Within the tombs and crypts of antiquity lie the makings of legends.
Who doesn’t love a dungeon crawler? This most classic of boardgaming tropes has a long and storied history going all the way back to Dungeons & Dragons, but it seems, like the search for the ‘perfect’ civilisation-building game, there’s always someone else willing to give it another go. And since Battle Systems has been making amazing cardboard terrain for roleplaying and miniatures games, it seems right that they should take their excellent Core Space system and finally have made their own classic dungeoncrawler.
Both this game and its sci-fi sibling could have felt like cynical exercises in selling their wide range of terrain, but instead they’ve come up with a fun and visually spectacular system that feels like a wonderful blend of roleplaying game, miniatures game and board game. Maladum has fine-tuned the rules and campaign systems (and done away with tape measures by falling back on grid movement), and while there’s a lot of icon referencing and fiddly stuff, the core mechanics are simple enough to survive all the bolted-on detail. There’s nothing revolutionary going on here, but there’s a wild joy in the crazy level of detail – a rule for everything including pulling a lever or lighting a fore from a wall-mounted torch – that feels very much in the spirit of the genre.
The thing that brings it all together and makes it extra special, however, is the ever-increasing threat of the dread tracker and the push-your-luck tension that underpins the entire experience. How far do you venture into the dungeon before you lose your nerve and sprint for the exits? Instead of just wandering around killing monsters and grabbing loot, you’re always aware of this ticking clock of danger. There’s not much good getting a lot of cool loot if you don’t make it out alive! This constant risk transforms what is a great dungeoncrawler into an exceptional one.
The Core Space issues are still here – the extremely long and fiddly set up and pack up time, the countless icons (made far more practical by my all-in-one reference sheet included in this summary), and the lack of variety in enemies – but it can all be forgiven because this game looks and plays so well and is so fun. For more detail, check out my video review!
