Miniatures are by Bob Naismith of Games Workshop fame - he did some great minis for GW and then was instrumental in developing their early plastics. He also did cereal prizes for Frosties.
I had tried to hunt down who had sculpted the figures but couldn't find anything, so thanks for that. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. He was involved with so much GW stuff, and worked on HeroQuest and Space Crusade, and Dark World has that same sort feel.
this brings back memories. I picked up this game second hand as a very young lad nearly 15-20 years ago. Loved it as a lad, even if i didn't fully grok the rules, we mostly made up our own haha. One of the more poignant memories to me was that I left one of the miniatures as an offering to a very important cultural site to my tribe (i am native american) leaving a part of my favorite game was meaningful to me as a kid. i think my parents at the time understood and let me do it. it was one of the chunky green orcs with one of the jars on the base. it might still be there. i am tempted to return to the site to see. it's quite a hike but would be fascinating. good to see this game pop up on one of my favorite channels! cheers!
That's a great story. It's always so lovely how board games can be so important to people and connect with them in that way. Giving a piece of something you loved so much as an offering is very special.
For me, it's the only way. I'm also really not a competitive person. It really doesn't bother me if I lose a game as long as I had fun while I was losing.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring exactly. Warhammer (real Warhammer, square bases) has always been my main tabletop game and even though it seems to be a competitive game I have always understood it as a way to tell stories. Stories of battle, but also the stories behind the army, behind the war itself.
Oh my God, I've used nearly every piece of my Dark World buffalo for other games: - We used the central part of the board for Mordheim. - The minis (a few sculpts I liked better than the HQ sculpts) were converted to many other games like Blood Bowl, Warhammer 40K and others (Highlights include hacking apart my Korak to make a Count Luthor von Drakenborg star player, and an Dark World Orc that got a Jester's hat out of plumber's epoxy to represent my Weirdboy in 2nd Edition 40K). - Hell I even recently used the doors in a terrain build for Relicblade a few years ago. It's just a gift that keeps on giving! I've never been so fond of a game, without actually *liking* the game
Ha. Yes, for those who don't mind gutting the game it has a lot of cool stuff in the box to play with. I expect there are lots of partially complete sets online that would be good for people who enjoy crafting.
Nah, no way, that Manticore is not only bitchin' all over that barbarian, sparking like crazy just to show he's the daddy, BUT IT'S ALSO firing a LASER from its tail which is SHATTERING that dwarf's axe (which is only gonna make him madder) without even looking. That's the encyclopedia definition of kicking ass.
I watched another CZcams talk about Dark World. And now I find your video! You have such an immersive way of narrating these boardgames, makes it wonderful!
I really do love this game and the expansions! I know the game play isn’t fantastic but when you set all the boards up on the table it just looks amazing 👍
It does look awesome when it's all set up together, but I tried to play it once going through the gate, the village, and then the castle and the idea of it was far better than the experience, so I always used to just pick one game based on what kind of adventure I wanted to have and how many players were around to join me. I think Village of Fear is the best-looking of the three (the little houses and their halfling occupants are fantastic), but it felt a bit too convoluted for such a simple game. So, for the time being I'm not thinking about trying to reacquire the two expansions again. I just couldn't justify the cost.
It has an incredible table presence. It could have been much better than it was in terms of the gameplay, but I think it probably hit the mark it was aiming for.
I used to play this at my uncles house. I had HQ at home so Dark World especially was good since I could only play this sometimes for a couple of hours. I think the model design, boxart and awesome plastic carries this game. The gameplay itself feels more like a 'normal' boardgame
I think it has a lack of exploration and adventure, which may be why it feels more "normal." The whole board is visible from the start, you know where you need to go, and there aren't going to be many surprises along the way. It struggles to live up to the promise of its presentation.
Thanks for watching. If this video ended up being as popular as my Legend of Zagor video I would be more likely to consider hunting down the expansions. I don't think it's very likely, though.
I honestly don't think there's anything cute about calling it a competitor. It was clearly intended to be, and I don't think it's possible to deny it did some things better than HeroQuest. Ultimately (and obviously) it falls well short of the mark - it lacks so much in narrative, exploration, action and adventure - but there was some clever bluffing stuff, weapons with splash damage, an action point system, and there's dice mitigation that we have only just got in HeroQuest now. And as I said in the video, the click bases were ahead of their time. I checked and they predate HeroClix by about a decade, which is pretty impressive.
Yeah. Dark World just isn't a game you can keep going back to like HeroQuest is. It lacks that true sense of exploring a dungeon. There are no traps, no shocks, no really interesting loot, no story, no events...
I had Dark World back in the day and kept the components to use in HeroQuest and Warhammer Fantasy Skirmish. The castle set makes for a great terrain piece for miniature wargaming! I used most of the miniatures for HQ. The Manticore was mounted on a 2'x1' cavalry base and looks nice -- a real powerful monster! I painted up the golden sword to look like the Sword of Omens from Thundercats and altered it to be used by a number of figures. (I have habit of drilling holes in the chunky knuckles of 'Heroic Scale' figures so they can hold weapons altered to have handles made of toothpicks.) I have used the Hit & Dodge cards and coins in HQ, along with the coins from the Pirates Constructible Strategy Game. You get a card for killing a monster, but I learn to give them out more sparingly. I would also handout a random set of coins each time a Hero kills a monsters: 0 for skeletons & zombies, 1 for a Goblin, 2 for an Orc, 3 for a Fimir, 1 x5 value for a Mummy, 4 for a Chaos Warrior, and a set number for special monsters. This was fine at first, but I soon I realize that players would bog down the game clearing out all the monsters in a Quest for the gold and I quickly rule that you get nothing from summoned and wandering monsters. Although, I have taken to marking out a good number of the Pirates CCG coins to get zero-result coins, as as well as altering a few trap tokens and rare treasures tokens that allow for a random gem/jewelry, potion or spell scroll, just to spice up the results a little. Oh of all the little things I have done with the Dark World game... besides actually playing it. LOL
Ha. You aren't the only person in the comments who has listed many different uses for the Dark World components. I think this is a game that probably got cannibalised often! I think HeroQuest could use some hit and miss cards. That would be a good addition to the combat there.
There is a definite risk of losing them. Fortunately there are little holders for them on the hero trays and the castle pits, so you never have to leave them rolling around on the tabletop when they aren't attached to a monster.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Cool. I guess, if one where to homebrew slight stat changes here and there it might have been a better competitor to HQ. Though I havent found such rules yet
Well done good sir! I feel you did this game its due justice! I remember opening this at Christmas, and even after owning hero quest i was still as excited to play it. just the once though lol. The minis make great alternatives as well
Who wouldn't be excited getting that massive box of plastic with that awesome artwork on the front? The ogres are like the lanky relatives of the ogres from the original Against the Ogre Horde HeroQuest expansion, which is pretty funny.
Coincidentally, my folks found my copy in their attic a couple of weeks back - I assumed I'd gave it away or got rid of it twenty odd years ago. All pieces there and in great condition!
No idea how this ended up in my recommendations but glad it did. Had this game as a kid, had no idea what it was beyond extremely vague memories everytime the mini's turned up. Pleased to know what it was, so thanks.
If I knew how the CZcams algorithm worked, I would be a much bigger channel! Thanks for watching, though, and I hope it brought back a few happy memories from when you were younger.
I had this game from a car boot sale. I never actually played it as I didn't understand the game as I was so young but I used to play with the figures and act my own little hero quests 😂
This was my first miniatures game when i was a kid. Still my favorite board game. went out of my way to rebuy this a decade ago. Havent been able to get the expansions though. they are so rare and expensive these days. Im going to build all of them out of foam for my channel in the future after I am done my current project. Probably going to mix it with another game and combine some rules to make it more expansive. The only bad thing that made it not as memorable as Heroquest, is the lack of magic abilities and the lack of rpg elements. Its just one linear story to play through. but I do love the combat mechanic.
Yeah, I managed to get the expansions years ago for a reasonable sum but eventually let them go to someone who offered me a good price. I should have held on to them though, they are so difficult to get now. Good luck with project.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Thanks. And yes... maybe one day I will own them all, sadly I didnt grab them before they all vanished from the internet. It was definately weird. At one time Ebay was filled with them for dirt cheap. Now you can barely find the replacement pieces that are being sold lol.
dark world is the heroquest starter/upgrade kit. my go to quest 0. end of quest: - all heros count up their gold and start their campaign with some pocket gold - winner gets to pick a hero first in hero quest and gets to keep 8 BP moving forward, unless they choose the wizard. barbarian also starts each quest with 3 hit/miss cards. aptly renamed thick skull and rage. the dwarf starts with 2 cards, 1 hit and 1 miss. I always let the manticore and the cobran nemesis roll 3 combat dice. very fast and fun game, can also be a fun heroquest side adventures to loot a few coins and get some items. - healing potion -same - holy grenade -same - boots -extra turn
Fun idea. I have been thinking about different ways to incorporate the hit and miss cards in HeroQuest, and was thinking they could be a fun rage mechanism for the barbarian.
yes it works good as 3 random draws per quest, it also works good getting 1 card per mind point for each quest (2-4 cards). it can also be earned getting 1 card each time the barbarian gets a kill.
Very nice review! I feel like I've always shared a very similar taste in older gaming as you, every time I pick up something older theres usually an ABNB video that follows at some point, LoZ and Op:Alien are some, but for this, exactly like you, I owned it but then sold on before I ever started making videos. I had it with Dragon's Gate, I could never afford to get the Village expansion, which probably looked the best with all the houses. But my opinion was that there was no real endgame and it would just go on and on and on so I never bothered to try to get it to the table then eventually moved it on. It did have a wonderful table presence which is probably one of the few reasons I'd ever pick it up again, I still find bits around the house from my poorly neglected childhood copy 😂😂😂 Although I'm slightly disappointed you didnt shake the mace and use that in the intro video for this one!😂
I would say Village of Fear was the most interesting. There was quite a bit going on in that one. But yeah, they just lack that real punch of adventure that a game like this really should have. I am quite pleased to have it back in my collection - it is a game I get asked about quite a bit - but I'm not in any hurry to remortgage the house to pick up those expansions. As for shaking the mace at the start of the video... out of context I would be concerned people would think something very unusual was happening to my channel!
I have a couple of copies, bought to make a complete copy, and the intention to use the minis as alt ones for HQ… never played the game (and won’t now you’ve reviewed it 🤣) or indeed used the minis. I also intended to paint up the pyramid for terrain in Kings of War, but of course, I haven’t. Hmmmm.
Funny enough, I'm in the middle of making bases like these for Heroquest at the moment. Gets annoying in HQ when you can't see the health on the Player's and monsters. The skull tokens drive me mad in busy rooms! 😂
The Haunt mechanic would be a cool feature to add to HQ. The insta-kill might be too harsh, but something that every turn has a chance to damage hero and monster equally could add a strong case of randomness that could tip the scales at any moment. Would have fit in with the Dread Moon expansion... Zargon rolls 2 combat die end of turn, on a double evil bunny some sort of "Haunt" effect comes into play.
I bought this game back in the day, thinking it would be like HeroQuest. Boy, was I wrong. We played it once and never again. However, I did create a really cool HQ adventure using Korak the Cobran Nemesis and the Manticore with the Haunter as the wondering monster.
9:16 Makes you wonder why the monsters don't use those items. My old D&D Dm was a big fan of that. You never found any magic weapons in treasure chests. You had to pry them from the cold dead hands of slain monsters. And there's quite a differenece between going against an orc warlord and an orc warlord with a magic sword, magic shield and a healing potion.
I guess the orcs, ogres, mummies and skeletons are all a bit too dim to use them. Or perhaps it's the magic shoes that are actually animating the undead enemies! One of the things I love about Advanced Heroquest is it's really hard to get decent magical equipment. You can occasionally find something, but usually you're going to get a magic weapon because you beat a chaos lord to death.
I don’t know about the english rules but the german rules do mention critical hits. Whenever a hero or an enemy rolls a 4 or 5(only possible with three dice) you may roll one die again and add its value to your initial roll. Whenever you roll a 6 you may even roll 2 dice again and add their value to your initial roll. Also with the german ruleset you play your combat cards before you roll your dice (up to three hit cards per fight / as many defense cards as you like). I actually do like this game for what it is. My son likes to play it even if it is the same story every time.. but he also likes to watch some old disney movies on repeat ;)
The English rules are definitely different. There are no critical hits - the rules even make a point of letting you know you will need hit cards to kill Korak as his strength is seven. You play your cards after rolling the dice, but before revealing the monster's strength. And you are limited to a max of 3 hit cards or 2 miss cards. Interesting how some game rules get modified in different territories.
Man I really wish CZcams videos (or even CZcams as a platform) existed when this was released. I got right on the heals of HeroQuest mainly for the minis. I never really had a good sense of how to play it since I assumed (incorrectly) it would have the same structure as HeroQuest (which at 9years old I didn’t truly understand how to play either). Wish I still had DarkWorld to try out nowadays, just for fun.
We do live in an amazing time when someone somewhere will almost certainly have posted a video covering what you need or want to know. I don't know how we used to cope!
I bought this game a few months ago, to bad it was missing the board and much more... but the figurines are there, hoping that i will get a complete box someday :) Not to common game here in sweden...
It wasn't popular enough for this to ever happen, but this is a game that would be really neat to see redone as nostalgia-bait, but updated and improved to be the best possible game it could be. It had some neat ideas for the time, but was way too locked in to the one thing it was trying to do, which was typical for board games, but also exactly what HeroQuest avoided.
Someone in the comments said Restoration Games should have a go at it. But yes, although lots of people knew this game - even owned it - and it got two expansions, I just don't think there's a market for a reissue of it. Some games should probably remain a product of their time!
The point I am making is you can't kill him with just a weapon of any kind, you will need at least one hit card in hand, probably more. You never get to Korak without a golden weapon. There are four chests, and you will pass by them on your way to the throne room so it doesn't make much sense to leave the golden weapons unclaimed.
House rules would make it different. People have already made variant rules for the game, but there's a point where you mod a game so much it's not that game anymore, and you may as well find another game that does more of the things you want this one to do in the first place. I think more people tend to cannibalise the parts from this game for use in games they enjoy more.
Is the 3 action system used here a precursor to the hugely popular system used in Zombicide these days? I’m no game historian, but I wonder if there are other dungeon crawlers with a similar system that predate DarkWorld?
Some earlier games that used an action point system were Space Hulk and Aliens (Leading Edge), in 1989, then Advanced Space Crusade in 1990. Not everybody thinks of those as dungeoncrawlers though. I'm struggling to think of an old fantasy-themed dungeoncrawler that used action points off the top of my head, though.
Luckily - I still have the entire set, and they're all in great condition, although I do have to agree with other comments - they take and eternity to get out and set up before starting the game. I much prefer HeroQuest, but when fully set up - these sets look absolutely stunning.
I don’t find it takes too long to set up. I leave all the doors and secret doors attached to the walls which helps, but admittedly it is a lot more effort than something like HeroQuest. It is very impressive when all set up.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring when I say it takes an eternity to set up, I meant all three games, I'm such a nerd that I have to set up all three together. Village of Fear is definitely my favourite of the three, however the Dragon Figure from Dragon's Gate is sublime. On a side-note - I'm loving Avalon Hill's redux of HeroQuest, the Ogre Horde set is absolutely stunning, although I have yet to read through the Quest Book. I have everything crossed that they'll release Wizards of Morcar next or at least this year!
Great video of a game that (mostly) passed me by at the time, although I did get the knight figure with a gold weapon at some wargaming event. It is around in the house somewhere. Are you going to review the village of fear? It looks like a nice variant.
I would only be able to cover Village of Fear or Dragon's Gate if I won the lottery. It's the only way I could justify the prices they go for on eBay now.
I have the full set of games in this series. Fully painted and intact. Often use the minitures in certain other games. I have even run a HQ through the village of fear., And the rest. Needs a bit of fiddling. But works...just. BTW. Found my flame thrower Skaven. Will contact you soon to arrange sending them.👍
I bet your painted manticore looks better than my painted manticore. I don't have any plans to paint this set, but my goodness... he may need a Dettol bath anyway.
Aye. It looks way better😂. The Dragon still sits on the shelf in the office! As you say. Lots of missed opertunities. I went through a phase of using the DW boards as outside areas for HQ. The swooping birds are a great Zargon monster addition. It's also fun hiding a small army in a building..a troop of goblins resting in the Inn. In stumbles an elf....what fun. Run away.....😅. Anyway. Keep up the good work.
I'm surprised to hear you say it was helpful for The Dark Eye. I don't know much about the RPG, but I've been told Dark World really has nothing to do with the RPG and the publisher used the branding just to try to boost sales.
When I owned this game as a kid, one of the first things I realised was how unnecessary the Haunter miniature was. You rolled for what row was affected, but there was no reason to actually move the model along that row. It upset me how pointless such an evocative model was.
10:29 Before Heroclix there was Mageknight made by the same company in 2000 while Heroclix came out 2 years later. Heroclix used the exact same system. Edit: And before that in 1988 you had Adeptus titanicus where you had titans that had a rotating piece in their base to track their remaining void schields.
I used HeroClix as I thought it was the most obvious reference point. I admit, I had completely forgotten Adeptus Titanicus had the tracker bases before Dark World came out, though!
I haven't. It was big during a period when I wasn't gaming. I stopped gaming when I went to university and once I had finished it was a few more years before I started back into the hobby. I think I started buying small games around 2004, and Arkham Horror, 2005, was my first big box game. I do sometimes look at job lots of Mage Knight miniatures on eBay because I think it might be fun to play some games and do some coverage of it here, but I've never got beyond the pondering stage.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Well, if you are ever stuck for content... The dungeon stuff had interesting things like "blips" for monsters and heroes you could level up by turning their dials. But my fave feature was the treasure chest that had two dials: one in the lid with a lock/trap. And one on the inside with the treasure. I think you could make an interesting video about it. Speaking of: You wouldn't happen to have Dragon's gate and village of fear would you? I'd like to see more of Dark world.
I used to have Dragon's Gate and Village of Fear, but not anymore. They are very expensive these days, so I'm not holding out much hope I will be able to get them again. It would be too difficult to justify the cost. But, nothing is ever off the table and sometimes bargains turn up.
Now this is what a board game channel is all about. Not just reminiscing about the games we all played but the games that slipped by too. This is a real treasure. In a lot of ways,it's an upgraded Heroquest. I could see reusing a lot of this stuff in other games or kitbashing them together to create a greater whole. It's just too bad you'd end up making a greater hole in your wallet doing so. :p I'm now curious what the expansions bring to the game. You don't have to buy them to show them off or explain how they work. I know hands on is best but,yeah. I'd rather get that sooner rather than wait. Even if it's just a short overview that may get more if you get the boxes. Fun fact,I was watching an old video from the 1980s showing a He-Man mall event where they had a small holodisplay and that got me looking up holographic projectors. Interesting stuff. They're using fans now to generate the images.
Thanks. I do like to have the physical products as much as possible when I cover anything on the channel. But I am always on the lookout for bargains on eBay, and you never know what might happen down the road.
@@House_Of_Cards_ I am really not a fan of apps for board games, but yes, an app can replace the villain player. It would need to allocate monsters to rooms and secretly track their wounds. However, this is a competitive race game to see who gets the most points as well, so it works best when there are several players for the heroes. I just don’t think it would make for a great solo experience.
8:47 Dwarf: 😏 "What's this?" Ogre: 🤗 "Holy Hand Grenade!" Nice game, though kinda primitive. Played the 1st two games, but never got the 3rd one, here in Germany it's impossible to get, as in complete, undamaged & for a acceptable price. Personaly I prefer the village one, there's a bit more to do than just fight, the buildings are cool, it has Skaven & some Nemesis-like enemies that just won't take NO for an answer.
Village of Fear has more going on. It feels a little bit more like an adventure because you aren't just moving from room to room hitting monsters. The houses look very good when it's all set up.
Even with added rules from BGG this one never really got any better. I'm sure you could probably engineer something out of it, but that effort is likely better spent elsewhere. This and the expansions are things I never regretted selling for a mint years ago. You need to get the original 90s Siege of the Citadel. That's a blinged out game with real gameplay in it.
I really want Siege of the Citadel but it’s pretty pricey, and I would almost certainly have to import it from America as they don’t turn up often in the UK. I agree about modding Dark World. It’s not something I would bother with. Might use those cards in HeroQuest though…
Korak never leaves the throne room. Even if he did, the Korak player decides when the haunter appears, so would never summon it if there was a chance of Korak taking the hit.
Normally I would prefer it if Restoration Games remade games without making a lot of changes, but this is one where there could really go to town on it!
@@cynthiamiller586 My feeling exactly. Fireball island was a bit better. Altough they missed the point of the original being this one MASSIVE piece of solid plasfic that took up all the space on the table.
Haha! I had this! I had forgotten what it was called, but man- it was cool. Well, not gonna lie- I didn't like the weapons for the heroes, too easy to lose them.
Changeable weapons was a fun idea, but they were a pain (same as the equipment plugged into the monster bases) and they weren't utilised as well as they could have been.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring To be honest I think a more feasible idea for something like 'loot' on monsters would be to have a magnetized token tucked under the base.
This is very weird because this game is base... On a ttrpg if I remember correctly,: die schwartz auge ( the dark eye , l'oeil noir in my country). A major hit a rival to d&d in the 80's a very simple but sturdy ttrpg set In Adventuria (yes)
I've been told in the comments that it actually has nothing to do with The Dark Eye, but the publishers tried to promote the game with that brand to increase sales. You can see the Dark Eye shape from that branding in the Dark World logo.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring that would explain why there is NO dark eye In this dark eye game. I mean the dark eye is a magic item that record everything. Making it a source of knowledge
Wow having major Deja Vu here, the figures look familiar but the board doesn’t, I think I was given some of these figures in a batch of random models years ago, I’ve had no idea until now what game they came from. Alas I don’t think I have them anymore.
I don't know much about this one in other territories. I know it was also sold as the Dragon Game System, and in some places it was called something like The Black Eye (Korak was obviously a school bully). And I know it got reskinned years later in 2009 as Underworld Battle, but not much else.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring In Germany, we had had Das Schwarze Auge since 1984, a full fledged PPRPG that was more successful here than D&D. It was far more realistic, with roots in European renaissance and other influences. When DarkWorld came over, they went and used the Das Schwarze Auge marketing badge. Not one component or "story" point has anything to do with DSA, and worse, even if you wanted to fit it into the lore, there's no connection points. Another little useless piece of nerd knowledge: Das Schwarze Auge itself got transkated into English as The Dark Eye because they at least knew what the literal translation The Black Eye would have meant. You see, black eye transkates to blaues Auge (blue eye) in German.
You could do it, but I just don't think it would be a fun solo experience. It's a competitive race between the heroes and I think you need that competition. Furthermore, you lose a lot of the fun in combat that derives from the unknown information regarding a monster's strength. I covered basically every rule in the video, so I guess it really depends on if you can see yourself playing with those rules in a solo capacity.
Are you not thinking of Serpentor from Gi Joe instead? He had that look. Wrath Amon from the "Conan the Adventurer" cartoon also remind me of the Dark World boss man. 🤟😊
I'm surprised to hear that. I stripped all three of my previous Dark World sets with Dettol without incident. Maybe I got lucky and didn't soak them for long enough to cause any melting. I will have to be mindful when I strip the manticore.
The miniatures are a bit of a mixed bag. The orcs are pretty good and I think Korak and the ogres are great. Sadly, the heroes are the worst, mainly because of their odd poses to hold the weapons.
Korak, the big boss? He's worth loads. He scores for his strength, the same as any other monster (which is seven), and then you get a bonus five for defeating him, so he's actually worth 12 in total.
@@jesternario Definitely. He needs to be because it can take a lot of extra hit cards to defeat him and each card you spend is effectively giving up a victory point.
someone on Board Game Geek revised the rules for darkworld and beefed itup and its waaaay more fun now.. we play it all the time. I think its in the Files section
Yeah, I think almost every game in existence has mods or even full reworks available on BGG. I did mention fan mods briefly at the end of the video, but it's not something I ever cover on the channel as I review the out of the box experience.
Miniatures are by Bob Naismith of Games Workshop fame - he did some great minis for GW and then was instrumental in developing their early plastics. He also did cereal prizes for Frosties.
I had tried to hunt down who had sculpted the figures but couldn't find anything, so thanks for that. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. He was involved with so much GW stuff, and worked on HeroQuest and Space Crusade, and Dark World has that same sort feel.
When I was a child this was, for a little while, what I thought Dungeons and Dragons was like. It's all I had in the cupboard.
this brings back memories. I picked up this game second hand as a very young lad nearly 15-20 years ago. Loved it as a lad, even if i didn't fully grok the rules, we mostly made up our own haha. One of the more poignant memories to me was that I left one of the miniatures as an offering to a very important cultural site to my tribe (i am native american) leaving a part of my favorite game was meaningful to me as a kid. i think my parents at the time understood and let me do it. it was one of the chunky green orcs with one of the jars on the base. it might still be there. i am tempted to return to the site to see. it's quite a hike but would be fascinating. good to see this game pop up on one of my favorite channels! cheers!
That's a great story. It's always so lovely how board games can be so important to people and connect with them in that way. Giving a piece of something you loved so much as an offering is very special.
I am loving these vintage board game reviews
Thanks. My Retro Reviews playlist is here if you're interested czcams.com/video/tq7ee7ZvALc/video.html
Playing to tell stories is exactly the way I play. Always.
For me, it's the only way. I'm also really not a competitive person. It really doesn't bother me if I lose a game as long as I had fun while I was losing.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring exactly. Warhammer (real Warhammer, square bases) has always been my main tabletop game and even though it seems to be a competitive game I have always understood it as a way to tell stories. Stories of battle, but also the stories behind the army, behind the war itself.
Oh my God, I've used nearly every piece of my Dark World buffalo for other games:
- We used the central part of the board for Mordheim.
- The minis (a few sculpts I liked better than the HQ sculpts) were converted to many other games like Blood Bowl, Warhammer 40K and others (Highlights include hacking apart my Korak to make a Count Luthor von Drakenborg star player, and an Dark World Orc that got a Jester's hat out of plumber's epoxy to represent my Weirdboy in 2nd Edition 40K).
- Hell I even recently used the doors in a terrain build for Relicblade a few years ago.
It's just a gift that keeps on giving! I've never been so fond of a game, without actually *liking* the game
Ha. Yes, for those who don't mind gutting the game it has a lot of cool stuff in the box to play with. I expect there are lots of partially complete sets online that would be good for people who enjoy crafting.
Yep me too! the mummies are still used in my undead bloodbowl team haha
Nah, no way, that Manticore is not only bitchin' all over that barbarian, sparking like crazy just to show he's the daddy, BUT IT'S ALSO firing a LASER from its tail which is SHATTERING that dwarf's axe (which is only gonna make him madder) without even looking. That's the encyclopedia definition of kicking ass.
It's a really great piece of art. If only fighting the manticore in the game was this cool!
I watched another CZcams talk about Dark World. And now I find your video! You have such an immersive way of narrating these boardgames, makes it wonderful!
Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad you liked the video.
I had a heart attack when you put the Mortal Kombat clip on! Dude, some of us have weak hearts... LOL
Sorry. I even dropped the volume for it low in the mix to avoid any spilled tea incidents. That song just goes too hard!
I really do love this game and the expansions! I know the game play isn’t fantastic but when you set all the boards up on the table it just looks amazing 👍
It does look awesome when it's all set up together, but I tried to play it once going through the gate, the village, and then the castle and the idea of it was far better than the experience, so I always used to just pick one game based on what kind of adventure I wanted to have and how many players were around to join me.
I think Village of Fear is the best-looking of the three (the little houses and their halfling occupants are fantastic), but it felt a bit too convoluted for such a simple game.
So, for the time being I'm not thinking about trying to reacquire the two expansions again. I just couldn't justify the cost.
"sit down with people I love... or at least tolerate" LOL
Anybody I play games with who watched this is now wondering...
never heard of this game, it looks amazing. Thank you !
It has an incredible table presence. It could have been much better than it was in terms of the gameplay, but I think it probably hit the mark it was aiming for.
Thx for the Video and greetings from Germany i love this Game. The Original Name is "Das schwarze Auge" ❤ Im so proud that i have the complete Series.
Ha, yes. I've been discussing differences between the German and UK edition in the comments section. Fascinating stuff.
I used to play this at my uncles house. I had HQ at home so Dark World especially was good since I could only play this sometimes for a couple of hours. I think the model design, boxart and awesome plastic carries this game. The gameplay itself feels more like a 'normal' boardgame
I think it has a lack of exploration and adventure, which may be why it feels more "normal." The whole board is visible from the start, you know where you need to go, and there aren't going to be many surprises along the way. It struggles to live up to the promise of its presentation.
And it did...... ...... ..... Try.
Chef's kiss
Thank you. It was a struggle to know how long to live that pause in case all the viewers switched off in disgust!
this game looks rad as hell.
It looks really impressive when it's all set up.
Loved this, thanks for it.
Thanks for watching.
A pity about rules, because this looks awesome! Great vid, hope to see the sequel games.
Thanks for watching. If this video ended up being as popular as my Legend of Zagor video I would be more likely to consider hunting down the expansions. I don't think it's very likely, though.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring A pity.
Competitor? Haha... That's cute. Still I do love the board, 3-D walls, pyramid like temple, so cool... It even kinda pre-dated the Heroclix dials..
I honestly don't think there's anything cute about calling it a competitor. It was clearly intended to be, and I don't think it's possible to deny it did some things better than HeroQuest. Ultimately (and obviously) it falls well short of the mark - it lacks so much in narrative, exploration, action and adventure - but there was some clever bluffing stuff, weapons with splash damage, an action point system, and there's dice mitigation that we have only just got in HeroQuest now. And as I said in the video, the click bases were ahead of their time. I checked and they predate HeroClix by about a decade, which is pretty impressive.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring yup. I just wish there was more replay value. But maybe we'll get a HeroQuest Ranger, just to mix things up? 😉
Yeah. Dark World just isn't a game you can keep going back to like HeroQuest is. It lacks that true sense of exploring a dungeon. There are no traps, no shocks, no really interesting loot, no story, no events...
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring but... We can always reuse those figures in HeroQuest 😉😉.
Still got this in the spare room somewhere!
Must be about time to set it up and marvel at how pretty it looks, surely?
I had Dark World back in the day and kept the components to use in HeroQuest and Warhammer Fantasy Skirmish.
The castle set makes for a great terrain piece for miniature wargaming! I used most of the miniatures for HQ. The Manticore was mounted on a 2'x1' cavalry base and looks nice -- a real powerful monster! I painted up the golden sword to look like the Sword of Omens from Thundercats and altered it to be used by a number of figures. (I have habit of drilling holes in the chunky knuckles of 'Heroic Scale' figures so they can hold weapons altered to have handles made of toothpicks.)
I have used the Hit & Dodge cards and coins in HQ, along with the coins from the Pirates Constructible Strategy Game. You get a card for killing a monster, but I learn to give them out more sparingly. I would also handout a random set of coins each time a Hero kills a monsters: 0 for skeletons & zombies, 1 for a Goblin, 2 for an Orc, 3 for a Fimir, 1 x5 value for a Mummy, 4 for a Chaos Warrior, and a set number for special monsters. This was fine at first, but I soon I realize that players would bog down the game clearing out all the monsters in a Quest for the gold and I quickly rule that you get nothing from summoned and wandering monsters. Although, I have taken to marking out a good number of the Pirates CCG coins to get zero-result coins, as as well as altering a few trap tokens and rare treasures tokens that allow for a random gem/jewelry, potion or spell scroll, just to spice up the results a little.
Oh of all the little things I have done with the Dark World game... besides actually playing it. LOL
Ha. You aren't the only person in the comments who has listed many different uses for the Dark World components. I think this is a game that probably got cannibalised often!
I think HeroQuest could use some hit and miss cards. That would be a good addition to the combat there.
2:42 this is probably the most articulate and accurate explanation matching my own personal love for games. Well said 🍻
Thank you.
That game is rad as hell! I would have loved it back in the day if I knew about it. Thanks for sharing!
It makes an impression. I can't imagine many people have seen this game set up on a table and thought "that looks rubbish."
I love the idea with the clip items though they seem to be easy victims of the curse of all small things in board games.
There is a definite risk of losing them. Fortunately there are little holders for them on the hero trays and the castle pits, so you never have to leave them rolling around on the tabletop when they aren't attached to a monster.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Cool. I guess, if one where to homebrew slight stat changes here and there it might have been a better competitor to HQ. Though I havent found such rules yet
Well done good sir! I feel you did this game its due justice! I remember opening this at Christmas, and even after owning hero quest i was still as excited to play it. just the once though lol. The minis make great alternatives as well
Who wouldn't be excited getting that massive box of plastic with that awesome artwork on the front? The ogres are like the lanky relatives of the ogres from the original Against the Ogre Horde HeroQuest expansion, which is pretty funny.
Coincidentally, my folks found my copy in their attic a couple of weeks back - I assumed I'd gave it away or got rid of it twenty odd years ago. All pieces there and in great condition!
Oh, that's amazing. Nothing better than finding a presumed lost treasure tucked away in the attic.
No idea how this ended up in my recommendations but glad it did. Had this game as a kid, had no idea what it was beyond extremely vague memories everytime the mini's turned up. Pleased to know what it was, so thanks.
If I knew how the CZcams algorithm worked, I would be a much bigger channel! Thanks for watching, though, and I hope it brought back a few happy memories from when you were younger.
Gotta be honest, I want that Korak mini
Korak has a nice old-school cartoon series villain look that I find very endearing.
I had this game from a car boot sale. I never actually played it as I didn't understand the game as I was so young but I used to play with the figures and act my own little hero quests 😂
Ha. That's great. It is a great little playset, and I bet a lot of people used this as the fantasy version of "little green army men."
This was my first miniatures game when i was a kid. Still my favorite board game. went out of my way to rebuy this a decade ago. Havent been able to get the expansions though. they are so rare and expensive these days. Im going to build all of them out of foam for my channel in the future after I am done my current project. Probably going to mix it with another game and combine some rules to make it more expansive. The only bad thing that made it not as memorable as Heroquest, is the lack of magic abilities and the lack of rpg elements. Its just one linear story to play through. but I do love the combat mechanic.
Yeah, I managed to get the expansions years ago for a reasonable sum but eventually let them go to someone who offered me a good price. I should have held on to them though, they are so difficult to get now. Good luck with project.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Thanks. And yes... maybe one day I will own them all, sadly I didnt grab them before they all vanished from the internet. It was definately weird. At one time Ebay was filled with them for dirt cheap. Now you can barely find the replacement pieces that are being sold lol.
I really want this board game for the minis and scenery elements but so hard to get
It's a great toy box.
I’ve got this in my collection. Great review. The bling is awesome but like you say its just not enough to beat the mighty Quest
It really is a very blingy game. It doesn't quite rival Legend of Zagor for table presence, but it does a damned good job!
dark world is the heroquest starter/upgrade kit.
my go to quest 0.
end of quest:
- all heros count up their gold and start their campaign with some pocket gold
- winner gets to pick a hero first in hero quest and gets to keep 8 BP moving forward, unless they choose the wizard.
barbarian also starts each quest with 3 hit/miss cards. aptly renamed thick skull and rage.
the dwarf starts with 2 cards, 1 hit and 1 miss.
I always let the manticore and the cobran nemesis roll 3 combat dice.
very fast and fun game, can also be a fun heroquest side adventures to loot a few coins and get some items.
- healing potion -same
- holy grenade -same
- boots -extra turn
Fun idea. I have been thinking about different ways to incorporate the hit and miss cards in HeroQuest, and was thinking they could be a fun rage mechanism for the barbarian.
yes it works good as 3 random draws per quest, it also works good getting 1 card per mind point for each quest (2-4 cards).
it can also be earned getting 1 card each time the barbarian gets a kill.
using a combat die for unarmed attacks with the barbarian or special bonuses is another way dark world can jazz up your heroquest game.
Very nice review! I feel like I've always shared a very similar taste in older gaming as you, every time I pick up something older theres usually an ABNB video that follows at some point, LoZ and Op:Alien are some, but for this, exactly like you, I owned it but then sold on before I ever started making videos.
I had it with Dragon's Gate, I could never afford to get the Village expansion, which probably looked the best with all the houses. But my opinion was that there was no real endgame and it would just go on and on and on so I never bothered to try to get it to the table then eventually moved it on. It did have a wonderful table presence which is probably one of the few reasons I'd ever pick it up again, I still find bits around the house from my poorly neglected childhood copy 😂😂😂
Although I'm slightly disappointed you didnt shake the mace and use that in the intro video for this one!😂
I would say Village of Fear was the most interesting. There was quite a bit going on in that one. But yeah, they just lack that real punch of adventure that a game like this really should have. I am quite pleased to have it back in my collection - it is a game I get asked about quite a bit - but I'm not in any hurry to remortgage the house to pick up those expansions.
As for shaking the mace at the start of the video... out of context I would be concerned people would think something very unusual was happening to my channel!
I have a couple of copies, bought to make a complete copy, and the intention to use the minis as alt ones for HQ… never played the game (and won’t now you’ve reviewed it 🤣) or indeed used the minis. I also intended to paint up the pyramid for terrain in Kings of War, but of course, I haven’t. Hmmmm.
Ha. Well at least you have plenty of fun things to work on when you find the time!
Funny enough, I'm in the middle of making bases like these for Heroquest at the moment. Gets annoying in HQ when you can't see the health on the Player's and monsters. The skull tokens drive me mad in busy rooms! 😂
That's going to be a lot of work. HeroQuest has so many miniatures now! Good luck with it.
The Haunt mechanic would be a cool feature to add to HQ. The insta-kill might be too harsh, but something that every turn has a chance to damage hero and monster equally could add a strong case of randomness that could tip the scales at any moment. Would have fit in with the Dread Moon expansion... Zargon rolls 2 combat die end of turn, on a double evil bunny some sort of "Haunt" effect comes into play.
It's a cool idea. I think there are a few elements from Dark World that could be ported to HeroQuest without too much work.
I bought this game back in the day, thinking it would be like HeroQuest. Boy, was I wrong. We played it once and never again. However, I did create a really cool HQ adventure using Korak the Cobran Nemesis and the Manticore with the Haunter as the wondering monster.
I bet a lot of people were expecting another HeroQuest with this one. The cover screams that kind of adventure.
9:16 Makes you wonder why the monsters don't use those items. My old D&D Dm was a big fan of that. You never found any magic weapons in treasure chests. You had to pry them from the cold dead hands of slain monsters. And there's quite a differenece between going against an orc warlord and an orc warlord with a magic sword, magic shield and a healing potion.
I guess the orcs, ogres, mummies and skeletons are all a bit too dim to use them. Or perhaps it's the magic shoes that are actually animating the undead enemies!
One of the things I love about Advanced Heroquest is it's really hard to get decent magical equipment. You can occasionally find something, but usually you're going to get a magic weapon because you beat a chaos lord to death.
I don’t know about the english rules but the german rules do mention critical hits.
Whenever a hero or an enemy rolls a 4 or 5(only possible with three dice) you may roll one die again and add its value to your initial roll. Whenever you roll a 6 you may even roll 2 dice again and add their value to your initial roll.
Also with the german ruleset you play your combat cards before you roll your dice (up to three hit cards per fight / as many defense cards as you like).
I actually do like this game for what it is. My son likes to play it even if it is the same story every time.. but he also likes to watch some old disney movies on repeat ;)
The English rules are definitely different. There are no critical hits - the rules even make a point of letting you know you will need hit cards to kill Korak as his strength is seven. You play your cards after rolling the dice, but before revealing the monster's strength. And you are limited to a max of 3 hit cards or 2 miss cards. Interesting how some game rules get modified in different territories.
Man I really wish CZcams videos (or even CZcams as a platform) existed when this was released. I got right on the heals of HeroQuest mainly for the minis. I never really had a good sense of how to play it since I assumed (incorrectly) it would have the same structure as HeroQuest (which at 9years old I didn’t truly understand how to play either). Wish I still had DarkWorld to try out nowadays, just for fun.
We do live in an amazing time when someone somewhere will almost certainly have posted a video covering what you need or want to know. I don't know how we used to cope!
I bought this game a few months ago, to bad it was missing the board and much more... but the figurines are there, hoping that i will get a complete box someday :) Not to common game here in sweden...
Oh no. That's such a shame it wasn't complete. I hope you get all your missing components eventually!
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Thx, will bid on it if i see it again :) Great review as allways! Have a nice day.
Recently got Village of Fear, need to get the original Dark World, if only for the Manticore.
Well done on grabbing Village of Fear. That box is full of fun components.
It wasn't popular enough for this to ever happen, but this is a game that would be really neat to see redone as nostalgia-bait, but updated and improved to be the best possible game it could be. It had some neat ideas for the time, but was way too locked in to the one thing it was trying to do, which was typical for board games, but also exactly what HeroQuest avoided.
Someone in the comments said Restoration Games should have a go at it. But yes, although lots of people knew this game - even owned it - and it got two expansions, I just don't think there's a market for a reissue of it. Some games should probably remain a product of their time!
13:37 And a golden weapon -- or 3 hit cards with norm (ofc) ;)
The point I am making is you can't kill him with just a weapon of any kind, you will need at least one hit card in hand, probably more. You never get to Korak without a golden weapon. There are four chests, and you will pass by them on your way to the throne room so it doesn't make much sense to leave the golden weapons unclaimed.
Some house rules might help make the game better.
House rules would make it different. People have already made variant rules for the game, but there's a point where you mod a game so much it's not that game anymore, and you may as well find another game that does more of the things you want this one to do in the first place. I think more people tend to cannibalise the parts from this game for use in games they enjoy more.
I remember dark world, we enjoyed it, but it was no hero’s quest
It's decent, but decent wasn't quite good enough compared to other games available at the time.
Is the 3 action system used here a precursor to the hugely popular system used in Zombicide these days? I’m no game historian, but I wonder if there are other dungeon crawlers with a similar system that predate DarkWorld?
Some earlier games that used an action point system were Space Hulk and Aliens (Leading Edge), in 1989, then Advanced Space Crusade in 1990. Not everybody thinks of those as dungeoncrawlers though. I'm struggling to think of an old fantasy-themed dungeoncrawler that used action points off the top of my head, though.
Luckily - I still have the entire set, and they're all in great condition, although I do have to agree with other comments - they take and eternity to get out and set up before starting the game. I much prefer HeroQuest, but when fully set up - these sets look absolutely stunning.
I don’t find it takes too long to set up. I leave all the doors and secret doors attached to the walls which helps, but admittedly it is a lot more effort than something like HeroQuest. It is very impressive when all set up.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring when I say it takes an eternity to set up, I meant all three games, I'm such a nerd that I have to set up all three together. Village of Fear is definitely my favourite of the three, however the Dragon Figure from Dragon's Gate is sublime.
On a side-note - I'm loving Avalon Hill's redux of HeroQuest, the Ogre Horde set is absolutely stunning, although I have yet to read through the Quest Book. I have everything crossed that they'll release Wizards of Morcar next or at least this year!
Great video of a game that (mostly) passed me by at the time, although I did get the knight figure with a gold weapon at some wargaming event. It is around in the house somewhere. Are you going to review the village of fear? It looks like a nice variant.
I would only be able to cover Village of Fear or Dragon's Gate if I won the lottery. It's the only way I could justify the prices they go for on eBay now.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Lol yes I see what you mean, the cheapest I can find is £199 💰I won't be buying it 🤣🤣
@@jeffdave8884 If a bargain ever turned up I would grab it, but it's not that likely, unfortunately.
I have the full set of games in this series. Fully painted and intact. Often use the minitures in certain other games. I have even run a HQ through the village of fear., And the rest. Needs a bit of fiddling. But works...just.
BTW. Found my flame thrower Skaven. Will contact you soon to arrange sending them.👍
I bet your painted manticore looks better than my painted manticore. I don't have any plans to paint this set, but my goodness... he may need a Dettol bath anyway.
Aye. It looks way better😂. The Dragon still sits on the shelf in the office! As you say. Lots of missed opertunities. I went through a phase of using the DW boards as outside areas for HQ. The swooping birds are a great Zargon monster addition. It's also fun hiding a small army in a building..a troop of goblins resting in the Inn. In stumbles an elf....what fun. Run away.....😅.
Anyway. Keep up the good work.
the board game was nice back in time- and helpfull for the pen and paper - DSA. - den zwölfen zum Gruße 🙂
I'm surprised to hear you say it was helpful for The Dark Eye. I don't know much about the RPG, but I've been told Dark World really has nothing to do with the RPG and the publisher used the branding just to try to boost sales.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring In Germany DarkWorld was named "Das Schwarze Auge".
@@falkos3166 Yes. That’s what we’re talking about here - how the game used the Dark Eye RPG for brand recognition.
This feels like a board game version of Gauntlet Dark Legacy.
I never played Dark Legacy so I can't really compare.
Price of this is going to shoot up on ebay now.
I hope not. I can't imagine my reviews do that much to move the needle on eBay prices.
When I owned this game as a kid, one of the first things I realised was how unnecessary the Haunter miniature was. You rolled for what row was affected, but there was no reason to actually move the model along that row. It upset me how pointless such an evocative model was.
It is an entirely pointless piece. But at least Korak gets to wave it around making "Wooooooo" noises.
First game I owned
There are worse games to be your first!
10:29 Before Heroclix there was Mageknight made by the same company in 2000 while Heroclix came out 2 years later. Heroclix used the exact same system. Edit: And before that in 1988 you had Adeptus titanicus where you had titans that had a rotating piece in their base to track their remaining void schields.
I used HeroClix as I thought it was the most obvious reference point. I admit, I had completely forgotten Adeptus Titanicus had the tracker bases before Dark World came out, though!
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring I agree; Heroclix is the most well known one. Have you ever played Mageknight dungeons?
I haven't. It was big during a period when I wasn't gaming. I stopped gaming when I went to university and once I had finished it was a few more years before I started back into the hobby. I think I started buying small games around 2004, and Arkham Horror, 2005, was my first big box game.
I do sometimes look at job lots of Mage Knight miniatures on eBay because I think it might be fun to play some games and do some coverage of it here, but I've never got beyond the pondering stage.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Well, if you are ever stuck for content... The dungeon stuff had interesting things like "blips" for monsters and heroes you could level up by turning their dials. But my fave feature was the treasure chest that had two dials: one in the lid with a lock/trap. And one on the inside with the treasure. I think you could make an interesting video about it.
Speaking of: You wouldn't happen to have Dragon's gate and village of fear would you? I'd like to see more of Dark world.
I used to have Dragon's Gate and Village of Fear, but not anymore. They are very expensive these days, so I'm not holding out much hope I will be able to get them again. It would be too difficult to justify the cost. But, nothing is ever off the table and sometimes bargains turn up.
Do you shuffle the hit and miss Deck at the beginning?
Yes, hit and miss cards are mixed together.
Now this is what a board game channel is all about. Not just reminiscing about the games we all played but the games that slipped by too. This is a real treasure. In a lot of ways,it's an upgraded Heroquest. I could see reusing a lot of this stuff in other games or kitbashing them together to create a greater whole. It's just too bad you'd end up making a greater hole in your wallet doing so. :p
I'm now curious what the expansions bring to the game. You don't have to buy them to show them off or explain how they work. I know hands on is best but,yeah. I'd rather get that sooner rather than wait. Even if it's just a short overview that may get more if you get the boxes.
Fun fact,I was watching an old video from the 1980s showing a He-Man mall event where they had a small holodisplay and that got me looking up holographic projectors. Interesting stuff. They're using fans now to generate the images.
Thanks. I do like to have the physical products as much as possible when I cover anything on the channel. But I am always on the lookout for bargains on eBay, and you never know what might happen down the road.
If they reissue this game you can use a an application to simulate the DM. No need for another player.
@@House_Of_Cards_ I am really not a fan of apps for board games, but yes, an app can replace the villain player. It would need to allocate monsters to rooms and secretly track their wounds. However, this is a competitive race game to see who gets the most points as well, so it works best when there are several players for the heroes. I just don’t think it would make for a great solo experience.
8:47
Dwarf: 😏 "What's this?"
Ogre: 🤗 "Holy Hand Grenade!"
Nice game, though kinda primitive.
Played the 1st two games, but never got the 3rd one, here in Germany it's impossible to get, as in complete, undamaged & for a acceptable price.
Personaly I prefer the village one, there's a bit more to do than just fight, the buildings are cool, it has Skaven & some Nemesis-like enemies that just won't take NO for an answer.
Village of Fear has more going on. It feels a little bit more like an adventure because you aren't just moving from room to room hitting monsters. The houses look very good when it's all set up.
Even with added rules from BGG this one never really got any better. I'm sure you could probably engineer something out of it, but that effort is likely better spent elsewhere. This and the expansions are things I never regretted selling for a mint years ago.
You need to get the original 90s Siege of the Citadel. That's a blinged out game with real gameplay in it.
I really want Siege of the Citadel but it’s pretty pricey, and I would almost certainly have to import it from America as they don’t turn up often in the UK.
I agree about modding Dark World. It’s not something I would bother with. Might use those cards in HeroQuest though…
12:05 I guess you can't lure - was it Korax? - the main villain into its pass, or can you?
Korak never leaves the throne room. Even if he did, the Korak player decides when the haunter appears, so would never summon it if there was a chance of Korak taking the hit.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Got it -- thanks 4 clearin that up... nice vid! 👍
No worries. Thanks for watching.
This game looks awesome. Can't we get Restoration games to revive this one?
Normally I would prefer it if Restoration Games remade games without making a lot of changes, but this is one where there could really go to town on it!
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring I love the changes they made to Thunder Road. Key to the Kingdom? Not so much. They made it look like a Pixar movie.
Key to the Kingdom (the original) is another game I need to add into my collection. I agree, the new edition doesn't look great.
@@cynthiamiller586 My feeling exactly. Fireball island was a bit better. Altough they missed the point of the original being this one MASSIVE piece of solid plasfic that took up all the space on the table.
Haha! I had this! I had forgotten what it was called, but man- it was cool.
Well, not gonna lie- I didn't like the weapons for the heroes, too easy to lose them.
Changeable weapons was a fun idea, but they were a pain (same as the equipment plugged into the monster bases) and they weren't utilised as well as they could have been.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring To be honest I think a more feasible idea for something like 'loot' on monsters would be to have a magnetized token tucked under the base.
This is very weird because this game is base... On a ttrpg if I remember correctly,: die schwartz auge ( the dark eye , l'oeil noir in my country). A major hit a rival to d&d in the 80's a very simple but sturdy ttrpg set In Adventuria (yes)
*das schwarze auge forgive my german
I've been told in the comments that it actually has nothing to do with The Dark Eye, but the publishers tried to promote the game with that brand to increase sales. You can see the Dark Eye shape from that branding in the Dark World logo.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring that would explain why there is NO dark eye In this dark eye game. I mean the dark eye is a magic item that record everything. Making it a source of knowledge
It's a bit cheeky, isn't it? I wonder what it was about this game that made them think to try to connect the two products.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring money is probably the answer
Wow having major Deja Vu here, the figures look familiar but the board doesn’t, I think I was given some of these figures in a batch of random models years ago, I’ve had no idea until now what game they came from. Alas I don’t think I have them anymore.
I imagine a lot of these miniatures journeyed far and wide into other games, in search of greater adventures.
It's funny how this got marketed in Germany.
I don't know much about this one in other territories. I know it was also sold as the Dragon Game System, and in some places it was called something like The Black Eye (Korak was obviously a school bully). And I know it got reskinned years later in 2009 as Underworld Battle, but not much else.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring In Germany, we had had Das Schwarze Auge since 1984, a full fledged PPRPG that was more successful here than D&D. It was far more realistic, with roots in European renaissance and other influences. When DarkWorld came over, they went and used the Das Schwarze Auge marketing badge. Not one component or "story" point has anything to do with DSA, and worse, even if you wanted to fit it into the lore, there's no connection points.
Another little useless piece of nerd knowledge: Das Schwarze Auge itself got transkated into English as The Dark Eye because they at least knew what the literal translation The Black Eye would have meant. You see, black eye transkates to blaues Auge (blue eye) in German.
Oh, that's crazy. So I had heard of The Black Eye name, but I didn't realise they had tried to piggyback off an RPG. Interesting stuff.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Have you seen Troll 2 and Troll? Kinda like that, but cleverer because DSA was very successful.
Nilbog is goblin spelled backwards!!
Never heard of it. I want one. Does it solo?
You could do it, but I just don't think it would be a fun solo experience. It's a competitive race between the heroes and I think you need that competition. Furthermore, you lose a lot of the fun in combat that derives from the unknown information regarding a monster's strength. I covered basically every rule in the video, so I guess it really depends on if you can see yourself playing with those rules in a solo capacity.
The big boss reminds me of cobra commander haha
Are you not thinking of Serpentor from Gi Joe instead? He had that look. Wrath Amon from the "Conan the Adventurer" cartoon also remind me of the Dark World boss man. 🤟😊
I immediately thought of King Hiss. He definitely has that cartoon villain vibe.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Ah Yes, him too! 🐍😊
@@CinKaiDRocks YES!! thats his name, I completely forgot about him
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring I forgot about that character too!! is been a while since I've watched he-man.
Beware stripping the paint off the miniatures, Dettol will melt them
I'm surprised to hear that. I stripped all three of my previous Dark World sets with Dettol without incident. Maybe I got lucky and didn't soak them for long enough to cause any melting. I will have to be mindful when I strip the manticore.
Toy factor is strong in this one
There's just no way to look at it set up and not think it looks incredible. It has so much cool stuff in it.
I regret selling all my old games years ago
Yeah. I sold all my old games when I went to university a very long time ago. I now spend too much money buying them all back!
same costs a bloody fortune @@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring
I kind of want this. The sculpts on the minis are kinda bad, but that board is great.
The miniatures are a bit of a mixed bag. The orcs are pretty good and I think Korak and the ogres are great. Sadly, the heroes are the worst, mainly because of their odd poses to hold the weapons.
I just bought this game from eBay last summer, and my son and I have played it often, very cool
Glad to hear you and your son are having a good time with it.
Can this game be played Solo
You could, but it’s a competitive race game with secret information. Playing solo would remove a lot of the enjoyment relating to those elements.
;)
So Corrath isn't worth any points? You'd think he'd be worth at least 8.
Korak, the big boss? He's worth loads. He scores for his strength, the same as any other monster (which is seven), and then you get a bonus five for defeating him, so he's actually worth 12 in total.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Oh good. So he can be a game changer if the heroes win.
@@jesternario Definitely. He needs to be because it can take a lot of extra hit cards to defeat him and each card you spend is effectively giving up a victory point.
That box art beats ass. That shit is timmy as fuck.
It's an amazing piece of art.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring that's the shit I would say dream about in school
Oh nice. Been trying to get a copy of this for years but it's too expensive, even Incomplete. Plus you've no chance of getting the addons.
I got lucky and got it for a decent price. The two expansions usually go for a lot, but I have seen a few "bargains."
someone on Board Game Geek revised the rules for darkworld and beefed itup and its waaaay more fun now.. we play it all the time. I think its in the Files section
Yeah, I think almost every game in existence has mods or even full reworks available on BGG. I did mention fan mods briefly at the end of the video, but it's not something I ever cover on the channel as I review the out of the box experience.