Tanares Adventures Review: Clear Your Calendar And Say Goodbye To Your Family

About Arena: The Contest – Tanares Adventures, from BoardGameGeek:

Tanares Adventures is a massive expansion for Arena: the Contest. With more than 40 miniatures and 70 different types of villains, it takes the cooperative campaign content beyond 100 hours of unique gameplay, and adds a new Combat Role to multiply the possibilities in PvP and Co-op matches. The PvP Game Modes (Capture the Orb, Tournament, Team Competition) become richer with the addition of the Commanders and their respective Companions. With a second miniature on the board, this new Combat Role (8th in total) brings to the table interesting and varied strategical and tactical novelties, and teambuilding synergies. The game's Co-op/Campaign Mode now develops in a semi-open world, where players can consult an Adventure Map and decide where they want to go next, instead of being linearly directed by the story. The Campaign runs in Cycles, each with three phases: City Phase, Journey Phase, and Quest Phase. In the City Phase, players have the opportunity to buy items, rest, and develop sidequests related to City Structures (that can be upgraded), Relics (rewards obtained by completing a Quest, that initiate optional story arcs with a puzzle vibe), and others. In the Journey Phase, players read a prelude related to the region they want to visit, in connection with the overall story, and prepare for the Quest, by studying what they may face (this changes according to Story Facts unlocked), assigning tasks to Assets (helpful NPCs that join the team as the story progresses), equipping items, and more. Finally, in the Quest Phase, the game board is assembled and dozens of different villains may be faced. The dungeon crawling and replayability vibe is heightened by the addition of random encounters, secret rooms with previously unknown content, events and interactions that require tough decisions during the mission, and more. All your decisions matter and significantly impact the Quests' gameplay, modifying even the circumstances of the multi-part epic final mission, and determines the Boss (or Bosses) you might face, in an exciting campaign with multiple endings. -description from publisher