Middara Review

Middara is a lot of to unpack - 26 pounds...

Read more...

This is like the Bayonetta of dungeon crawls -- so naturally, I was interested in it as well. A bunch of pleasantly weird stuff included. The thing really is crazy in the amount of content they jammed into, which I can appreciate, but can imagine I may never get to.

However, I would love to have gotten something like this when I was 15. Would have been totally engrossed for sometime with it. There are a lot of things that I like when compared to Gloomhaven, many of which you touch on -- just got the email that they are going to start up the next chapter soon; I'll probably pass on it; however, my biggest weakness in boardgaming is "weird"....

^honestly, how many of the various KS full system games like this would you have murdered someone for when you were 15 or whatever, right?

Ha, yes- the Bayonetta comparison is a good one’ it’s so over the top.

I do think that I may like the game overall better than Gloomhaven, even though Gloomhaven is the safer, more watertight design. Middara is wilder and weirder, and that counts for a lot t me.

But man, it’s just so much. The first time I set it all up to play and it was almost comical the size of everything for four characters (using the player mats) and a tiny little four tile map where the game was actually happening. I had to play on the floor.

Ha -- yeah, this has been in the middle of the basement floor after the kids go to bed. I *maybe* could play this on our dining room table....and, you're right, it's almost comical in nature how small the playing area is to the character information areas.

So... this is a genuine question. How do enthusiasts in this genre play these games since there are so many long, long campaign experiences? Do y'all play them in sequence, selling one off when you're done or are tired of them? Do you play multiple flavors at the same time?

More than other genres, I feel like these games really need a continuity of playing them repeatedly in a row to create the narrative/do the campaign mechanics.

That is definitely a legit question. This game could supply you with content for a year of gameplay. But are you-
And your group- really going to commit to the hours and hours that this game demands? Odds are, probably not. And what about when the next one comes out and you are only halfway through this one?

But people did stick with Gloomhaven, and Middara is coming along at a time when the first and second generation of Gloomhaveners might be looking for something like it to carry on with.

I have to say I’m sort of unmoved by the thought of -any- campaign game that isn’t D&D these days. I don’t want my board gaming time consumed with a campaign, I’d rather play single session games. Which is something I really like about Middara, it accommodates this desire with its crawl mode.

I think the concept that you have to finish one of these things to prove its worth is a false notion. Isaac has even mentioned that he never expected most people to play through all of Gloomhaven, just play as much as you want and drop it. These games include a ton of content because there's not a DM there to keep it going once the well runs dry.

We tend to burn hot on these games for a couple of months and then just play every once in awhile. For instance, we have Dungeon Degenerates, Battlestations, and Marvel Strike Teams campaigns outstanding now. We will pick them all up again for another session or two at some point.

That’s a good point...but when you look at all of the material in Middara, you have to ask -what’s- the point of the campaign if you aren’t going to go all on it?

But maybe that is the right way to look at these games- as more suitable for those who occasionally want to dip into a low commitment storyline with a minor sense of continuity and progression.

Michael Barnes wrote: That’s a good point...but when you look at all of the material in Middara, you have to ask -what’s- the point of the campaign if you aren’t going to go all on it?

But maybe that is the right way to look at these games- as more suitable for those who occasionally want to dip into a low commitment storyline with a minor sense of continuity and progression.

I view this similarly to any game though, in that you likely won't explore it fully. For instance, what's the point of playing Chess if you don't repeatedly play it and gain strategic competency.

Middara, and other scenario/narrative driven games, ask you to explore their content more so than their strategy.

I never played all of the scenarios in HeroQuest but that doesn't devalue my time spent with it. I never built even a tenth of the combinations of vehicles I could build in Car Wars, but I still enjoyed the hell out of that game. You likely won't play with every single alien in Cosmic before you die either, doesn't matter.

charlest wrote:
I never played all of the scenarios in HeroQuest but that doesn't devalue my time spent with it.

I assume you mean in the expansions

We (my brother, me, and mom) probably played the 14 base scenarios in the first summer month we had the game. Summer of baseball and dungeon exploring.

Space Ghost wrote:

charlest wrote:
I never played all of the scenarios in HeroQuest but that doesn't devalue my time spent with it.

I assume you mean in the expansions

We (my brother, me, and mom) probably played the 14 base scenarios in the first summer month we had the game. Summer of baseball and dungeon exploring.

Nah, base. I've probably played the first seven or so 10 times each. That one where you go through portals to different rooms was always my favorite.

We do have a group which does strictly long campaign and legacy games so I get to play all of these. We are almost halfway through Gloomhaven, and I just put in a more detailed review before seeing this.