Offline Low-tech Co-op - Space Hulk: Death Angel Review

With the advent of online matchmaking services such as Xbox Live and PSN there has been a marked shift away from local multiplayer towards the inclusion online multiplayer in games, be it cooperative or competitive. In fact, a lot of titles now have online multiplayer modes that seem as though they've been shoehorned in by developers, probably at the urging publishers who are hoping to give their customers a reason not to sell games on the secondary market after finishing them. In the past multiplayer usually meant 2-player with the exception of some arcade cabinets which were made to support multiple players. Even up to the previous console generation online multiplayer was a thing that happened almost exclusively on the PC, which has never come close to being the vast cultural phenomenon that console gaming has become. It may seem unfair to say something like that about the PC as a gaming platform, but the PC gaming demographic seems to have not changed at all within the context of a larger culture which has evolved to the point where the elitists now derisively comment about how Call of Duty is a game for frat boys. Taken in that light it seems clear that the home console is now defining online multiplayer to a greater extent than the platform on which the feature originated. There was a time, though, when local multiplayer was the standard rather than the exception. When afternoons were whiled away on games of Battletoads, Street Fighter II, Golden Eye, and Guilty Gear X2. That time is over now, but a bastion of local multiplayer still exists in the realm of board games.

Board games?! No, not those board games that killed so many weekend afternoons in youths, but good board games. The past couple of years have seen an incredible rise in the popularity of Eurogames, which differ from the classic American boardgames in a number of ways. In general, Eurogames are not luck based (little or no die rolling), do not have player elimination (everyone plays to the end), and have themes can seem somewhat outlandish. They're mostly competitive but we have seen a number of cooperative eurogames over the years in which players compete against the board, but these games suffer from a fatal flaw compared to cooperative video games. In a video game, each player controls their "character" or "guy" or whatever and they're the only one who can do it due to the nature of the inputs (i.e. game pads or controllers). In a cooperative boardgame like Arkham Horror, depending on group dynamics, the slow paced turn based nature of the medium can lend itself to an experience of playing by committee, where an individual player's experience is sometimes diminished by a desire to go along with everyone else and not rock the boat. Fantasy Flight Games seems to have at least partly solved this problem by with the release of Space Hulk: Death Angel, which is not a Eurogame in any sense, but manages to rise above the pitfalls of traditional American board game nonetheless.

Space Hulk: Death Angel (Board Game, 2010)

Released about a year after Games Workshop's 3rd Edition Space Hulk, Death Angel is a pared down version of the beloved miniature/board game hybrid that manages to condense the incredible flavor and intensity of the original into a sandwich sized package that plays just as well with 2 players as it does with 6. The theme is pretty rich and beyond the scope of this post, but the tag-line on the box sums it up well as "man versus alien in a desperate struggle."  This flavor is carried very well by the card art and gameplay, so players familiar with the Warhammer 40k setting will feel right at home.  Inside the box you'll find cards representing space marines, genestealers (4-armed scythe-taloned alien monstrosities), actions, locations and events.  You'll also get a number of thick cardboard tokens and a special die.  The die and tokens are nice but the cards are a little small and thin, though they do shuffle very well.  Overall, it is a nice package and a solid value at $25.

During the course of the game, space marines controlled by the players will work together to move through the decks of a derelict spaceship infested with genestealers intent on tearing them to shreds. Each player controls the actions of 1 or 2 teams of space marines, with each team consisting of one basic marine and one command marine (seargent or librarian), heavy weapons marine (heavy flamer or autocannon), or close combat specialist (lightning claws or thunder hammer and storm shield). Each team of marines has three unique action cards which dictate what they do each turn (attack, move and activate, and support), and each turn the team will perform one action so long as it is different from the action they performed last turn. Each space marine, location, and genestealer is represented by a card, and at the start of the game the space marines are lined up in a column which is flanked on both sides by corridors, doors, vents, dark corners and other features of the ship from which emerge genestealers. Throughout the course of the game the space marines will clear sections of the ship and advance through a series of increasingly dangerous random locations by eliminating genestealers until they arrive at the final location where they'll have to satisfy a specific victory condition such as kill the genestealer broodlords or activate a special control panel.

The tension of the original board game is recreated here by the near-constant tide of genestealer cards which are spawned from blip piles based on the location of the marines in the ship, which changes whenever a blip pile is exhausted (i.e. the space marines have survived long enough in the location and killed enough genestealers). The number of genestealers, their locations, and their movements around the formation of space marines are based on a random event card that is resolved at the start of each turn, and the regularity with which they spawn makes it seems like the marines are fighting an uphill battle most of the time. Combat is resolved with a simple die roll, and players must take advantage of each of the unique marine's special abilities to get the most out of their actions each turn, because any genestealers left after actions are taken will attack back, forcing a defense roll that is more difficult depending on how many genestealers are engaging the defending marine. Eliminated space marines are gone for good, so a big part of the game is trying to figure out which marine is most expendable, and making sure your more valuable special weapons marines are not having to make defense rolls that are too difficult. In lieu of attacking, space marines can maneuver around the formation and change facing to interact with special locations  by taking movement actions, or gain support tokens which allow re-rolls on attack and defense by taking support actions. All of the actions have additional benefits that are team specific, triggering a unique bonus effect once those actions are taken, such as firing multiple shots with an autocannon, counterattacking on defense rolls or locking a group of genestealers under a stasis field.

So how does this game solve the problem of gaming by committee that plagues most co-op boardgames? It does so by stipulating that players choose what actions they take secretly and then resolve them based on initiative order (determined by a number on each action card). How much each group of players wants to do this is up to them, so it's a nice option to have in case you get worn down by this unforgiving game in which space marines live and die by the dice. One criticism of the game could be that it the outcome is too dependent on die rolls and luck with the event deck, but if you're coming into Death Angel expecting the tactical depth of Twilight Struggle you're setting yourself up for a big disappointment. This is a light, fun, flavorful game that's good as a warm-up for your game night's main event or as game to share with less experienced gamers who will appreciate the short play time and quick to learn rules.