Author: Game Infliction

Halo 2 at 20: Remembering My Favorite Xbox Game Ever

If I could time-travel back to any gaming moment, it would be the release of Halo 2 back on November 9, 2004. I have never in my entire life, both personally and professionally, experienced such hype and anticipation in the run-up to a major game release – and then somehow also seen that game actually live up to all of it. But Halo 2 did! It was the long-awaited (and delayed) sequel to the very reason the Xbox established itself in the console space at all, and thus it carried the weight of the entire Xbox world on its shoulders. If you were in or around the Xbox community in 2004, you no doubt remember it. I was lucky enough to cover Halo 2 for Official Xbox Magazine before, during, and after its release, and so I thought I’d take this special anniversary moment to share a few behind-the-scenes memories from what is, to me, the single greatest Xbox game ever.

Covering Halo 2 Before Release

The first time I saw Halo 2 running – sort of – was its then-jaw-dropping and now infamous E3 2003 behind-closed-doors single-player campaign demo. I say “sort of” because the demo Bungie showed never made it into the final game. But it was representative of what we could expect from the sequel, including dual wielding weapons and boarding (read: hijacking) vehicles. They played it live in the room for us, and I went back and saw the demo a few times during that E3 week. Visually, it was stunning for the time. And the aforementioned pair of new gameplay mechanics seemed delectable. Like most who saw it, I couldn’t wait to play it…

…But wait I would for an entire year more. Halo 2 made its playable debut at E3 2004, with its November 9, 2004 release date literally written in ink. While not on the show floor, media members with appointments could play a round of single-flag CTF on the Zanzibar map behind closed doors. I remember a couple of things: first, I was floored by how it looked and felt the first time I put my hands-on it. Boarding an enemy vehicle was an absolute thrill, and the gameplay was so much more refined than what we’d spent every single day at 5pm playing at OXM with Halo: Combat Evolved.

Gameplay in Halo 2 was so much more refined than what we’d spent every single day at 5pm playing at OXM with Halo: Combat Evolved.

Just this week, Halo 2 lead multiplayer designer (and architect of the groundbreaking “virtual couch” online matchmaking system I’ll talk more about in a bit) Max Hoberman told me this little anecdote about Zanzibar: “We planned this and executed on it in record time in preparation for E3, when we learned that we were going to have to carry the show, and we didn’t have anything we felt was impressive enough.” Mission accomplished, Max.

Needless to say, I politely begged the Microsoft PR team to sneak me in for a few more sessions throughout E3, and I gladly gobbled up every second of hands-on time with Halo 2 that I could. I was hooked.

Reviewing Halo 2

By virtue of the long lead times that monthly magazines have (not to mention day-one patches not really being a normal thing back then), I found myself at Bungie in late September of 2004 to review Halo 2 for Official Xbox Magazine, alongside my editor-in-chief, Rob Smith. Rob pulled rank and actually wrote the review (I’d have done the same in his position), but I got to come along for the ride. The Bungie team gave us our own tiny office – it was more of a storage room, really – where they set up two Xboxes and two TVs.

We were there for three days, with the first two being dedicated to the campaign. Obviously that meant we got to experience the play-as-the-Arbiter surprise before anyone else did – and couldn’t talk about it for weeks! I ended up finishing the campaign before Rob did, and, I kid you not, I thought the credits rolling was a bug. Surely the last level was supposed to have started instead! It’s a funny story now, but I almost embarrassed the heck out of myself by telling Bungie I’d hit a bug. Thankfully, I didn’t, and of course we later learned that the final level was cut because the development team ran out of time. Instead, three years later Halo 3 would pick up where Halo 2’s monumental cliffhanger left off.

I thought the credits rolling at the end of hte campaign was a bug.

The multiplayer sessions were simply a blast. Getting to rip through every one of the now-classic multiplayer maps – a number of them which hadn’t been revealed at that point – was an absolute treat. In fact, one of the then-unknown maps was Coagulation, a remake of what was arguably Halo 1’s most famous/popular battleground, Blood Gulch. Rob and I lobbied Bungie president Pete Parsons to let us talk about Coagulation in the OXM review, which was going to reach subscribers before the game came out. We compromised: we could include it, but it would be in a sealed fold-out page that you had to physically cut to access. Naturally, we assumed everyone that picked up the magazine did just that.

At the end of the visit, Rob and I deliberated in his hotel room. We were both miffed by the campaign’s sudden stop, but nevertheless strongly felt that it deserved the highest score OXM had ever given: 9.7 out of 10. It beat out the previous top score of 9.6, given to both Halo: Combat Evolved and the original Splinter Cell.

Halo 2 Is Released

In the ultimate first-world problem, the weeks between spending three days with Halo 2 at Bungie and the final release of Bungie’s glorious sequel were agonizing. Gaming-wise, all I could think about was playing it again. And when November 9 finally came, the OXM crew and I played every. Single. Night. This is not an exaggeration. Whether it was matchmaking, private matches, or a mix of the two, Halo 2’s sublime Xbox Live virtual couch system was the foundation for thousands of hours of fun – back before live service games were monsters that demanded thousands of hours of your time.

When the Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Packs were released, it only extended the fun for many more months. Not only that, every map was – this is not an exaggeration – awesome. There were no duds in the bunch. Bungie was simply at the peak of its powers with Halo 2, and to this day you can name a Halo 2 multiplayer map and I can describe it in great detail. This week, I asked Halo 2 multiplayer lead Max Hoberman (now the head of veteran developer Certain Affinity) to rank all 12 of the maps that shipped with Halo 2. He graciously did so – with a twist – telling me, “Here’s a ranking of my favorites, specifically from when we were in development. This is how I remember liking them, 20 years ago.” And he left notes on each:

12) Foundation. “We remade Thunderdome, a multiplayer level from Marathon, and added it as an Easter egg, unlockable. I wish we’d remade Mars Needs Women instead – that was my favorite from Marathon.”

11) Colossus. “Gravity lifts are fun, but this map never really did much for me. I honestly can’t think of a time I had a blast playing it during development. Apparently it was also superbounce crazy after we shipped, who knew?”

10) Headlong. “We slammed this in late, after the success of Zanzibar at E3. We felt we needed more asymmetrical single flag CTF maps that supported vehicles and large teams. and had a big dynamic element (the crane). It really needed more time in paper design, and more tuning, than we were able to give it, so it was never my favorite.”

9) Battle Creek. “I felt we had to remake the iconic Beaver Creek from Halo. Then working to improve it was quite a challenge – removing ladders, and adding teleporters behind the bases. I think it worked out ok, but honestly, I was already tired of it by the time we got it playable during development.”

8) Burial Mounds. “We really wanted a map that highlighted the ATV/Mongoose, before we found out it was cut, and this was supposed to be that map. We tried to salvage it, and it had a few moments of fun on base defense games due to its extreme asymmetry, but it would have been much better if we’d designed it for that. As it was, it was nothing but untapped potential.”

7) Waterworks. “I liked the ambition on this map, but I think the simplicity of the bases and the lack of cover out in the open really hurt it. It’s an easy candidate for improvement, in my honest opinion. If only we’d had more time and resources! We were a tiny multiplayer content team (just me and [Halo 2 multiplayer designer Chris] Carney originally, then [Halo 2 multiplayer designer Steve] Cotton joined us halfway through).”

6) Ivory Tower. “This map was a mosh pit of sorts, where we tested out a lot of Assault games in particular, and that’s what I recall most. But we had fun Slayer and Oddball and other games on it too. Plus I named it after our nickname for Marty’s audio space/office, which was a constant sore point for him, so it got extra points.”

“[Halo 1’s Blood Gulch map] was simply the most iconic big open vehicle sandbox.”

5) Midship. “I designed this map for 2v2 CTF games, Carney helped improve it massively (Covey curvey!), and it took on a life of its own, especially in competitive circles. Of course it was at its best when it had more players on it than it was originally targeting.”

4) Ascension. “A map that blends tight quarters combat with distance sniping and Banshees? Why not. This was definitely a unique map, and while it had some issues, I have very fond memories of playtests on it during development. Plus [Halo 2 narrative lead Joseph] Staten and [Halo 2 animator John] Butkus went head to head on it with snipers every single day, on the kiosk, for at least a year. They were clearly having fun.”

3) Coagulation. “Yes, this is a remake of Blood Gulch, but we remade it for a reason. The original was simply the most iconic big open vehicle sandbox, mildly symmetrical and with two bases to boot, for big team CTF battles. This complemented our smaller, tighter, no vehicle maps perfectly. Plus I think we did a good job of staying true to the original, while still improving it.”

2) Zanzibar. “We planned this and executed on it in record time in preparation for E3, when we learned that we were going to have to carry the show, and we didn’t have anything we felt was impressive enough. I doubled down on single flag CTF, with this dedicated map that supports both close quarters combat and vehicles, and many of my fondest memories in Halo 2 playtests were on it.”

1) Lockout. “Our first and our best. The undisputed king. We played this continuously throughout development, and I never got tired of it. Ever.”

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked. Swords-only no-radar matches on Lockout are his favorite. Talk Halo 2 with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Marvel Rivals: Exclusive Moon Knight Gameplay – IGN First

Our IGN First “cover story” game for November is Marvel Rivals, the upcoming 6v6 hero shooter featuring many of Marvel’s biggest superheroes. We kick off our exclusive coverage with five exclusive minutes of gameplay showing Moon Knight, the most recently confirmed hero added to Rivals’s sizable roster.

Take a look at the exclusive gameplay above, and if you missed it, you can check out the Psylocke gameplay video that we kicked off our IGN First coverage with in the video below.

If you missed our hands-on preview impressions from the closed beta from over the summer, you can read that after you finish the Psylocke video. And stay tuned all November long for more exclusive Marvel Rivals coverage on IGN! Thank you to our IGN China team for leading the editorial effort on this video and this entire IGN First project.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Review: Vengeance Hunters (Switch) – A Decent Swing At A Neo-Neo Geo Beat ‘Em Up

Combos of industry.

With the belt-scrolling beat ’em up undergoing something of a renaissance of late, it feels like a new title enters the fray every other week. While some efforts utilise IPs like Double Dragon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to garner attention, others are rekindling the genre’s magic with original ideas. Enter Nuala Studio with Vengeance Hunters, a fledgling project that’s notable for its development platform, the Neo Geo, a 34-year-old piece of arcade hardware.

Vengeance Hunters doesn’t shy away from cliche. Its introduction pans over a brooding city skyline while describing a dystopian future under threat from “High rolling suitmen. Captains of industry. Bastards of the upper crust.” Vaguely political, then. Enter three protagonists, the awkwardly titled Candy, Golem, and Loony; an athletic female, a bulky robot, and a brawny part-cyborg male, respectively.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Is at War With Itself

There’s a line in our Dragon Age: The Veilguard review that has stuck with me throughout my own playthrough: “It’s hilarious that no one ever says the word ‘Veilguard’ out loud across the 100 hours I played of this dialogue-packed campaign, exposing a last-minute marketing pivot for what it was.”

While I’m nowhere near the 100-hour mark myself, that line is so far proving true – not a single character has mentioned The Veilguard. My team of D&D archetype oddballs may collectively be known as such in all the marketing, online articles, and the physical box itself, but within the world of Thedas they’re none the wiser. Imagine Tony Stark and Steve Rogers having no idea the world called them Avengers… that’s how odd it is.

A name that Rook, Varric, Harding, and the rest of the gang definitely do know, though, is Dread Wolf – the mythical moniker of former Dragon Age companion, Solas, as well as the original subtitle for this fourth entry in BioWare’s fantasy series. While ultimately it really doesn’t matter what this game is called, the more I play The Veilguard, the more it feels like it’s awkwardly in conflict with itself, torn into pieces that reflect two very different intentions – one a sequel to a decade-old RPG, the other a fresh beginning with no ties to what came before.

Many aspects of The Veilguard point to it being something of a soft reset or even spin-off from the main Dragon Age series. Set in the northern Tevinter region, it leaves behind the saga’s original southern home of Ferelden, along with all its characters and politics. Dragon Age has always started afresh with each new game as, unlike Mass Effect, there’s no persistent protagonist across the series as each instalment tells a brand new story. The shift to Tevinter is perfectly in keeping with Dragon Age’s history, then, but The Veilguard isn’t a typical Dragon Age game. It is its first direct sequel – a continuation of Dragon Age: Inquisition, which dedicated its post-credits and Trespasser DLC to setting up Solas as the villainous Dread Wolf. And this is where it all starts to feel a little messy.

So much of The Veilguard is dedicated to Solas. Its opening sees him performing a dangerous god-unleashing ritual, and the world is littered with quests that explore his history and relationship with those dark deities. There may be no mention of the word “Veilguard” anywhere, but everyone is talking about the Dread Wolf. Why isn’t that the name of the game again?

Rather than take his place as the villain Trespasser promised, Solas is usurped by a much more newcomer-friendly option

But while Solas may take up considerable space, the Dread Wolf has weirdly been relegated to the position of fantasy Hannibal Lecter, trapped in dreams where he appears only to offer advice. Rather than take his place as the villain Trespasser promised, he’s usurped by other dark elven gods who don’t demand any significant prior knowledge – a much more newcomer-friendly option. I’m left with the impression of an antagonist who was robbed of his big bad status somewhere along The Veilguard’s infamously rocky development journey. As our review says, you can “practically smell the rewrites.” But despite his shift from villain to condescending informant, the story is still dedicated to him in a manner that never feels like a true fit for a game that elsewhere is so clearly attempting to be a fresh start rather than a direct sequel.

While I’d rather we got a more clear-cut successor to Inquisition, I think the game we’ve ended up with would be better for cutting Solas loose entirely. Sure, the lack of answers to one of the greatest twists in RPG history would be frustrating, but Solas’ fate feels divorced from the story that established him. That’s because none of the world-altering choices you made across the Dragon Age series are reflected in The Veilguard. Unlike its predecessors, there’s no way to import or recreate your save games and world state aside from three basic and largely interchangeable decisions made in Inquisition’s Trespasser DLC.

Speaking to IGN earlier this year, creative director John Epler told us “among many reasons why we moved to Northern Thedas is it becomes a little bit more of a clean slate for us. There’s not as many decisions you have made up to this point that have an impact on what’s happening in Northern Thedas. And we don’t have to speak directly to things like who is the Divine? Because again, that’s happening in the South.”

But the South is where we made our home and our ties to this world, and so this move means that the Thedas that we helped influence and shape across dozens of hours is not the same Thedas that’s currently at stake. With The Veilguard’s elven gods representing not just the greatest apocalyptic threat Thedas has ever faced, but also the culmination of the Inquisition storyline, then surely it’s more important than ever that the stakes are our own, personal version of this world?

I do sympathise with BioWare – Dragon Age wasn’t developed as a trilogy in the same way as Mass Effect, and so the choices have been on very different scales that must be incredibly difficult to implement into successive games. But those choices being wiped entirely results in something that feels like an opening trying to be a finale. It’s a situation only further strained by the fact that The Veilguard’s version of Thedas is so tonally different from the one established in the previous Dragon Age games. Its grand Necropolis and floating Minrathous fortress feel divorced from the earthier lands of Inquisition and a far cry from the darker regions in which this saga began. Veilguard is a whole new world untouched by players and that clashes with its insistence on continuing Solas’ story in a roundabout way. If BioWare really needed to leave our choices behind, or if it really needed to start afresh for a new era, then going the Mass Effect: Andromeda route of an entirely new story, characters, and setting would have been the cleaner choice.

The Veilguard crew all appear to be likeable people, but it feels as if I’m being blocked from forging true bonds with them.

And so we come back to that history-avoiding title. When Dragon Age: Dreadwolf became Dragon Age: The Veilguard, BioWare’s general manager Gary McKay explained the new name was chosen to reflect the “really deep and compelling group of companions.” It’s an unsurprising shift, moving away from Solas’ decade-old story that perhaps too few players will actually care about in favour of a direction clearly inspired by the phenomenon that is Baldur’s Gate 3’s beloved party. But, frustratingly, I don’t think The Veilguard does the intention of its new title justice.

Across the first 15 or so hours, during which you put together a god-killing team Mass Effect 2-style, there’s rarely the option to have a proper back-and-forth conversation. There’s a tendency to favour cutscenes or pre-scripted chat over traditional RPG dialogue choices, resulting in the feeling that characters are talking at you rather than with you. Very few party members can be spoken to at length following their initial recruitment, and this lack of introductory getting-to-know-you feels antithetical to a design that expects you to quickly forge bonds and trust with your team. As time goes by there are more opportunities to direct the flow of conversation yourself, but they frequently lack the multi-tier dialogue trees that really allow you to delve deep. It was only after unlocking the dragon-hunting Taash that I was presented with a conversation in which I was able to cycle through multiple tiers of responses at every stage of the dialogue. It was the first satisfying conversation I’d had in 17 hours of play, and I’m baffled as to why I hadn’t had the same experience with every other character I’d met.

The Veilguard crew all appear to be likeable people, but it feels as if I’m being blocked from forging true bonds with them. That especially goes for Varric. What is arguably Dragon Age’s best-ever character has been imprisoned in his bedroom, consigned to spouting incidental dialogue that you can’t engage with. His sidelining is yet another example of The Veilguard’s uneasy relationship with its predecessor, but unfortunately the frustrating treatment of its new cast means it’s also difficult to fully embrace the story’s fresh faces.

As I enter The Veilguard’s second half I have begun to appreciate its unique approaches. The knotty, secrets-filled Crossroads region is fun to explore. The action combat is really robust, particularly when enhanced by the well-considered skill tree. But at every turn you can feel the toll of that long, rocky development timeline. There’s a solid God of War-style action game in here, but its sharp battles, linear-ish level design, and explosive cutscenes clash with the more traditional RPG that’s also fighting for air. Those level layouts throttle the quest design, action always takes precedence over conversation, stealth, or diplomacy, and the companions are more like NPCs than party members – Atreus over Astarion.

The overall result is that Dragon Age: The Veilguard isn’t the golden era BioWare game that I had hoped it would be. Torn between continuing its traditional role-playing legacy and starting afresh as a modern action RPG, the end result is an awkward sequel trapped in a cage made of reboot ideas. After years and years of faltered steps I understand why BioWare landed on this particular, very mainstream AAA formula, but I wish it had been inspired by the undying mass popularity of The Witcher 3 – a full-on nerdy RPG – rather than veer closer to Sony’s palatable RPG-ish approach for modern God of War. But that ill-defined shape is often what uneasy development cycles get you. Thankfully The Veilguard’s launch has seemingly gone well for EA and BioWare, which hopefully means Dragon Age will continue. Let’s just hope next time it’s not just the name that’s got a bit of Baldur’s Gate in it.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.

Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (9th November)

Ship shape.

Another week with a sliver of official ‘Switch 2’ news? Gosh, Nintendo, you really do know how to spoil us!

Yes, accompanying Nintendo’s quarterly financial report this week, company president Shuntaro Furukawa confirmed that the Switch successor will be backwards compatible and the Nintendo Switch Online service will carry over too. It ain’t much, but it’s something.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Nintendo Suing Streamer For Allegedly Broadcasting “Pirated” Switch Games Ahead Of Official Release

“On at least fifty occasions in the last two years”.

Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against an individual who apparently “repeatedly streamed pirated and emulated” Switch games while also promoting “Switch emulators and other piracy tools” to his audience.

As highlighted by 404 Media, Jesse Keighin (known online as ‘EveryGameGuru’) reportedly “got under Nintendo’s skin” after he refused to comply with the video game giant.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Tony Todd, Voice of Spider-Man 2’s Venom Among Many Other Roles, Dies at 69

Tony Todd, the voice of Spider-Man 2’s Venom among many other roles, has died at 69. Deadline was the first to report the news.

Todd appeared in numerous roles across a long career dating back to the 1980s, including Platoon, Final Destination, and Star Trek: The Next Generation, where he played Worf’s lost brother, Kurn. Todd’s career in horror, which included a title role in 1992’s Candyman, earned him a Lifetime Achieveement Award at the New York City Horror Film Festival.

More recently, Todd had a starring role in Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2, and we spoke to him about embodying the essence of Venom ahead of last year’s release. Todd also hinted that Insomniac had only used 10 percent of his character’s dialogue, setting off speculation of a DLC that ultimately never materialized.

Insomniac wrote in a statement released shortly after Todd’s death, “Insomniac Games is heartbroken by the passing of our friend Tony Todd. He brought so much joy to our studio during the production of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and to many fans around the world with his inimitable voice and presence. We are Venom… forever.”

Other fans also paid tribute to Todd, calling him a “horror legend” as well as a terrific character actor. One fan pointed to his iconic death scene in The Rock opposite Nicolas Cage,

Developing…

Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Choose between cyberpunk and magic in Zephon, the new 4X from the Warhammer 40,000 – Gladius devs

Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Relics Of War developers Proxy Studios have just released Zephon, a new 4X strategy game set in a manky, post-apocalyptic world. It’s got hexagonal maps, flesh trees, gangly Evangelion-grade giants, “otherworldly hymns of decay”, nuclear bombs, and a player-led “blend of magic and cyberpunk” that extends from the city architecture to the research component. All of which is my cup of giblets. Here’s the launch trailer.

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Marvel Comic Hunters Board Game Review

Collecting comic books has been a thing for as long as the comic industry has been around. There’s an almost irresistable allure to having that one issue featuring the debut of your favorite hero or the one where a lovable character dies. I have dipped my toe into the comic-collecting hobby from time to time, and that was why I had to have Comic Hunters, if for nothing other than all the official comic covers the Marvel-themed board game features.

Designed by Robert Coelho with Art by Diego Sa, Comic Hunters was initially released exclusively in Brazil back in 2020 but, thanks to Spin Master and Arcane Wonders, has now been released in the United States. In Comic Hunters, anywhere from one to four players compete with one another, traveling from flea markets to auction houses, in the attempt to snag those classic Marvel comic issues to make the most valuable collection of them all.

The core idea of Comic Hunters is that players draft cards to make the most valuable collection of comics. Each game allows you to set the market value either randomly or by hand-picking which heroes or types of comics are the most sought-after. To keep things interesting, drafting is done in five different ways, including players taking a card from a drawn hand of cards and passing the remainders to the next player, bidding on a blind pool of cards, and more. Once you have your new set of comics, you build your collections, paying for the cards you keep with the other cards you drafted but are opting to discard. The more of a certain hero or type of comic (first appearance, outfit change, epic battle, etc.) the more points you will get at the end of the game.

It’s a process that, once you’ve gone through it once or twice, you and the other players will fly through. It results in a game that doesn’t take long to play at all, but that initial time figuring out how all the different methods of drafting works can be a bit tedious as the rulebook doesn’t explain it very clearly. Multiple times during my first game, I had to stop and reread the rules to figure it out. Luckily, though, the whole game flow is quick and smooth once you wrap your brain around it.

With being playable solo or with up to four players, Comic Hunters feels like a different game depending on your player count. My favorite setup is playing it as a two-player board game against one other person. With two players, cards and player collections are manageable enough (each player’s sets are openly displayed in front of them) to make it a game where you can not only strategize what cards are best for you to expand your sets but also what could hinder your opponent too.

At three and four players, the number of cards out and around the table can get overwhelming and instead often changed into more of a solitaire experience where I was only focused on my own sets and not stopping others, which admittedly may be more attractive to many players. For me, though, I appreciate the addition of that little bit of conflict. Fair warning: Comic Hunters can trigger decision paralysis, so be wary if that’s an issue for you or the people you want to play against.

There are several avenues to score points come the end the game – the sets of hero comics you have, the types of issues you have, the star tickets you have left that you didn’t use during auctions – so depending on how many comics you’ve managed to get, counting up the various symbols and figuring out how to best organize your sets for the most points can be a bit of a chore. My best recommendation to alleviate this is to simply keep track as you play with tally marks on how much of any one type you have in a set at any given time and adjust after the end of each set-building phase.

Comic Hunters’ initial “WOW!” factor and draw is thanks to all of the classic Marvel comics featured on the cards. It’s longevity and how well it keeps your interest will depend entirely on how much you like drafting and set collection games. I had a fine time with the game (especially with the added adversary aspect at lower player counts mentioned earlier). I found the inclusion of having multiple drafting types helps the experience, but I never stopped wishing that there was another layer to the game. Maybe you could trade with others, or maybe there was a way to influence what the most desirable comics were midgame to try and swing things in your favor. Instead, you get drafting with a side of drafting, with a bit more drafting. The most interesting aspect of Comic Hunters is how you pay for the cards in your set with other cards you drafted, causing me to look for things I wanted and also chaff that I could snag to pay for the cards I wanted to collect.

While the art of all the covers is nice, and it was fun to stumble across issues featured in my own collection, the same can’t be said for the quality of the components themselves, with the gameboard being the only part that felt solid. The cardboard used for the player markers and comic-type tokens is incredibly thin, and even when I was punching them out of the board, they came on, I was worried I would tear them. The cards don’t feel much better; in my copy, the cards seemed to have an odd lip around them, with paper that’s stiffer than I would like. In an ideal world, I would love to have a bit larger and sturdier cardboard tokens or better-feeling cards, but with the game coming in at $25, I can give the lower quality a bit of a pass.

Where to Buy