Sleeping Gods: Tides of Ruin Review - with Tom Vasel

[@masblas3379]

That last line made me laugh out loud, "You don't need it, but you know you're gonna get it!" That's probably 100% true 🤣

[@lindseymackey8704]

I'm so glad you mentioned this is an expansion. Now I know I must buy the base game. Gifting for a highly intelligent eleven year old.

[@TheBrokenMeeple]

Agreed on Arcade Mode - i read the rules and just thought "what's the point"? - wasn't even a fan of Arcade Mode in Near & Far.

[@eriklindqvist9923]

One day... This kickstarter will actually deliver... 😅

[@kimoro9643]

I love the arcade mode in Near and Far, maybe this arcade mode will be fun once you’ve played through the whole story but still want to play it. still waiting anxiously to get Sleeping Gods 😁

[@sampak7600]

I love Sleeping Gods, and I just ordered this expansion after realizing the map provided in the base game isn't complete without it. What frustrates me about expansions like this one is that it doesn't truly "add" anything that wasn't already built into the base game from the onset (beside the arcade mode I guess). It truly feels like it was a select about of content carved out of the base game and repackaged as an "expansion" when really it's just filling the gaping whole cut out of what you were partially provided in the base game. This is evidenced by mere fact that the base game provides imagery of the expansion maps and clearly shows it as part of the cohesive world from the beginning of the design, its just that there seemed to be an arbitrary selection of what would be considered base game content opposed to expansion content. (Would it have mattered if instead of including page 25 & 26 in the almanac in the expansion they provided page 7 & 8? No, because they were all meant to be together in the first place). The only really "add-on" here is the arcade mode apart from content originally meant to be part of the full experience that was simply displaced for sake of creating another marketable product. It could have all been included in the base game (the maps, stories, and appropriate quests and adventure cards). I would have happily paid $100+ in the Kickstarter for all of the content to be unified in one package instead of being broken apart and labeled as "additional" content. It's just the psychology of it that gets to me. I don't mind expansions that genuinely add new things that fundamentally change certain aspects of the game. For example, Alien Frontiers is a complete game on its own, but if you include the Outer Belt expansion, you're literally adding something new that was not part of the original vision for the game, is optional, and substantially changes something about the game. Tides of Ruin is more of a "fill-in-the-deliberate-gap" product.

[@ScytheNoire]

💯

[@vzjrz]

Yep. "Day 1 DLC" and "DLC on disc". If they had just waited a few months to release the expansions I wouldn't have a problem with this. This just feels like a purposeful partition of the real complete game but I guess you gotta go for every penny you can get...

[@patrickfoster93]

While what you said is obviously true, I’m thinking Red Raven likely did it this way to keep MSRP down. They didn’t want their game on the shelf to be $100...but he had a design plan in mind, a larger picture. He designed the game he really wanted to make...and had to cut out a portion to package as an expansion to sell more copies of the base. Just a guess.

[@JM32JM32]

I think of it like how the Exceed Street Fighter fighting system sells a Ryu vs Ken pack for $5 as a teaser. You probably want this whole game! But you can buy just the base 'starter' game and give it a try, to see if it's for you before shelling out the full amount. Think of it like Shareware back in the day, where Episode 1 was always free and you'd pay for Eps 2 and 3.

[@madquest8]

But what did you think about the Arcade mode? I couldn't tell from the review.

[@MrHMCC]

That he won’t play it

[@vlogospheer]

Is the expansion worth half the price of the base game tho?

[@scyldscefing3913]

My Arcade Mode cards will likely remain shrink-wrapped until eternity.

[@mattwindsor1958]

I preordered sleeping gods in February of 2020. Still don’t have it. Getting frustrated.

[@VictorKolbe]

amazing how playtime sas 60-1200 and, when it comes to this game, I've no idea if that's a typo or not

[@kimklisiak6421]

You can lose the game (your crew dies), which could happen in an hour or quicker, but to win the game it will take considerably longer

[@Mandrake42]

I just nabbed this today and I have to agree the Arcade Mode seems like a bit of waste. The whole point of the game is the story and if you take that away, you still have functional mechanics etc, but you have torn out the pulsing heart of the game and are essentially trying to play with the game's desecrated corpse. Would much rather have had some more of the other cards.

[@jcdc9437]

Who’s buying it for the arcade mode? 😊

[@LeeKenshin7]

Not sure how it can get a seal of excellence when Tom disliked a portion of the expansion that makes it different. I understand it's optional but isn't the seal a judgment on the entire expansion. Maybe the other content is so superior that it completely outweighs the negative. In any case, I'm getting it.

[@MikhailGordin]

The arcade mode is very small part of the content in the box compared to the "add more stuff to the regular game" part. No difference here than just not liking any other small part of a game, I think, except it being an optional side thing here to boot.

[@edwardbrost331]

He knows 99 % of people could care less for this arcade mode.

[@AllyStevenSeveri]

First!

[@mardel5466]

Hope things get better soon

[@TimByrd]

Life is full.

[@22gjreyes]

Im sorry for your loss

[@jcdc9437]

Mommy’s proud of you, congrats

[@AllyStevenSeveri]

@@jcdc9437 Always mommy's favorit. :-)