Machina Arcana 3rd Edition

[Soulsorcerer]

@Universal Head The KS just started and I am tempted to go for it. Would be my first KS for the year. Did you already play the game and can you tell me something about it and especially the replayability? Thank you!

[Universal Head]

As a matter of fact I played 2nd edition last night for the first time. Now, I’m not a review site, so this is just an opinion after one game, and it may be the game has more to discover. But I was sadly a little underwhelmed. It looks beautiful, and I was hoping for some more interesting tactical play, but we (it was a 2 player game) found it a bit long and repetitive. There is a LOT of purple prose which, once we realised didn’t have any effect on the story, we began to skip, and the first story turned out to be very atmospheric but nothing much beyond the old ‘descend into the earth and stop a cult ceremony’ framework. The rules did change a little bit as you went from chapter to chapter, but not in a way that felt crucially linked to the story.

It’s the kind of game I really would have enjoyed a few years ago, but I’m a bit more demanding now. Rolling constantly for monster spawns and horror cards every round gets a bit repetitive, and the hoped-for tactical play with distinctive monsters, upgraded items, and the ability to use objects on the board didn’t really satisfy as much as I’d hoped.

It was a 4 hour game and we weren’t left with the desire to play it again. HOWEVER, I think this would be a great game for certain types of players; those who enjoy reading lots and lots of text and getting immersed in an atmosphere of dark steampunk with a Mythos feel, and those who like the challenge of digging for just the right combination of equipment in order to succeed. I’m not a huge fan of co-ops at the best of times, and it’s probably most suited to solitaire play; if you were playing with more you might want to break a game up into a couple of sessions (and indeed the first story has a ‘back to base’ bit midway).

So all in all, it wasn’t personally what I was hoping for, but I think for the right gamer it would still be a good old school co-op dungeoncrawling experience, especially solo.

[Soulsorcerer]

Thank you for your in-depth opinion on the game. I have a friend that is into the mythos and games with that theme and we both worry about replayability. Combined with the price and the fact we have lots of other games with that theme (and after your thoughts on it) we decided to pass.

So no KS game since 1 1/2 years ago…strangely I am a bit proud of that. 🙂

[Universal Head]

Yeah, I don’t back them anymore. With shipping to NZ, the prices are simply unaffordable, and I’m a bit tired of waiting years for something I’ve paid for, which happens all too often.

[Soulsorcerer]

Shipping for the EU is quite reasonable, to be honest. But most KS tend to go with “more is better” and I do not have the room for that. Also the KS I backed with lot´s of stuff made me realize that most of the “more” stuff does not get used…so even at a great price (and the times with crazy amounts of stuff for really low prices is also gone) is still “dead wight” giving me headaches with storage. And time is also a limited resource…so I finally have managed to resist the “shiny syndrome”,
Took some time and effort but I am quite happy with it. Getting something done or on the table from my “old” stuff I have not managed to play is really satisfying 🙂

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