Page 51 - spielbox 03/21 - English

monster focus has been slightly simpli­ fied, items can finally be traded, and “vengeance“ has been abolished. How­ ever, this is not really noticeable in the game. To quote a fellow player, “I don‘t see any difference here from be­
fore.“
As for game mechanics,
Jaws of the Lion has in­
herited almost all the good
qualities of its big brother. Unfortunately, it has also
inherited some well­known
drawbacks. Keeping track of
monster actions and hit points
is still very clumsy and, as before, best handled by the digital Gloomhaven Helper.
More importantly for pros, though, there‘s less long­term development. He­ roes can no longer be retired, and instead of new characters you now only get one small surprise box per player to unlock at some point in the campaign. So the an­ ticipation of completely new characters is lost. Upgrading action cards with the help of stickers has also been completely elim­ inated, and with it the pleasure you get when paying lots of gold to equip your favorite card to deal even greater dam­ age. Overall, you are less invested in your characters, which makes it feel less epic than the base game. Admittedly, that’s not its goal, but for me this removes a major appeal to advance the campaign.
So, has the game achieved its goal? It‘s attractive to ambitious newcomers be­
cause it does a better job of introducing them to the world of Gloomhaven than its big brother did. It maintains the com­
plexity of each game while re­ ducing the duration of the cam­ paign, though 25 scenarios is
still a considerable amount.
For veterans, it‘s basically an expansion to the main game. The new characters are fun, but not really spectacular compared to the advanced heroes of the base game, and the campaign offers little of
note aside from the boss fights. The bottom line is that Jaws of the Lion is shortened, not simplified, and the­ refore an excellent option for those who
found the main game too long and too expensive. Fans of the original who crave even more character classes can also en­ joy it, but shouldn‘t expect anything revo­ lutionary. In short: Gloomhaven remains Gloomhaven. The monster has not been tamed, it’s had offspring. (tw)
Title:
Designer: Illustration:
Publisher: Players: Age: Duration: Price:
Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
Isaac Childres
Francesca Baerald, David Demaret, Alexandr Elichev
Feuerland Spiele
1 – 4
about 14+ years about 120 minutes about 60 Euros
Reviewer
Gerald Rüscher
Udo Bartsch
Playing appeal
8
7 9
Even for heavy Gloomhaven users like me, this smaller version brings immen- se game play appeal. Uncomplicated entry, fine mechanics.
Stephan Kessler 10
Lends a helping hand to all curious players through an ingenious tutorial system. Optimizes the outstanding original game through many tricks and makes it more accessible.
Marie Poenisch 8
Great group adventure.
Christoph Schlewinski 7
You‘ll find it really ingenious if you know, and like, Gloomhaven. If one or both of these is not the case, you are left with a game that offers an exemplary introduction to this type of game.
Very good introduction to a complex game.
Maren Hoffmann
spielbox 49