Relic: The Board Game

Imagine the awesomely addictive qualities of a great action RPG video game, then remove the need for electricity.RELIC is just that!1-4 players choose from 10 characters with a wide and awesome variety of unique special abilities and stats, then explore the game board and battle enemies, completing quests to earn a "Relic" (one of several random super-power-up items). As you play, your character also levels up, increasing their stats and abilities. Besides the Relics, you get to earn/buy weapons, armor, and other cards that make you stronger or help swing the odds in your favor. Once you have at least one Relic, and you think you character is strong enough, you can proceed to the more dangerous parts of the game board and eventually make your way to the center where you will find 1 of 5 random game win-scenarios. It may be as simple as "be the first to reach the center" or as hard as "defeat this huge boss!". Your character has a life meter and if you "die" you re-spawn at the starting space, loosing most of your special cards. Even worse is when a character becomes "corrupted" by accumulating too many Corruption cards (which entangle your character most often with negative effects). A corrupted character is removed from play and that player must start a new character from scratch (usually with no hope of catching up to the other players).This makes for an awesome night of gameplay with fellow game geeks. The wide variety of characters to level up, win scenarios, enemies/events, and game effecting cards, combined with epic card and dice battle mechanics makes RELIC a game you can play again and again without it getting old. Expect 3-5 hours of engaging play per game with 4 players.The only problem I can find with the game is that, due to the amount of cards and card types, setup can take 10-20 minutes (Imagine it's like setting up Monopoly plus having to shuffle each separate money stack). There is also some assembly required the first time you play (20+ minutes to punch out tokens and build character chart-dials). Other than that, it's solid. The game cards and pieces are of the highest quality. The instructions (once you've read them) can easily be taught to new players in the first few turns of game-play, though I would not suggest this game to any kids under the age of 12 or so who are not used to long and complex board games.- Gameplay Satisfaction: 5 / 5- Quality for price: 5 / 5- Replay Value: 5 / 5- Level of Difficulty: Moderate (Ages 12+ suggested)- Gameplay Time: 3-5 Hours (with 4 players)- Game Setup Time: 10-20 Minutes------------------------------------------------Overall Rating: 5 / 5---------------------------

I bought this since I'm a huge 40k fan and a huge fan of the original Talisman. The play is very similar and it leaves a ton of room for expansion.Pros:- Lots of replayability- Multiple 'end' goals to force different play styles- Multiple characters that each play differently- Familiar villains from the 40k world- High quality board and playing pieces/cards/tokensCons:- Playtime can be extensive if you're dice aren't cooperating- A TON of cards and counters to keep track of could lead to losing bits if you're not careful- The playing pieces can be a bit tough to pop onto the pegs and might require a bit of work to loosen them upAll in all this is a great game and even got one of my female friends addicted to the play style. You don't work directly against each other in most cases, but occasionally can interfere with other players to slow down their progress. You also have a lot of decisions to make regarding how you develop your character, and no two games that I've played have been the same because of this.I expect that there will be expansions added in the future with more cards/characters and even corners to add additional layers to the board. This might make the game a bit difficult to move around and travel with, but the base box is a great game by itself.

Very high quality materials, great artwork, and some neat little qoutes and captions. I played this with my 8 yr old son who loves Warhammer 40k universe and my wife who doesn't have a clue about WH40k. We all enjoyed the game. We have played it a few times now and all enjoyed it. While my wife does not really understand the flavor (artwork, opponents, quotes, rivalry, etc..) she gets the game mechanics and plays well. This can be enjoyed by all, just make sure to set aside 3-4 hours to play.