Marvel United: Rapid Review
Information:
Mechanics: Modular Set-Up, Co-Operative, One vs Many, Team Vs, Variable Player Powers, Hand Management
Player Age: 13+ Player Count: 1 - 4 Players, 1- 5 Player (X-Men Core Box), 1 - 6 Players (Blue, Gold Expansion)Time to Play: 40 Minutes
Game Designer: Andrea Chiarvesio, Eric M. Lang
Player Age: 13+
Game Designer: Andrea Chiarvesio, Eric M. Lang
Rundown:
Marvel united has successfully gone through two kickstarters, this means there are two standalone (cross compatible) games, 15 expansions and two stretch goal boxes. Easy to say there is a lot of content for this game. This review will mainly focus on the core system of the game that isn't specific to any standalone game or expansion.
Marvel united is a cooperative game where players will control one character each and work together to take down the villain of the scenario. Everything is modular so there are multiple locations that will be randomly set up every game, a unique villain and multiple unique heroes to choose from. To defeat the villain you must remove all of their health before you run out of cards to play, or before the villain defeats you in their own unique method.
To do this you have to complete two out of three missions. The missions are to save nine civilians, defeat nine thugs or clear four threats from the locations. When you complete the first mission, the villain will be activated every two turns instead of after every third turn. When you complete the second mission the villain can now be damaged, and completion of the third mission will let you draw an additional card (these cards also work as your health).
On a turn, players play one card from their hand (drawing a new card at the end of their turn) and are able to perform the actions in any order displayed at the bottom of their card, as well as perform the actions at the bottom of the card the last player played. These actions include movement, attacking, completing a heroic action (rescuing civilians or clearing threats) or a wild action. Multiple characters will also have special abilities displayed in a text box above their actions. These are activated when the card is played but the next player cannot copy this action.
Alteration:
Including all released content, there is currently around 125 heroes, 59 villains and 10 anti-heroes (can be used as villains and heroes). This is a gigantic amount of variation, where each character has different mechanics and styles such as multiple man who has duplicates that he can use to fight or do heroic actions in locations he doesn’t occupy, or the phoenix five villains who will combine with each other to make their attacks more powerful. Additionally, expansions introduce different things such as new missions, mechanics, challenges and campaign modes to keep the game feeling fresh forever.
Production:
The miniature quality is amazing. The CMON company has a good track record for miniatures but they have gone above and beyond for this game. Instead of boring poses, the miniatures feel vibrant in their action stance and each base also has scenery to help it stand out. In the X-men content of marvel united there has also been fire, water and invisible/wind effects added to make the miniature stand out more. These are miniatures I wouldn't paint because they are so perfectly designed the way they are.
Interaction:
The game is easy to learn but highly interactive and strategic. Each time you play a card you must factor in how it will help the next player as they will gain these actions on their turn. This is such an easy system but can lead to some great combos to get players out of tough situations or land the last blow on the villain. Players really have to plan together to stop the villain from controlling the board. The other way this game is interactive is through expansions. The base set of x-men has added a one vs many mode that has one player playing as the villain and the rest of the players going against them. The other mode that's added through the gold or blue expansion is a team mode. This has players split into either the gold or blue team. The goal is still to defeat the villain but one team can hinder the other.
Determination:
Pros:
- Easy and intuitive system.
- Endless replayability.
- Multiple added modules and unique modes to play.
- Quick playtime
- Amazing miniatures
Cons:
- Analysis paralysis when choosing heroes/villains
- If choosing randomly then the heroes may not perform so well against some villains
Marvel United is in my top 5 favourite games for many reasons. One being that the game has such an intuitive system of using the actions that the last player put down. This creates tense decisions on which cards to choose because you don't want to simply help yourself, you want to do what's best for your team while still having a fulfilling turn. Marvel united performs this function perfectly with each character having variations that can focus on a specific action. The main variation comes in the unique abilities they have, with over 100 heroes there is plenty of playstyles and strategy to be had. Each villain also has their own unique challenge such as flipping cards facedown so you cannot use special abilities or following the actions of the last player. If you are a fan of marvel, cooperative games or modular games then this is highly recommended for your collection. This is, of course, a Go-To Golden Game and I'm going to have a lot of fun exploring the different heroes and villains in my abundance of future plays.
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