Why has a new Descent game taken so long to emerge? Journeys in the Dark 2E was released almost 10 years ago. "You haven’t asked, 'Which hero is your favourite?', which is a relief because that’s like choosing a favourite child or something," says Perdue during our interview. The two games share being tactical, grid-based dungeon-crawlers set in Terrinoth and starring heroes, but Legends embraces telling a more specific, co-operative hero-focused narrative and pushes app-use to create unique systems like crafting, hero feats that unlock skills and recipes and unique enemy behaviours, to name just a few. Both Nathan and I started our careers by designing expansion content for Descent: Journeys in the Dark, so we carried a lot of that experience over into designing Descent: Legends of the Dark. It was always a game that had its own identity and goals. Descent: Legends of the Dark didn’t start by looking at Descent: Journeys in the Dark. Even if I end up choosing to radically depart from the original, it still forms the foundation of the design process. Kara Centell-Dunk: For me, if I’m making a new edition of a game, my starting point is the previous game. Not only can players make big decisions that will affect the future of Terrinoth itself, but they’ll also guide each of the six playable heroes on their own personal stories, and will get to choose how the heroes’ journey changes each of them.ĭescent: Legends of the Dark didn’t start by looking at Descent: Journeys in the Dark. But not only is Legends of the Dark built on new mechanics from the ground up, it also has what is, for us, an unprecedented amount of focus on telling a story and making that experience responsive to players’ decisions and achievements. Why was it important to make this distinction, and what does that mean in terms of its relationship and similarities to previous Descent games?īrandon Perdue: Legends of the Dark will let players once again take on the roles of heroes in the realm of Terrinoth, and fans of previous Descent titles will recognize some of the characters, creatures, and factions that appear. Legends of the Dark has been described as being a brand new Descent title, rather than a third edition of Journeys in the Dark. Legends of the Dark's 3D terrain allows for environments across multiples levels of verticality. It’s a bold, ambitious next step for the Descent series that’s already stirred up discussion among fans over its app reliance, its explicit departure from Journeys in the Dark and its $175 asking price.Īhead of Descent: Legends of the Dark’s long-awaited release next month, I spoke with Fantasy Flight Games senior game designer Kara Centell-Dunk and game designer Brandon Perdue about bringing a fantasy classic back into a hobby saturated by dungeon-crawlers, the divisive decision to rely on a companion app, and that price tag. The app’s narrative events and dynamic enemy AI combines with revamped gameplay on the table, too, with a new card-sleeve system for weapon customisation, a revised combat system and a box packed with cardboard terrain to create 3D environments across multiple levels.
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