Armello Review (PC)

The last few years have seen a lot of interesting tabletop games transition into the virtual environment, adapting their mechanics and allowing players to take on AI-controlled opponents or other real-life adversaries through multiplayer.

Armello is the latest example of a virtual tabletop game, as independent studio League of Geeks has delivered a pretty complex experience to fans on PC. The title combines not just turn-based mechanics and role-playing elements but also a fantastic visual style and an intense plot that's more akin to Game of Thrones.

Does Armello manage to perform a successful dice roll or should this tabletop adventure be cast away on a shelf? Let's find out.

Story

The plot of Armello is quite innovative. In a fantasy animal kingdom, the lion king succumbs to an illness called Rot and starts wreaking havoc. His four loyal animal clans send their leaders into the battlefield to stop the king and, by any means possible, assure that they will be the new rules of the land.

As such, the Wolf, Rat, Rabbit, and Bear clans fight over the game's map, in order to not only solidify their power but also to eventually take out the king through a multitude of ways.

The prologue, which also acts as a tutorial, is good at explaining most of these things and giving each character a noble or less noble way of winning. As mentioned above, the whole thing is reminiscent of Game of Thrones, the hit HBO TV series, as each faction tries to win the throne through direct combat, trickery, spells, or downright nefarious methods.

Enter combat in Armello

Gameplay and multiplayer

The actual gameplay of Armello is relatively straightforward but gets quite complex as you come to grips with the many different mechanics and the random nature of combat.

First up, every character starts off in their own fortresses and must enter the battlefield from different directions. They can explore using their action points every turn, while completing various quests and objectives. From reaching a certain tile to disrupting the activity of an opponent, the goals are relatively varied and encourage taking risks.

You start off with a certain number of cards, and if you have less than four, you can pick more up at the start of your turn. These cards include allies with specific abilities, as well as equipment that has combat effects, not to mention spells and trickery ones, which have all sorts of surprising consequences.

These cards also come with restrictions, some can be played on your hero or another hero, while others can be played on tiles, enemies, and other such things. The complexity seems accessible at first but you'll often have to re-read a card's description to just know what it can do.

As I've mentioned above, there are several ways of winning the game. One of the most straightforward is to get as many Prestige points as possible. These are earned by controlling settlements, defeating enemies, and accumulating resources. When the king dies due to the Rot, the Prestige leader becomes the new ruler. He or she also gets to choose between two royal decrees at the start of each "day," aka every two turns.

You can also go the combat route and get the Kingslayer victory. This means that you can build your combat items, cards, or allies and then charge into the royal palace to provoke the king. If you win, you become the ruler.

The two other possible ways involve dealing with the Rot plague. You can try to gather spirit stones and cure the king, or you can, in turn, get afflicted with Rot and become the Lord of Darkness by defeating the king.

The paths to victory in Armello are varied and goals can differentiate wildly from one another. However, the gameplay is more or less the same, as the only things that change are the cards you can use. What's more, some characters have plenty of advantages for one scenario but very few while trying other victory methods.

Combat uses dice rolls, and depending on your character or equipped cards, you can have more, the same, or fewer dices than your opponent. The random number generator (RNG) behind the system is extremely random and you can easily lose even in the most surprising scenarios. You can tip the odds by burning cards in order to gain the symbol marked on them, but the time period for this action is pretty short on most occasions.

The AI behavior is also a bit erratic, as often one character will try to interfere with your own hero even if it means losing the game altogether. What’s more, there's no fast-forward button to skip through the actions of your opponents. The board features four heroes, as well as members of the King's Guard and a number of Rot Banes. Each turn takes its time to play out, so you might get bored with all the waiting around.

The map layout remains the same although the content of the tiles is randomly generated. Unfortunately, you can't zoom out all that much as the whole thing becomes foggy.

In terms of multiplayer, you can go up against other Armello owners online, but be prepared to wait a while for the matchmaking to find suitable opponents. You can also embark on the ranked version but the wait can be even longer. What's worse, there's no local multiplayer on the same computer.

Go on adventures in Armello

Visuals and sound

Armello delights through its visual design. The cartoonish style is fluid and colorful, and every card comes with fantastic animations that make them come alive. The animations during combat are also pretty good and everything has a fantasy children's storybook feel.

The soundtrack is pretty good but it can get repetitive at times. What's more, it seems that some users, including me, are encountering audio problems as the sound cracks and distorts during certain situations and quite often.

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The Good

The Bad

Conclusion