Dungeon Legends Board Game Review
There is nothing wrong with releasing an easy to play, straightforward dungeon crawl sort of game, and that is exactly what Dungeon Legends is all about. We raved about this game when we wrote about it in our components overview and impressions article, so check that out, but how is the game itself? I love having games I can get to the table to play with my younger kids, and as a huge fan of cooperative experiences, this one scratches that itch. Not only is it fun for me, it’s great for my kids as well. Let’s take a look at Dungeon Legends!
In Dungeon Legends, players will work through a variety of different missions, each which setup similarly and uses similar rules, but have different ways of winning. In one game you’ll be dousing fires, while in another you will be delivering gems to the castle. Despite the unique rule set for each mission, the core of the game remains the same, and is incredibly easy to understand.
Each player starts with a hand of 5 cards on their turn, and they can use these cards to move across the board left and right, take actions, fight monsters, and more. Attempting to use as many cards as possible on your turn is quite important, and while you might have turns where you discard a few cards because you just can’t use them, it doesn’t happen all that often. In between player turns the dungeon goes, revealing either a monster card or an event card that will do something – you’ll continue to play and hopefully not trigger an end-game losing effect (a monster in the castle, or a hero dead).
Each character included in the game feels a bit different, and will have a unique set of cards they will use to start each game. Further, characters can be diversified even more by choosing a complementary skill track to add to their board. Each player also has slots for a variety of tokens, but these are different from character to character. For example, one character might be able to hold 3 fairies for use later, while others can only get one!
And it’s the variety here in both characters and missions that makes Dungeon Legends feel unique and different as you move through each chapter. While I think the long term replayability of this game is questionable after you’ve completed all the included missions, getting through what is in the box will still take 6-7 hours minimum, and that is assuming you don’t lose a mission or two. I would say that on average I would expect folks to spend 10-12 hours playing this game, which is a decent return on investment for a game around the $50 mark.
The thing here is that I’m not sure I would choose this game as a game I’d want to play again and again with my adult gaming group. Everything here is fine, but nothing is overly difficult (some missions provide a tad bit of challenge, but nothing compared to what is available out there to play). That’s not a knock on Dungeon Legends – it’s the reality, and one that I feel the designers were probably aiming for when they put this product out into the marketplace. This is a great game for kids 10+, and one that adults will find entertaining throughout. But there are better dungeon / mission centric games out there, and I’d probably recommend a few of those over this if playing with all adults.
All of that being said, I have played one-off missions with a few other adults and the group had a good time. An amazing time? Perhaps not, but no one at the table was disappointed by what the 60-75 minutes provided to us. It’s just not the game we would pick first and foremost if not for this review. If you have younger players in your home or gaming group that enjoy cooperative adventure style games, then I think this is a really easy game to recommend!