Majorspoilers.com is a fantastic site that covers everything you need to know about comics and pop culture. So what better place than here to review a comic book super hero board game. Sentinels of the Multiverse by Greater than Games is a cooperative card game that has one to five players taking on the role of superheroes and go against a common villain in a strange environment.
In Sentinels of the Multiverse, players setup by choosing a hero from the box and shuffling up the deck of cards assigned to that hero. Heroes range from super damage dealing blasty type to protecting healer types. Once each player has a hero, a villain is chosen for the party to go against. Villains can be simple brutes or very complex tricksters. Each villain also has a deck of cards that the group will collectively have to fight. Finally an environment is chosen and its deck is set next to the villain setup. The environment deck represents the place where the epic battle between heroes and villain will take place. Some environs are quite harsh punishing both side of the fight while other areas are a bit more forgiving. The order of play determines how each deck will be arrange on the table. The villain will always start the turn and then each hero will go in turn and the environment deck placed next to the villain will finish the turn.
Turn phases work similar for the villain and the environment where a card is simply turned over and all text applies as necessary. Each hero has a more involved turn where they play a card from their hand, use a power on a card, and draw a card from their deck. Card text and powers usually have some sort of damage application or mitigation that works to whittle down the villain. Some heroes may be themed in such a way that the cards allow for tricks and shenanigans where the cards have powers that alter the turn phases of themselves or others. Players end their turn by drawing a card. Each of the phases of the turn are optional and if a player did not play a card or use a power they may draw two cards. Play continues around the table until either the villain is defeated or all the heroes are incapacitated.
Some of the interesting game play features in Sentinels of the Multiverse are that each hero starts with a number of hit points and a power printed on a “Hero” card that represents their character. Once the hit points of the character are exhausted the card is flipped over and the hero is considered incapacitated. The reverse side of the card has some abilities that are available while the hero is incapacitated. So even if a hero goes down they are not out of the fight.
Like a good cooperative the villains go from fairly easy to ridiculously difficult. Each hero, villain, and environment set are ranked in the rulebook so players can easily start at a level they feel comfortable and work toward more challenging encounters as they learn how each hero or villain works. Another great feature of this game is the endless variety available in heroes and villains. Each hero has a very distinct theme and playstyle as well as the villains. While being set in a generic superhero world with no ties to any specific comic book, the style of Sentinels of the Multiverse very much invokes a feeling of something out of a DC or Marvel book. The player “Hero” card has a comic book cover layout and the art style could easily be used for a comic book. One thing to keep in mind while playing this game, every bit of text is comic sans. This font gets lambasted at every turn but in this game it totally fits with the theme.
Sentinels of the Multiverse is a great card game, a great cooperative game, and fantastic superhero themed game. Each of these would be reason to try this game but all three make this a must have for my collection. There are several expansions which add heroes, villains, and environments to add to the already large pool of cards making replay-ability seem inexhaustible. So check out this fantastic spin on comic book superheroes. If you would like to try before you buy, there is a tablet version of this game as well as a PC version on Steam.com where you may find a sale.
BONUS: Listen to the Munchkin Land Episodes where the players take on Sentinels of the Multiverse.
Sentinels of The Multiverse Enhanced Card Game
A mad scientist holds the world hostage with his terrifying inventions. An alien warlord from a far away galaxy brings his limitless army of bizarre minions to conquer the planet. A giant rampaging robot cuts a swath of destruction across the coast, destroying major population centers. And who will stand in their way? A team of heroes, all with impressive powers and abilities stand between the world and the forces of evil. Will you help them? Answer the call to protect the multiverse! Sentinels of the Multiverse is a cooperative, fixed deck card game with a comic book flavor. Each player plays as one of ten heroes, against one of four villains, and the battle takes place in one of four different dynamic environments. The Sentinels of the Multiverse: Enhanced Edition features a much larger box than our original print run, with enough space to hold 578 cards and still have room for all the cards from both the Rook City and Infernal Relics expansions. The Enhanced Edition also features 36 divider cards, one for each hero, villain, and environment from the core game, both expansions, and even promo characters! The 120 round tokens and 42 rectangular tokens are useful for tracking hero and villain HP, as well as conditional modifiers that can occur throughout the game. The game also includes a 20 page rulebook, complete with instructions, diagrams, a quick start guide, and even bios of the heroes and villains!
SENTINELS OF THE MULTIVERSE: SHATTERED TIMELINES
Sentinels of the Multiverse: Shattered Timelines features two new time-traveling heroes, four villains (some of which may be familiar to Sentinels fans) and two time-displaced environments! Besides just expanding the number of characters and environments available to players, Shattered Timelines introduces new mechanisms and exciting new challenges. Can you repair time before it runs out?
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