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The second big box in Cool Mini Or Not (CMON) and Spaghetti Western Game’s Arcadia Quest series, Inferno, takes our intrepid guilds on an adventure to hell in the same campaign structure from the original, critically acclaimed game.
Returning to advance their original concept are Eric M Lang, Fred Perret, Guilherm Goulart and Thiago Aranha - an absolute team of superstars in the board game world and they do not disappoint with Inferno.
The history
As with all CMON games, Arcadia Quest: Inferno started life on Kickstarter. 9991 backers raised $1,710,713 to bring the game to not only its backers but to the market at large, the same method of funding used to create its predecessor.
But fear not, this may be the second of the core games in the Arcadia Quest series but CMON have had the foresight in marketing to give us the fantastic selling point of cross compatibility. That’s right, bring your favourite heroes from your original Arcadia Quest and send them to hell to battle new foes and fellow heroes of rival guilds in search of riches.
This is an amazing selling point that we are seeing across many of CMON games and it is really making these games into franchises, not to mention taking up huge amounts of shelf space for those who need it all.
Arcadia Quest: Inferno - Components
The card components are as we expect from a game of this pedigree, the printing is crisp, die cuts are clean and card stock is durable. The guild board components are the same as the original standard cardboard ones of the original game, a real shame when fellow CMON franchise, Zombicide: Black Plague, saw a fantastic upgrade in the way of plastic character boards.
The box is already jammed with stuff but even if we were offered the chance to purchase plastic guild boards I would be more than happy to pay it, as the card ones included look basic when compared to said aforementioned game's character boards.
As with all miniatures-based board games, just as important as the rules are the miniatures. The miniatures are what can really grab the attention of someone at first glance and the miniatures of Arcadia Quest: Inferno do not fail on that point.
The box is jammed full of minion monsters, a huge monster in the overlord and a fantastic number of unique heroes for your players to choose from. The style, as we would expect, is the same western Chibi style we see in the original Arcadia Quest. Each piece has a character all of its own and would be further enhanced by a painter's hand as the details are extraordinary for a board game.
The plastic used is of a high quality and we only see minor issues that anyone with experience with plastic miniatures knows how to fix, hot water to sort a slightly bent sword here and there.
There isn’t really a box insert per say, but multiple ones that fit snugly into the box. Miniatures are held in vac-formed plastic cradles inside their own box to prevent damage and to keep everything organised, however I would take a quick picture of each of these holders in order to remember where each miniature lives - this saves time later on with trial and error.
For all the efforts put into keeping the miniatures and game cards intact in the box, no solution has been made for the multitude of tokens the game comes with. Unless you are happy with them rattling about inside the box or pushing them back into the punch cards for storage, you are going to need a container to store them separately. Not a big deal but it’s something to consider.
Gameplay
The game itself is exactly the same as its predecessor; players form a team or “Guild” of heroes to represent them on the game board. Objectives vary depending on the campaign mission and killing other player's heroes gains you some bonuses too.
Where Arcadia Quest: Inferno differs from the original is in two ways, one of which is the inclusion of damnation. Damnation is gained through picking up very powerful items, the items may be fantastic but having corruption has its drawbacks.
For example, an enemy monster may do additional damage to a hero who has damnation, turning your powerhouse of a hero into a glass hammer.
Where Arcadia Quest: Inferno differs from the original is in two ways, one of which is the inclusion of damnation. Damnation is gained through picking up very powerful items, the items may be fantastic but having corruption has its drawbacks.
For example, an enemy monster may do additional damage to a hero who has damnation, turning your powerhouse of a hero into a glass hammer.
Curses are also enhanced by Damnation and a new deck of play cards called Brimstone have been included in order to be a direct negative to having damnation.
The other, perhaps more noticeable addition to Inferno is the inclusion of the Angels. Throughout your campaign you will encounter these celestial beings, having been bonded and brought low by the denizens of hell your team may have an opportunity to free these angels in order to add them to your roster. However if you do not free said Angels you may have to face them later on as powerful foes alongside the denizens of hell.
Final Thoughts
Arcadia Quest: Inferno is beautiful, like its predecessor it oozes style, along with a well thought out and fun game design. Even for the miniatures alone you are also getting great value and half of them are unique characters.
Bring the kids too, after a few games even our younger aspiring gamers will have grasped the game and be after all the gold they can steal out from under you. Be aware however, as fantastic as the Arcadia Quest: Inferno core box is, it will leave you wanting more, as who can resist adding additional characters to choose from and creating even more team combinations.
It’s a fun ride, just make sure you have enough shelf space as if your anything like me you will want it all......which isn’t a bad thing.....is it?
