DUNGEON MAYHEM – BATTLE FOR BALDUR’S GATE / PUBLISHER: DUNGEONS & DRAGONS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
The Baldur’s Gate video game is fondly remembered for its storyline and its memorable characters. Many have fond memories of the Elven druid Jaheira, but mostly we all love Minsc, the crazy ranger who has a hamster as an animal companion. As well as a battle cry of “Go for the eyes Boo!”, which seemed to involve Minsc throwing his hamster at some monster or other.
These two (well, two and a half) heroes have now been added Dungeon Mayhem, the Dungeons & Dragons-themed quick-fire card game. For those unfamiliar with it, Dungeon Mayhem is a card-based combat game. The core game comes with four decks – barbarian, paladin, rogue and wizard. Each deck has its own unique theme. It’s quite well balanced, and mostly each character plays the same with a slight dramatic tweak to make it just a little bit more interesting.
It’s one of those card games that’s really about timing; you only have a limited number of moves in your hand though some cards are unique to your character, there’s nothing that can tip the balance. So you have to judge when to strike fastest and most effectively. And then walk off with the treasure.
The real question is then, does such a well balanced and quirky game work when you add two new heroes into the mix? Especially ones have their own story and theme?
The short version is yes, it works very well. Surprisingly so. What we effectively have is a more tactical choice for those people who like crunching numbers when they play card games and more fun for the more relaxed gamer. The cards also keep the amusing style of the original (it’s the same artist, Kyle Ferrin). Most of the visual humour comes from the fact that Boo is adorable (and much smarter than Minsc), and that Jaheira can turn into a bear. This card game won’t solve the mystery of exactly what it is a bear does in the woods unless you thinking the answer is ‘beat you at cards’.
Jaheira adds another ‘wait and do lots of damage’ role to the game and Minsc actually scouts and does ranger things, giving the player a slight edge. These balance fine with the original game.
This expansion is roughly half the cost of the original game, which is fine as it contains half as many characters. If you like Dungeon Mayhem, then this is a great add-on as it’ll extend the life of the game for you. Hopefully, we’ll see more of this sort of thing in the future.
