Top 20 Co-op Games of All Time!

hello everyone and welcome to the one-stop co-op shop this is Colin and today we're gonna do a top 20 list but this one instead of being solo will be co-op games because you guys know the channel's name is one-stop co-op shop so I thought I should do that if I'm gonna do a solo list of 20 games as well now with this list entails is 20 games from all time so this is not just about 2018 or anything like that this is your to my top 20 in total co-op games I would play any one of these at any given point that's much I like them so what I'll do for each game is give you a little description tell you why I like the game and then tell you that you might not like this game if except except now there are a couple on here that I'm using the audio from my top 14 cooperative list of 2017 and those ones I did the top 5 things I wanted you to know about the game so a couple of them you'll get a top 5 and they'll just be 5 different items both positives and negatives but overall you're getting the same information just in a little bit of a different format with that that's enough talking let's jump in only ol invasion designed by Inka and Marcus Brandt and published by DLP games is a one to five player medieval strategy board game in the invasion expansion there is a cooperative scenario where players are working together to fend off an invasion and to fulfill their personal goals to win the game uses a bag building mechanic where you slowly gain workers to use for collecting resources building trading posts and completing your personal goals if you're able to fully stock the city with goods coins and also have your own personal agendas completed before the time runs out you win the game now I do have a place where this one on the channel if you're interested what I like about this game is the gameplays always tight I have only won one or two times before the last round so normally you're going to be trying to decide what to do and tell that last round and everything feels very close I love that feeling now technically you don't play the game with simultaneous play but that's how we play it we all will draft our or draw out of our bag at the same time figure out where our workers are gonna go and I'll activate together it makes the game faster it makes it more fun we can coordinate together it's it's great I really appreciate that and it means that I can play this with five players and it's around the same amount of time as playing it with two players I just have to ask the question how many co-op worker placements do you know I don't know of many either I have three on this list though so that should tell you something I really like worker placement but I do really like the coop worker placement so that's something that I enjoy because each player has their own personal agenda I do find it very difficult for an alpha gamer to take over the game because they don't know what you're trying to do for your personal goal yes they know what your personal goal is but you might be trying to obtain it by doing certain things you will have to communicate a lot but you're not going to have an issue or someone saying well you have to go here and then you have to go here because they know all of the information there's just too much going on for an alpha gamer to be an issue finally what I really enjoy about this game is the art itself looks beautiful on the board especially if you the deluxe components love how it looks on the table definitely has some eye candy for the players now this game is not for you if you're looking for a lot of interaction with players there's a lot of them not a ton to be honest there is a co-op board but you won't use it that much you might use it in the last couple of rounds most of the time I'm gonna do might be doing my own thing you're gonna be doing your own thing and then in those last three rounds we're gonna sit down and call okay maybe I need to give this to you so you can do that so yeah you might have some of that interaction but it's not nearly as much as some of the other ones on this list I do find this game has slightly lower replayability than many just because there's only one scenario that's cooperative and yeah there are different events and you have different personal goals but there's really only eight personal goals to choose from so I mean I've played this game 36 times but I will go four or five or even six months without playing it and that's totally fine so if you're looking for a game that you're gonna play a bunch over and over again from a co-op side now this isn't for you and finally if you are looking to play this co-op you do have to get the base and the expansion and also if you even want to play with five players you need the deluxe version version which really is only available on the secondary market so that's also something that hey if you're looking for a five player game don't you pick this up unless you want to spend the money on the deluxe version Black Orchestra designed by philip de Bary and published by game salute is a 1 to 5 player thematic game where players work together to try and assassinate Hitler during World War two players will choose a historic figure involved in the conspiracy against Hitler and will work to build up their motivation and find the appropriate plot to try and take down Hitler before it is too late if the players can work together to assassinate Hitler before the end of the war they win the game if all players are in jail or the time runs out the players who lose the game I currently do not have a playthrough of this one on the channel but I hope to soon because it is a really good game what I like about this game is the use of the event cards they're broken up into seven different eras of the war these cards are quite thematic and they provide the players with events that actually happened during that time of the war as the individual sections are shuffled certain events might be a little bit out of place but it still gives you the feel of the certain events that are happening during that era of the war and you only pick some of those cards to build those decks not all of them so you do have replayability with new cards coming out with different players I have to say of all the games on this list this game is super tense you have tons to manage you need to be motivated so you can carry out your plot you need a Hitler to be in the right place to carry out the set point you need to have the right Intel such as weapons or badges or whatnot in order to have the chances for success and heck you need luck and I do think many people might have a negative connotation for luck and in this game you are gonna be rolling dice to see if you are able to assassinate Hitler but I think it works so well in this game because you need a lot of luck to have one of these plots be pulled off something that I really appreciate with this game is that is even though you can get everything to fall into the right place you've got Hitler in the right spot you've got the right Intel to be able to do this you do still have to roll those dice to see okay am I gonna succeed is everything going to happen and be falling into the right place you just don't know there is a little bit of luck and I do like that I also just say this game has tons of cooperation you'll have to work together with your fellow cohorts to be able to try and get all the pieces in the right place you can share items you can share plots you can share cards but you're gonna have to get people in the right places and while that's happening those event cards are gonna move Hitler all around the board and so you might have that car bomb ready but all of a sudden he goes on a plane and goes to Berlin and now you can't do it I love how that works and finally the rules for the game are essentially on the board itself it's pretty nice I don't have to reread all the rules when I want to play this I can just open up the board I might have to look at a couple things but most everything is on the board itself it does make the board look kind of ugly but it does allow us to play the game jump right into it now I have to say this game is not for you if the theme is not your thing you are trying to assassinate Hitler I mean just think about that for a second some people even though he's a terrible person might not want to think about assassinating somebody so if that's not your theme that you're interested in don't even try this game if you have a really hard time with dice resolution yeah also might hate this game because at the beginning of each of your turns it's very likely you're gonna want to do the conspire action which means you roll dice and when you roll those dice depending on what you roll you might only get one action that turn or you might get 15 well I'm probably not 1536 then I think 9 is the yeah but still there is a lot of luck in the game which I think makes sense though matically but that might turn people away from the game also alpha gamer can be a problem because it's all open information so someone could try and tell you what to do or think that they know the best option for your turn so just be wary of that and finally like I said before the board is kind of ugly but it does make sense for the time period of the of the world at this time but just know that it's not one that you're gonna set up on the board or on the table and go we're gonna still great game though dead men tell no tales designed by Kane clinco and published by minion games is a 1 to 5 player cooperative game where players work together as pirates looting the ship of captain from while it is burning to the ground or to the ocean the goal of the game is to find a certain amount of treasure on board and then get it off the ship before the thing explodes our sinks to Davy Jones locker players will encounter deckhands skeleton crews and maybe even captain from himself as they go searching for treasure but the crew is not the only thing the players need to worry about fires are all about them on this ship and if they fatigue themselves too much they may end up perishing in the process if the players can find enough treasure and escape the ship they have won the game currently I do not have a place over this one I wish I did currently the game is in storage so hopefully that will have change at some point so what do I like about this game seem not often are you playing pirates working together I'm kind of like that and the best part is there's no player elimination if you die unless it's at the end during the end when you're all trying to run out of this ship you can just go ahead and grab another pirate character it works really well I enjoy that there is a ton of collaboration in this game I can defeat certain amount enemies for you so you can run and grab the treasure and then anyone who's holding the treasure has a much harder time moving around on the board so other players need to assist them to ensure they can get that treasure to safety they might have to defeat enemies they might have to reduce fires for them all of that I love a lot of the mechanics in the game so between being able to share leftover action points with other teammates to using actions so you can increase your chances of success to defeat enemies there's no one optimal way of winning this game I also really like how the fire works on the game when you move between rooms you have to take fatigue equal to the difference in the intensity of the fire if ever that intensity it moves up to a level 6 that room explodes so not only are you managing enemies you have to try and manage the fire as well that hey you created when you took down captain Fromm ship now I will say this game is not for you if you are looking for an exploration game because I don't really like how the exploration mechanic works I want to be able to explore the ship but I can't I just have to wait for turns to go by and you slowly reveal the ship that way and it just it almost feels kind of weird I want to explore it myself instead of being forced to just place out new tiles each room I've had many times in this game where everything is going hunky-dory and then all of a sudden one thing happens and it just totally blows up the game so if you're looking at for a game that isn't really volatile don't look for this one because you're gonna see that you're gonna be doing great and osan one thing will happen and boom you're done each player will have five or six actions meaning that your turns are kind of long - I mean a lot of the actions are just moving but you're gonna find that especially playing at higher player counts are gonna be sitting around a lot so I don't really recommend this with higher player accounts and finally all the information is available so alpha gamers can be an issue if you've got someone who's a really big alpha gamer you might not want to pick this one up [Music] fuze designed by cain Klinko and published by renegade games is a 1 to 5 player cooperative realtime game where players are trying to defuse bombs they have placed on the ship with the goal of total destruction you will defuse bombs by using dice that are placed on the bomb cards in front of you if players can defuse the appropriate amount of bombs within the 10 minutes allotted to them they have won the game I do have a 1 and a 2 player playthrough on the channel if you're interested in seeing more of this game now what I like about this game is its super fast the game takes 3 minutes to set up and 10 minutes to play you got 15 minutes you can play this game no problem also there are tons of levels of difficulty so if you're not into fast real time games you can make the game easier and still have an enjoyable time or you can be like me and play on the absolute hardest level and lose every time but still try and beat it this game has no chance for an alpha gamer it's real time you've got to make quick decisions you can't in' people are not gonna have time to be looking at your bombs and trying to make decisions for you they're gonna have a hard enough time figuring out their own bombs also the game has simultaneous play which is one of my favorite mechanics you're gonna roll the dice everyone's trying to figure out what you die to take at the same time working together it's great and it works really well finally I do feel like the games are different enough as you play cuz you'll see very different bombs you'll play with different people and because it's only 10 minutes you can play at multiple times at a game night works really well I do like that now this game is not for you if you're looking for a thematic game there really is no theme here you're just rolling dice and you have I call it group dice thing that's pretty much all you're doing also it can be really loud so make sure you're in a place that you can hear each other and noise is not an issue and then finally it can be incredibly frustrating sometimes with how you can lose dice and if you get frustrated easily with luck because sometimes luck just doesn't go your way this might not be the game for you because it can you can get stuck on certain bomb cards and it can be very frustrating code names duet designed by valannus lectio and published by cge is a two to four player cooperative game where players give hints to their teammates across the table on where their eight hidden agents are located on the board each turn of the game one team provides a word and a number to their teammates that correspond to their agents that are out on the board the other team then tries to guess which words correspond to your agents you win by uncovering all 15 agents before the time runs out which is usually eight or nine rounds if you either run out of time or find one of the three assassins you automatically lose the game I do not have a playthrough this one on the channel and I don't really intend to there are a bunch out there so feel free to look them up if you're interested what I like about this game is to me it's really what code names should have been it has all players actively involved throughout the game as both teams are providing clues to each other and making guesses this means when you are not guessing for clues from your teammates you are trying to figure out what clues to give to your teammate it means they're always involved with regular code names all the people that were sitting there waiting for clues you could start falling asleep the game itself is also great as a couple scheme my favorite way to play this is for player two couples on either side it's so fun to work together with your spouse or with your significant other and then try and give that information to the other couple and then they totally misinterpret it it's a wonderful experience code names duet even comes with a campaign mode now I haven't played it but I've heard it actually works pretty well so there's also that as a positive you can even use cards from other sets so we have cards from the pictures code names and we do that all the time now I'd say this game's not for you if you're looking for an odd number of players to play a game I don't think it'd be as much fun if it's 2 + 1 or 3 + 2 I also don't think it's great for large numbers of players because you're gonna have to try and share which word you want to say to the other team but you can't say it out loud yeah it really works well I'd say up to 4 people I wouldn't do more than that if you're thinking that this game is a party game kind of like code names it's not really it doesn't really feel like a party game so it kind of depends upon what you're looking for but if you're looking for a party game this wouldn't be it and then lastly it's just not somatic at all so if you're looking for something with theme this isn't gonna be for you burgle brothers designed by Tim Fowler's and published by flowers games is a 1 to 4 player cooperative high scheme where players work together to rob a bank vault without getting conked on your turn you have 4 actions that can be used to peek at adjacent tiles move to different tiles or try to unlock safes that you have found guards will move at the end of each turn and if they spot your character you'll have to use one of the three stealth that you start with with them at the beginning of the game if players are able to break into all safes on the board and escape they win the game but if any players caught by the guards with no stealth all players will lose I do have a playthrough of this one it's somewhat old but I do recommend checking it out if you're interested what I like about this game first of all is stealth Steve totally got me into this mechanic and I enjoy sneaking around trying to complete objectives and guessing when that guard will go and trying to find ways to hide or maybe exploit the guards and movements or hey I make the guard move so I can protect somebody else it's so cool I absolutely love the board itself you can play as two levels or three levels so you can run upstairs to avoid guards but then you have to worry about the guard on the other floor so much of this game is tactical movement on the board and how to manipulate the guards themselves to ensure people are not caught do you need a short game well then you can play with two levels do you want a longer game well then you can play with three levels you need a challenging game you can even play the Fort Knox scenario that's my favorite I also came up with a mausoleum style and I call it a museum I guess Museum style which is one level with overlapping guard areas check it out if you'd like I'll put a note in the description below to show you where I've got the information I do also really like the different room tiles in the game they're so different and do different things like set off alarms secret passageways cameras atriums it's so fun you never know what you're gonna find now this game is not for you if the theme is an issue some people might have a hard time with hey I'm breaking into a bank come on so you have to you have to take it light heartedly if you don't this is not for you this game also suffers a ton from alpha gaming and that's because there are optimal moves and sub optimal moves in this and so people will express their opinions and may think you're ridiculous if you don't take them so be careful of alpha gamers make sure you're playing this with people that do not help a game sometimes I'll also say the best move in the game is to actually do nothing on your turn and just draw an event card and some people don't like that they want to always be doing something so if you're if that's a problem for you I wouldn't go for this game and finally at the end I usually am really enjoying the game and tell about the last 20 minutes or so because you're trying to escape but the guards are moving around like crazy and so it kind of feels almost like a slog just trying to get out of the building sometimes it's okay but yeah if you're worried about the length of the game because I can get lengthy especially with more players and yes might not be for you the reckoners designed by Brett Sobel and Seth Van Orden and published by Navajo games is a one to six player cooperative game based off of one of my favorite writers Brandon Sanderson and his novel steel heart during the game players will simultaneously roll their action dice up to three times keeping a minimum of one die for each role after players have done this they will simultaneously use their dice to attack epics research epics move around the table or even defeat enforcement minions or Steelheart himself once the players have finished activating all the all the epics and Steelheart himself will act doing damage to new cago if the players can defeat Steelheart before the population of the city is reduced to zero and you win the game I currently do not have a playthrough of this one but mike has a five and five I would suggest checking out there are two mechanics in this game that I absolutely love one of them simultaneous play everything amazing you're gonna roll your dice together you're gonna activate them together it gives you freedom I can help you do this so you can do that there's no off wats my turn so you can't do that I have to do this action but I love the simultaneous play my favorite mechanic of any co-op my second favorite is the dice placement I've always loved this mechanic and normally it's used in competitive games but it's fun to see it here in a cooperative game with the simultaneous actions I can defeat an enforcement minion for you so you can go out and do something else epic I love the cooperation I do also like how in the game no die is wasted every die can be used for something if I have an extra die hey I can get rid of a barrier for you or I can get rid of an enforcement officer I really like how I can always use my dice for something you don't have this feel where you have to roll perfectly to still be effective the theme of the game is also right up my alley I really enjoyed the books so it really helps me to enjoy the game because I love theme of all the games on this list I think there's only one more that has a higher production value and you'll see which one I'm talking about but so the production value is off the charts good now I will say this game is not for you if you're not into the theme it might be harder to get interested in the game mechanics themselves none of the mechanics are whoa crazy new it's just kind of fun to see the mechanics in that formatic setting so if you're not into the theme it might just be a an okay game a lot of the epics are gonna feel quite similar and what they do I wish the epics felt more unique but it is what it is I understand this is the first part of the game with expansions I'm hoping that they'll get more variety with the epics and finally this just kind of goes with what I've been talking about it's the replayability is the biggest issue of the game I'll play it two or three times but then I'll need a break because it feels very se me after a while because those epics don't change enough and and when you bring them out you're like oh just another one that's taken more population so if you're looking for something that you can play tons over and over and over again this might not be for you but if you're okay playing it a couple times putting it away for a month and then bringing it back out and definitely a great game [Music] Shadowrun crossfire designed by Mike Elliott and published by catalyst games labs is a one to four player cooperative deck building game set in a grid iya cyberpunk fantasy world during the game players will use the cards in their hand to deal damage to obstacles and then purchase cards to their hand for use in the next turn unlike many deck builders you'll buy cards to your hand instead of the discard pile and you only draw at most two cars around this means you need to think hard on if you want to play all the cards in your hand or save some for the next turn damage is done in levels to the obstacles and you have to complete each level and order in for you to defeat that obstacle itself if you're able to defeat enough obstacles before one player is killed you can win the game there is a campaign mode so to speak where you slowly level up and gave me gaining Karma as you go and you can gain special abilities that will stay with you as you continue to play the game currently I do not have a playthrough of this one on the channel it's a bit older haven't decided if I'm gonna do one but Rado has a good one you can check out what I like about this game is that it's a very fast deck builder the game goes quick a two-player game can be done in less than 30 minutes which if you think of deck fillers that's normally not the case you need to spend the time building up your deck and then all of a sudden boom boo-boom boo-boom it's done but no with this game it's fast immediately you got to get those obstacles taken care of and you gotta get out I feel like the game itself provides you with substantial challenge and it feels really good when you win there's some games where you always win this is not one of those and so when you do win you feel great about yourself I will say the game it's hard to see an alpha gamer in this one because you don't have your hand face out but you can lay your hand down and some of the potentially trying alpha game but I just really haven't had issues with that in this one I really like the mechanic of purchasing cards to my hand and having a small draw each round it gives the game a much more tactical feel than a regular deck builder it may be better not to play all your cards this round so you can play more the next round I'll be able to take out an enemy or you can put your damage on a teammates obstacle so they're not killed and because you purchased to your hand you get to use those cool new cards right away you don't have to wait for them to come into your hand from a shuffle finally I love the assist mechanic I love being able to play cards to help my teammates on their turn just a great mechanic which more deck builders had that I will say this game is not for you if you're not into the theme I mean and the theme to me is okay and the arts pretty bad but there is dragon fire I just haven't liked that one as much as I have light shadow and cross fire I feel like cross fires a shorter game dragon fire was a longer game but dragon fires in the D&D universe and so you might like the art and the setting of that one better I do feel like with this game sometimes there's nothing that you can do that will allow you to win and you just have to abort the mission and that can sometimes be frustrating so if you don't like the thought of just losing just because of the cards that come out you might want to look somewhere else finally this is not a regular deck builder where you're building cool combos there may be a couple combos here there but it's much more about how you can complete the game as quickly as possible and sometimes that needs parser seen on optimal cards for your deck it's gonna feel very different from a regular deck boat there's no way for you to get rid of cards in your deck so you just have to deal with whatever you purchase for the rest of that game so you need to think about this as a different type of deck builder if that doesn't sound interesting to you then it might not be the game for you pandemic legacy designed by Matt Leacock and Rob devaya is a 1 to 4 player cooperative campaign game where players play through 12 months of a campaign trying to stop the ever spreading disease across the world there are two games out for this now season 1 and season 2 for me season 1 was a better experience but I think it just depends on what you're looking for and which one you play first in the game you'll be doing than the normal pandemic actions carrying diseases but as your campaign moves forward different rules and events will happen to totally change the game after you complete the campaign you'll be given a score and you can see how you've done I currently do not have a playthrough this one on the channel and I don't intend to what I like about this game first and foremost is the campaign I think this is one of the first campaign games that I've played and it's still one of the best after each game you'll have choices to make that will change how you deal with the story itself in the second season they'll even be game choices during the game that can dramatically change how your game will play out compared to how mine would even play out the disadvantage of that of course is that the designers don't really know where you are when they you know in each month they don't know exactly what you want within the story and that can be a little bit different and you can tell that in season 2 some months we're super super easy in some once we're super super hard and it just kind of depended upon where you were within the story if you like pandemic you will most certainly enjoy both of these as they both have a very similar feel to pandemic the story is a bit a bit weaker I would say in the first season and it's stronger in the second but regardless both have a story and I appreciate that because that's one thing with pandemic it doesn't have a story it really does give you a feel like you're in a movie making decisions and I do enjoy that collaboration will be high in both season 1 and season 2 just like regular pandemic I also enjoyed the surprises in both season 1 and season 2 that is what part of what makes that campaign so awesome and fun and I do really feel like you get a sense of accomplishment when you complete the game it feels good I've played pandemic season 1 twice and season two twice so that's four times and I can play them again and still enjoy the game itself I think that says something now this game is not for you if you don't like pandemic it's not gonna change the core mechanic so I've tried playing this with somebody who doesn't like pandemic and they still don't like the game even though the campaigns there also if you have someone that's an alpha gamer it's gonna get really bad really fast so make sure you play this with people that aren't alpha gamers or if you have an alpha gamer and you're just gonna have to be ready to have them telling everybody what to do I'll also say that in both games there is a bit of an issue with rules because after mid July there's just so many rules and so many different things it's really hard to keep it all in your head and if you don't play the game back to back to back to back you're gonna have to start each session with relearning okay what are the rules now so if that doesn't sound appealing then this might not be for you and finally of course the biggest drawback is it is on one and done game and you have to be ok with that you play it one time maybe 17 to 20 times and that's it but still 17 to 20 times I don't have many games I've played more than that so you know take it or leave it Atlanta's rising designed by Galen Cisco and published by z-man games is a 1 to 6 player cooperative worker placement game where players take control of the Atlanteans who are trying to save their people before their island sinks into the ocean each round players will take their workers and go to different parts of the board looking to collect resources gain more workers but after all workers are placed of the flood begins if your worker is in a location that gets flooded you do not get to activate that worker and they have to rush home instead after the flood happens every workers still on the board activates their space tries to collect their goods and the round ends if the players can build all 10 of the artifacts before the entire island sinks they win the game I do have a playthrough of this one it is the first edition and the second edition is coming from Kickstarter I'll probably about a year before it comes out would be my guess but once that's out I'll do a new place in as well what I like about this game first and foremost worker placement co-op here's our second one I love worker placement it's so fun and doing a co-op style it's really I don't know why but if that mechanic sings with me I also have to say I love the board itself the board is set up as puzzle pieces and as the island starts to sink you flip those pieces over and you can see the actual board itself shrinking it's so cool you feel the island is sinking into the water this game also has simultaneous actions so from one player to six player I feel like the game rounds are around the same length because of it it can be a bit hectic but I can also see that there's some really cool ways of interacting with each other I'm able to get certain things for you and then be able to give them to you so that you can get a specific artifact in that turn stuff like that I really appreciate that I also really like how the mana crystals work this is because you do have to roll dice in order to collect resources since you have to roll dice to be able to collect resources there are times where you'll roll and you'll fail but you can use those mana crystals to add to your dice rules so you can succeed so although it takes your workers time to go get those mana crystals they can be super helpful in ensuring that you ask your resource roles and be able to collect the resources that you're hoping to for that route I also like that each atlantean that you play has very different abilities that can really affect the game you'll feel like your own person even if it is a co-op game so I appreciate that you've got one of them allows you to place your workers after the flood how cool is that but then that means that you have to let everybody else place their workers first you gotta make sure to work with them to ensure you have good places to go and so they don't take all the spots of let's say all the worker places to gain more workers so you still have to work together but it allows you to ensure that you get to do all the actions of the workers that you have now I'll say that this game's not for you if you have an alpha gamer problem because all the information is available they could try and tell you everything that you need to do so watch out for that also the naval ship mechanic is not interesting but that is going away in the second edition so I'm not going to talk about it much here just know that the second edition I think is gonna be better and finally but between the dice resolution and the fact that the game doesn't have scenarios it does feel samey after a little bit so this is another one that I played two or three times when I put away for a couple months so if you're looking for a game that you can play multiple times in a row and it stays fresh this one might not be the one to look for it's five minute dungeon five minute dungeon designed by Connor lead and published by Wiggles 3d is a tune of five player chaotic cooperative realtime card game where players have five minutes to rush through a random dungeon and defeat the boss at the end each player will choose a hero who will have their own deck of cars and a player board depicting their special ability once the app says go players will frantically work together matching symbols on the enemy cards to move through the dungeon as fast as they can as the title suggests the game lasts 5 minutes I do have a two-player playthrough and a 4 player placing on the channel if you're interested in seeing them the coop aspect of this game is substantially high no one has turns and you're all trying to eliminate the same enemies together optimizing car plays and try not to waste too many symbols many abilities will allow other players to pick up discarded cards or allow other players to even draw cards when you play them the fifth most important thing I want to talk about is the aesthetics and this is a big positive for me the cards are above average quality and the art on the enemy cart is just fantastic not to mention some of the names are just hilarious but don't worry you won't have any time to stare that because you're just gonna be playing cards and trying to get through that dungeon as soon as possible the boss boards and player boards are solid and you have and they've totally held up after twenty five-plus plays of this game the player card arc is simple which is actually perfect for a real-time game it's easy for players to differentiate the different symbols on them number four is the bosses and this is another positive the game has seven different bosses if you have the Kickstarter version all that have different requirements for defeating them at the end you'll want to look at those symbols and make sure that you have them and maybe horde them or hold on to them until you get to the end of the game lest you don't and those symbols and when you get to the boss you can't defeat them the difficulty range is quite well so if you want a challenge you can have one but if you want a more laid-back when you can play back game you can also choose a less challenging boss number three is the app and this is yet another positive the app is super simple to use has tons of different voices you can now use to encourage you along and give you a hard time for not winning it's simple and to the point and I just I love that I do wish that you could somehow score yourself at the end so you can report those into the app and then look at them I love that about fuse and I wish they had that here number two is the personalized text and this is another positive so how often do you find a filler game that has so much personalization for each character not only do you have your own deck of cards but each hero has their own set of unique event cards that are different from all the other ones within their deck of cards that they have if you want to be someone who controls the time be a wizard you'll have cards to be able to stop the clock if you want to be someone who's really good at fight symbols will make sure to grab the Barbarian because he'll have a lot of double fight symbols in his deck I really feel like they did a great job of defining the different hero roles in their player decks and last of all number one is it's just a great filler another positive it's all positives around this game there's only one real-time game I like more than this one and that's the project elite but Project Lead is not a filler otherwise this one is my go-to filler for any real-time game it's just so quick to play every wants to play it at least twice sometimes three times and the game creates an environment of laughter and heck that discard pile is messier than a teenage boys room I bring this game with me to almost every game night as it's always easy to fill in a five minute game right oh it's just five minutes let's play it all of a sudden boom play to four times love it [Music] dier whales designed by vas oh and published by iron horde games is a one to four player cooperative deck builder and dungeon crawler fantasy game where players assume roles as animalist heroes that summon creatures and combine them in unique ways during the game you'll take all of your creature cards and use charm to purchase other creature cards and unlock advanced creature cards and special abilities for the heroes next you'll combine all of your key creatures into one creature using the cards in your hand to create a unique creature that will be used to fight the minions on the board or heck even Karn himself each card has a basic attack value but they also have an augment ability your choice is how best to conjure your creature for what you're trying to accomplish there are three chapters with a game save mechanism to allow you to package and save the game between game nights if you can defeat card by that third chapter you win the game if ever the fatal wound deck is empty at the beginning of a round you lose the game and I did just complete a playthrough on the channel if you're interested what I really like about this game first and foremost is the deck building itself so normally when you have extra money to spend which in this game is charm you just it's wasted but here you can purchase cards by Spain one extra I'm putting it on top of your deck or maybe you can start working on those locks for the advanced creature deck or hero special abilities but what happens if there's no good creatures in the wild well let's just go ahead and spend one charm and burn one to get a new one out I just I love the mechanic it really allows you not to just have terrible cards in your deck something that legacy are legendary any of the legendary games just haven't seemed to figure out the creature building in the game is super fun it's totally different from anything I've ever seen in a deck builder and it provides you with cool epic combos you can make Plus who doesn't want a fuzzy loyal mysterious Pynchon toad Ogden penguin sounds so cool I also really like how you have a board you're moving on and can utilize tactical movement as well as deck building in the game sure it's no galaxy defender but there's a lot to think about while still giving you a fun Dec building experience should I engage with that minion will I be able to damage him or will he give me a fatal wound who do we want to have to be the first player as many times they're gonna be targeted by AI cards lots of different options each turn I also sincerely appreciate having the save feature it works quite well because the game can be long with the three chapters you can do one or maybe two chapters and then go ahead and save the game for the next game night and it's really easy to do and it fully saves the game there's a lot of games that say they have a game saving feature and then it kind of saves the game you start over with like a beginner's board or whatnot no that doesn't happen here you actually can fully save the game you'll keep your upgrades all of that stuff I love it there are 10 unique heroes that you can play and it provides you with tons of different strategies and synergies that's so cool I finally personally love how Karn works himself how you damage him is just like a normal minion but when you do that damage he does a counter attack and each counter attack is different but then he loses health for every time he does a counter attack and it makes it easier for you to defeat him so cool how the car mechanic works and it will say he's a challenge to defeat so when you do defeat him you feel pretty accomplished now this game is not for you if you have a problem with dice resolution there is dice resolution for the attacking it's only a d3 and you can admit agait tit completely by ensuring that your creature has at least a much attack as the minion or car in itself when you're attacking them but there's gonna be times when you have to take that chance and roll that die and see what you get also one of the unlocks is to be able to roll a d6 instead of a d3 for your attacks and so that just makes it even more variable so just be wary of that I personally like the art but the art can be a little bit cutesy and that might be a turn-off as well and finally I don't personally like how the board itself is set up it's vertical and does make it a challenge for everyone to see the cards so that seems to be an issue then this game might not be for you [Music] heroes of Tanana designed by the Sadler brothers and published by Fantasy Flight Games is a one to four player cooperative dungeon-crawler slash adventure game where players work together to try and complete one of eight quests in the core box during the game players will choose between four different actions to take attack explore eight arrest the catch is that once you use an action it's exhausted until you use your rest action so players will need to work together to defeat the quest before all the heroes are killed I do have a couple playthroughs out on the channel feel free to check them out what I like about the game is it's got a real nice ease of entry you only have four actions to choose from so it's easy for new players to know what they need to do and how to do it I also feel like of all the games on here this is probably one of the fastest set up and takedowns as well I mean fuse might be a little faster but still it's a quick setup quick takedown I appreciate that the activation cards themselves provide players with great cooperation opportunities heck there's even an aide card while all you're doing is helping another player I really like that and the Sadler brothers are known for making very good cooperative designs there's a total of 12 heroes that you can choose from an eight quest I really like that if you look at a warhammer which this kind of comes from the Warhammer Adventure card game then only had four heroes with six quests so there's a lot more replayability here now this game's not for you if you're looking for a heavier experience it is definitely on the lighter side of the spectrum and also if you're looking for a campaign similar to Warhammer Adventure card game there is no campaign all of them are standalone quests that could be a positive or a negative I personally like the campaign one so I kind of miss that also an alpha gamer could be a problem because all information is fully available and you do have to be ok with dice resolution you do technically hit on a 2 plus you guys so it's very likely that you're going to succeed when you roll your dice but there is a chance that you'll fail and you'll just get a shield and sometimes that shield is useless so you will have that happen on occasion on the flip side though there's the exploding dice which is super fun so you've got that on the other side and then finally the theme it's the Tanith world people don't seem to really like the turn off the world so if that doesn't sound interesting that's not for you project delete designed by Constantino Skokie knees and published by currently our tibia games but a seaman version will be out soon as it just went to Kickstarter it's a one to four player cooperative based defense game where players are the last remnants of the human population on earth fighting against the hordes of aliens that have come to earth to take it over you will work with your teammates in real time to move around the board defeating aliens but also trying to complete certain objectives within eight rounds during the two-minute real-time phase you'll be rolling dice to move attack or search for weapons or objectives after the real-time phase the aliens will move attack and then spawn if you can defeat your objectives before the end of the eighth round if you win the game I do have a playthrough of this one it's actually one of the first ones on the channel feel free to check them out so what I like about this game first of all real-time you guys know how much I love real-time I love how it works with co-op you can work together to take down stronger enemies together or you can accidentally make it harder for your teammates by pushing enemies up right when they're about to defeat them or actually even have them push your teammates and then your teammates lose house so you have to work together but sometimes how the dice rolls you end up hurting each other it's so cool and that leads me into the next point which is the dice themselves the dice have one fail side which makes you move one alien on the board forward one space sounds simple right you have to make split-second decisions that could make or break the group you can move an alien up just when someone's about to defeat them and now they can no longer attack them so you have to work together on knowing which enemies to move for but you have to do it quickly because all the time that you spend moving those aliens means that you have less time to do the actions that you need to defeat that part of complete objectives this game has no problem with an alpha gamer most realtime games don't because even the best-laid plans will be pushed away on the wayside depending on how the board state changes while you play there are many different boards that you can play on which keeps it fresh and I've played this game just about 50 times down I'm still not even tired of it I think that's got to say something I do also really like that there are breaks between those two minute real time phases because it gives you that little breather you can then do that tactical decision making at that point before you jump back in and you're just rolling dice and moving around but I'll say this game is not for you if you don't like stress it is a real-time game so you've got to be ready for the stress so oh my gosh oh my gosh I need another gun also the non real-time phase can sometimes be a bore moving all the aliens up on the board activating their abilities then spawning new aliens sometimes it can break the immersion of the game especially with more players because you have to do more of that there'll be more enemies on the board more spawning and whatnot so just be ready for that I do feel like the game you can cooperate but you're gonna find that a lot of times you are in silos just because it's so hard to coordinate you only have two minutes you might be all the way on the other side of the board I need help but you just can't get there so sometimes you're gonna see that you're gonna be playing more as an individual then as a full team you have to be okay with that finally the game does take forever to put up and take down just because you have to plot all the midis and it looks great on the table but man it can take you a while to get that game ready to play MECs vs. minions designed by Chris Cantrell and Rick Ernst published by Riot Games is a one to four player cooperative action programming game where players take on the roles of yordles against an army of marauding minions during the game players will draft action cards and place them on their programming board then they must activate their board in sequential order doing all the actions there regardless of if it helps them or hinders their objectives when the minions attack they will require players to draw damage cars that can potentially be slotted into your programming board or just have a one-time effect there is no player elimination in the game and you can even use your damaged cards to help you achieve your goal part of the fun every scenario has a different objective and ways to lose or potentially win the game I do have a playthrough of one of the scenarios on the channel feel free to check it out the most enjoyable part about the game for me is the programming it's so cool how it works you can stack similar colored cards to get more powerful effects on those cards you can use cards you drafted to swap locations of cards R T on your programming board or you can even scrap action cards that you've drafted to repair your mech so cool lots of different options you might first need to get to a location so you've got all this move commands but now now that you're there you need to be able to fight so then you have to find a way to swap around your board so you're not moving around and needlessly and instead doing fight actions so cool how that works there's a total of 10 scenarios in the game and that's great because it keeps the gameplay fresh there are certain scenarios that I do think are better than others others but they all give you different requirements in different upgrades to choose from it's pretty cool I talked about in another game how production quality is high well this one I would say is the number one in production quality for a hundred back of hundred bucks you're going to get painted mecha miniatures pre-wash minions yeah and the boards are laminated they look so good it's amazing so the quality of the game is wonderful now alpha gamer could be a little bit of an issue here but they instigate a timer for when you're drafting and so people will have a hard time being able to tell what others should do because you only have about 48 or 50 seconds to make a decision when you're drafting cards so that certainly helps with the alpha gamer the ramp up in the game is super awesome you're gonna start doing one or two actions around but at the end of the game you can between tons of actions and stomping on minions blowing them to pieces shooting these really cool rip saws it's really cool you really get to see it your your mech upgrade or hack breakdown if you get lots of damage now this game is not for you if you're not into programming it's a huge part of the game and if you don't like programming actions I don't even recommend this there's also a lot of randomness in the game and that's not Leanne I didn't realize until I played it a bunch of the damage cards will get randomly placed on your action board many times minions are gonna be moving random directions so you won't be able to do a lot of planning it's gonna be a well I guess they're moving to the right I understand that they added this randomness to keep the game fresh but it can sometimes be a frustrating as well I also feel like the game balance isn't the greatest I've had very different experiences with the two players versus four players I do think overall I prefer four players as it's more challenging but it can be longer and hex some scenarios to players is harder so it just kind of depends but also I will say that in a two-player game you draft two cards around so you just you feel super powerful and in a four player game you're drafting one card around so you're ramp up is slower and when you take damage you can only get rid of one damaged car to turn so it's it's just everything's a little slower with four people kitchen rush designed by Vangelis big arcticus and david turkey published by our tibia games is a 1 to 4 player cooperative realtime work replacement game where players try and run a kitchen successfully for four rounds and complete the objective that they've chosen players will use to sand timers that act as their workers and they will go to different locations on the board to obtain food spices plates or even orders to try and fill within that format a time frame the catches those sand timers must have been emptied before you can move them to the next spot so you have to work together to not get into each other's way or to go shopping just in time for someone to get exactly what they need from that storage space at the end of that 4 minute real-time phase you'll see how you did with the orders that you filled collect money and then pay each of your workers 3 coins after that fourth round if you've completed the variable objective you have won the game I do not have a playthrough this one on the channel because I haven't figured out how to record it to talk about what I like about this game it's got real time and worker placement can I ask for anything more I love the real-time in this game and that's because it makes it feel just like you're working in a fast-paced kitchen we all can figure out before that real time phase what we want to do I'm gonna go to the maitre d get some orders I'm gonna go ahead and just purchase some more food right of the way but once that timer starts everything gets crazy you're gonna be completing orders as fast as you can and any of those spare seconds are gonna be trying to help your fellow chefs getting food for them maybe purchasing some spices doing dishes yeah it's a really enjoyable experience I feel like workers as sand timers is super cool I love this idea I think I've seen it and only one other game so not only is the game itself timed but you have a timer within the game for how long it takes you to do those actions you can throw something in the oven but you have to wait for it to cook you can't just do that three times in 10 seconds you've got to wait for that to cook three different time lengths of a timer so cool just like in real life or let's say you have to go shopping you have to drive there right well with your sai-san timer it's giving you that same feel I use my sand timer I have to wait I do also like in the game you get to start with one assistant so let's say I'm using both of my sand timers and they're both just sitting there and I can't do anything well I can grab the assistant and anyone can and do an extra action with it I like that cuz it gives that versatility and it also means that people who are a little bit faster at the game can also help out other players I do feel like this game has no chance for alpha gaming I don't know how you could alpha game it's hard enough to keep track of the orders that you have much less what other people have i do also like there is a non real-time phase and that lets you cool down you can strategize a little bit you also have to pay your workers and that's so fun and so thematic so you gotta make sure you make enough money to even just pay your workers otherwise they go on strike and you can't even use them for the next round you have to buy them during the real-time phase and finally I like the variable objectives you want to play where you're just trying to make the most money you can use that as an objective or you want the highest prestige choose that as the objective or maybe everyone has to complete a certain amount of orders of specific types you can have that as an objective and it totally changes the way you play the game now this game's not for you if you're not into real-time it's stressful it's not gonna be for you if you don't like that it's also I find a little bit harder to help your teammates in this game so if you have somebody who's a lot slower in the game it's gonna bring everybody down because we can't help them fulfill their order I can't buy I mean I can purchase food for them and put it in the storage but we can't help them grab them from the storage or get them spices they have to do all of that we can't do it for them finally there's just lots of small pieces so it can take a bit of time to set up and take down yawns and designed by Kevin Riley published by indie boards and cards it's a 1 to 4 player cooperative deck builder where players are mages who use breaches to cast spells against nemesis and their minions the game uses a variable turn order system so you never quite know whose turn it will be next unlike most deck builders and and he utilizes a no shuffle mechanic so you can discard cards in an order you think may be best for you to obtain your combos because you'll just take your discard pile flip it over and it becomes your deck the Nemesis also has a three-tiered deck that gradually becomes more challenging as the game progresses if you and your companions can defeat the nemesis before all players have become exhausted or gray fold itself has been destroyed you win the game I do have one playthrough of this on the channel feel free to check it out one of the coolest parts about this game is the Nemesis itself Kevin did a phenomenal job in making each nemesis feel completely different from one another this is wonderful and it provides you with a great replayability for the game I also personally love how the tier deck works in Ann's end so the game becomes a race essentially to see if the players can upgrade their decks faster than the Nemesis can play it to get to their higher tier two cards also there is a full another way to win the game when you try and deck the Nemesis which itself is going to be a challenge but it's pretty cool that there's another way that you can win the game I also like the money itself in the game there's so many things you can use that money or ether for you can buy cards into your discard pile you can open more breaches so you can cast multiple spells in one turn and you can even charge up your special ability I always love games where your buying power is more powerful than just Pam's gonna buy a car and put it my discard pile of all the deck builders that we've talked about I feel like this one has the most strategy and that's because of the no shuffle mechanic so many times I can get cards in my deck for a sweet combo but then it just happens that I never draw them at the same time in the Aeons and that doesn't happen I can put those two cards to make a cool combo next to each other and that makes it every time I draw them I can do that combo oh it's so cool the game also comes with many card destruction abilities so unlike a game length legendary where you just keep buying cards and you can't get rid of your old ones here there are ways to get rid of your starting cards and you can really make the most efficient and effective deck the game itself has no player elimination which I also like because there are times where you just you just get screwed and you get defeated or exhausted it's called in this game so when you get exhausted you can continue to play it's just when bad things happen to you it's done double to great hold and finally I do feel like there is a good challenge here especially certain nemec's are hard I still haven't beaten all of them so that's pretty cool I will say this game's not for you though if you have a problem with market combinations because sometimes you're gonna have to do a little bit of tweaking on what comes out for your market because some market setups are just unbeatable against certain nemesis I don't like that but it is what it is and that's what happens when you get larger card pools I will say alpha gamer can also be a problem here I mean the hand is not open but there's gonna be we have to take out this minion or it's gonna kill this thing or whatnot and so you almost feel like you have to do certain things and finally for me the biggest thing that's lacking in this game that the ones above it have is a story if you're looking for a story you're gonna want to look elsewhere or heck maybe the legacy and then we'll fix that but right now I don't really feel like it's a story I just feel like it's an awesome set of mechanics [Music] Ballu maven glooming even designed by Isaac Childress and published by cephalo fair games is a 1 to 4 player cooperative dungeon crawler that utilizes a euro inspired tactical combat in a campaign setting players will choose from a plethora of unique races only found in the gloom Haven universe and will begin a campaign where players will slowly level up and potentially retire and unlock new characters the game is scenario based having about 90 plus different scenarios to choose from the game can take anywhere from 90 to 150 minutes depending upon the scenario and the player count I'm currently in the midst of recording a three player playthrough so feel free to check it out also I participated in a podcast with co-op cast about gloom Haven check the description below for a link to the podcast now the coop aspect of this game is substantially high although you're not able to play any cards during your teammates turns the discussion prior to activating is essential in order to survive this means players are in constant communication and must work together in order so to survive my 5th most important thing is the storyline and this is an overall negative for me the game does have a storyline it's a good storyline but if you aren't playing this religiously with your group you may find yourself lost in the shuffle of the story that's because there's almost too many different branching stories and you don't really understand where you are you certainly don't need the story to enjoy the game but if you're looking for a coherent story you may want to look elsewhere to sorne sorcery or D&D tomb of annihilation number 4 is the slow progression of the game now this is a mixed bag for me at the end of a successful mission you'll obtain a certain amount of XP when you first play the game it will take a long time for you to level up to level 2 this allows for you to grow accustomed to your character which is great and I do appreciate that but one of the best parts of the game is the leveling up and becoming stronger I'm torn on if I would want to level up faster or not because if you level up too quickly you're not gonna understand your character enough to know which cards to pick overall I think it is a personal opinion but just be wary if you are looking for quick leveling up similar to Sauron sorcery be warned you're not gonna have that here number 3 is the AI so how the AI works is overall a mixed bag but it's definitely leaning more towards the positive side on one hand I love that you never know what they're gonna do and how fast they'll do it you have some general information such as wolves tend to go faster than earth spirits etc but you may be banking on your character going first only to find out that their initiative car is lower than yours and it messes up with your plan I'll say that sometimes the AI will do silly things such as heal when they're not wounded or attack when no one is adjacent and then it's due to the limitations of a random card draw games such as sword & Sworcery fixed that issue by having a checklist and I wish that the ad could be a tad bit smarter in this game also the AI will always target the closest hero which is fine but once again it be cool if certain enemies focused on weaker heroes or ranged heroes or something like that number 2 is hand management and boy is this one of the best hand management games out there the puzzle of determining which cards to play each round which denotes your initiative value and your attack and your movement amounts the puzzle of which cards to lose when resting the unknown of what the enemies are gonna do all this plays into my favourite mechanic of 2017 and that is hand management trying to manage your hand to stay alive long enough to complete the scenario and long enough to be able to help your fellow teammates as well oh so great and number one is the unique characters and this is a substantial positive for me so each character will have a unique set of cars and each car will be unique both for the hero themselves and comparing it to the other heroes that are playing and that are in the game at the beginning of a scenario the players will have to decide on and look at their pool of cards that are available to make to them and decide which ones to bring and which ones to leave and this can be an agonizing choice as the characters level up they'll get additional perks to the response tech which once again is unique to them they'll also receive another card in their card pool and so that means yet another card they have to decide what do I want to bring it on this mission or not oh so awesome so agonizing you start the game different from other players but as you level up you'll become even more and more unique to the point where you're gonna start feeling like here that character and I love that about this game the spirit island spirit island designed by Eric ruse published by greater-than games is a 1 to 4 player somatic cooperative game about defending your island home from colonizing invaders players will take on roles of different spirits and using their unique power cards players will try to drive off the invaders from their land yes this game is at the top of my solo and cooperative list I am 100% sold on this game and will play it with as many people or by myself as much as I can the game is not without its flaws but the positives substantially outweigh the flaws both for solo and cooperative play the game plays in about 45 - even 120 minutes depending on how much AP players have and depending on how many players are playing with I do have a playthrough of this on the channel if you're interested and you should be you should be interested in this one the co-op aspect in this game is through the roof I would say it's the highest of all the games I've talked about it is a hundred percent essential that players work together or those invaders will see that your land is drowning in blight and sadness so the fifth most important thing I want you to know about is the simultaneous actions so this is my favorite mechanism for co-op games simultaneous actions used often in real-time games but in the game such as this it can be equally as powerful simultaneous actions instigates engagements with all the players as no one has to wait for their turn it also provides you with tactical and straits strategical decisions such as if I do this then you can do that then I can do this etc etc also players that try to alpha gamer they can't because they're too busy trying to do their own actions on their board to tell you what to do with yours that's not always true but 90% of the time when I play this game no one can tell anybody else what to do because they're trying to trying to figure out what they're doing I love that I hope more co-op games that are not real time start utilizing this simultaneous actions number four is the theme and this is a huge positive for me how many anti-colonialism co-op games are out there yeah one the theme is so unique and so refreshing now don't get me wrong I love my seven wonders games where I'm building up a civilization but sometimes it's just nice to play the other side to work with the indigenous people of spirit island and to help them drive off those invaders number three for me is aesthetics and that's another positive for me the board even on the basic side pops on the table but if you flip that over to the thematic side oh it looks amazing and the spirit boards are beautiful to look at and are very functional my only wish is that the setup rules for your spirit weren't on the back side of the board because I always set up the board the player board itself and then forget to look all wait where am I supposed to put my presence on the board to start off with its then I have to kind of lift it up and look underneath but overall awesome have you noticed their attention to detail all spirits and DeHaan pieces are wooden which makes you think of them as of the earth because they're they're wooden all the invader pieces are stark white and are plastic this makes you think of industrial and not being part of the earth but being something that man has made and stuck on the earth this was obviously done on purpose to help us get into the spirit of the game and I love that Eric did all of this attention to the detail it makes a difference at least for me number one for me is the predictable randomness and it's yet another positive for me one of the biggest complaints I have for co-op games is where they use are a designer will use random events to make the game harder and there's nothing that you can do about it it feels almost like you're just getting things thrown at you left and right and all you got to do is just deal with it the predictable randomness in this game is where you have a small amount of randomness so where the invaders explore but the rest of the a eye movements are predictable and allow you to plan for the future isn't that what you enjoy about a game is when you take a game like let's say seven Wonders and you are planning on what you want to do in that game it's the same type of thing here you're planning on how to eliminate that those invaders and being able to know where they're going to go yet there's a little bit of randomness to provide that replayability it is so great I feel like what speed island I can be proactive instead of reactive and that's something that I don't feel like happens in many co-op games and to feel this sense of complex strategy in a co-op game is certainly unique and something that I hope more coops will do in the future [Music] Lord of the Rings the card game designed by Nate French and published by Fantasy Flight Games is a cooperative adventure game in which one to four players attempt to complete a scenario by adventuring through all the specific locations of the quest you will pick your three heroes and then construct a deck of cards that will hopefully synergize well as you take on different scenarios you'll be trying to complete the active quest card but there'll be locations to manage enemies to fight side quests to complete and treacheries you must overcome do you have what it takes to save Middle Earth from Sauron I currently only have 27 videos out about Lord of the Rings on the channel so you might have just one or two to choose from if you want to see a playthrough so what do I like about this game well there's so much to talk about let's start with the first and foremost customization I love that I can build my own deck so deck construction is amazing I've never had more fun than cooperative deck building for example I'm currently running a deck for my saga playthrough on the channel and I have cards in one of the deck that can only be played for the other player also Steve and I decided to build the two decks that are used in the saga playthrough by choosing a single-car fireside song with that out came two unique decks with tons of synergies awesome gameplay and it's so fun to see them play out and see your creation being played against those quests now I know I had this game as my number one for solo but really it's my number one for co-op even way more so than it is for solo and that's because of the cooperative play I love how this game has so many ways to cooperate with your teammates you have heroes whose abilities can be used for anyone such as Arwen or a grim bjorn friend with his sentinel ability i can optionally engage in enemies so you don't have to if I have ranged or Sentinel characters I can block for your attack for you the game epitomizes that feeling of the theme itself which is Lord of the Rings and that's all about the free peoples of middle-earth working together against a common enemy and Sauron this is just how I feel when I play this game I also feel like the encounter deck itself is so innovative in what they can do with Lord of the Ring and heck even Arkham or the card game they're questing these games or you have to go sailing you have to do sailing and you do that through the encounter deck or you could be waiting to the snow of the Misty Mountains or walking through the deserts of the rod or walking underneath the mountains in the caves of Casa doom it's just simply amazing to me what the designers can can do with just a simple deck of cards this game of any game that's on here has infinite replayability even if you have the core set of the game the replayability is quite good because you can trying different synergies of heroes and cards within your deck but if you own the entire game you have over a hundred and fifteen quests that you can play I have played this game so far in the last six months a hundred and twelve times and I'm not even close to sick of it I think that that's a simple way to show you how much replayability is in this game now one of my favorite ways to play this game is the saga quest do you want to campaign with choices and long lasting effects you have the saga which is all about the actual Lord of the Rings so it's about the ring going from Hobbiton all the way to mountain dew that's a total of eighteen or twenty quests if you have the two print-on-demand quests but if you're looking for more of like a one-off experience you can go ahead and check out the first three cycles of the game or do you want more of an overarching story but you'd like to try in different decks as you play you can start off with the rock lost realm a deluxe set and go from there there's an overall current arcing story from the Lost Realm all the way to the wilds of Rohan 'van which is currently out right now there's really something for everyone here which I really appreciate lastly the game itself has some of the best community I've ever seen there's rings DB that you can go there if you don't want a duck-billed you can find any deck on there try it out see if you like it there's cardboard of the Rings the podcast hex there's our slack channel there's just a ton of support for the game and a wonderful community I'm so happy and so blessed to be a part of it now if you want to hear why this game is better than Arkham Horror LCG I do suggest checking out our live debate video we did it as it has a live video I'll put in the description below and you can hear just why Lord of the Rings is a superior game at least for now now I'm not naive enough to assume that this game is for everybody this game is not for you if you do not like deck construction because that is a big part about the game I mean you can do rings DB and choose a deck someone else has built but part of the fun is building your deck and seeing your ideas and your creation play out it's really cool the theme also of the game is very strong and so if you're not into Lord of the Rings at all I can see why maybe the game doesn't appeal to you I mean the co-op aspect is great but if Lord of the Rings has no amount of excitement for you yeah let's probably you just want to skip it and finally the absolute biggest negative of this game it's a two-parter and that's availability and the fact that it's been out since 2011 it is so hard to find certain certain deluxe sets like the saga itself you can't get the Black Riders right now it's like a hundred bucks on the secondary market it's terrible and if you want to buy everything you have seven years worth of content you need to find but I will say once you get everything the cash outlay is very minimal because it's what every two or three months another adventure pack comes out which is 15 bucks the other thing is you don't need to have everything to still enjoy the game but I can totally understand why that is a negative and what make people not want to buy into this game if you can't own everything right away so there you have it top 20 co-op games lots of options to choose from there's real time games there's adventure games there's partyish style games on here lots of things a little bit for everybody I'm hoping I hope you guys enjoyed it let me know what your top five or 10 co-op games are and maybe even what your top of 2018 is I'm kind of curious thank you all so much for watching I will see you at the next stop [Music]

Channel: One Stop Co-op Shop

Views: 29,338

Keywords: One Stop, co-op shop, top 10, top 20, playthrough, runthrough, solo, tubetables, board, game, review

Id: ZRCLGrlsbiA

Length: 74min 30sec (4470 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 09 2018