A fantasy co-operative dungeon campaign, combining many elements from similar games into a new adventure. With an Arabian desert setting, hero characters are a mix of human and animal, the elephant guardian and tiger mage are pretty cool characters. The game provides a campaign storyline that you will follow rather than random dungeon generation, and as such could be considered a campaign product, however it is also very much a dungeon crawler too so crosses over both styles.
Odalin mixes card play and dice rolling, the core of the game rests on your deck of 12 cards which feature a combined orderly hero class abilities with a chaos demon one. Over time you will be able to insert new cards into your deck, replacing starting ones, but also flip existing cards to a more powerful side. The process of sleeving two cards together to create your own deck is smooth and well done, adding a nice depth layer beyond most other dungeon games. Cards have interesting actions, combining movement with attacks, instant abilities to assist other party members or even deck manipulation. Starting class decks include the Guardian, Mage, Rogue, Cleric, Druid, Holy Knight and Dark Sorcerer, with a couple of others in expansion boxes.
The unique element of the game features you combining your hero with a demon form, this effects how your card deck is built, but also provides a pay off of soul and corruption, which can end up with you morphing into a chaotic monster that plays for you or against you. This is all quite engaging and you will have to control the corruption by spending health or using a power tracker to reduce it. Each enemy type has its own small action deck to activate with and there are initiatives cards which will randomly set out the turn order for a combat. The game is balanced for 4 heroes, so with lower player count some heroes will get an additional action via an amulet to compensate.
Component quality is relatively high, the trays all work well to hold your cards and tokens in an easily accessible way. Artwork looks great, and models are generally very good too with large impressive bosses and demon forms. Tiles are also pretty good and there are even better alternative art upgrades available.
Following a storyline approach makes this similar to Sword & Sorcery and as such is not quite a purist dungeon crawler, however it does as a result add depth to gameplay, and a more integrated experience. It may not suit all game groups as it does not feature a one shot dungeon method without tweaking. As a gaming experience it is really strong, card play adds decisions, dice rolling still is important, character classes feel different. Balance is on the easy side, health not often hitting desparate level and there are ways to heal back into play, so its not often going to feel like a knife edge survival, but there are included ways to make the game harder.
Overall this is a really solid dungeon crawler campaign, and if you have group that wants to play through a storyline this is a good choice. The fact is blends a little Gloomhaven style card decisions with a storyline Sword & Sorcery made it very enjoyable.
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Expansions
If you bought the kickstarter edition then this will have simplified your need to buy many of the other expansions which are overviewed below (my additions highlighted green = own, blue = part owned, red = not purchased) :
Hero Expansions
There are two boxes each containing four new heroes and one new class deck of cards. They are themed a war box containing a dark knight class or a magic box with the dark magic class. These add more `starting choices and class decks may be considered important enough.
Demon Expansions
There are two boxes each containing two new demons with a deck of cards each. They are themed with Hunger & Darkness and Lust & Wrath. Again providing more choices of set up. The question may be how many times will you play the campaign with different heroes and demon combinations.
Accessories
The usual accessory upgrades are available with a box for scenario doors and objects, acrylic tokens, dice tray, artbook, storage box, sleeves, plus miniatures for an extra rogue hero called Kaerun, a Hell Dragon and one for Abaddon the final boss. There is also an option for foreteller story app and upgraded tiles. Select whatever you feel will enhance your game, i was happy with just the miniatures and the tiles which were nicer artwork than the core box ones.