Leviathan Wilds Review

boardgamequest.com:

I don’t want to waste time with one of my typical long-winded intros, so here goes—I think Leviathan Wilds is a truly special game, and one of the most engaging cooperative experiences I’ve played in a long time. Everything about it—from its production values to its flavor text—works in concert to subvert the violent expectations of this kind of game and create an experience that is simultaneously cinematic, uplifting, and a ton of fun.

Leviathan Wilds is a cooperative board game for 1-4 players that plays in 45-90 minutes.

In Leviathan Wilds, players work together to climb along the body of a massive Leviathan, with the goal of destroying all the crystals growing into its body. Each player has their own climber and deck (representing your grip), and the Leviathan is represented by a gridded map, dotted all over with corrupting crystals and friendly mushrooms (which can be picked up for special one-time powers).

At the start of a turn, you reveal the next threat card, which describes how the Leviathan will attack the players at the end of the turn. Then, you play a single card from your hand, and use the AP (action points) provided by that card to take actions. AP are primarily spent to move, but may also be spent to recover health, shuffle played cards back into your deck, or damage the myriad crystals on the Leviathan.

Each card also has a skill on it, which can be used on any player’s turn for a special effect–leaping across the map, blocking incoming damage, etc… However, played cards are not shuffled back into your deck until you rest, and your deck is quite small to begin with. If your deck is ever empty, you immediately lose your grip on the Leviathan, and fall downwards until you reach a safe point.

Once your turn is over, the revealed threat card finally resolves. Sometimes these directly affect a specific player, but sometimes they target a pattern of points around the player, giving them a chance to dodge out of the way. As the game progresses, these