Category Archives: Game Reviews

Endless Legend 2 & the Tidefall mechanic, 9/24/26

Posted on by Henry

Endless Legend 2 is out.

I’m shocked to realize that I haven’t written anything about the Endless games here. I planned to connect my thoughts today to what I’d previously written about Amplitude’s games, only to discover that there was nothing to connect to. I haven’t ever mentioned Amplitude Studios, let alone their interconnected series of Endless games.

It’s time to rectify that. I’m a huge fan of Amplitude’s work.

I freely admit that Amplitude doesn’t always hit home runs. I admire, however, that they consistently take big swings. They also (to my eyes) create some of the prettiest games, offer incredibly informative and accessible and layered UI, and with their Endless games weave all that into a single sci-fantasy setting that neatly legitimizes many of a 4X game’s mechanical abstractions.

Dust is narratively superior to a classic 4X’s generic abstracted “gold.” I will fight you over this.

I haven’t yet played enough of Endless Legend 2 to give you a thorough review. I’ve struggled to find time for a new 4X while juggling childcare. That’s especially true when my laptop can’t run the game and my desktop is in the baby’s bedroom. I played some of the early access versions, but only in bits and pieces. My knowledge is thus both partial and out of date. 

I have however played enough of EL2 and other turn-based 4X games to understand the promise EL2 offers. Amplitude Studios is trying another big experiment. Regardless of how it turns out, I think they’ve once again already improved the genre.

It all comes down to Tidefall.

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Grumping about DungeonWorld, 9/17/26

Posted on by Henry

I have a problem. I grumble nearly every time I think about DungeonWorld. It’s gotten worse, and I’m at risk of full blown curmudgeon-itis.

I have to talk about D&D first. For better AND for worse, D&D remains most people’s touchstone for roleplaying games. DungeonWorld isn’t D&D, but obviously looks and sounds like it should be similar. Based on my recent conversations with newer explorers of the hobby, DungeonWorld is the not-D&D game that they are most likely to have tried. Those who aren’t exploring lots of different RPG systems will try out D&D, look at DungeonWorld… and then often go back to D&D. Whenever I hear that, I feel disappointed—not with them, but with how much better DW could have been.

Maybe my sample group is weird. That’s totally possible.

DungeonWorld (DW) is the Powered-by-the-Apocalypse (PbtA) game that I like the least. That has been true for a long while. This opinion pre-existed and is totally distinct from my thoughts about Adam Koebel (here’s some now-old news on that front). Maybe I’ll talk about that drama some other day, but probably not.

I’ve had fun playing DW. I’ve had fun running it. Heck, I ran it during its playtest and had a delight with my friends. Back then D&D’s 4th edition was still au courant, with its Daily, Encounter, and At-Will powers for every character class and its clearly MMO-inspired design. In retrospect I do like how D&D 4e worked as a tactical puzzle game, but DungeonWorld felt like a much-needed alternative. It was a game that felt D&D-ish and which didn’t assume everyone needed a tactical map to play their tabletop RPG.

I still really like the ways in which DungeonWorld encouraged the GM and players to all collaborate on the narrative and the setting. This wasn’t unique to DW: PbtA games regularly played around with more-collaborative systems. But DW had explicit mechanics by which players could contribute. That plus a great set of players led to The Underwatch, one of my favorite campaigns that I’ve run.

No, my problem with DungeonWorld is a personal gripe that I don’t expect others to share—and which I fervently want to convince you is correct:

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Room to grow: Lootbound (demo)

Posted on by Henry

The Lootbound demo fascinates me. It scratched a series of my itches, handily eating an hour and a half of my Saturday evening and keeping me up past my bedtime. Days after playing it, I find my mind returning to gnaw at its design choices.

It is not, I think, the game for me. But it might be the game for you.

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Feline interlude, 5/29/25

Posted on by Henry

Life has been very full of baby recently. I don’t have a full post for you.

I’ve been lucky enough to play a bit of Cities Without Number with a neighbor and some friends. My other games are basically on hiatus, but being able to start early, end early, and walk less than ten minutes to and from game is amazing. There’s also no way I could be doing this without sometimes bringing baby Gibby with me, or sometimes coordinating extra support for Ley. Asking Ley to take care of the baby without any support while I go play RPGs is no good. Having a two-month old is a lot of work.

Cities Without Number, like other Kevin Crawford titles, could really use some editing. It’s… acceptable. The text is definitely better organized and written than some other RPGs or boardgames I’ve seen. Some of Crawford’s verbosity adds evocative texture to both system and setting, and his approach certainly produces consistently fun results. But…

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Spectaculars, lightweight superhero fun

Posted on by Henry

Spectaculars is a superhero RPG with a simple roll-under percentile die system. There are no cumbersome lists of modifiers, and the math required at the table should be accessible to precocious eight or nine year-olds. The game is clearly a love-letter to superhero comics, right down to players’ ability to invent backstory and create connections at the drop of a hat by spending “Continuity Tokens” to make up past issues with a relevant story detail. The game could also easily mimic the feel of superhero cartoons like Batman: The Animated Series, or any other episodic story where inventing background is expected or would be useful. Whatever your inspirations are, Spectaculars shines brightest when you’re playing episodic adventures in the context of a larger narrative arc. This is especially true if you’re more excited about your game’s larger story than you are about the gritty details of how a specific power works, or quantifying whose ”Mega Power Blast” is bigger.

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Immersion & Worldbuilding in Co-op Video Games

Posted on by Henry

Void Crew, Deep Rock Galactic, and Helldivers 2: three co-op games, three “shooters” (kind of, more on that later), and three games that build on their own self-contained fiction. I’ve played all three. I’ve enjoyed all three. So why do I only admire two of them?

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Dominions 6: Same Great Taste, More Accessible

Posted on by Henry
Don’t play it for the graphics

I love fantasy strategy games. I’ve played piles of them. That includes most of the Age of Wonders series, Master of Magic (the original and the new version), Warlock, Fallen Enchantress, Heroes of Might and Magic 1 through 5, and more. But Dominions outshines those games in multiple ways.

If you’re already someone who plays the Dominions games, you’ll have heard about Dominions 6 and you’ll (probably) already have it—or you’re waiting for the right moment to buy it. I’m more interested in those of you who haven’t played Dominions.

The last time I wrote at length about a Dominions game was a decade ago (damn), for Dominions 3. I said around then that I feared falling into the game, feared losing myself in its intricacies. That fear was appropriate. But I also wrote about the lure of a game that offered such stories—can my demon monkey kingdom raise enough hordes of undead and bleed the land dry fast enough to destroy the other would-be godly tyrants?—and I was right about that too. Dominions 6 isn’t accessible in the same way that I’d want if I were introducing novices to strategy games, but if you’re willing to dig into this game it will scratch itches that other games could never satisfy.

Check out a game that will let you turn your warriors’ skin to tree bark, throw fireballs, hunt the minds of enemy mages, accelerate time so that the whole world withers and dies, and steal the sun.

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Game system flavor & optional rules

Posted on by Henry

This is pulled from a conversation I had recently about optional rules.

Rules combine to make systems, and systems create flavor by shaping the permissible and supported space of a game. Any skillful or willful group of players (the storyteller is a player too) can play outside the rules of the game system they’re using—that’s normal!—but that play isn’t supported by the system, and it isn’t part of the flavor the system creates.

Optional rules are opportunities…

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Vast: The Crystal Caverns (boardgame, 2016)

Posted on by Henry

What an incredible premise. What a fun game! If only it were playable without constantly referencing reams of paper on rules, errata, and commentary on the rules and errata.

Vast is admirably ambitious. It’s designed for up to five interlocking, competing, asymmetrical roles that all fit together beautifully to make this boardgame a nail-biting, neck-and-neck race toward victory. With a few important caveats, each player has their own rules reference sheet for their role, encompassing everything they could need to know in order to play the game. And with another few important caveats, everything can flow smoothly as each player chases their own victory conditions, pushing the game onward towards a thrilling conclusion.

Those caveats?

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Why play Diablo when you could play the Hammerwatch 2 demo?

Posted on by Henry

I’m shocked I haven’t raved about Heroes of Hammerwatch (HoH) on this blog before now. I thought I had. Sorry CrackShell, you deserved enthusiastic praise for your previous work. Apparently I only shared that with some friends.

Hammerwatch 2 is the high quality lo-fi alternative to Diablo 4 coming out August 15th, and there’s a free demo on Steam right now. I’ve been having a blast playing that demo: if you want a dungeon-delving ARPG hack-and-slash, try this. It’s a hell of a lot cheaper than $70.

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