Board Games Inspired By Video Games

I love board games! The tactile feel, the ability to see the entire game at a glance, and the strategy involved with playing. My partner on the other hand enjoys video games much more than board games. While we are constantly playing board games, because he knows how much I enjoy them, I wanted to find a way to blend our favorite game mediums into one. Asmodee luckily was willing to offer a helping hand and send us a few board games inspired by video games to bring to the table. 

THE WITCHER OLD WORLD

First up is a game that I enjoyed more than I could have imagined, The Witcher Old World. When I play a board game like The Witcher Old World, I often find myself being overcritical of the amount of flavor text on the cards. I know my partner enjoys the story a bit more than I do, but there’s a very difficult line to tread in my mind between too much flavor text and not enough. The Witcher Old World does an AMAZING job of walking this line in a beautifully thematic way. The story of this game is well worth the reading, and there isn’t too much to be read on each card. There’s a story, a choice, and then a corresponding result… the perfect amount of reading for the analytical part of my brain to stay in it and feel enriched rather than distracted.

With this very long winded way of saying I enjoy the story aspect of the game, there is so much more I enjoy about this game!!! From the way you are constantly traveling across the board to take different actions, to the way you use your cards each turn, every aspect of this game feels intentional. There were two main aspects I wanted to point out, the first being the exploration decks. In the second phase of your turn, you can choose to explore by drawing an exploration card. Now the interesting part about this action is you choose whether you want to draw from the city deck, or the wilds deck. Either way, the card you draw will give you a choice and a corresponding result. The other aspect I especially enjoyed about the game was the fight style. The mechanic used in a fight is pretty unique… the monster gains a deck of sorts equal to their life points which represents their health. When the monster takes damage they lose the corresponding number of cards, when they attack they draw the top card of this deck, and when the deck runs out, the monster is defeated. I really enjoyed this mechanic and how you can visually see the monster losing their health as they are removing cards from their deck.

Overall, The Witcher Old World was better than I could have ever imagined, and it will definitely be getting back to the table very soon! 

SKYRIM THE ADVENTURE GAME

Up next is Skyrim The Adventure Game. This game has what feels like a never ending supply or choices to make, and I am here for it! In the game you will be working to complete quests. You do this by traveling to the location on a quest card, and taking the corresponding action, oftentimes being a skill check in the form of rolling dice. These quests act almost like a timer, eventually revealing a “chapter is complete” card. There are so many cards in this game and I just know that means that I will always find something new when playing a future game. I will mention that the main note I have about this game is that the rule book can be a little tough to navigate, but once I understood the basic flow of the game it wasn’t too difficult to play. 

The thing I enjoyed most about this game is just how open it is. There are so many choices, so many quests, and the game feels like a streamlined RPG game, which I can definitely get behind. I also really enjoyed the minis, and the feeling that the game gave me of constantly feeling like I was uncovering something new, even if I uncovered it by failing a past quest! Overall I liked the theme of the game, and I am excited to play the video game to have a reference point to compare the adventure game to!

THE LAST OF US ESCAPE THE DARK

Last but certainly not least is The Last of Us Escape The Dark. I really enjoyed this game… like immediately reset and played a second game type of enjoyed. I am somebody who tends to enjoy dice games WAYYYYYY more than I should, so it really isn’t a surprise that this game pulled me in. 

In the Last of Us Escape The Dark you are working to move from the quarantine zone all the way to Jackson and defeat the boss. This is not an easy task as you will be having to travel through different locations and very often having to fight in combat. I LOVED the combat style of this game. The chapter card tells you a base set of dice symbols to place out, as well as a number of dice to roll to see what faces will be showing. Your goal is to roll your dice and take different actions to remove these dice by matching the symbols shown. This doesn’t sound hard in the beginning when there aren’t many dice to roll, but as you advance towards Jackson this dice pool expands, and so does the damage you will take each round. 

There are so many things I loved about this game, one of which was how the threat tokens on a location block off your ability to travel to a new location. This causes a constant tug of war with the threat tokens as you need to remove them to travel, but in order to do so you might need to flip a chapter card that could be detrimental to your health. I also really enjoy how the game rewards you for winning a combat, and for clearing a location. Lastly, I like how in combat you have to make a choice between ranged attacks and melees. You only have a set number of ranged attacks and you need to budget them wisely, but oftentimes the ranged attacks will have a lesser chance of retaliation damage as opposed to taking a melee attack. 

Overall, I am so happy I got the chance to try these games out, and expand my game library to include a few more games that are on theme for our couple game nights! 

I would also like to express a huge thank you to Asmodee for sending these awesome games over for us to try out! 

If you have any questions about the games in this article, feel free to drop a comment and I would be more than happy to answer it. I hope you enjoy these games as much as I do, and I will see you next time!