This is my first review, and I may be letting myself in for some heat since it is destined to be a negative one of what looks like an extremely popular game. Oh well... Tally ho!
Disclosures:
1. This review is based on my opinions and those of my group
2. None of us ever played 1st Ed
3. Not going to give a breakdown of mechanics, since there are a plethora of reviews that cover those bases
4. I generally prefer more complex games (Mage Knight, TI3, RuneWars, Game of Thrones etc.)
Plea for mercy:
I don't hate you if you enjoy Descent 2e, so please don't hate me for not enjoying it.
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Descent 2e is a light dungeon crawl game for 2-5 players. It has a modular board, beautiful miniatures, and has many many chits and cards. It is truly beautiful to behold. Just from a production value point of view, this game fires on all cylinders.
The rules are fairly simple, and this is mostly a good thing. There are numerous ambiguities in the rules however - especially when you get to the rules specific to each scenario - and I never got through a session without scouring rule books and checking forums. It's been a while since I last played (and have now traded the game away so I can't check) so I'm unable to give specifics, but my experience was truly marred by this. Note that my group is pretty nit-picky about rules, and we all try to extract maximum advantage from a situation, so clear and unambiguous rules are a huge bonus. Yes, there is a lawyer in the group.
Some rules fluffs can be dealt with, but in this game (we only ever played campaign) there are several pages of unique rules for each scenario. Rules that sometimes contain errors, sometimes are unclear, and yes - sometimes we were just idiots and didn't read them right. Often the campaign mode was hindered by noticing something we did wrong a few sessions earlier, and then arguing over what effect that mistake had and if the heroes or overlord had 'really' won the scenario. Arguing was a constant in this game.
The modularity of the board, while cool, could also become a problem. 386
It doesn't take a huge amount of time to set up most scenarios - maybe 15-20 minutes at most. The problem arises really with poorly balanced scenarios that can be won in a turn or two. 20 minutes of setup for a possible 2 round scenario kills all enthusiasm for another go - especially when it means reading the next set of rules, tearing it all down, starting play, then arguing about a poorly worded or explained rule.
Scenarios in this game seem to be set up with a winner in mind. One scenario is a cakewalk for the Overlord, while another is an almost certain player victory. Nothing grated on us more than this. Maybe it all balances out over the (very) long run, but playing a scenario knowing you're the loser (or winner) from turn 1 is boring, frustrating, and to my mind incredibly poor game design. I kept buying expansions hoping that as the designers got more experienced the scenarios would feel more balanced, but in truth the problem just got worse as more stuff was added to the mix. It makes me wonder how anyone can play this as individual scenarios, since each one in isolation (of the ones that I played which isn't all of them) is so skewed towards one side or another. "Let's have a game of Descent, we can play the scenario where you automatically win this time..." ???
The game is also much lighter than expected in terms of actual tactical possibilities. For the Overlord the overwhelmingly common strategy is to use the monsters to block passageways. For the heroes the strategy is basically to ignore all monsters and run to the objective. Now I realize this is an objective game, not a monster bash. But it felt incredibly hollow having these fantastic figurines moving about when mechanically they are just there to stand in a hallway, while the heroes heroically avoid all combat and pick up the colored chit. Fighting was a hindrance to success from the point of view of the heroes, and for the overlord it really just meant that the heroes were 'doing it wrong'.
Ultimately, despite the beauty of the components, it felt like there was very little game inside the huge box. If you won it was often because that was the scenario where you basically couldn't lose - and vice versa. In the end I was hauling the game out only because I had pumped so much cash into it. I did not have a single enjoyable experience of Descent 2e.
As always, your experience will inevitably be different from mine, perhaps better or perhaps worse. 884