Return to Dark Tower Review

[@Valloneous]

So agree with your review. I was and am a die hard 81 Dark Tower owner. My biggest fear when hearing about Return to Dark Tower was they were going to try to make it the same. I wanted different and I believe they accomplished that ten fold. The app, Tower and board just have a excellent symbiosis and flows really well. And all the little kick backs to the original makes me smile. This game is well worth it. Ranks right up in the top games I have. Great review.

[@arthurmensing3869]

I was offered a trade on a local FB gamers group. Stars of Akarios with miniatures expansion and Xia Legends of Drift System for The Return to Dark Tower (all in Kickstarter) and Perserverance (All In Kickstarter). I started your video and pulled the trigger on the deal about 10 minutes in lol. I can't wait to play this game. I Lalso think the 2nd edition of Stars of Akarios will be better anyways. Thanks again for your Yoda-like guidance. You're one of my favorite channels bc youre never a hype man and i trust your opinion bc of it. This is the way! Lol. So excited to table this game! Have a good one man.

[@browe]

My wife and I are now at 8 wins, 2 losses and have really enjoyed this throughout--including with the expansion materials. It nails the nostalgia for me (those 8-bit tower sounds are especially evocative) but more importantly delivers a modern, engaging, variable, FUN experience every time. 😄

[@BillyIndiana]

My wife & I just played this game with another couple Saturday & loved it. I'm teaching my game group tonight and can't wait to get back into the game. Great review!

[@DriveThruReview]

Awesome. Thank you :)

[@SeerMagicX]

I so wish I could get this. Price is just out of my range, maybe some day. It looks great. Thanks for the review.

[@ten_oclock_scholar4690]

I completely agree - what a phenomenal game! I'm only three games in after having it for less than a week and it's already one of my all-time favorites! It's been awhile since I've had this much fun with a new game. My wife and I just can't stop playing it! Looking forward to trying a bunch of different set-ups and the expansion. I love that all of the heroes and enemies have their own distinctive flavor.

[@timir313]

Review of the expansion would be lovely. I got the base game only and would love to see everything the expansion has to offer

[@RollingSolo]

Can’t wait for mine to arrive. Thanks for the video sir!

[@DriveThruReview]

Thanks Adam. Good to hear from you.

[@RollingSolo]

@@DriveThruReview It showed up today! Might be a tad excited. 😄

[@lindataylor6362]

I just purchased Return to Dark Tower. I played the original Dark Tower. I appreciate your video. Thanks for the overview.

[@88outtatime]

Another $300 gone. I've got to stop watching your videos 🤣

[@maximsin66]

Looks awesome .Great Video now I need to find someone to play with. My dog just wants to eat everything..lol..

[@TJ-fj7nn]

Could this be considered an adventure game? I'm intrested in something like a coop Runebound.

[@DriveThruReview]

Great question. I think, "yes". It's not QUITE as wide open as something like Runebound, but it gets there. It leans more on the co-op Pandemic/Defenders of the Realm side of the fence.

[@AlphaMike2k]

Yes it's an adventure game... Yes. But not in the same sense as Runebound. Story in Runebound way deeper.

[@browe]

Adventure, yes. We owned & played co-op Runebound (latest edition) but for us, Return to Dark Tower is far superior in terms of fun, thematic immersion, and the turn-to-turn sense of agency / meaningful decision-making. Your experience may vary, of course, but I'd recommend this over Runebound for a co-op adventure wholeheartedly.

[@petergross7235]

Great review! Inalso like it best at two or three i never tried 4, but I assume it would be good there too Two questions. When you play solo do you use a lazy susan? And with the monsters I felt like they could largely just be ignored. In your plays do you to engage and remove them?

[@DriveThruReview]

No lazy susan, but I have a game mat under the board that actually makes rotating the board easy. I have in my queue to one day build a lazy susan that will fit the neoprene board/mat. Monsters... it depends on the scenario and the villain. Certain villains will beef the monster up for example, and you can't ignore them whatsoever. Other scenarios make them not as much of a threat.

[@jimharkin8802]

Great video, in fact it made me go out and buy it with the expansions and i picked it up at a pretty good price, now to get it to the table.

[@DriveThruReview]

Hope you enjoy it!

[@TheHorrorGeek]

I loved the original as a kid and picked up a copy of this a few months back. I didn't even know about the Alliances expansion though. Wonder how much of a pain it's going to be to find that and add it to my game...

[@DriveThruReview]

I believe it's floating around in retail stores right now. I know of at least once person who did buy it in an FLGS.

[@TheHorrorGeek]

@@DriveThruReview Oh nice! I did a quick look online but no luck so far (It was really hard not to say "no dice" there...I'm a paragon of restraint.). I will definitely keep looking.

[@DriveThruReview]

@@TheHorrorGeek Haha. Good luck :)

[@johnathanrhoades7751]

I've got the minis (I got the monster pack) on my painting table. Excited to get this played!!

[@blampfno]

I built a custom Lazy Susan for this game, so much easier to play when you can just rotate the board at will. It was actually pretty cheap, a couple of pine glue-edge round panels and a 10 dollar lazy Susan bearing. Can also vouch that the game grows serious teeth with 4 people playing.

[@DriveThruReview]

I've been meaning to as well. I need to get on that :D

[@jamesbrazeal3847]

Thanka for the review. I knew you loved the game even while playtesting.

[@patriziopastore9895]

Damn waiting my copy…. Thanks for the review

[@OmegaViper]

damn, those plastic tokens addon looks a lot better than I expected

[@goodjessehobbies]

I'm always amazed that you never seem to have script in these videos, is that accurate? I have recently started to shoot some Let's Play videos and am trying to figure out lighting without glare, may I ask what kind of lighting you use? I have been shooting top down, I think that is generally trickier to avoid glare but maybe I am wrong.

[@DriveThruReview]

Almost accurate. I have notes off to the side, more of an outline. I use box lights.... two of them, one on either side of my in the corners of the room. I do also do some post-production on the contrast and vibrance. Raw, it's a BIT washed out, but better than too dark.

[@goodjessehobbies]

@@DriveThruReview I just picked up one soft box light to mess with, I would have gotten a 2 pack but I dont have much room to work in.

[@DriveThruReview]

@@goodjessehobbies One should be OK. Just play around with where you put it, and you should be OK.

[@real2ramit]

What are the card sleeves sizes and where did you order them? thx

[@DriveThruReview]

They are "standard" (MTG) for the bigger cards. Not sure about the smaller ones. If you ask on the BoardGameGeek.com page for the game someone will know. They were bundled with the Kickstarter all-in pledge.

[@BreezingThrou]

Hi, should have warning few seconds before volume spike for those that are using headsets. Love the video, and review. Our game has been stuck in warehouse for long time now. Soon we hope, but soon keeps turning into next month. That was board not mat right? Did not get mat footprint is large enough already, but curious to seen mat and assuming that was board.

[@DriveThruReview]

Ya that's the board, not the mat.

[@BreezingThrou]

@@DriveThruReview Thanks for answering. Looked good, got notice it "starts" in 3 weeks... but heard that all of March so 'shrug'.

[@DriveThruReview]

@@BreezingThrou Hang in there! Been there :)

[@BreezingThrou]

@@DriveThruReview Been lucky enough to have plenty to catch up on, recently played Hunt for the Ring (2 games so far) thanks to your review for that, and had 3rd Edition Betrayal on our tables all week (maybe 13 games played of BHH3). So everyone here has been happy, only I know this is coming so the excitement rests only on my shoulders, as does the patience. Any games your expecting that you are excited for?

[@DriveThruReview]

@@BreezingThrou I just got Ark Nova. Interested to see what all the fuss is about. Outer Rim expansion has my interest, and a little indie game I got called Bot War looks real fun.

[@christalerico6953]

Great review and not just because I agree 100% with it. This game is ridiculously good. Easy to setup and tear down, easy to teach, excellent player mats that explain what each character does and how to di a turn. Closest gameplay comparison I can come up with is a late in the campaign Pandemic Legacy S1 or 2. Where you're still doing the Pandemic things but have the overarching quests you need to accomplish at the same time only with an app handling the legacy deck, admin and picking where the infection "cubes" go. Side note - The more I see Issac Childress work on other projects, the more unattractive Frosthaven is for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy I backed it and I'm sure it's going to be great BUT between the way Jaws handles the maps and this game handles the admin with the app, Frosthaven is going to be like hopping into a time machine and going back to 2017 and not in a good way. I wish he'd incorporate some of what those projects are doing into Frosthaven. Yes the map books are "coming" but when?

[@VaultBoy13]

With Frosthaven, I agree that situations have sucked some excited for the game from me. Using tiles feels like a backwards step from the Jaws of the Lion book. I don't mind paying more for map books if Isaac's vision is tiles, but the books not being part of the release sucks. Additionally, by not having official apps for the game, we're now in the situation where there won't be a Frosthaven Helper app that's ready when the game launches. Again, if his vision is the game without apps, then that's fine. But, he really should've secured development from app creators. Gloomhaven is a beast of the game, and both the map books and app make it easier to get to the table. Frosthaven will feel like a step backwards, simply because past offerings have offered better experiences.

[@christalerico6953]

@@VaultBoy13 My wife and I have played Return to Dark Tower more than Gloomhaven at this point. Not because one is necessarily better than the other but RTD is easier to play. You take your turn and the app does the admin for you. You actually spend more time playing the game rather than getting tokens, standees ready, manipulating the element table, etc. I want to play Gloomhaven more than I do, but I also want to play. Takes way too long to setup tear down and even in between turns. Jaws helped, but didn't go quite far enough. I get the "if it's his vision" point, but at the end of the day he's worked on these games with these other elements. He's not blind to the feedback. The first thing everyone said about Jaws was the map books were way better than the tiles. The second thing they said was that the tutorial was one of the best and really taught you how to play the game better that what came with Gloomhaven. I just wish that he would have set out to improve upon the Gloomhaven experience with Frosthaven. He did with Jaws. Just seems like Frosthaven is just going to be bigger and more Gloomhaven rather than a more refined and therefore better experience.

[@ferver-san]

Does the app require to be always-online?

[@DriveThruReview]

I don't believe so no. You might double check on the BoardGameGeek.com page for the game.

[@ferver-san]

@@DriveThruReview Yeah i can't find anything that says so.Your review pushed me over the edge just so you know. Initially i dismissed it as a "gimmicky toy" to be honest,but i like what they've done with it.