Have you ever wanted to experience a D&D board game but could never find the players to join you? Well, in comes Tales from Candlekeep released October of 2017 by Bkom Studios. Their goal, to bring the D&D Tomb of Annihilation board game to life on the PC platform. In this review, we take a quick look at the overall Gameplay, Graphics, and Replay value to give you a fair Tales from Candlekeep Tomb of Annihilation review.
Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation Review
Gameplay
If you haven’t played the board game, do not worry, Tales from Candlekeep does an excellent job introducing you to the mechanics through an excellent starter tutorial. The tutorial starts by placing the player on a set of tiles with access to two of the four characters available. It directs you through how to navigate tiles, combat, and introduces you to various tile mechanics that create the dynamic experience. The tiles mechanics vary from tile to tile and have effects such as 1 damage to everyone in the area, and various debuffs to make your experience less tolerable if you do not interrupt the tiles with adrenaline. Adrenaline is built up through various actions as you play through a tile and can be used to interrupt various mechanics increasing your chances to survive.
Once out of the tutorial you have access to a decent sized map and selection nodes which represent location and quests you can attempt to complete. Each selection node allows the player to select the difficulty so if you’re like Thelget, you will always select Normal and if you’re like me well let’s say the base level AI is no matched for my dice.
Leveling is not as spectacular as one would hope for as you only receive character slots up to four and crafting materials which will help you craft weapons, and armor for the characters to make them more powerful. The game offers a selection of At-Will, Utility, and Daily powers for each character to allow some selection choice in the attacks you use. However, don’t expect a full complement of D&D 4th powers to be available.
Overall I really enjoyed my play-through, and look forward to increasing the difficulty as I continue to gain experience.
Graphics
I find the graphics for this little gem to be something special. If you played Original Sin 2 then I can honestly tell you the graphics for the characters and tiles are equal if not superior in some aspects. The scale and the purpose of the two games are different so this is not a comparison more a reference to quality. Tales from Candlekeep regardless of the scale of the game spared no expense or time in making sure the graphics were crisp and representative of the D&D legacy.
System Requirements
Operating System: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 or newer
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.3 GHz
RAM: 2 GB
Hard Disk: 4 GB
Graphic Display: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, 512 MB
Sound Drivers: N/A
Network: No Internet connection required/Single Player
Replay Value
The replay values for such a game is far greater than many other games that exist today. I visualize taking the family on a vacation and making certain this little gem is installed forever. Why would I say that you might ask? Well, the tiles are randomly generated and the effects and monsters spawned are different every time you play it. On top of the inherent uniqueness of every play though you also have the ability to select a higher difficulty further differing your experience each time you play. Each of the sessions can be quick or long depending on your play style.
In other words, you choose your time allotment or lack there off allowing you to play the game at your pace each and every time. This will all you to put it down and entertain your kids without incurring the wrath of the most devastating monster on the planet, your wife.
