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The Best Campaign Board Games

Sometimes, you want to just escape from reality and lose yourself in a new, fantastical world. And sometimes, you want to do so for hours on end. When you want to set up a long-term board game night or ongoing campaign with a group of likeminded and passionate board gamers, we’ve got you covered with our list of some of the best legacy board games around. Some of these games are also light on difficulty, creating a low barrier to entry for newer players.

TL;DR Campaign Board Games

Betrayal Legacy

Taking place over the span of multiple decades, Betrayal Legacy is a 13-episode campaign set within the same creepy mansion. In it, each player assumes the role of a generational family member exploring the house and enduring the Haunt, where one player may or may not betray the rest of the group. Players have a lot of creative license here, because as you play through the campaign, you’re crafting the story by the actions and choices you make – some of which are permanent and will affect the game next time you play, incentivizing multiple playthroughs.

Frosthaven / Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion

The original Gloomhaven may be out of print, but its stand-alone sequel Frosthaven is in stock and ready for adventure. This is a fantasy-themed cooperative game where players take on the roles of adventurers and skirmish their way through various tactical combat scenarios. Consisting of tons of these scenarios, Frosthaven is a long-term campaign best enjoyed if you’re sticking with the same group throughout. Setting up and learning the game takes a while, but it’s worth it for dedicated gamers, and it’s great for repeat playthroughs. For a more less daunting and more streamlined take on the same game world, be sure to check out the more Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion as well. Your gaming group can even use the same characters in both games.

Star Wars: Imperial Assault

Thrust yourself into the Galactic Civil War, where you can play as either the Rebel Alliance or the Galactic Empire. Choose between two game modes: campaign and skirmish. In campaign mode, you fight against the Empire in a series of continuous scenarios and experience the detailed narrative taking place after the destruction of the Death Star. The gameplay consists of tactical combat where players will utilize over 250 playable cards to outfit their heroes, modify weapons, and develop your character’s skills.

Roll Player Adventures

Roll Player Adventures is a tightly-designed choose your own adventure-style fantasy cooperative roleplaying game. Not exceptionally challenging, Roll Player Adventures is a good pick for entry-level campaigners with hundreds of different cards, tokens, and dice to help supplement your session. You can also create your own character or import a preexisting one. Gameplay is done through dice manipulation with your fast-growing deck of cards, essentially modifying rolls to complete combat encounters or other challenges.

One Deck Dungeon

What do you get when you mix Roguelike video game mechanics with a quick and easy fantasy card game? You get something like One Deck Dungeon. With the game’s Campaign Mode, players can take control of one of five heroes and choose from four difficulty levels to adventure through the dungeon, defeating bosses and learning talents while filling out their character’s campaign sheets. Like other legacy-type games, talents earned will be carried over into future playthroughs, incentivizing you to play on higher difficulties and experience more of what the campaign has to offer!

Mortum: Medieval Detective

More narrative-focused and mechanics-lite, Mortum: Medieval Detective is a cooperative game of mystery and deduction. Consisting of three decks that make up just as many scenarios, the goal of the game is to work your way through the story and solve the surrounding mysteries through classic detective work and keeping track of time via the game pieces. Settle in, as one scenario takes upwards of two hours, and each story leads into the next, creating a fully immersive campaign.

Looking for board games on a budget? Check out our list of the best cheap board games. If you’re more in the mood for something spooky, check out our picks for the best horror board games. And if you don’t have a whole lot of spare time, take a glance at our favorite quick-playing board games.

World Of Warcraft wasn’t the biggest threat to The Elder Scrolls Online; it was Skyrim

When Bethesda was working out how to turn their popular Elder Scrolls RPGs into an online behemoth to rival World Of Warcraft back in the late 00s, the initial pitch was “Elder Scrolls with friends,” creative director Rich Lambert tells me. A simple idea on paper, perhaps, but one that proved to be a lot more complicated in the realisation of it. Zenimax Online Studios was founded in 2007, a year after The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion landed to universal critical praise, but it wasn’t until seven years later that The Elder Scrolls Online finally released for PC in 2014. At launch “we were walking this weird line between ‘online game’ and ‘Elder Scrolls game’,” Lambert says. “We didn’t do either of them particularly well.”

Ten years later, though, The Elder Scrolls Online is thriving. At last count, the game has over 24 million players galloping about the plains of Tamriel, and later this June, it will receive its eighth major Chapter expansion, Gold Road, which adds Oblivion’s West Weald to the game and wraps up the mystery of the new Daedric Prince that arrived at the end of the previous expansion, Necrom. But the path ESO has taken to get here hasn’t been nearly as glittering, with its PC launch in particular generating “a lot of feedback”, as studio director Matt Firor told press at the game’s tenth anniversary event last week. In fact, it wasn’t until ESO came to consoles in 2015 that the game really found its voice, says Lambert. “We had to really figure out what we wanted to be, and we chose ‘Elder Scrolls’. As soon as we hit that core pillar of ‘It’s Elder Scrolls first, online second,’ then it really just helped inform everything we’ve done since.” Trouble is, when the thrust of ESO’s development straddled the launch of two very different Elder Scrolls games, even nailing down that first part of the pillar proved to be more challenging than expected.

Exciting news for the future of everyone’s favourite co-op shooter that isn’t legally an adaptation of Starship Troopers. A few days ago, Helldivers 2 issued a new major order to annihilate the Automatons, who had been pushed back like never before. And annihilate you all did, with players’ combined efforts being officially recgonised yesterday on the Helldivers 2 Xitter: Mission Accomplished! The bots have been eradicated!

Botany Manor Review

I get an itch to put on my gardening gloves and get planting when spring comes around. While practicing patience for the right weather, I’ll read up on books and try to learn new techniques – but this year, Botany Manor has helped satiate my excitement. It’s a cozy, first-person puzzle game that puts a blank herbarium book in your hand and asks you to grow different plants until the pages are full. Botany Manor is a short and sweet story that safely sits surface-level, but its witty mysteries engaging enough to keep me happily digging for more.

Botany Manor puts you in the boots of retired botanist Arabella Greene as she returns to her grand, and adorably stylized, English manor in 1890 Somerset. Each “puzzle” is actually a fictional plant waiting to be grown, with clever clues scattered around that help you tend each new seed type. Those can start simple, like the Fulguria needing flashes of lightning to bloom, but clues gradually increase in complexity and quantity in order to bring these whimsical plants to life. Real-world science and the time period both inspire unconventional growing methods, such as needing to play the buzzing sound of morse code for a certain seedling. Botany Manor may not teach you much about actual gardening – though I probably read the word “chloroplasts” for the first time in a very long time – but I enjoyed the surreal nature of it.

For example, picking up the first packet of seeds at the potting bench reveals an imprint of a fictional plant called Windmill Wort, with slots for three clues waiting to be found nearby. From the start, it was evident that these clues would not only help solve this puzzle, but also string together a much larger story about Arabella and the manor she lives in. Heat and wildflower charts on a chalkboard helped me figure out the right temperature to grow Windmill Wort, which then bloomed into a lovely pink flower that literally spins like a windmill to clear up smog, smartly tying into a newspaper I had found that discussed the issues of the era’s recent industrialization.

Some information took an embarrassingly long time to decipher as I ran back and forth from one clue to another while head-scratching theories tested my memory. Chapters in the herbarium tell you what clues you’ve found and where to find more, but it doesn’t save the more specific information from them. So, if you forget what that pamphlet in the attic said, you’ll have to walk back to examine it – which makes Botany Manor feel a lot like a walking simulator. My hands were off the keyboard quite often taking physical notes on my discoveries, essentially writing up my own botany book. I also had to tirelessly retrace my steps several times to reread or flip around clues in case I may have missed something, which could get a little tedious. But it helps that icons will pop up when you walk past an item to let you know you can examine it, and musical cues acknowledge that you’re on the right track.

Between solving plant mysteries, you’ll occasionally visit the front gate to pick up a key or decrypt secret locks to access a new area, which helps cut down on the otherwise repetitive nature of the roughly six-hour campaign. I looked forward to what awaited in each new section of the manor, not only because the clues became progressively more creative, but also because it was always fun to find more pamphlets, bottle labels, advertisements, and other environmental details full of vintage charm. The books about art I stumbled across made the space all the more quaint, too, and were later upstaged by a dreamy painting room that reminded me of my own canvases of houseplants.

Botany Manor beckons you with strange ideas and picturesque scenery in every challenge, but Arabella’s story trails behind. Rather than telling her tale through characters and spoken dialogue, it opts for written notes on pretty stationary and significant items that peer into Arabella’s life to tell its overarching story. I liked Arabella, a strong-willed botanist who has suffered unjust rejection in her field, but these notes and letters fail to dig deep into her emotions. Even letters from family, friends, and groundskeepers have the potential to create intimate moments, but are instead easily forgettable in the hunt for clues. The manor is clearly not abandoned, either, as fire burns beneath the stove in the kitchen, but the space feels as if everyone left at the drop of a hat. It’s a bit odd, but it does work in that it prevents any distractions from the puzzles themselves – and after all, Arabella needs to focus to get this herbarium published and earn her rightful flowers as a woman in STEM.

Review: Botany Manor (Switch) – Cosy Yet Challenging, This Puzzler Is Quite Beautiful

Bloomin’ lovely.

When cosy and wholesome games first stepped onto the scene, they were counter-culture — created in response and in resistance to an industry that churned out violence, conflict, and a particular type of masculinity that wasn’t keen on things like emotions or intimacy. Some people were tired of this monolithic and exclusionary idea of what a game ‘should’ be — and so, as a direct contrast to all of that, the cosy game movement was created, prioritising stories that minimised conflict, and focused instead on growth and creation. That’s part of the reason why so many cosy games are about farming and relationships, because the themes of cultivation and creation are almost the exact opposite of violence and conflict.

But these days, cosy games have become a dominant part of gaming culture, and the conflict-free alternatives they once offered as a respite from the status quo are now a lucrative part of the status quo. This is what happens when counter-culture becomes culture: it forgets its roots and its purpose, and instead becomes about aping what’s already popular. In the process, many cosy games fail to understand that a player’s desire for softness and kindness does not mean that they want a completely toothless game. Challenge is not conflict. Challenge is fun.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

I am obsessed with this detailed but very weird aquarium sim

I know some of you will quibble with the headline, so let me confirm straight away that, yes, technically Aquarist is not a game simulating being an aquarium. An aquarist is someone who builds and manages aquariums, which is your principle task in the capital A Aquarist game. It recently left early access, which is sort of unbelievable because it’s very janky in the most adorable way. You can tell it was made by someone who bloody loves aquariums, but taken at face value the career mode tells a strange tale indeed. For example, you have a very unsettling father.

Ring of Honor Wrestler Athena Sets Arena on Fire With Baldur’s Gate 3 Karlach Cosplay

Ring of Honor wrestler Athena debuted some striking new ring gear inspired by Karlach from Baldur’s Gate 3 during the most recent Supercard of Honor event.

Fans of Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian Studios’ latest video game based on the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role playing game, went wild for Athena’s epic entrance, with those in the crowd and watching at home commending her Karlach-inspired outfit, which came complete with the iconic character’s twisty horns and signature axe.

Oh wow 🥰❤️‍🔥🥰❤️‍🔥🥰
Congratulations to real-life Karlach @athenapalmer_fg on retaining her title!!! https://t.co/G4UFGKBVg6 pic.twitter.com/AdHUfstq7s
— Samantha Béart is Karlach in Baldur’s Gate 3 ❤️‍🔥 (@SamanthaBeart) April 6, 2024

Even Samantha Béart, who provided the voice and motion capture for the game’s beloved barbarian, reposted a video of Athena’s arrival and gave her a shoutout. “Oh wow,” Béart wrote on X/Twitter alongside some heart emojis and a gif of the fan-favorite character. “Congratulations to real-life Karlach, Athena, on retaining her title!”

Those on Reddit were also impressed with Athena’s efforts. “Oh wow, this works on so many levels,” one person wrote in a thread dedicated to the wrestler’s new gear. Another added: “This is the mashup I needed this year,” concurring with the original poster, who wrote: “It’s cool to see some Baldur’s Gate 3 representation in wrestling.”

Karlach is a tiefling barbarian in Baldur’s Gate 3 who seeks revenge on the man who sold her to an archdevil when she was young. She often channels her rage into ferocious attacks while also surviving vicious strikes from others, making her a particularly fierce fighter (and certainly one who would be formidable in a wrestling ring).

Athena, also known to the WWE Universe as Ember Moon, shared a carousel of photos from the event on Instagram. “A massive thank you to Larian Studios and D&D for letting me be my favorite character from Baldur’s Gate 3, Karlach!” she wrote, tagging another user to thank them for the hair, make-up, and body paint.

The Baldur’s Gate 3 tribute from Athena is one of several video game cosplays seen at wrestling events. It follows Kenny Omega’s Final Fantasy 7 Sephiroth-inspired costume at Wrestle Kingdom last year and Will Ospreay’s Assassin’s Creed Syndicate Jacob Fyre-style entrance gear for the 18th edition of the event this year.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on X/Twitter @AdeleAnkers.

How do we stop the next round of games industry mass layoffs?

According to one unofficial tracker created by video game artist Farhan Noor, there have been 8000 layoffs in 2024 so far, following an estimated 10,500 layoffs in 2023. The leaders of Microsoft, Embracer Group, Epic and other industry giants have made swingeing cuts to their workforces. While larger companies have inevitably seen the largest reductions, many smaller developers and publishers have also cut staff or even closed their doors. Circumstances vary by company, of course, but as regards the biggest publishers, there are some broad overlapping causes: reckless or, if you prefer, “overambitious” expansion and overhiring during the pandemic lockdown gaming boom; lower-than-hoped returns on new technologies and business models such as NFTs; and rising global interest rates, which have scared away potential investors.

The carnage was uppermost in Larian CEO’s Swen Vincke’s mind when he accepted Baldur’s Gate 3’s Best Narrative gong at the GDC Awards last month. According to Vincke, the layoffs can be traced straightforwardly to a pattern of executive greed that sees company leadership betting the livelihoods and stability of their workers on whatever new idea seems capable of delivering instant growth for shareholders.

Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 14 boss Naoki Yoshida has told The Gamer that he reckons “It’s probably about time,” for a new Final Fantasy Tactics game.

The hint at some long term wish fulfillment came up during an interview with The Gamer’s Gabrielle Castania, in which Naoki ‘Yoshi-P’ Yoshida spoke about Final Fantasy 16’s upcoming The Rising Tide DLC, alongside DLC director Takeo Kujiraoka and localisation director Michael-Christoper Koji Fox.

The Pokémon Company Reveals Date And Venue For 2024 World Championships

Hello Honolulu!

The Pokémon Company wrapped up this weekend’s European International Championship with a taste of what’s in store for the competitive scene over the rest of 2024, importantly sharing the date and venue for this year’s World Championship which is heading to Hawai’i this summer.

Revealed in an all-new trailer (above) we now know that the 2024 Pokémon World Championships will be held at the Hawai‘i Convention Center in Honolulu from 16th-18th August.