Okay, I normally, don't do reviews boardgames, as I feel that there are already many great reviews out there... but for this one, I will make an exception.
Personally, I have read quite a few rave reviews about the World of Warcraft Board Game, and even considered buying it to add to my collection... but never really had the chance to get my hands on it... but finally this Christmas, we had to pleasure of gathering at a friend's place that had the game ^^x Thankx Francis for hosting us, more pix on the night when Huiling uploads them I guess =3
Okay, first up about the game, it is not a simple game. Reviews have placed it at 3 hours for a game, which is pretty darn long for any game. However, on our try, it lasted for almost half a day. So yes, it is a pretty darn long game.
So you might ask, why does it take so long? Well, for starters, it is too well made. Unlike games like Last Night on Earth, there are just too many parts. Personally, we felt that the game could just have done way with a separate counter for everything, and just opted for generic counters. You had a counter for hp, for mana, for gold, for turns, for level, for xp, for quests, for bosses, for combat status, for damage, for defense, and even for recording if you had taken your turn. That results in alot of small cardboard pieces that you have to sort out in the box when packing, and give out before starting. Since you each already have a character sheet, the game should have just opted for manual records like that of a simplified D&D character sheet, and maybe a modified character token, be it a 2 sided token, to show stunned and cursed, or rotatable bases like Mage Knights figurines as shown below.
Another aspect that its too well done, is that there is a monster figurine for each monster type. There are more than 10 different types, and each type comes in 3 colours. So yeah, its alot like a small scale Warhammer game. Even though each figurine is different, they are quite similar, and its hard to tell them apart at a glance. So one has to separate them into many different boxes during packing, and when setting up. You might also have to get them hand painted as below to differentiate them. Takes alot of love like that of investing in Warhammer games. Personally, we spent more time finding the right figurine for the portion of the board, then actually killing them.
Another aspect is the characters themselves. To make each character unique, the game gives each character its own class deck. In truth, they do make your character unique and tailored, but its really takes up so much table space. A better way around it instead of separate cards, would been to have a skill tree printed on a card, or a larger card containing all the skills, on which the player could keep track of their skills, it would have really saved up on table space and the sorting.
An aspect that is nice about the game is the use of different weapon types, quests and loots. It allows the game to be replayable, and you don't get to explore the entire game in one session. However, it can also be frustrating, as there are just too many items in the deck. By the end of the game, we only managed to pull out 1 trinket... and had 5 other characters with empty trinket slots.
Personally, I feel that the game is well-made, it is really intricate. However, it is too-well made, resulting in frustration when setting up, and packing... making it one of those games that you will rarely play, unless you have a group of die-hard hard-core fans. It is too long of a game to be played in a leisure gaming session.. and yet, lacks the flexibility and dimension to be a long playing game lasting days, like a paper and pen D&D session.
After trying it out, I must say, I am disappointed and will be striking it off my wishlist. Playing it once, was enough =(