We felt that Pandemic Legacy Season 1 was quite easy and I only think we lost 1 or 2 games. But even though things always went our way in the end, the games were always tense because any mistakes would mean consequences for future games. This is because any outbreaks (disease spreading too much in one area) would carry over to future games with some negative quirks on it.

The game is played across roughly 15 games averaging about 45 min of play. Each game is set in a kings reign and each player is a Noble House trying to sway the decisions of the king. Each player wants the king to decide something that is good for their house (as they will play that house for the entirety of the legacy game) and something that will help them achieve their secret goal for that game. One of the biggest questions I had going into the game, and one someone has asked me a few times, is “How much do I need to like Penny Arcade to play this?”. Thankfully, the answer is very easy: none at all. The biggest influence PA has on the product is that Acquisitions Incorporated is their product, and the card art features Penny Arcade’s Mike Krahulik’s artwork. But regardless on your opinion of PA or knowledge of their AI world, what you’ll find is an often funny and compelling game that doesn’t ask for anything in return to enjoy it. There are AI characters in some of the cards, but they otherwise do very little to or for the game, meaning that any references to them won’t make much difference either way.Each of the players controls a hero (represented by a miniature), with specific stats, equipment, and the whole work. The game really shines via the card mechanic that simultaneously acts as your abilities and your resources. This means you can blow up monsters left and right, but if you pace yourself too fast you might die before you complete the scenario. How you play your cards and coordinate with the rest of the group is the fun part of the game, so you should enjoy that sort of thing. Since its premiere in 2016, Clank! has become a beloved and popular board game line, with 15 releases across core games and expansions. The Book of Secrets contains the narrative of the story and is broken up into many numbered entries. Different groups will encounter the story in different ways, depending on how they interact with Waypoints and Contracts. If you have the patience for one of the biggest board games out there, do give Gloomhaven a go. If you are a bit on the fence, you can also give Gloomhaven a go on PC (which is also a great way of trying out the game solo)

Another neat thing is that the character from Jaws of the Lion can be used in Gloomhaven (and Gloomhaven characters can be used in Jaws of the Lion). As PA told us when we were first discussing a partnership, Acquisitions Incorporated’s tone pretty much lines up perfectly with Clank!’s. The Dire Wolf design team included some longtime Acq Inc fans who dove into their video archive to learn even more about the details and tonal nuances, and we were delighted to find a world very well suited for an epic Clank! tale.

Two years ago my partner and I had started regularly playing games with another couple regularly, which led to a somewhat constant need for new games. I was particularly taken with finding new and exciting things to bring to the table and at the time of quaint, pre-COVID 2019, Legacy games were all the rage. “Legacy” games are now out of fashion, but the allure in 2019 of games that evolved and changed based on your decisions and were not 100% replayable was something that really shook up the market. Pandemic Legacy, Risk Legacy, Legacy this, Legacy that, you name it, a game was trying it. For our group, though, none of the other games really stood out. Clank! Legacy is dripping with story from the moment you open the box. Having played the original Clank! , most of the expansions, and Clank! In! Space! , I can definitively say that Legacy is my favorite. Not only are you experiencing the story as it unravels and creating a custom game board, but you also get to personalize your characters, watching them improve as the game progresses and giving them even more agency and buy-in to the story elements. Some might call Jaws of the Lion“Gloomhaven lite”. While that might be true, it is in some ways a better game for it I am not sure if we’ll ever play another Legacy game; in fact, most games seem to have moved past Legacy as a mechanic (bringing us to whatever Oath is doing, which feels like… meta Legacy?), but Clank Legacy was, and is, something special. The great thing is that we can take it out whenever we want to play Clank itself with, seeing and revisiting our game and all the choices we made and things we did, which makes it even more enjoyable than other Legacy games which more or less ask you to throw them out when you’re done. If you have a group of 2-4 players and want something longform, Clank Legacy is a great place to look. If you’ve never tried a Legacy game before, Clank Legacy makes a great place to dip your toe into that as well, and, for us, it may even be our only Legacy game. Dire Wolf has been responsible for a number of acclaimed digital board game adaptations, including the Golden Geek Award-winning adaptations of Everdell and Root, along with the popular recent releases of Munchkin, Sagrada, Wings of Glory, and others.