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The world is not what it seems. Our known history is fragile, and something yet unfound is enough to crack it apart and unveil the disturbing truth… but you already knew that, didn’t you? The jungle is calling you once again. You’ve been here before, so what brings you back? Is this a wise decision?
Answers, answers, answers…
I am going to try and avoid spoiling anything to do with The Forgotten Age in this review, though it is important to note that this product, much like all other “Return To” sets, is a remix of the original campaign. The majority of what you will find in this box will make this pulpy jungle adventure a whole lot more replayable, but it isn’t necessary if you haven’t already played The Forgotten Age before. With that said, it does come with a wonderful way to store the campaign; a beautiful little box that can fit everything that the campaign provides alongside included dividers for every set that the original and remixed version of The Forgotten Age requires. It even looks like a little apothecary drawer if you face it a certain way!
New survival tools!
Return to The Forgotten Age has a fair few staple cards for investigators that aren’t available anywhere else! Most of these great cards are upgraded versions of some previously released ones, a great example being Backpack (2), which is not only cheaper to get out on the field but also searches through twice the amount of cards in your deck! You can almost guarantee some important items in your deck with this upgrade.
Each class gets their own little set of upgraded cards as well, some standouts are:
• Survival Knife(2) lets your Guardian smack opponents before their attacks go off!
• A new Ancient Stone for Seekers to decipher! I won’t spoil it, but it’s very cool.
• A cheaper way for your Mystics to evade with Mists of R’lyeh(2)!
• A way to let your Survivors be the final girl equivalent with On Your Own (3)!
• A way to… Okay, Rogues don’t get much here. A slightly cooler Chthonian Stone(3), I suppose?
The new weaknesses included are also just plain mean, which is how it should be. Once again, minimal spoilers; but there is another progressing weakness akin to Doomed (but not quite as mean as that one), and a weakness that gives you plants for hands because why not?
New adventures!
Of course, Return to the Forgotten Age also provides new encounter sets to replace the old ones while playing the campaign. These encounter sets are for the most part, big improvements, but it is hard to delve deep into the details without spoiling the campaign; so I will keep the upcoming descriptions a little more broad and vague.
A very prominent change to the rules of The Forgotten Age is the new exploration mechanism. It adapts to each scenario in different ways, and generally reverses the difficulty progression of the older scenarios. Instead of having all the scary stuff in the exploration deck at the beginning of the scenario, it will instead gradually get more dangerous as the investigators explore. This makes things feel a lot more natural and less random; it’s a huge improvement over the original, in my opinion. You can also use this rule change in a normal run of The Forgotten Age, so if you haven’t played the original yet; it’s an option even without having to swap out encounter sets or anything.
The big issue with The Forgotten Age for a lot of people is the difficulty. Blind playthroughs are nigh impossible to get through without a lot of mishaps, and the campaign generally likes to throw a lot of choices at you that have mysterious results that you won’t have any idea of when you first begin the game. This is a remix, which I would always advise playing after playing the original at least once, but for the most part; some of these issues have been curved slightly. Some supplies are more useful, some scenarios have a little more player interaction, and ultimately, mostly due to the new exploration mechanisms pacing the randomness a little better; the campaign is more fair to the players.
Much like other Return To sets, The Forgotten Age also comes with little extras, such as the aforementioned dividers and storage; but it also brings along its own set of optional achievements to obtain through a playthrough - potentially increasing the challenge and replayability of your playthroughs. As per usual, the achievements can get a little silly, so be sure to plan ahead if you’re mad enough to try and obtain them all on your next playthroughs.
The nicest part about everything this box changes is that it never oversteps. The Forgotten Age is an incredibly unique campaign with an insane amount of replayability due to the sheer variance of everything; it is probably one of the most “emergent” of all the campaigns; and the Return To doesn’t take that away in the slightest despite fixing it up a little bit. It is also important to note that despite things being made more fair - it doesn’t take away The Forgotten Age’s brutality; which is either something you’ll love, or something you won’t. Play the original first whether or not you buy this box beforehand anyways!
Is all the suffering worth it?
Yes. If you like Arkham Horror: The Card Game you’ll love the new little player cards, and if you like The Forgotten Age you’ll likely love the changes made with this set. Even if you weren’t a massive fan of The Forgotten Age on your first playthrough, you may enjoy trying out some of these new rules and sets. Ultimately though, if you hated The Forgotten Age; this won’t change your opinion. There is also the fact that, as of writing this review, the Return To sets are out of print, and the new campaign releases don’t include anything from them, so they may be worth snagging just to fight the hassle of proxying unobtainable cards in the future.
