Its safe to say that some crowns have been worn for so long that they leave an indent not only on the head, but on the surrounding kingdom as well. On occasion a challenger will step up and ask to be a contender. Sometimes they end up setting up their own kingdom and have a slice of the land and its people for its very own. Other times the fanfare is brief and the challenger ends up in the moat and is all so quickly forgotten.
Overview
Aethermon Collect is a card game based around either working as a team cooperatively or trying to collect the most Aethermon for yourself as you journey across a grid of cards taking turns to move the group.
Mainplay
You take turns moving the group token across a previously agreed grid of cards, and when you stop on a card you collect it and add it to your hand. Ideally you want to aim to collect sets of the same Aethermon from similar elements as they gain you sets and therefore more points. If you are playing competitively then you can also use artefacts which grant you slightly different moves and all in all it's really dull, pretty lifeless and gives an impression that there's meant to be a bigger game here but there's wasn't the hunger here to make it.
Winning
At the end of the game if you are playing competitively then you win if you have the most points. If you are playing together then you are trying to beat an overall score. You're the best at Aethermoning and then get to Aethermon wherever you want to. Aren't you special.
Looks
The card art is glorious and the various animals mix between being cute and majestic and when the game is set up in the grid to play and you see all the Aethermon laid out you really wish there was a decent game that underpinned all the obvious hard work that has gone into their creations. They spent ages writing glorious little stories on the reverse of the cards which add the overall flavour of the world.
Learning
Rules are laid out on individual numbered cards, but in fairness the game is so basic that you can learn it within minutes.
Timing
Games take around 15 minutes to play, maybe stretching to half an hour if you really take your time reading the backs of the cards as you play, but this is a simple filler of a game that won't take all of your time.
Final Thoughts
I don't want to be that guy, but if you're going after Pokémon, then you need to be on your A game with whatever your putting out there. Aethermon Collect seems like I'm getting the pizza base without the topping. The wheels without the rest of the car, a toilet without a seat. It's such a basic game that it doesn't really entertain the market it looks like it's trying to target. It's boring. There's nothing here that makes me want to go back to it. I collect cards and that's it. Which already puts it far behind any other game I've played with a cast of different creatures / animals /robots / hairbrushes. You know what would be exciting? Everyone drafting cards from the grid and then depending on the cards you've collected, you move to a quick battle phase. Either against each other or against a protagonist. So you collect one card then you get a basic attack. But if you collect two or three then you have a set and that allows you to play an upgraded attack. However, in not attacking the protagonist, they move up a proximity track that on every few spaces they get to attack back. You get the option to either chip away and prevent attacks or keep collecting in the hope to smack the big bad a beauty. I sound like I'm being difficult but after all this time and with everything else that is out there, it doesn't make sense to me to be releasing this product as your flagship when you are introducing everyone to a new world. I'm sure it will fund, and I'm sure it will go out to backers, but I'm pretty sure unless the stretch goals to the project includes some kind of wonderful additions to the base game then this is going to end up in the moat. It's a real shame. I'm not angry. I'm just disappointed and frustrated on what this could have been.
https://gamefound.com/projects/aethermon-studios/aethermon-collectThis preview is based on the prototype version of the game provided to us by the designer and publisher. We were not paid for this preview. We give a general overview of the gameplay and so not all of the mechanical aspects of the game may be mentioned. Quotations from this preview may possibly appear in relation to any marketing associated with this game.
The majority of the games that we 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.
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