Review: Talisman Digital Edition (Steam)

Talisman Digital Edition – The Magical Quest Game for 1 to 4 players. The officially licensed multiplayer version of the classic fantasy adventure board game, Talisman. In Talisman Digital Edition, there are 14 characters a player can control, from the heroic Warrior to the powerful Sorceress.

Pros:

• Based on the popular board game Talisman by Games Workshop. Players must navigate the board, working their way towards the centre. They will encounter shops,landmarks and all kinds of enemies as they fight, explore and loot their way to victory.
• Tutorials are all the way through the game and will give you a real in depth window of information, You can of course turn these on/off at your will.
• Has online and offline play and supports up to 4 players. Any combination of online/offline players can be used.
• The overall presentation is really good, from the classic folk lore music of days past, To the beautiful etchings of characters you use. It has a dark eerie feel over it all and feels like it could be quite a heavy game on the mind, In truth its not and is actually fun to play.
• Play pieces look just like their real life counterparts, Detailed and well painted. Authenticity is the word here.
• Online leaderboards so you can see how you stack up against the world.
• Due to the way in which the game is setup, Every game you play will be different and you will never have a game the same.
• Moving around the board is easy, roll the dice with a mouse click and the squares you can move to will highlight. In most cases two squares will light up due to the way in which you can navigate the board. Hover over one of the squares and you can anticipate what to expect.
• As well as random events coming at you from the deck of cards, Players can also face off against each other, Using spells,tombs or weapons they may have found in the game.
• Adventure cards as mentioned above are the deck of cards that shape your adventure. Every time something happens, the cards will be used to randomly identify your findings. Arriving at a new square will usually require a random card to be drawn.
• You can earn fate points, Fate points can be used so you can re roll the dice. Using fate points will use up your allowance and come with a cooldown period. Use them by all means but use them sparingly.
• In game you have a game log. Here you can re evaluate previous events and moves in the current game. If you find your lost or dont understand what happened, Consulting the log will usually yield the answer.
• 14 characters are available to choose from in the base game, They range from your typical characters like thief,trolls,warriors etc. Then you have a few higher placed ones like prophetess,minstrel who have much greater powers. All characters have their own unique set of skills represented by numbers.
• You can change the rule set used or stick with the traditional classic rule set. Changing the manner in which players interact or win being the sort of options found here.
• Steam intergration like achievements and cloud saving are in the game.
• Controls are straight forward with it being a case of just using a mouse for the most part.

Cons:

• Learning curve is quite high with new players expected to do a lot of reading and watching. It takes a good few games to fully get the rules down.
• No pad support, This is noted purely for the fact that the game doesn’t require a lot of buttons and having the game with a pad would make it easier for some players.
• Slight resolution issue where lower resolution options on monitors can skew the screen or cut some of the screen off, It doesn’t seem to want to centre itself.
• Video options consist of nothing more than change resolution.
• Text is quite small, especially on the cards.
• Interacting on the board has a lot of unnecessary clicks and could be streamlined and simplified more.
• Just no real animations or whiz bang theatrics. Characters have no animation and apart from the occasional firework or glow from the dice, Its all a very bland quiet affair.

In Summary, Its a board game made into a video game and it works. It does exactly what you want it too for a board game. New players can learn a bit faster than they might in real life, Returning players will know the lay of the land and be able to jump straight in. It just feels in places it tries to be a board game so much that it forgets that it is on a PC and with that they can add some pizazz to the game. Have crazy animations and sound effects going off, bring more to the game that you couldn’t before. But it doesn’t  and I wouldn’t say it ruins it. You buy the game for the name and what it is, It just feels like a missed opportunity. You will have fun with the game and online works really well and will allow players to have board game nights no matter what their geography status.