Skip to main content

Our Latest Article..

Divinus Board Game Review - Lucky Duck Games

Demigods eh? You think every thing is going well and life is nice and quiet, then all of a sudden you're reminded that you've actually got to go and prove yourself and show how powerful you are in order to ascend to some kind of Pantheon type thing. Well, in Divinus you need to. Now, I don't want you to cringe when I mention this game, but Divinus from Lucky Duck Games seems to have crawled from the same evolutionary pool as Charterstone. Now that might be enough to have some of you wince slightly but hang fire. I'm very aware that not everyone had the best time from that game and time has seen it as more an experiment in gameplay than a direction to forge ahead with. What if I said that Divinus also seems to have inherited its mother's love of Carcassonne. Does that make you feel any better? I hope so. I really do.  Divinus is another entry in the application based games that Lucky Duck Games are quietly and regularly producing from their studios. They seem to have

Cult of the Deep Board Game Review - First Impressions

 



Cult Membership must stay hidden at all costs. You do not know who walks among you, you do not trust those that you walk among and now you've said the word among repeatedly in your head and like most words when you repeat it again and again, it sounds completely riddle-iculous. 

Overview

Cult Of The Deep is a Hidden Role game. So when you play, you'll have different character powers from other players and you'll either be trying to assist other players or hinder their progress. You have different victory conditions based on who you play as. You might need to defeat all of the other players if you play as a Heretic, or win as a Faithful if the High Priest is alive and the Cabalists and Heretics are dead. The different victory conditions will change depending on the number of players that take part in the game.

Mainplay

The main gameplay is actually very straightforward. You'll roll five dice and based on their results you'll then either reroll in a Yahtzee type mechanic another two times and decide which dice you keep as you go. Those who have played any of the King of Tokyo games will be familiar with how to play. Then you'll commit results of the dice either to yourself or other players, with the idea being that you are testing the water to see if you are dealing with possible allies or enemies. You also can commit dice to rituals in the centre area which will grant you additional powers and effects. Some of the powers can be claimed once the ritual has been used a number of times. Even if you do get killed off, you can still take part in the game, but as a Wraith instead, though you are no longer able to commit dice but you can use them on other living players thus continuing to effect the final outcome from beyond the grave. The main strategy with Cult of the Deep is to try to form alliances to allow you to guess who you are playing against and who you should be trying to eliminate. The only role that is public is the High Priest which will help to dictate fairly early on where the factions are around the table and where you should concentrate your efforts. 

Winning 

Winning is based on a combination of factors, but basically you are either trying to wipe out everyone else out or save certain players on the table, or keep certain players alive with yourself or bar yourself. With the randomness of how the roles are assigned and how many people are playing the game then victory conditions will be changing on a regular basis, and it will help to keep the game fresh through multiple playthroughs. 


Looks 

Cult of the Deep has clearly spent some money on the art and design here. With the card art fitting the theme and design extremely well. There are little touches that I really appreciate. The UV spot effects on the back of each of the cards. The extra quality of the individual dice in terms of their production and their glitter finish that just add that extra little piece that shows the designer wanted to give Cult of the Deep a real presence at the table. Even the rulebook cover is strangely evocative, with art work that is unexpected but in it's own way tells a story that will have you asking a question. The iconography on the cards is clear and easy to understand and that to me is important as it will not only be you that will need to see the information, but potentially other players as well. 

Learning  

What's this? A Quick reference guide on the back page? There's detailed instructions on how to play that mention the win conditions not only once, but twice in the rule book? Multiple examples of how to play dotted throughout? Some additional variants for play? When there is a chance that less experienced players are going to be checking the rules as they play, it's really important that the rulebook is clear and easy to understand, and that is achieved very well within the COTD rules. Again, I would prefer that a rule book doesn't take up the size of the whole box, but here we're not looking at a huge size pamphlet and so I suppose forgiveness can be given. Your big decider here though is how much of a social game this is going be and if you are going to be a bit more lenient with the rules for the first couple of games while everyone learns how to get the best out of the different characters that are available. 

Timing 

This is where we start to enter the 'Your Mileage May Vary' part of the review, because this is going to be as social as it is going to be mechanical, so if you wanted just to burn through the game with players rolling dice and knocking health off other players, then you're going to be easily getting through a round within forty five minutes, but that wouldn't necessarily include the learning part of things. This is the type of game that is much more suited to a learn as you play, rather than a read through followed by a game. If you bring in roleplaying into events and if the players really embrace playing characters, then there is no reason for a game to last much longer. We're not talking hours here, but there is nothing going to be lost here if you take it on a slower pace and allow the players to breath a bit. Bring snacks, but make sure people wash their hands and no drinks are allowed on the table. 

Final Thoughts

 Cult of the Deep has all the ingredients to be an excellent hidden role game, with clear instructions on how to play that are displayed from the rulebook to the card art. I don't see an issue with it being accessible to those who are new to playing games and have already cut their teeth on the like of Coup and One Night Werewolf. There's not a huge amount to learn here and you can take the roles as far as you want to, deciding to play either quick games to rack up the winners or take your time and settle into some back and forth between players as they try to bluff and double bluff their way to victory. Your biggest issue with Cult of the Deep comes down to the number of players you'll need to get the most out of the game. Even if you play the minimum of four, there's going to be an automata that will take the role of the high priest. This needs to have five players minimum to make it worthwhile and probably even higher numbers to make it sing. If you have that option and you're a fan of hidden role games then I think this game will sit very well within your collection. You like it, and your friends will like it, but it's just a mutual liking thing, it's not a Cult type thing. Honest..

Any Tips? 

Even though the High Priest is common knowledge to everyone, better to start by targeting others in order to confuse which role you have. 

Game Designer - Sam Stockton

Game Developer - Ed Stockton

Illustrators - Liam Peters, Maura Elko,

Concept Artist - Charles Walton II

Graphic Designers - David Li, Imaginaire Studio


This review is based on the retail version of the game provided to us by the designer and publisher. We were not paid for this review. We give a general overview of the gameplay and so not all of the mechanical aspects of the game may be mentioned.

The majority of the games that we are play are going to take a reasonable number of sessions and playthroughs to fully understand every possibility that they offer. We hope this write up gives you an idea of whether or not this game is something that you will consider playing or even add to your collection. Our Six Degrees of Expectation have been written to make it easier for you to find out what is important to you as a player. Even if we don't like something, hopefully it helps you to decide if it is something that you should find out more about. We always suggest you check out a gameplay video to give you a better understanding of the game as it is played. 

 If you would like to support more written pieces on the blog then please consider backing us on Patreon. www.patreon.com/werenotwizards

Comments

Related Podcasts

Popular posts from this blog

Parks Board Game Review | Keymaster Games | Base Game Review

Taking slow methodical steps, taking your time, closing your eyes and breathing in slowly, taking in the smell of nature and the scenery and managing the sensory overload crashing over you with a pine freshness. Do that. Stop and breathe. Take it all in. Be at peace. You might be inclined to use the word 'majesty', and you wouldn't be blamed for feeling a slight sense of being overwhelmed, as once again you're reminded of how stupidly small you are in relation to everything around you. That no amount of preparation would help you if the uncontrolled environment decided to focus it's gaze entirely on you, to put you back in the food chain. You might think to yourself you could survive, but the reality is that you'd die of thirst before you died of boredom, and so we sanitise our touches with the grander examples of nature, by sticking to the path, and coming within touching distance enough to go ooh and ahh, like we are watching fireworks. Always behind a

Wee Toons Board Game Review - Alderac Entertainment Group - (Tiny Towns Review)

Fir aw the times yi hope yi end up gieing the chance tae look at summin braw and special and summit that the high heid yins are aw spraffing aboot, thurs aways the chaunce yi sit there thinkin, am a gieing it laldy here coz I am gettin tae ploy it? Sometimes yir better waitin until aw cont hiz calmed doon, and yi dinnae feel like some wydo is sitting aun yir shouldoor, checkin yir watch fir ya, and tutting like a radge.  Tiny Toon fae Alderac wiz such a game. In the past yi couldnae move fir sumwan chattin aboot it, stickin it oan lists and Twitching all oer tha innernet. Like, it wiz so gid tha it even wun tha top prize at Origins. Tha probbly ment tha heid bummer, Mr McPherson wiz toap man fir five minits in his hoose, so he goat the remote fir the telly, and was given the extra crunchy bit off the fish supper oan friday.  Tiny Toons is aboot wid an bricks an glass and stoan, and yir aw like the heid man makin the calls, tellin fowk wit tae build wi an they aw need tae follow yir lea

Empire Plateau Board Game Kickstarter Preview

This is the pre-production version, so the art, rules and mechanics may be subject to change over the next couple of months. Therefore please treat this as a first thoughts piece, based on version of the game that we were provided with. We have not been paid for the preview. We also do not provide a full play by play explanation of the game, so not all mechanics may be mentioned in the preview. So what have I done? I really don't know. I have a rule about reviews that I keep to myself which is very simple. Any designer that contacts me and says 'Well, it's like chess but..' I normally respond with a quiet thank you and then a polite decline. I want people to sell me the game because of what it is, not because they claim to have improved a game that is so in it's own category some people wouldn't even necessarily put it down as a board game. No, making the horsey jump an extra space isn't going to cut it, and no I like the prawns the way they are I thank you