Thoughts from the Yellow Meeple:- Sentinels of the Multiverse

Game: Sentinels of the Multiverse

Manufacturer: Greater Than Games

Designer: Christopher Badell, Paul Bender, Adam Rebottaro

Year: 2011

  

Sentinels of the Multiverse is a co-operative card game for 1-5 players. The game is set in an universe of superheroes who are not part of a franchise but who are obviously based on many well known super heroes from comic books. Your group of super hero characters must fight against the odds of the environment and against the tactics of each of the unique villains.

In each game of Sentinels of the Multiverse you will select a group of superheroes, each with their own unique theming and style of play. With two players we always play with two characters each. You also select a different environment and villain which are the causes of evil in the game. On a hero turn you have a hand of cards and choose one to play – this might be a one shot to deal damage to one or more targets, some equipment or an ongoing ability. You can then play one power – where some characters deal significant damage, but others, such as Legacy, are important for co-operative play in helping boost the other heroes.

In a round, each hero will take a turn, but then a card will be played from the environment deck which typically puts an effect into play for a set period of time. The villain then also gets a turn to do their worst – generally dealing damage to one or all heroes. In the base game, the way the heroes win is typically to run the villain’s health down to zero before all of the heroes have hit zero health. This does mean that a player can be eliminated when all their heroes have run out of health.

Cards for one of the heroes - Tempest.

I’ve probably played Sentinels of the Multiverse 5 or 6 times and I think I’ve only had one game I’ve truly enjoyed. I think there is a definite risk that the game just plays itself – whether I choose characters listed with low or high complexity I really seem to have very few choices in the game. Out of my hand of three cards it often seems obvious which to play, then which power to select based on the number of current targets and which targets to hit. The fun in the game for me comes from creating great combos and I just find there are too few and that they’re heavily concentrated on certain characters who then seem overpowered compared to others.

However, aside from character choice I have always found that the person most invested in the game or the theme tends to ‘run the game’ taking charge of the villain and environment turns and simply telling the rest of the players what happens to them as a consequence, or potentially even worse this player uses the companion app to simply deduct health from players so that the players are not even aware of their current stats.

I am generally happy to play Sentinels of the Multiverse because it’s a game that so many people around me seem to really enjoy – probably because I’m surrounded by geeks invested in the theme. However, I’m still much more of a fan of my puzzly co-operative games with lots of decision making and co-operative decisions. So for me Sentinels of the Multiverse gets a 6/10.