A box full of monsters
Massive Darkness 2: Hellscape comes in a huge, heavy box. Inside it, players thirsty for adventure will find as many as 68 figurines. During the game, we will explore a modular board, using about 400 cards, the same amount of chips and many other solidly made components. The latter are necessary to control individual characters.
One for all, all for one
The new game from Portal Games is a cooperative, very atmospheric, dark fantasy dungeon crawler. It is set 10 years after the events of Massive Darkness . Players participating in the game will have to face the Impenetrable Darkness and the hordes of monsters that emanate from it. They can go into battle as one of six heroes belonging to different classes. Each of them has unique abilities that can be activated in various ways.
We can choose from the following character classes:
– wizard – uses magic, which he summons with the help of the Amulet of Spells;
– paladin – using a special board, he can bless a given zone of the dungeon, e.g. defending comrades-in-arms or giving them a blessing;
– berserker – a brutal warrior who, participating in combat, goes berserk, driving him to perform actions described on his skill cards;
– rogue – an assassin hiding in the shadows has a lot of tricks prepared in his pouch, which he uses to, for example, increase the range of his movement or gain an advantage in combat;
– shaman – can use the power of the elements of water, fire, air and earth, which, when properly developed, give him bonuses, but also allow him to summon allies, i.e. the Spirit of Fire and Frost;
– tracker – an archer whose effectiveness depends on mastery when drawing an arrow. This activity is represented by a unique deck of cards that the hero uses.
Preparations for the expedition
The game is preceded by a process of painstaking preparation. At the beginning, each player receives a plastic board and all the components assigned to a given hero, i.e. a character card, elements for a given class, a figurine with a plastic base and markers to determine the level and experience gained. Warriors also take health and mana tokens based on their stats, treasure markers as indicated on their level board, and activation markers. Players enter the dungeon equipped with a basic weapon, armor, and a health or mana potion. Depending on the number of daredevils, 1 to 3 revival tokens must be drawn.
All players ready for battle? So it’s time to prepare the arena. We start building a dungeon by shuffling and placing the mob deck, wandering monsters, items, mob items, and doors on the table. Apart from the latter, in each group we have three levels of cards, which take up a lot of space when spread out on the table. Monster figures should be placed next to them. In practice, however, they are pulled out when they are needed. The play area must contain markers, resources, and tokens. There are a lot of them, so it is worth using a sorter to store them, which significantly speeds up the set up.
Two behind us, it’s time for the third stage of game preparation. To find out what awaits us in the selected scenario, read its description at the end of the manual. There we will find a story note, bringing the task closer to completion, along with the conditions of victory and defeat. Here we will also find the exact recipe for how to create the dungeons that we are supposed to explore this time. Reading will allow us to take out the appropriate elements of the modular board, put in the right places doors, treasures, traps, spawn zones, portals from which the monsters will come out, and other surprises that Massive Darkness 2: Hellscape has to offer us.
„Hello darkness my old friend”
The Portal Games game continues until players complete the quest objective or meet the failure conditions. Each round is divided into 4 phases. In the first one, the warriors will perform 3 actions. They can move, attack a monster, replace equipment, rest, or use special abilities from items or cards they have. Enemies then move – packs and/or marauding monsters in the dungeons are activated. In the next step, players can advance to the next level thanks to the gained experience points. The last stage of each round is moving the twilight marker to the next space, which may result in e.g. proliferation of monsters.
The farther in you go, the darker it gets
When we sit down to each scenario in Massive Darkness 2: Hellscape , we know what we have to do. Despite this, looking at the initial layout of the dungeon, we cannot fully predict what awaits us there. There are many reasons for this. One of them is the fact that every time we open a door, we draw a card. As a result, it may happen that we come across a forge or a well, which will give us an advantage at a later stage of the adventure, but there may also be less pleasant surprises waiting for us behind them. The extensive decks of enemies, treasures and items are also significant.
The mechanics of drawing cards, as well as the fact that we use unpredictable dice to fight, make the novelty from Portal Games a title in which fate plays a significant role. Of course, we are not defenseless against it. Very strong tools to fight him are: skillful development of the character’s abilities and the use of the ability to acquire armor and stronger weapons. The most important thing, however, is close cooperation with other heroes. Each of the classes is interesting in itself and strong enough to survive a trip to the underground. However, only after creating a group of characters can we see how exciting this adventure can be. There are a lot of unique champions to choose from, and each one of them provides a slightly different experience, which further increases the fun of the game. I guess
Impressions
Massive Darkness 2: Hellscape is a game that gave me a lot of fun. Experiencing various adventures, such as escorting an additional hero into the depths of the underground or destroying a dark artifact, was a great pleasure for me. Extremely atmospheric adventures, perfectly set in the world of fantasy, were of course preceded by an extremely long set up. However, I forgot about it as soon as everything was ready for the trip. Then I could reach for my favorite shaman and, together with a rogue, hunter or other warrior ready for anything, get down to finding chests, breaking a bunch of e.g. satyrs or undead, or defeating the lone Incubus Lord or Andra. At the end of the adventure, daredevils have the opportunity to face not just anyone, because the Reaper himself and Michelangelo.
Each appearance of a new opponent in the game is another, sensational figure on the table, but not only. In the play area, we also place his card, along with the item he uses. If we have more such monsters in the underground, the free space on the table begins to shrink. Definitely Massive Darkness 2: Hellscape is a title that takes up a lot of space. It should also be emphasized that the aforementioned set up, but also assembling the game after the end of the game, are tasks that require a lot of patience.
What is the consequence of not performing the latter activity with due attention in particular? It will inevitably end with a non-closing, stuffed to the brim game box. Is it possible to speed them up? Organizers for tokens certainly help, but you have to organize them yourself. It is also a pity that the box did not include, for example, a tray with space for each deck that would have to be shuffled before the game, action, life and mana counters, and a player’s help summarizing the most important rules.
As for the rules of Massive Darkness 2: Hellscape , it must be admitted that they are understandable and logical. They are described in an over 50-page manual, which has an index and a lot of references, thanks to which finding a fragment describing a given issue in an exhaustive way is not difficult.
The trip to the underground lasts, even alone, about 2 hours. With each additional person in the team, this time, of course, increases. Personally, I recommend Massive Darkness 2: Hellscape for 2 or 3 players. Although adventures with a much larger group are possible, they do not give me as much fun as slightly more intimate escapades.
What, in my opinion, is the strongest side of the new Portal Games publishing house? The original construction of character classes. Each of them plays a completely different game, based on different mechanics for using skills. It is also an asset that makes Massive Darkness 2: Hellscape a cooperative game, but it is immune to leader syndrome. It is impossible to know how to control all classes in the first games, so everyone must ultimately decide for themselves what actions they will perform. What’s more, this diversity makes it more fun in a group than alone. You can then share tasks, support other heroes by exchanging items with them, but also using the abilities of e.g. a paladin.
