Vengeance - A Solo Review
Image: Mighty Boards
INTRODUCTION
In my mind, few narratives are more suitable for solitary gaming than the classic revenge story. From Shakespeare’s Hamlet to the John Wick movie franchise, the tale of a dish best served cold continues to fascinate and to a certain extent also horrify its audience myself included. Ever since its original release I have been hearing and reading good things about Vengeance, the board game adaptation of the revenge movie genre designed by author Gordon Calleja and published by Mighty Boards, particularly as a one player experience. And with the eminent Kickstarter launch for Vengeance: Roll & Fight I figured now is a good a time to sharpen my blade and don my finest hoodie as I hit the figurative streets in search of redemption and retaliation.
Full disclosure: a review copy of Vengeance was kindly provided by publisher Mighty Boards.
COMPONENTS
I may be a stodgy old soul who enjoys board games themed on trading in the Mediterranean, where resources are denoted as different coloured wooden cubes and the board is draped in fifty shades of brown. That is not to say that I am impervious to evocative artwork and the lure of rolling shiny custom dice, far from it. Mighty Boards have produced some truly excellent board games in terms of overall component quality and Vengeance is no exception, the literal pièce de resistance being the incredible illustrations penned by fellow Sweden Axel Torvenius. His dark and gritty art style lends itself exceptionally well to the world of Vengeance and is a huge reason why I enjoy this game so much (spoiler alert), it reminds me of the works by Mike Mignola and Duncan Fegredo.
I once read a comment where someone described Vengeance as being overproduced in terms of the included components. Personally, I find this characterisation to be applicable to board games where the quality and perhaps more importantly the design of the components impedes my understanding and subsequent enjoyment of the game in question. For example, from a purely aesthetic point-of-view Tang Garden is an absolute marvel to behold but the components obscure line of sight whilst also being incredibly fiddly when placed on the main board resulting in a rather sour experience. Vengeance is a game where a large portion of the overall game design hinges on creating a connection to your avatar, a bond that in my eyes at least definitely benefits from the high-quality miniatures that are used to represent both the heroes and the gang members who wronged the protagonist.
Photo: Fredrik Schulz
THE SOLO EXPERIENCE
“The axe forgets, the tree remembers.” – African proverb
Your biggest mistake was standing up for yourself; theirs was leaving you for dead in the gutter of the rain-soaked, neon-lit alleyway. Beaten but unbroken you set out on a vendetta to exact revenge upon those who have wronged you, slowly working your way through the ranks of the criminal underworld before standing face to face with the none other than the fearsome gang leader. Whether you take on the role of Little Gudrun the trucker lady or the ol’ punk rocker Johnny Silver the goal remains the same. Vengeance.
In true revenge movie fashion, the game features a narrative arc that spans over three acts during which your hero will heal their wounds and go to town on the punching bag before taking to the streets of this neo-noir world to track down and punish those who deem themselves as wolves preying on the weak. Each act is divided into two distinct phases, beginning with the Montage. In order to get your hero in fighting shape you will roll dice and allocate the results to perform actions such as heal wounds, purchase new upgrades and items from the market which in turn will allow you to manipulate the dice during the upcoming Combat phase, and gain Scout tokens. These are used to determine the whereabouts of key gang members that you need to track down and eliminate, getting you one step closer to the bottom of the boss deck where the big kahuna awaits… Rather than being purely at the mercy of Lady Luck, the Montage phase has you allocating cards from your personal deck which corresponds to the icons on the montage dice. This allows for a greater degree of flexibility as you are able to mitigate unlucky rolls, the catch being that you are forced to permanently discard two out of the three cards at the end of the Montage phase so choose wisely!
Photo: Fredrik Schulz
“And so he bided his time, waiting, plotting, planning, looking for the signs that would be good for him.” – Gillian Slovo, The Betrayal
Once you have made the necessary preparations it is time to exact your revenge by busting down the door of the gangsters’ den, punching and kicking your way through hordes of henchmen and goons in your relentless pursuit for retaliation. Similar to the Montage phase, combat is resolved by rolling dice and then performing the associated actions and this is where we get to one of the most fascinating aspects of how well Vengeance manages to integrate theme with mechanisms. The hero of our story is an ordinary individual thrust into extraordinary circumstances, often ill-equipped and fuelled by a bitter rage. The combat in Vengeance is not a carefully choreographed ballet, it is a visceral fight to the death. You will swing wildly, you will occasionally miss your mark and yet playing Vengeance rarely feels unfair simply because of how the game manages to replicate the sensation of watching a revenge movie in the same vein of the original Death Wish starring Charles Bronson as a mild-mannered architect turned vigilante. Another aspect of the charm of Vengeance is how your upgrades and items manipulate the dice to align more in your favour. The joy of being able to turn two misses into hits whilst simultaneously dashing across the room as the bodies hit the floor cannot be overstated, further adding to the thrill that is associated with the source material.
Photo: Fredrik Schulz
When playing Vengeance competitively your antagonists are determined by card drafting at the start of the game, often resulting in a somewhat eclectic selection of boss cards with various gang affiliations. The solo mode though opts for a more, in my eyes at least, preferable approach by introducing a story line that not only adds context but also presents the driving force behind the motivations of our protagonist. On the backside of each hero board is a backstory, detailing the events of how you ended up in this dire situation and what particular gang has wronged you. Vengeance was already a game design dripping with theme to begin with, where the structure and narrative of the solo mode adds yet another layer to this already delicious cake. It just makes more sense to have one gang target you as opposed to a somewhat random compilation of boss cards which is the case when playing Vengeance competitively. In addition to tailoring the faction you are aiming to punish the solo mode also features individual mission goals for each hero. For example, Kaja the former Peshmerga fighter is on a quest to track down her kidnapped grandson whereas Little Gudrun scores additional victory points by taking out the final boss using a specified upgrade card. In theory these little flourishes of story might seem minute, in practice though they go a long way in establishing a narrative and a personal investment in your chosen character as they descend into a state of rage and a relentless pursuit of vengeance.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I went into this review with some fairly high expectations and Vengeance managed to surpass them all by a country mile. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this is easily one of the best solo board game experiences I have had in quite some time. Vengeance is often criticized for its lack of direct player interaction and I wholeheartedly agree, this is a game that shines as a single player experience whilst serving as a textbook example of how to fuse theme with mechanisms. Overall I am immensely impressed with this game design and one that I unreservedly recommend.
