Giga Mech Games Machina Arcana: A Cooperative Horror Adventure Board Game for 1-4 Players

Product Information

So… a true sense of horror in boardgame form? That prospect remains tantalisingly out of reach and is perhaps a unicorn we’ll never truly harness. A cool, atmospheric adventure complete with enough tactical agency to engage and morbid motifs to enthral? That’s perhaps a more manageable ambition, and Machina Arcana realises it in a puffy jet of eldritch steam, even as its boots fit snugly into the well-worn footsteps of its many progenitors. But beware! A horde of unique and terrifying monsters are bent on destroying your party. If that isn’t enough, horrific events emerge from the darkness, conspiring to disrupt and hinder any remaining hope in these comfortless chambers.

It goes without saying that the neophyte is expected to perform proper banishing rituals and invocations before using the aforementioned Manuals. Inside the Premium box you will find core content, expansions (Recurrence and Geometry of the Void), and a premium leaflet. Premium leaflet lists additional content, and rule explanations for the expansions. At its best this makes for a tense and tactical exploration of your options as you prioritise objectives and struggle to keep waves of monstrous abominations at bay, with your agency always straddling the chasm between fight and flight as pragmatism dictates. In certain instances however, the randomness baked into the spawning of both beasts and items can render you a bit of a behemoth, which robs the game of the teeth it has so carefully sought to cultivate. Those same teeth are sharpened at the conclusion of each and every round, as after both players and seafood have taken their turns, each player is compelled to conduct a duo of rolls on the ever-ratcheting threat tables that form the vaulted beams of this pipework cathedral.Monster Action – Meat & potatoes for monsters: players will now act and move monsters following the monster action rules outlined in the game manual. These rules are straight forward to play. Monsters either have abilities they can use if they are able to and if not then they are to move towards the nearest explorer. There’s a variant rule (Puppet Master) this suggests allowing a fifth player to be the game master and has control over the monster (think Overlord in Descent), I like this because then you can add another player and not have the players do silly things with monsters. When played as intended, the game is very hard. There's no way around that. Additionally, there are lots of things going on - understanding the mechanics is crucial to wield Her properly. We will most certainly have a reprint, but the planning will be done once this campaign is absolutely completed. The addition of larger cards and sturdy double-layer player boards is a fantastic addition, but in what may be a contentious call – I’d trade them in a heartbeat for the reinstatement of the first edition’s art.

Players take on the role of explorers thrown into dreadful halls, scratching for survival and progressing through the chapters from one of many horror stories.Even if they manage to stay alive till the end of the story, they will face a special mini game at the finale of each scenario. The unique environment, interactive inventory, combat mechanics and tactical diversity are all enveloped in an integral storytelling experience that provides both total immersion in the world and full replay value. I agree entirely with preferring the 1E art to 2E; I think it contributed greatly to the whole atmosphere, which clearly was of primary importance to the designer. In Machina Arcana, players take on the role of explorers who are investigating an ancient subterranean complex of unknown origin. They face monsters inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos in a steampunk setting. The adventurers collect equipment, interact and utilize their environment, fight monsters, and immerse themselves in the rich narrative elements. Shellhead wrote: Lovecraft supposedly disliked board games, so it is ironic that his mythos slipped into public domain and became popular grist for boardgames. This seems like a game I might want to play at least once, but the steampunk trappings are a disappointment. I find steampunk to be the aesthetic equivalent of the comic ms sans font... not inherently horrible, but horribly overused relative to its limited merits. Something has gone terribly wrong in boardgaming circles (cough, BGG, cough) that steampunk games are so common and cyberpunk games are so rare, when steampunk is a cheap spinoff of cyberpunk. As I previously mentioned in my review of Rise of Cthulhu, I love the Cthulhu Mythos. So, when I was offered the chance to review Machina Arcana, a co-op board game that mixes steampunk & my favorite Lovecraftian nightmares, I jumped at the chance.The complete story is broken down into different scenarios that represent a self-contained game. All of these scenarios contain chapters, each with its own narration and specifics. The objective of the game is to progress through the tale and face the endgame at the finale of each scenario. SebastianBludd wrote: The 1e art looks like it's "in universe," drawn by a steampunk scientist living in the game's world as he catalogs the monsters humanity is going up against, as well as the items they're using to fight them. For me, it reinforces the tactile aesthetic present in several of HPL's stories, where protagonists record their experiences in papers or journals as they're messing around with forbidden tomes. It's a familiar approach but it has its own style, and it's very evocative and makes me want to learn more about the world, which is not a low bar to clear when one is talking about steampunk nonsense. The game itself was difficult when you play it as intended but any gamer worth his salt isn’t looking for a cake-walk. If you want to be challenged and battle horrors from beyond then I highly recommend buying this game. If you don’t want to be challenged then pass on this game and regret it. The best person to answer this question is Katie from Funagain Games (they merged with Ship Naked and are the company handling our distribution). We partnered up with a UK based game development studio to bring you Machina Arcana applications. These will include Online card database, Online map editor, Adreama Forge and many more.

Horror Phase – One player rolls a d10 and compares the result with the horror value of the current chapter. If the roll is equal or greater a horror event is drawn. These will always harm or harass explorers and some even cause ongoing effects. Fabulously moody, their two-tone impact also served to stand out when perched atop the gameboards, where they seemed to pop out of the murk, rendering them both thematic and practical whilst simultaneously standing out from other offerings in what is a crowded genre and brainspace. There are two things to note about the rules and game manual itself. First, the number of players is directly related to the number of monsters spawned so the game scales up and down accordingly. This aspect of the rules really balances the game well. So, no matter the number of players you use should give you a fighting chance to win the game and not be too over or underwhelmed during the game play. The world of tabletop gaming has been peculiarly enamoured with this particular goo-drenched touchstone, revisiting it with an insistence that verges on the compulsive as the well-worn cobblestones of Arkham surrender to a volume of foot traffic that weathers its edges and chokes its byways. Had my regular Cthulhu Wars crew over today. We usually try to start with something else (we've been playing a fair amount of Tiny Epic Crimes lately) and when talking about a couple other games, I...

Customer reviews

Final Score: 4.5 Stars – A well-built game with huge replay value. A must have for any gamer that enjoys a challenging horror themed tactical dungeon crawl. The steampunk genre fits seamlessly with the Mythos and to be honest, I think it does better than most. You could possibly plug-in another genre but the designers again were purposeful to use the neo-Victorian mixed with Mythos images for the artwork and decorative elements. Overall, when you first open the box the steampunk images and dark tones give you that creepy and weird feeling that you should expect to find with Cthulhu based horror games. This was an excellent pairing of genres for this horror theme. Players will find a large variety of weapons and equipment, some of which can be modified. MarloweSpade wrote: I agree entirely with preferring the 1E art to 2E; I think it contributed greatly to the whole atmosphere, which clearly was of primary importance to the designer. It still runs long though. The story cards that bookend each chapter form the rhythmic punctuation of your tale and can flit along in both rapid or glacial fashion depending on the whims of card and dice. The prose here is full-on double-ply velvet royal purple in style and succeeds in setting the scene whilst simultaneously failing to offer much of a framework or motivation for who any of these people are or what they hope to find amidst the abyssic debris of these embroidered brass mazes.

It’s obvious to see and I really have to applaud the overall thought, intension, and effort of the designers. Their work makes Machina Arcana an easy must have and play for me. The game was built with quality components top to bottom. It mixes the two genres steampunk and Cthulhu that complement each other very well and help set the dark and sinister tone for this horror themed tactical dungeon crawl. Enjoy the stunning art and dark visuals of the game world. Let yourself become entranced by the gripping story and peculiar events as you fight for survival amidst the mysterious arcane depths. Monster Spawn –Every player rolls a d10 and compares the result with the spawn value of the current chapter. If the roll is equal or greater a monster card is drawn and that monster is placed on a spawn monster icon on the map.

Second are the illustrations. These again seem to be purposeful. They’re done in grayscale to give a feel that they were drawn by some neo-Victorian artist. All the images seem to radiate the mood of Machina Arcana by the fact that they are all done in dark tones of this sinister horror game. This style of art truly compliments both genres and the overall horror theme. If four-color images were used I believe this would have been a mistake. All images of the characters, monsters, and treasure give the game a creepy and weird authenticity to it. How to Play: Each player gets to run a unique explorer, each with their own unique stats and special abilities. The 2e art is the equivalent of a band recording their second album with "better" production, where it ends up obliterating everything that was interesting about their sound in the first place. Machina Arcana is a cooperative game for 1-4 players runs between 40 and 120 minutes per player (depending on the mode). Machina Arcana plays best with 1-4 players. Game Overview: Now, that being said, I have to be honest and admit that I don’t know much about steampunk but I did go into this review with an open mind mainly because I understand that the Mythos cross and compliment many genres and themes. So how well does Machina Arcana pair these two genres into a horror game you should to add to your collection? Read on!