Review Details

Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game

Product Review (submitted on November 18, 2015):

Let me start by saying I am not an "Alien" fan. So I know almost nothing about this world. I am reviewing this solely on the boardgame's merits.

Now that that's out of the way, on to the review. I was told that this game was basically a cooperative Dominion. That is a bit misleading. It IS a deck builder, but Dominion it is not.

Quality wise, there are no concerns. Everything seems thought out, the box makes sense, they give you a playmat to organize everything while playing. No problems there at all. For what you get, it's worth the price. For me, value drops in the actual gameplay.

I felt this game was mediocre. Not bad, but it didn't draw me in either. The mechanics are pretty simple, and gameplay flows in a predictable manner, but I just never felt connected to the game at all. Perhaps it's my ignorance of the source material. I have not played the game extensively, but it seems like it may be geared to lose. That in and of itself is not a bad thing. I realize that I will likely lose every game of Pandemic I play, but it's a challenge and it really draws me in to the game by having to coordinate with my team. This game did not do that. Sure, there are "Coordinate" abilities, but you can't always use them. Your team may or may not be able to do anything to help you, and not because they don't have a card to help, but because the card isn't specific enough to the situation. So there's no way to work together with teammates in many instances. In one turn, my entire party went from doing very well and on track to win, to all dead and game over. Again, I haven't played extensively and this may be a fluke. Regardless, that aspect and my lack of connectedness to the game mean it's not something I'd ever buy. I might play if there's a game happening, but I would never bring it up.

To sum up, it's a solid game, mechanics-wise and build quality-wise. However, I found it hard to engage with the game. Overall, I think this game is so-so. Not bad, but not my cup of tea, either.