it off the shelf and give it a go? Or most people just done with it based on their experience with 2.0. Very curious to hear what the deal is. FFG picked a hell of time to make Descent interesting again since the Dungeon Crawler genre in general has become incredibly crowded in the last year or so.

I just found out that my coworker's copy of Descent, that's sitting in our games library, is actually Descent 2.0 in a Descent 1.0 box. I think I'm going to borrow it this evening and see if I like RTL. Happy Birthday to Me is real soon, and if I like it, that can be my present.

Why in Crom's name is the 2.0 stuff in the 1.0 box? Is the 1.0 stuff still in there too? Or did the guy just love the ol' coffin boxes with all his heart?

We've played it very sporadically since it came out 4 years ago already. Only a couple of games left to complete the main campaign, then we're onto RtL. We don't enjoy it so much with the OL, too much crap, scenarios often play lopsidedly. We did play the first two coop scenarios, but thought the first one pretty brutal and never beat it.