cluttered but a great game
938293
i wasa bit surprised when a friend of mine described this as "legend of zelda" like. but having played it thats the best description i can think of for it. there are a series of dungeons or "temples" you gain a new weapon in each one starting with a boomerang and working up to a hookshot. each dungeon has a mini-boss and a mega-boss, it's really legend of zelda like. but the story is geared to a much older audience.

the basic premise of the story is that you have heaven and hell, then there's a council which is a third party mediary to keep balance. the four horsemen work for the council. you play as War, summoned to earth on the day of the apocalypse only to find the seventh seal hasn't been broken and he shouldn't be there. as punishment the council strips him of his power and war is sent back to earth to clear his name. demons, angels, and nasty little beasties are all trying to kill you.

this game has it's fair share of negative features, you get two weapons and you can change it up but i've never liked one button fighting systems, they just don't allow for the depth of a real combat system. and the amount of gear you get is a bit much. about halfway through the game you get a gun but it quickly gets shelved in the back of your inventory in favor of items that have a utility function like the boomerang or a portal generating gauntlet. the portal gauntlet is kinda disapointing, seems like everyone is trying to cash in on the popularity of portal these days, however in aplication in the game it works ok as a puzzle solver. but there's more, and alot of them are used in tandem so there's plenty of shuffling with your palette in the heat of the moment.

the character design leaves something to be desired, war has this weird hodgepodge of armor and his proportions are just rediculous, it reminds me of the way they do world of warcraft characters or kids shows. it's a kind of lazy frame to me, the whole big hands and feet thing just grates on me. but other than that the enemies and suporting characters don't look so bad, ulthane is kinda cool but a simple design.

but my biggest gripe by far is the fast travel system. whenever you want to get quickly from one side of the map to the other you travel from one merchant location to another. but that entales walking a little walkway in some etherial plane. there's nothing going on in there you just walk from one end of a room to the other. there's some stairs and occasionally there are breaks in the walkway you have to jump over. so there is no reason for it at all. i'd almost prefer a loading screen to something this useless.

my final complaint is the response time. this game often times doesn't recognize multiple quick inputs on the controller and often times you'll get dinged here and there because your expecting something to come imediatly following what you just did. it gets frustrating at times.

but overall it's a really fun experience and i find myself eagerly waiting for the sequel. i'd recomend buying this game to almost anyone who's big into games in general
84011
The decision tree is rather limited, but across multiple games it becomes quite entertaining. Unfortunately the pouch isn't very good at containing the tokens, I'm always afraid they'll get lost.
1746524
This is a great card game. It's a game that when it's over, win or lose, you want to play again. The components are really nice. The modular expansions that come with the game help tune the difficulty to something you find challenging yet manageable. I have not tried the co-op expeience, but the solitaire version is really solid. The only real downside is that you need a fair amount of space to play it, since you need to make a 6x6 card grid. Otherwise, it is a great game in a series of great games.
2559490
This game is all about simplicity.  Simple mechanics, simple concepts.  However it is put together in an amazingly complex and interesting way.  The map you explore is huge and the enemies are varied.  The frustration comes in trying to complete the game at 100%.  It can take some time collecting all the souls, but it's the good type of frustration.  Every time you beat one of the 3 endings you unlock more features creating an incredibly deep gaming experience.  Great game.

It could use more touch screen functionality.  The times it is used is executed very well, but there's just not enough of it.
3911320
Found a couple issues with gameplay, but an overall fun game to play.
1630789
This is a great game.  I waited for the collector's edition for the larger cards and custom train pieces.  (And it has the expansion included.)  Easy to play.  A strategy game that works for older kids and non-strategy folks also.

One thing I really like about this game is that it's fast moving.  In other games, you have several things you can do in a turn in sequence.  In this game, you have 3 play options, but you can only do one thing in a turn.  This keeps things moving rather than waiting for each player to do A, then B, then C.

As one other review mentioned, some of the instructions are missing for the expansion.  You can look them up online.  I'd probably lose a half star for this, but I couldn't see going down to 4.
4161588
I enjoyed this game very much but, most of the objects to be found can be very difficult to find due to are very dark and are difficult to find ,the the way the objects to be found are described are not described as what is required to find ex: (Wrench is a pliers) this can be very confusing but doesn't take away from the enjoyment form the game.  If You like seek and find games, this is a good one.
941497
I flipping love this game. It's complex stressful and one dam huge puzzle LOVEIT.
A lot of stuff we have to look up just to understand what they are like the rope arrows and the expedition cards that you get.
My only compliant about the game is the dam camera you have to move as you move and it's flipping annoying as your playing trying to get so that you can see without dying. That is my only compliant. Overall the games is great besides that dam camera issues.
1262484
If you love the board game like I do, but have trouble getting players together and consuming so much space and time, this is a satisfying substitute.
2123354
I bought Age of Discovery without much knowledge of what the game consisted.  After playing this a few times, I think it'd make a great app for a mobile device.  The reason is tracking all of the cards, placements, and owners of all of the different aspects of the game, not to mention setup, seems to bog down gameplay.  This is very evident upon the first time you play.  The setup is exhaustive, consisting of a variety of cards, and colors, and little pieces, which are easily lost if not careful.  However, once you streamline the setup process, and get a handle of all of the functions of the cards, then, it becomes a fun game.  The problem is that it's usually too much the players have to organize before they can get at the actual gameplay.

The actual gameplay is better with more people, which, of course, is a challenge if you must instruct people to the gameplay and organization.  Also, the balance of the game seems to be unstable once you've identified the winning strategy that can be applied for just about every game (don't worry, I won't reveal it.)

All in all, it's a game I enjoy playing every once in a while, once I can persuade someone to join me.
2445721
The rule book is a little tough to get through. There are some translation issues and a few misspellings and the "steps" and "phases" of the game seem difficult at first. I personally think the names should be swapped. Once you dive into the game and get a hang of it's mechanics, it's a very interesting game. There are tons of seemingly small decision to make that end up having a huge impact on your position. Thinking ahead is paramount to success. My girlfriend and I had a great time playing it and look forward to many more games.
4607273
I had to chime in with a slightly different opinion. In our first try with the game, it took us almost 3 hours to go from setup, instruction, and playthrough. If you've watched playthroughs and reviews, you'll probably have an easier go of it.

I like that there is more than one way to win the game. It doesn't really foster cooperation, but as other players start to close off avenues for resources, all hope is not lost. There are also some inventive mechanics that ensure that more is not always better (i.e. too many workers can hurt as much as not having enough.)

My gripes with the game lie mainly in the design. Each player is given a color, but there are factions (we kept referring to them as "races" though that's not accurate) with similar color schemes on the board. The two do not have any correlation, but it sometimes confused me and where I should focus or what I could do in my turn. Other elements of the layout tended to have us losing track of this or that element that probably should have been moved/adjusted to reflect the state of the game but wasn't.

The one thing that I was kind of missing was any kind of fun element. There's something about the game that feels dry, and I know that it's a "dystopian" game but games should generally be fun and this just felt too sterile an experience.
1201182
I actually really enjoyed this game and it would have gotten 5 stars were it not for 2 things:
1.  There are many items to collect in the game, but once you complete the game you're not able to wander around looking for items, like you can in most games.  I don't care if it doesn't make sense in the story, if there's collectibles you should be able to collect them at leisure, not when only during the story line.  The only way is to start a whole new game, which brings me to my next point.
2.  Cut scenes and animations I can't skip.  Some are skippable, but the longer more annoying ones which I saw when I played through the first time I'm having to sit through again, if I want to collect all the items.

These should be basics of game design these days: skip the scenes, allow for free form wandering around after the game is complete.
3884357
Great game . Good components . It's strategic and not to long.
375188
What a great collection of old 2600 games. Some of these are pretty lame, but it's worth the price for River Raid, River Raid II, Keystone Kapers, Pitfall and Pitfall II.
The challenge of unlocking all the extra features and the like is a nice touch.
The display options I've unlocked so far make me sick though and don't seem to be a whole lot of fun. (Rotating cube especially)
1311562
This would have 5 stars, because I love the game, but it wasn't a very big stack to add to the game, and even came with blank cards.  Which some people may be creative enough to use.  But, I bought the game and all of the expansions and we went through the set very quick.  Still fun to play, especially with new people.
3746945
a great addition to your game closet if you like games like catan / ticket to ride / Bohnanza / cover your assets / pit / poker