MELBOURNE: Only weeks after crowd-funding website Kickstarter opened up to Australian ventures, Melbourne-based game studio League of Geeks launched a campaign for their unusual debut game, a board game brought to life on PC. Less than a year later, Armello is already available as an early-access game on Steam, and while it is technically unfinished, it is already extremely polished.
It looks cute and family-friendly at first glance. Anthropomorphic animals – a spiritual bear, a devious rat, a powerful wolf, and a versatile rabbit – explore a colourful fantasy kingdom, getting in fights with monsters and collecting treasures.
It takes only a few minutes, however, to receive a brutal lesson: this is not a simple, cutesy game. It is deeply strategic, loaded with options and alternate tactics, and tough as nails.
The basis of the game’s story is that the king (a lion, naturally) has been infected with an insidious magical disease called The Rot. This malignant ailment is driving the king mad and slowly killing him. With the once-noble monarch descending into insanity and death, the leaders of the various animal clans are jostling for position, intent on taking the throne when the king is gone.
The titular kingdom of Armello is built from hexagonal map pieces – mountains, plains, forests, and so on – that are randomly placed every game; players will never encounter exactly the same map twice. During alternating day and night turns, the animal heroes explore the land, delve into perilous dungeons, and do battle with the Banes, giant bird-like creatures born from The Rot.
While the world is dangerous, most of the obstacles players will encounter come from their fellow players. Spending coin or consuming magical power allows characters to hinder, slow, rob, and even kill rival heroes.
The bulk of the game is played with a combination of cards and dice. Spells, equipment, sneaky tactics, and powerful allies are all collected by drawing cards, and dice are rolled to resolve dangerous situations and to determine the victor of a battle. Each card also carries one of the symbols found on the dice, so players can “burn” cards in order to turn a die to a desired face instead of rolling it.
Victory comes in several forms. The most common is simply to have the most influence with the king when he dies, but there are other ways. One very difficult method is to collect a set of magical stones, storm the king’s castle, and cure him of The Rot. Less diplomatic but just as effective is the simple act of killing the king and taking the crown by force. Players can even become infected with The Rot themselves, and claim victory by defeating the king and becoming the new dark ruler of the land.
Each victory requires careful management and planning, and it is not unusual for a player to be forced to switch tactics and try for a different victory type when luck goes against them. Luck is a major factor, too – every hero is at the mercy of the dice, and it takes only a single terrible roll to have a hero killed in battle and sent back to home base to try again.
This is a four-player game that can be played with friends or strangers online, but it features robust AI that turns it into a viable single-player game. It is already in a perfectly playable state, with few glitches and bugs, but as it comes closer to its official release date it will only get better.
Armello is a tightly-designed test of wits and luck, and while it can be frustrating when the dice are refusing to play nicely, it can also be glorious when a plan goes off without a hitch. It will appeal to board game fans, but also to lovers of strategy and of fantasy.
It will not reveal its depth and intricacy immediately, and it will take several games just to begin to grasp its strategies, but it is worth the effort. It is a PC-only title for now, running on Windows, Mac, and Linux, but it will be coming to iPad and other touch devices.
