The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt update didn’t perform too well on PC. However, I was really looking forward to this, so I needed somewhere to satisfy my hunting appetites. In the end, my victim was the board game Beast, which is based on the idea of \u200b\u200bhunters and fearsome monsters clash. You will find out if this is a successful job in the following paragraphs.
- Number of players: 2-4
- Game time: 1-2 hours
- Price: 1499 CZK (Thlam Games)
- Age: 14+
The origin of the Beast is reminiscent of the story of Princess Mononoke.
The Beast’s narration takes the player north. At first glance, it looks like a place that could be an ideal haven for everyone who is looking for a new home and wants to create their own version of human civilization around them. However, the opposite is also true. The nature here is not the same as in other parts of the world. She is wild and also has her defenders who are not afraid to defend her mother and fight the aliens. However, they are not alone in their colonization efforts. A group of hunters hastened to help them, whose goal is to hunt down the keepers of the forest trees before they become their dinner. The plot of the whole story, and with it the whole gameplay is based on the battle of the two sides.
Here, one player takes on one of the forest guards. There are more monsters in the Beast, so a lone avenger can choose from a relatively diverse selection of animals. However, as part of the very first hunt, your choice usually falls on the white wolf Fangrir, which the creators themselves also recommend as an ideal starting choice. Who else but the queen of all wolves. The rest of the participants in the match can choose one of the six available hunters. In the event that you happen to be facing each other, the hunter takes two heroes who fearlessly set off towards the wonderful game world, which is offered here in two guises. You choose according to the number of participants.
In smaller quantities, of course, you achieve a smaller variant of the game world, which distinguishes Beast from, for example, the basically similar title Rage of Dracula, where you have a huge map in front of you, regardless of whether you decide to play alone or invite someone to play. As easily as a bloodthirsty monster from Bram Stoker’s novel, the forester moves around the map, having no idea where his steps are leading. However, unlike the vampire, he shows the direction of his steps on the cards from the very beginning. However, you don’t know 100% where he is until his footprints begin to appear, which will automatically appear the moment he passes by a settler or a hunter arrives at a place he has visited.
It will be fully revealed at the time of the attack or discovery by the hunter during the search. This is followed by a moment when hunters can attack him with cards. While monster death is over, if you don’t play with special conditions, hunters can fall. However, they subsequently revive during the night. The forest defender himself has the ability to attack his pursuers, settlers, their furry wards, as well as game. For successful elimination, he receives grudge tokens, which are necessary to activate some items and cards of the power of the beast. For hunters, these tokens are rewards for completing quests and obtaining certain item cards.
All the fun ends at night
Many deductive names are based on the mechanics of day and night. The Beast is no different from most in this regard. There are three stages at your disposal. At dawn, action cards are dealt, the number of which is determined by how many players decide to complete the game. One of the main parts of the game is the daytime phase, where the ranger always starts, followed by the hunters. Both sides have the option to play one card with a red symbol and one with a green symbol, skip their turn, or run away by discarding one of the cards. Already during this part, the beast can attack everything it can.
The final stage is the night when you can collect rewards for completed contracts. However, they are always only valid for a certain day, so you cannot select them retroactively. At this stage, you can recover action cards belonging to your character, heal your injuries and, above all, improve yourself. In this phase, the beast can get, for example, to spawns, which are practically his assistants in crime, with their help he has a chance to better resist hunters who have traps at hand that require a certain degree of prediction.
Playing as the Beast is a lot of fun.
I haven’t done much graphics processing for board games yet. Yes, some of them have really interestingly detailed figures, but in general, in a large number of cases, they are not a visual miracle. In this respect, The Beast differs from most of its competitors. While it doesn’t have plastic figures, which I was very upset about, it instead comes with some really amazingly detailed graphics that you can really enjoy. They are all very cute, but even so, I would probably prefer figurines, which is more my preference than the fault of the game itself.
Another thing that will no doubt make fantasy fans happy is how all of the Beast cast are portrayed. You can spend a significant amount of time outside the playing field, studying the history of individual characters who participate in the hunt or, conversely, are the object of the hunt. Hogbud, the leader of the boar herd, will remind you of the old boar god Okkot from the excellent anime Princess Mononoke with his processing and the background created around him. Even Hogbud will lead his herd into the field, with which he wants to try to drive people out of his house.
Hunting is joy in the Beast
When I first saw The Beast and read its rules, I thought it would be a bit like Fury of Dracula, a well thought out deductive game. The reality turned out to be much better, however, because while the vampire-centric storyline only worked with one possible antagonist, this time I was given multiple playable monsters, and each of them could really grab my attention. The role of hunters is a bit more complex and may not be for everyone, but he would say that if you really put yourself in your hunter’s shoes, you can experience many interesting moments for them too.
However, never, or at least I have not had the opportunity to experience a moment where you would laugh at a monster during one disclosure. This might be a problem for some, but at least the mentioned Rampage also didn’t have the ability to get rid of the monster in playable form, so it didn’t bother me that much. The big advantage of Beast is that you can understand it relatively easily, and above all, it offers enough interesting components and plot elements to keep you fully immersed in the hunt.
Source :Indian TV
