Armello Review by: Eirinn - 7.4/10
A Must Own For A Table Top RPG FanDark times have come upon the land of Armello. Dark creatures known as banes have begun appearing, and they bear with them the dreaded disease known as the Rot. This disease slowly drains the life from those corrupted by it, and warps their mind in the process.
The king has become corrupted by this terrible disease.
Each day the disease weakens his body more than the day before, and each night it warps his mind, until he has now become demented, a shell of the man he once was. The land needs to be saved from this madness. The king must be healed...or slain. The four clans of Armello have sent forth their greatest heroes who now seek to save the kingdom by whatever means they deem necessary.
Welcome to Armello. A fantasy based game that is a bit of a mix between table top RPG, Trading Card Game and Video Game RPG. So what's in store for you here? Let's see...
Graphics: 8/10
Exceptional.
The graphics in Armello are best summed up as charming. However since I can't very well end this section with only one word, allow me to elaborate.
The world of Armello is literally just a game board with a relief map. You're simulating a table top RPG after all, and that's exactly what it looks like. No flash, no fancy effects, just a game board. However this doesn't mean it's boring, in fact it's quite the opposite. The environment such as it is looks nice, and as I said, holds a certain charm to it.
The characters are toony, and honestly that look is perfect for this game. Also everyone in the game is an animal, with the four clans being the Wolf clan, Rat clan, Bear clan and Rabbit clan. Each clan has two heroes straight out of the box, each with their own unique design both in the actual character as well as in their apparently hand drawn avatars. This too adds more to the feeling of playing a table top RPG, and it feels great seeing them in action.
The cards. These are well worth mentioning separately even though they will make this category drag on a bit too long. Each card is designed like a card you would see in a Trading Card Game and are all beautifully illustrated and even animated - yes, the images on the cards move and it does a great deal toward making the game feel alive. Another nice touch to an already aesthetically pleasing game.
Highlights:
•Game board looks great and invokes the feeling of a real table top RPG
•The characters are beautifully done
•The cards are illustrated wonderfully
Sound: 6/10
Good.
Perhaps a little lenient, as Armello has precious little to offer by way of sound. The music is almost nonexistent, but what little music is there compliments the game. And really a table top RPG normally wouldn't have music, so the low key note of this game's music makes sense.
The sound effects are very well done, from the grunt of the king with each step into madness or loss of health, and the battle sound effects (dat killing blow sound effect tho), to the rattle of the dice, and the sounds of the burning cards, Armello nails it in the sound effect department, and this goes a long way toward immersing you in the gameplay.
Highlights:
•Great sound effects
•I didn't talk much in this category
Story:
4/10
Lacking.
Yes, I have finally u pdated (sidestepping site issues with that word) the ratings descriptors. I knew you would be thrilled to see that. Or not. Probably not, but let me think so.
So the story in Armello definitely lacks depth, but such is to be expected with a table top RPG. Now I understand story is a big issue with these, and the story of the heroes does play out well, being written differently each time depending on what quests you choose and how you approach them (safe or risky) and whether or not you succeed should you take the risky option. All of these are logged in your hero's journal. So in that regard the story is dynamic and very interesting to an RPG fan, but the story rating is brought down by the lack of a deep opening story. You see that opening I put before the graphics breakdown? Yeah, that was literally the entire story. It says something when the entire story can be shared without going into any spoilers. But the opening story serves as nothing more than a springboard to get the game going and make the action make sense, and honestly that's probably for the best in a game like this. Still, I had to rate it fairly alongside other games on the system and as such "lacking" is certainly an appropriate rating.
Highlights:
•The story is just right for a game like Armello
Depth: 9/10
Excellent.
So once again, Armello is a board game and as such all action is of course restricted to a single location: the board (that PhD of mine helped me figure that out. Good on you if you didn't need one for it). And that's good and all, but do you know what doesn't have a lot of inherent depth and space to explore? A board (That's the PhD talking again). Still, despite how typically shallow a game board is, Armello manages to deliver quite a bit in terms of depth by various means to counter that.
First are the cards: there are 131 cards spread across six decks, each deck having it's own special characteristics. Of these cards, some are played as an equipable item for your character granting them a special ability, better attack, better defense, or extra dice during battle.
Speaking of dice, your character is granted a set number of dice, with the exact number being based on their fight ability saving certain special cases that I won't discuss here. Each die has six sides:
•A sun - grants an extra sword during day battles
•A moon - grants an extra sword during night battles
•A Wyld tree - grants one sword AND an extra die
•A worm (rot) - grants an extra sword if your character is corrupted
• Swords - +1 attack point
•A shield - +1 defense (blocks one attack)
further, each card has one of these symbols on it. During battle you can "burn" these cards and in exchange lock in one of your dice for that symbol. This comes in extremely handy but considering that some cards are played as traps or attacks to other players, you are forced to either consider which cards you're willing to burn before a battle begins, or think quickly as the time window for burning cards is a very small one unless you change the rules to say otherwise before the game.
And speaking of changing the rules (And another Segue presents itself! Well then this game is practically reviewing itself folks), you can customize the rules of a game of Armello before playing a round. There are several options such as determining how much rot each player starts with (normally zero), how much health the king starts with, whether turn timers or burndown timers are active, and much more. It certainly allows for a round of Armello that plays the way you like best.
Sadly the segues end there because I'm not clever enough to intentionally make them up myself.
As mentioned previously, there are four ways to win: kill the king, kill the king while having more rot than he does (pointless though it may be), waiting out the king's natural death (or for another player to kill him AND die in battle with him), and finding four spirit stones and making your way into the palace to heal the king. These four ways (or three if you count kingslayer and rot victory as the same) are there for more than allowing you to play how you wish, they also keep you on your toes as they allow for a player to steal the victory out from under you right before you achieve your win by say, killing the king, or maybe healing him. There's never a safe move in a round of Armello for this reason and many more such as perils (traps you walk into), attack spells from other players, trickery cards, random events, king's decrees, a procedurally generated game board, quests, a day/night cycle, and more.
I could certainly list much more, but suffice it to say that there's more depth than you probably care to read about here.
Highlights:
•Cards that can be played to yourself, others, or even spaces add a lot of depth to the game
•Four roads to victory ensure that anyone can win at any time without warning
•I finally shut up about the depth
Addictiveness: 10/10
Incredible.
So I've played seven rounds so far and I plan to play several more, and not only for the trophies (but they certainly help...oh come on, you expected me to say so, don't act shocked), the gameplay is fairly quick for a board game, engaging, full of depth as my ramblings have already stated, highly customizable - see previous ramble, and just an all around good time.
So with the gameplay and very board allowing for a game that literally never plays out the exact same way twice, there's a lot of fun to be had playing around with this game. The only thing I could ask more of the developers would have been Local Multiplayer, but they were quick to point out that with each player's cards and quests being visible on screen it might not work out as well as one could hope. And sadly, I, the champion of complaining over no local multiplayer option, can understand that.
Highlights:
•Shorter than the depth category
•Never the same game twice
Difficulty: 5/10
Average.
Don't believe people when they claim this game is hard to get into or is too complex. I nearly decided not to purchase because of all of that talk, but after watching a gameplay video of it and thinking for a while, I opted to buy it and I'm so glad I did. The game, while complex in what it offers, takes very little time to learn, and it helps a lot that it does most of the hard work for you (calculating stats, player locations, card effects, etc).
To show you how hard it is to win, I won my first four games when attempting the easy win approaches (Kingslayer and prestige), and it wasn't until I started aiming for difficult win conditions (spirit stone and rot) that I managed to lose, however I lost my first three games trying for one of those. So I suppose Armello is as hard as you make it, but if you're going for a simple easy condition win against AI you likely won't have much trouble provided your character and charms fit those goals.
Highlights:
•Accessible
Overall: 7.4/10
Very Good.
A fitting rating for Armello in both number and title (very good). If you're a fan of board games and/or table top RPGs, then Armello is definitely a must buy for you, and for the amount asked ($20) it's a steal.
In conclusion, with tons of depth, loads of replayability, and a high fun factor, Armello is easily a game I would heartily recommend to anyone that enjoys games of this particular genre. It's certainly a niche title, but it hits the mark and delivers in spades to those who are a part of it's little niche market. If that's you then quit reading this and go buy it. Like, yesterday. If that's not you then this game could still be worth a look up on YouTube as it may pique your interest still with it's fantasy elements. Regardless, Armello is a solid game and that cannot be denied.
Graphics
8 Sound
6 Addictive
10 Depth
9 Story
4 Difficulty
5
User Notice 
