Enormity

Enormity Deep Dive

What the Community Thinks About Enormity

Enormity has generated strong enthusiasm from board game reviewers who've experienced the prototype. The consensus is clear: this game successfully delivers the sci-fi horror atmosphere Into the Unknown promised, with reviewers praising its immersive theme, escalating difficulty curve, and ambitious scope. Board Games UnLocked and independent reviewers alike appreciate how the game builds tension as it progresses, though they acknowledge the steep learning curve and complex rulebook. The tone across reviews is cautiously optimistic, with reviewers recognizing significant potential even in an unfinished state. Some express mild concern about how certain mechanics, particularly the presence of firearms in combat, might affect the difficulty balance in later iterations, but these concerns don't diminish enthusiasm for the foundational design.

Core Mechanics That Define Enormity

Noise and Threat Escalation

The noise system lies at the heart of Enormity's tension. Players generate sound through their actions, moving, firing weapons, interacting with the environment, and must roll dice to determine how many blips (potential enemies) move toward them. What makes this elegant is the countdown tracker: the game shifts through three threat phases (white, red, black), and as tension escalates, enemies behave more aggressively. Early in a mission, enemies might simply move away; in the red phase, they begin converging; in the black phase, they hunt relentlessly. Reviewers found this system creates natural story momentum without requiring a timer. The noise mechanic also creates meaningful strategic decisions: remain silent but slow, or move quickly and risk attracting the deadly creatures aboard the Shepherd.

Ammo Management and Resource Constraint

Firearms are available but not unlimited. Reviewers highlight how ammunition management becomes a critical strategic element, players must choose between fast-reloading their weapons (quick but costs adrenaline) or taking a full turn to reload properly. This deliberate constraint keeps guns from trivializing encounters. Some reviewers worried that four players with firearms might oversimplify boss fights, but the game's design counters this: positioning matters because weapons are linear (firing in straight lines only), and reloading creates vulnerability windows. The ammo system forces players into agonizing decisions when faced with multiple threats, pushing them to coordinate rather than simply overwhelming enemies with firepower.

The Enormity Experience

Escalating Pressure and Rising Stakes

Reviewers consistently describe Enormity as a game of mounting dread. It begins deceptively calm, enemies move slowly, threats feel manageable, but as the countdown tracker advances and players make noise through their actions, the pressure intensifies. By the time the board enters the red phase, the experience transforms into a desperate scramble for survival. One reviewer noted the satisfaction of early turns when they felt capable of handling anything, only to find themselves overwhelmed when multiple threats converged. This escalation isn't random; it's baked into the system, creating a narrative arc within each mission that builds naturally to climactic moments.

Thematic Immersion Through Sci-Fi Horror

The prototype includes voice acting and atmospheric narration, and reviewers praised how effectively this grounds the experience. The setting, stranded on a failing starship with an unknown threat aboard, evokes both classic sci-fi horror and the Alien franchise. Players aren't engaging with abstract systems; they're roleplaying characters struggling for survival aboard a hostile vessel. The materiality of the components (miniatures, cards, dice towers that represent character shields) reinforces the immersion. Even in the unpolished prototype state, reviewers felt genuinely invested in whether their characters would escape alive.

What Makes Enormity Stand Out

Boss Fights with Escalating AI and Body-Part Targeting

Enormity inherits the proven boss-fight system from Aeon Trespass Odyssey but adapts it for the sci-fi setting. Each boss has an AI deck and a body-parts deck; as players wound bosses, the AI escalates (level-one behaviors give way to level-two, then level-three). Body-part targeting is random, meaning a perfect roll might still miss high-value weak points, but this creates thematic moments. Reviewers noted how a critical hit on a body part you weren't aiming for could dramatically shift narrative tension. The system creates memorable, swingy moments rather than mechanical slog, and the variety of bosses (the prototype features the Moth Man, a radiation-generating entity) suggests depth across a full campaign.

Modular Design with Campaign and One-Shot Options

Enormity supports both standalone missions and linked campaigns, and reviewers appreciate this flexibility. The prototype includes extraction missions (scavenge-and-escape scenarios) and incursion encounters (focused boss fights), allowing players to choose how they engage. Some reviewers loved the idea of one-off games where character progression happens within a single session; others were drawn to the prospect of a persistent campaign where choices in extraction missions affect later boss encounters. The modular approach, scenarios built from reusable location tiles and selectable boss encounters, suggests the game will reward repeated play without feeling repetitive.

Potential Drawbacks

Overwhelming Rulebook and Learning Curve

The prototype rulebook is approximately 40–46 pages of dense rules text, and reviewers noted significant cognitive load when learning the game on Tabletop Simulator. The adrenaline system (which gates many powerful actions), the token economy (discipline, confidence, expertise tokens with different functions), and the noise/escalation mechanics interact in ways that require careful study. One reviewer spent two and a half hours just learning the system before recording gameplay. While reviewers who pushed through appreciated the depth, the barrier to entry is steep, and component-heavy games on TTS amplify the friction of learning new systems.

Dice Symbol Readability and Fiddly Component Management

The custom dice feature different symbols for success, half-success, and critical results. On black and red dice especially, these symbols can blur together visually. Reviewers found themselves squinting to determine whether they'd rolled a success or half-success, particularly when adjacent critical symbols made it ambiguous. Additionally, as adrenaline tracks rise, token management becomes complex, the game generates dozens of tokens (discipline, confidence, expertise) that must be tracked between player turns. On physical tables this might be manageable; on TTS it felt cumbersome. These quality-of-life issues don't break the game but slow down the pace of play.

If You Enjoy Enormity

Players drawn to Enormity's boss-fight intensity should explore Aeon Trespass Odyssey, the mechanical foundation for Enormity's incursion system. Those who love the sci-fi horror atmosphere and resource scarcity will find kinship in Nemesis, which similarly pits players against deadly creatures in confined spaces. For the escalating difficulty and tactical positioning, Kingdom Death: Monster offers comparable depth and crunch. Players seeking lighter sci-fi extraction gameplay might try Frosthaven, which shares the dungeon-delving structure without Enormity's boss-fight focus. And for reviewers drawn to the modular, replayable campaign structure, Gloomhaven provides a proven model of linked scenarios that reward strategic character building across sessions.