Shadowrift is a cooperative deck construction game. Each player has his own deck, representing his heroic skills and abilities, but all of them are using those abilities to work as a team and fight off a horde of slavering fiends that want to burn down a town. If the town burns down, catches plague, or explodes, the heroes lose. If the heroes are able to fight off the monsters long enough to construct defenses for the town, or if they venture into the dark and seal the Shadowrifts with powerful spells, they win. What makes Shadowrift worth your time? What kind of hero do you want to be? In Shadowrift, you decide how your skills develop and grow from a generic adventurer into a crafty rogue, noble knight, raging barbarian, or any combination of skills you desire. They have a plan. No two games of Shadowrift are the same. Part of the reason is that every faction of monsters has its own strategy, which means the heroes can't always win the same way. Talk it through. Like any good cooperative game, Shadowrift keeps you talking with your friends: figuring out who needs healing, who can hire new guards for the town, and how to attack the monsters for maximum effect. Always hard enough. Shadowrift has millions of scenarios to play with a wide variety of difficulty, allowing players to challenge themselves whether they're new to the game or hardened veterans.
K**R
Great cooperative game
I was looking for a cooperative game that my husband and I could play together and decided to try this game after reading a number of reviews on different websites and getting input from some gamer friends (for this game as well as other cooperative games). This is the only cooperative game that we've played so I can't offer any comparisons. I would consider us to be "light gamers," meaning that we enjoy Eurogames over party games (our favorites being Ticket to Ride and Carcasonne), but don't play regularly with a gaming group and so have limited exposure to more complicated games. This is a "deck-builder" style of game, which means you have to choose particular cards to buy to add to the strength of your deck (similar gameplay/style to Dominion, which we also enjoy). In the case of this game, each player has a "hero" stack that they play with, and there are also separate decks you are playing with/against that represent the monstors, town, and travelers. The gameplay flows very well in this style and the design is good. Having said that, this game is definitely more complicated to learn than the lighter Eurogames. We were reading along with the instructions for the entirety of the first 2-3 games that we played, and we had to play it a few times before we really felt like we were actually playing it "correctly" (meaning we'd discover things that we'd missed or mis-interpreted in the rules while playing, because sometimes it's hard to interpret what the rules are intending until a particular situation comes up). It doesn't help that the rules are not very well-written, which came up in several reviews that I saw in advance of buying the game. In some cases where the rules are ambiguous, I think you just have to decide on "house rules" since it is afterall a cooperative game anyway. Having said that, once you take the time to learn the game it is very enjoyable and we've had a lot of fun playing it. There are number of different "scenarios" you can play (based on the different monster stack that you choose to play against), and you can strategize by choosing particular hero cards to play with or pick them randomly if you want more of a challenge that way. We haven't tried playing the game with more than 2 players, but I'm sure that would also make for a different game dynamic. It has worked very well for us with 2 players and I've read that if you wanted more of a challenge then you could also play with multiple hands each (we haven't tried this yet since managing one hand each is enough of a challenge at this point). I would recommend this to anyone looking for a cooperative game for 2+ players; you need to understand that this is not a light game (expect at least 1-2 hrs for one game) and you need to be willing to invest some time to learn the rules so you can understand how to play the game.
V**.
Good cooperative game with solid deckbuilding mechanics.
So, the game pits you against the monster deck in which every turn they gain power to escape from the Shadowrifts. Meanwhile, you start with a pittance of cards, two basic Strikes, 7 Prowess (Skill / A form of currency) and one Explore, which will help you see who plans to come to town. The townsfolk try to help the best they can, but it is you who will need to build a solid deck and work with your team to strike down the monsters from the Shadowrift.Highly recommended, but do get sleeves. The card stock is a bit shoddy.
C**O
One of the best Cooperative Game every made!
This is easily one of the best Cooperative games every made! The game mechanics are fantastic. The deck building aspect is very interesting and engaging and the cooperative aspect is incredible. This is a very challenging game and the cooperative aspect is critical, if your group of heroes do not work together, you'll get hammered, but if you strategize and truly work as a team, you've got a chance to win.Get it while it lasts, not a lot of these boxes were made.
L**R
Very fun co-op game
A friend showed me this game, and after playing it twice, I had to have a copy.Deck building games can be complicated for players in a competitive environment. When you don't know much about all the cards, it is hard to make good decisions. In Shadowrift, all the players are working together to beat the senario (and they aren't all easy). If you do not work together - you will all lose.I like the dynamic nature of the game, and the replayability.One other awesome note: The producers of the game even put in dividers to help keep the cards in the box organized. I really appreciated that.
K**E
Great Game
This game is a challenging cooperative multiplayer experience, a difficult thing to create, but I am very impressed. Anyone who likes board games a deck building games like Dominion or Ascension should try this game.
T**Y
So punishing and still so fun.
This is a very Feld-ian game. It includes a fun and unique dice mechanic and a plethora of different ways to score victory points. The only thing it is missing is a brutally punishing personality. This game is actually very colorful and feels reasonably light-hearted.The game consists of drawing cards of 5 different colors and taking one of 6 different actions with those cards. Like I said, in common Feld fashion all of these actions are in service to scoring you points in different areas. The most versatile and, for me, best part of the game are the different people that appear on each of the cards. Each one of them has a different special ability and where 90% of the game "lives". I'm a sucker for variety and variability in a game and think this gives the game a LOT of replay value. There are combos and interesting tactics to take with the different people cards.There is an interesting decision mechanic built into the way cards are played as well. Each round you have to use 4 of your cards and you simply won't be able to play all the people you like to because only 1 of your 5 cards carries over the next turn. The planning on which of the 6 actions to take with the cards is reasonably deep, thoughtful and for me, quite a bit of fun. The game is also going to feel very different every time you play and you can take varying paths to victory.I will say that this game requires a few "learning plays" as I like to call them to really get to the meat of it. With so much variety and so many different actions to take that score you points in so many ways it can get a little overwhelming and the best plays can be hard to see until you've worked out how exactly everything fits together. Despite that, this is now one of my favorite Feld games and definitely one that can stand a lot of mileage.I'd also like to point out that it plays at a reasonably good clip as well, under an hour including setup and explanation.
S**A
Not our favorite
Sold it to try another euro game because it just wasn't one we liked enough to play repeatedly.
F**S
Great adventure
We enjoy this game as it can never be played the same twice. Love how one can customize the characters.
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