Review: Armello

Armello is, quite simply, excellent. Since I installed it on my PS4, I haven’t been able to stop playing it… even with with copies of Metal Gear Sold V: The Phantom Pain, Mad Max, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition and Tearaway Unfolded all begging for my attention. Armello is just too addictive to put down.

A digital board game, Armello is a kind of mash-up of a variety of popular and famous tabletop and video games. Magic: The Gathering, Warhammer and Fire Emblem immediately spring to mind while playing, but its anthropomorphic animals and general aesthetic give a sense of The Animals of Farthing Wood meets Game of Thrones meets Kung Fu Panda.

When Founder and Director of League of Geeks Trent Kusters talks about Armello, he always hits the Kung Fu Panda reference, but for my money it’s far more Watership Down, Redwall and Farthing Wood than Kung Fu Panda. The reference works though and is definitely a way to interest a younger generation of gamers. That said, Armello is a game everyone can play.

There’s a depth to this title that’s frankly a little daunting, yet it’s so easy to pick up and play that players of all skill levels will be able to enjoy it. If you just want to play with the surface elements you can and you still have the chance to win. However, your chances significantly decrease if you’re playing with others who’ve learned the intricacies of the game. I won’t go into a detailed explanation of how the game works in this review (that would be doing a disservice to the tutorial), but with four possible win scenarios, four stats and four consumables all governing your character there are innumerable ways for each game of Armello to play out.

The basic premise of Armello is that the King has succumbed to the wicked power of the Rot: a malevolent force that’s corrupting his mind and effecting his judgment. Think King Theoden in Lord of the Rings The people (animals?) of Armello — which is also the name of the land — are suffering so members of each of the four world’s clans, Bear, Rat, Wolf and Rabbit, take it upon themselves to defeat the king and take the throne. He can be defeated through two different forms of combat, cleansed of the Rot or usurped upon his death. All four means require a different approach and therein lies the simple complexity of Armello. Whether you opt to kill the King or save him you’ll be playing the same basic gameplay, but with wildly different intentions and outcomes.

The King is located in the palace, in the centre of the board, while the four heroes are separated into the four corners. Different terrain tiles cover the board, each affecting various stats. Players take on quests which increase one of their four stats while potentially offering up rewards in aide of victory. Cards come in a few varieties and can be played be spending one of your four consumables.

Spell, Trickery and Item cards all have various effects with the most common being equippable items (which affect dice rolls in combat), spells which have a direct effect on who they’re played and Perils which act as traps on tiles. Making effective and efficient use of your cards is essential to victory. Increasing your stats and position high enough to defeat the King is tricky enough on its own, but couple that with the competition between the other players and Armello takes on a whole other level. Like in Game of Thrones, in Armello when you play, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.

Pacts, alliances, backstabbing and double-crossing all come with the territory in Armello. Friendships WILL be tested when you play and if you’re of the devious persuasion then this is a game for you. Navigating the murky waters of a very shaky alliance while simultaneously trying to totally screw your partner and everyone else over at the same time is a thrill rarely found elsewhere. When you succeed you suddenly realise why Littlefinger and Tyrion Lannister do what they do. And when you fail, well that’s when you feel like poor old Ned Stark. Either way it makes you want to try again and again. And again.

Armello is a Kickstarter success, but more than that, it’s an all-around success. Its brilliant and addictive gameplay coupled with a gorgeous art style and aesthetic bundled in simple to pick up yet boundlessly deep gameplay makes it a real winner. It’s so easy to recommend Armello for so many reasons, but the main and best one is that it’s just bloody great. Those who’ve played the Early Access on Steam will know what I’m talking about and the rest of you should fork out your twenty bucks and download it.

Armello was reviewed using a promotional code on PS4, as provided by the publisher.

Review: Armello

The good Simple, but incredibly complex. So many ways to play Strategy, backstabbing, victory Gorgeous	The bad On occasion defeat feels a little cheap Much too easy against AI No real single-player campaign

Want to know more about our scoring scale?