by Stenun
I’m a big fan of DC Comics and card games alike so when two of my friends went to the gaming store a few days before my birthday some months ago, they walked around aimlessly wandering what to get me. Lost in a sea of magic and dungeons and dragons and little metal tanks and then suddenly … they saw Superman. He flew to the rescue! Swooping down out of the mire to bring them the game they knew they had to get for me! They were saved from having to wear the carpet out any more as they paced back and forth! They were rescued from the possibility of having to get the next bus that was due five minutes later! Superman saved the- … oh alright, I’m over-egging it a bit (read: talking bullshit). But whatever the truth of the situation, they got me a copy of this game based purely on the DC connection and that turns out to have been a very good decision on their part.Synopsis
Each player takes control of one of seven characters from DC’s premiere superhero team, the Justice League. Each hero has a unique power and the players use their powers and their starting cards to buy new cards for their deck and slowly, gradually, turn their weak deck into a powerhouse capable of tearing down Lex Luthor, The Joker, Parallax and even The Anti-Monitor himself!
Gameplay
The central mechanic of the game revolves around a “deck building” concept and, as such, is rather unusual for most gamers. Sure, there are other “deck building” games out there but the format is still uncommon enough that most gamers still haven’t played one. This difference from the norm is a point in the game’s favour but if you have already played other “deck building” games and didn’t like them then this is probably not the game for you as the game focuses heavily on this one central mechanic. If this is a mechanic you don’t like, stay away.
For those who do like it and those who have yet to try a “deck building” game, what follows is a quick synopsis of the way this game handles it.
As previously mentioned, the players take control of a Hero from the DC comics Justice League title and get a deck of the same 10 fixed cards each. The “main deck” is then shuffled and the top five cards are placed in the centre of the table in the “line up”. A pile of Super Villain cards are placed off to one side (along with a few stacks of identical cards) and that’s the entire set up. Each player draws five cards and then uses these cards to acquire cards from the “line up” to add to their deck. Once you’ve played a few games, the first few turns will flow fast very quickly as you are exceedingly limited in what you can do at this stage in the game. But the new cards you acquire will have special text and be better suited for acquiring even better cards; when you get these new cards they are placed in your discard pile but your discards are soon shuffled to replace your empty deck and then you start drawing the cards you just bought. So each acquisition of a card is an investment to help you on a later turn but those turns soon come around and suddenly your early cards of “Punch” and “Kick” are making way for “Heat Vision”, “Super Speed” and “Batmobile”. Eventually, your deck will be powerful enough to start attacking the Super Villains and once they are defeated and added to your deck, you get even MORE powerful!
At the end of each turn, if the “line up” has fewer than 5 cards then new cards are dealt out from the Main Deck. Eventually, either the Main Deck will run out of cards or all Super Villains will be defeated. This signals the end of the game and all players add up the point value of every card in their deck; whoever has the highest, wins.
It really is that simple. But simple can be good. The game flows fast, the cards are fun and (most of them) fit their source very well, and there is something to be said for playing Robin, Catwoman and Bat Signal and using them to acquire Swamp Thing for your deck.
Some players complain that the theme is destroyed by being able to buy Villains to aid you, a Hero, and why would Superman be competing against Wonder Woman anyway? To me, these complaints are to miss the point of the game. You might as well complain that Chess contains a castle that can move, or that Risk allows you to attack with more than you can defend, or that Arkham Horror allows you to teleport to the hospital when you get knocked out (presumably the hideous monster than just tried to eat you has a sense of fair play and won’t attack the paramedics that come for you?). As for the second complaint, well what’s to say that Wonder Woman and Superman aren’t having a little competition between themselves?
It’s a game, it doesn’t have to fit the source material precisely, it has to be a reasonable representation that plays well and it does precisely that. The game is simple, fast and fun. So what if Captain Cold is suddenly working with Aquaman?
Presentation
The artwork from the cards comes mostly from the DC artists themselves, a lot of the pictures are in fact take straight from the comics. As such, it looks great and the layout of the cards are simple and effective and easy to follow.
No complaints in Presentation, that’s all I ever look for as the gameplay is far more important.
Summary
A fast, simple and fun deck building game that can appeal to fans of either the comics or the game format or both. And if you’re only a fan of one, it might just convert you to the other in the process. It did for me!
7 out of 10. Definitely worth it.
Note: I have learned from bitter experience with this site that I need to stress that all reviews – including this one – are entirely matters of opinion. I am not claiming that anything I have said in this review is fact, it is all entirely my opinion and I am sure that many others have different opinions. If you wish to reply with yours, I welcome it. I enjoy discussion but will not respond kindly to aggressive replies.