Review Details

Legendary: Marvel Deck Building Game

Product Review (submitted on October 11, 2015):

OK. So out the gate, let me say that this is one of the better games I own. That said, there's some problems with the game that can be managed with some creativity.

Pros:
- Fantastic game mechanic. The back of every card is the same, making great flexibility in how the game can play in various scenarios.
-Familiar characters / themes. If you're a fan of Marvel, you'll love the thematic elements of this game.
-Replay-ability. Tons of it. The game will probably never EVER play the same twice.
-Semi Cooperative. Lots of my gaming group enjoys that all the players work together towards a common goal, and the more competitive members of the group enjoy the fact that somebody still wins at the end.

Cons
-Organization. Cards show up needing to be sorted and inventoried. Dividers are included, but are blank and need to be labeled. The insert included is fine for the base game, but poorly sized once expansions start collecting. (I ended up printing custom dividers, and cannibalizing the Dark City expansion box to create 3 rows in the base box to hold everything).
-Set up and take down. I think I've set up the game per the instructions once. It's just short of a nightmare. Downloading a phone app (free) greatly decreases frustrations of setup. Break down is always a task, however, because every card has the same backing and needs to be sorted for storage.
-Difficulty. This is a game that you don't always win, and you wouldn't necessarily want to. That said, the difficulty of the game ranges widely depending on the combination of heroes, scheme and mastermind. It also ranges widely depending on how many people you play with. Two players is almost always too easy, and 5 players is almost always too hard. 3-4 players seems to be the sweet spot for this game, but maybe prepare to bend the rules a bit to increase/decrease challenge as necessary for 2-5 players.