Atlantis Rising: Monstrosities - Discussion

0:07 thank you some viewers may find the following video disturbing viewer discretion is advised hey everyone welcome back to board games unlocked and we are doing a discussion for Atlantis Rising monstrosities the expansion that took the longest amount of time to ever be made uh um what I thought that was KDM uh I guess KDM technically those are expansions so you are correct uh so yes if you heard bad things about this expansion it could always be worse uh you could have spent like hundreds of dollars and still not have your stuff but uh for some weird reason I have not done any Research into this so let me know in the comments because I'm very curious I don't know why this expansion took so long to come out um but it's finally here I think they were actually asking for additional money in other countries let's say it was like it could have been like a funding thing I think it was a covid thing as well I'm sure there's a bunch of stuff yeah other people have gotten theirs both kick-started and to Market and in people's hands right in shorter time right and uh I I'm a huge fan of Atlantis Rising I think it's a really solid Co-op where everyone contributes uh a lot of things to to do in the base game so when they announced an expansion I was like awesome and now that it's out I don't really like it I actually really don't care for the expansion no I mean

1:39 no like overly complicated and really doesn't add much yeah other than complications more clarification on cards um yeah which leads to more complications um but yeah just complicated in general that's in all their Rule books right right and I just think that there's already just so much going on that it's kind of like yeah exactly so the base game of Atlantis Rising already had a ton of the uh Technologies you can build tons of uh special Misfortune cards that go in The Misfortune tons of library and artifact cards that gave you enough variety to play the game yeah and difficulty levels exactly different player accounts and some scaling right tons of different character player powers that you can do so it already had enough in the box so if this was an expansion that just added more and in some cases it does like there's more characters to play as there's more Technologies more library cards but all that is just muddied like a lot of the character classes like it's not just a plug and play like you have to it's like oh I want to play specialized to work with this set of exactly new rules that yeah aren't fully compatible with with a right it's not it feels like it wanted to be a modular expansion but it doesn't flow like a modular expansion you know where it's just like uh I guess some small spoilers but like rise of Fenris or other

3:11 expansions are like oh like Alhambra oh I just want to add this one thing right and it's like Boop okay now I play the game here it was like like some some monsters added magic items and then it doesn't really tell you what to do with other magic items a lot of the Allies were hyper specific that you only wanted and you only got in one specific way so it's just kind of like all off design it just feels like a jumbled mess of stuff that they didn't clarify how you incorporate it into the game either that or um and I'm trying to remember other games that have done this but it's a completely separate game that uses some of the same basic pieces from the original game yeah but I don't see if they can really blend at all because you know some of the characters and some of the you know the the the monsters have some specific you know the Allies yeah have some specific things that I don't off the top of my head I don't see fitting in with the original game no and the other thing it's called monstrosities but there's only three monsters it's like you have Medusa you have harpies and then I've already forgotten their names Sisyphus and and and Corinthians oh okay yeah all right Brad sure it's not syphilis and chlamydia so you only have three monsters and you're kind of like

4:42 all right it's and it's not necessarily that interesting yeah it's just it's just another annoying stumbling block right because the amp is already extremely difficult like not only is it constant Misfortune cards and and constant uh uh flooding of tiles where you have to be extremely efficient with resources and maneuvering your your workers now the frustration of dice rolling without very much mitigation yeah you have to very specific characters that can mitigate like the first game we played was just the bass it was like oh man this is nice oh and all their success oh cool but you let us re-roll uh and then this game whenever we were doing the expansion it's kind of like okay I'm gonna use and don't even wrong I thought the characters were really cool oh yeah but that's all I really liked yeah um and yeah like they're just there because it's not like it's not a new way to win right it's just oh okay it's more ways to lose they're just in the way yeah like Medusa freezes people and just like clogs up spots and kills your workers so then you're like okay well I guess we'll work our asses off to defeat her what do we get oh her as an ally oh that that's cool what does she do oh nothing she does a city location that is flooded so we can't even go I don't know yeah we did benefit from it but I mean it wasn't much it felt like it was worth fighting for right it

6:12 almost feels like you're benefited mainly from just removing her yeah than what you actually got so then it's like why play why play with them yeah if it's already everything's against you anyway why add unnecessary just complexity for complexity's sake uh I mean I'm all for having more special misfortunes and other stuff I would have I'm I'm theoretically fine with the Allies but the other way to get the Allies this feels like it's another middle finger like hey at this location for for you to get the giant you basically have to fail in this location like because it raised the the uh result by two yeah it's like okay well all those are sixes so I guess I'll just not get four sevens yeah just to get an ability that's subpar yeah I don't know I I found the Allies very lackluster I don't like the monsters because they're not interesting enough yeah uh which is called Atlantis Rising monstrosities so those should be the focal point and they're not that great yeah and they're optional anyway yeah they're completely optional this is an expansion that's like I guess if you're completely bored out of your mind uh with the base game yeah you you're gonna get stuff to me it just doesn't it just feels like it just doesn't fit that well for me

7:44 like it just I know maybe it's just because I didn't know like the original you know Legend of like Atlantis or like where it came from um it just doesn't mesh to me yeah and also like again it just was very unnecessary yeah and if I was genuinely like waiting for this like waiting to see what it was about it took that long I'd be offended I forgot about it honestly I didn't even know we had this game uh oh Atlantis Rising uh yeah no it's it's definitely been a game I like uh but for some reason I I kept thinking it was more complex than it was so I was like oh yeah that's kind of a heavier Co-op game but then on replaying it I was like I don't know why I thought that was harder like it's it's very straightforward yeah weren't you saying it was one of your earlier games maybe your first modern uh that you played no um it's been a long time this is actually that's the second edition there was a earlier Edition that was also uh from what I heard kind of all over the place and this is clearly a better rendition of the of the game but God yeah when did this go on Kickstarter uh I think it was Kickstarter anyway well I was just thinking I mean it's it's a difficult lots of mitigation lots of cooperation planning together but um okay so not quite three years it's successfully funded November 20 of 2020.

9:05 so during covid during covid so they already knew all the complications yeah November of this year um it would have been three years uh two and a half yeah I don't know it it just I I don't think it works I think especially with co-op games and expansions you have to either add just more of the same you know like hey here's just more content like Elder tour does um or you have to be able to add it into the game that it's not overwhelming like I thought the adding the monsters and stuff overshadowed the strategy and and tight nuances of the base game in the way that I just didn't find enjoyable like when you add expansions in the modules from pandemic for example like the lab the mini lab thing that's like a whole other thing but that's all you add or you add the hinter lens on the side and that's its own other thing but it um enhances the base game expansions should always enhance the base game right not be like okay so well these cards mention magic like items all right well I know we have one for that but do are we supposed to have others out or like what it's like well so the The Alchemist and the potions yeah we couldn't tell what you do with a potion once you use it right now it's written clearly in the rule book but it's sort of like oh here's an afterthought yeah right it's almost an

10:35 appendix in the rule book yeah of a critical rule you must know to play this character exactly and in the rule book where it is in the rule book is yeah exactly it's and that's that's a huge thing of like um and we're seeing that with other games Zach and I had a huge problem with the Witcher rule book where it's like on the play oh we we were there on the player right it had a very critical multiple rules that were just not in the rule book it's like how'd you get on the player age but not in the actual rule book um and yeah the The Alchemist is a great example I mean he only has four potions so he's not super exciting but on his card it doesn't say what you do when you use it right and the rules somewhere it does say oh it goes back into his lab he can go get it okay well that's nice at least I now know but the Channeler specifically tells you what to do with his spirits yeah when you run out or when you you can spend the Mystic energy to get them all back oh okay now I know what to do you don't want to be hunting in a rule book for it's just fiddly like setting it up organizing it because it almost feels like it wanted to be a standalone expansion especially with how they organized it yeah uh if you have the base game I mean you need the base game it's not a standalone expansion but it's kind of a waste of stuff because it does not fit unless you don't mind having two boxes uh yeah I mean let's see what's that nope that's the base game

12:09 so yeah I mean it added the locations who gives a [ __ ] those were just over there like we came with handy a couple of times but one came out one was meant to be there and others came out if you happen to get a one specific card yeah so that's that's what I'm finally Coalition too is I'm putting my finger on I don't I don't have a particular problem with it as an expansion except that everything is so specific and so situational that it you know won't won't come up or may not come up until the end when it's useless yeah then and instead of you know here's a general thing you know monsters do change the strategy of the game right they really just get in the way they don't enhance Gameplay at all yeah but everything else is in order to do this you have to go on to this tile and roll three threes in a row and if you don't then you can spend your business right yeah exactly it's uh yeah I mean that I mean that's that's mainly it that's just what it mainly adds are three monsters ten allies that may not come up ever yeah you may never get them uh I mean you you are guaranteed to try to get them because they're going to be shuffled Into The Misfortune deck uh only specific ones some in the library

13:39 and if you happen to get the thing that lets you uh recruit one for free um then you just have it but they're also hyper specific the Phoenix does makes one peninsula or slightly better do and Medusa as well and Medusa and they're all we're kind of like that the giant was like oh you're all two dice and divide the result by the targeted location and get that many resources oh well that's going to be really bad in like buttons yeah yeah unless you yeah you build that thing get her immediately and then you're like hopefully I can use the two location like this location so I can and I roll High I don't know it's it kind of sucks because I just have this expansion and it's it's like do I keep it like there's some stuff I liked uh mainly the characters I thought all four were really cool yeah um there's only five in the game with the Adept and sort of each round Your Leader is in play gained one Mystic energy atlanteans on the tile with your leader gain these uses for Mystic energy for one uh uh oh you can transmute a resource or cancel a basic flood targeting the tile for three that's pretty cool um but that's always kind of been one of the best things about this game I thought the character abilities are

15:09 always neat uh I don't know because I can't use all the texts because some of them are very specific on Monsters or Allies so it's like well they're not generalized enough so it's like well I can't really use the expansion so since I don't like most of it I guess I won't keep it I don't know uh using anything anything cool cat did you love it I loved it so much I didn't say a word during the review I know I know I was aware uh I mean like no it was it was less than fine yeah it just wasn't uh I just don't think it was necessary I just don't think it was necessary like playing it back to back especially you're just like this really didn't enhance anything if anything I'm just like are we done like yeah it actually you know you're right it prolonged it like longer you you do end up playing Atlantis Rising with other [ __ ] in the way because it doesn't change it I mean some people might like that it doesn't change the fundamental core of Atlantis Rising which is good yeah but it doesn't also provide really any other unique challenges like alternate win conditions uh ways that the gods are wrathful that's true it's like instead of adding monsters why don't you make the gods present like have like um Zeus come down Zeus who has like he

16:42 like he has like have Gods who just have like an overarching thing that changes something about the overall game Poseidon would be Poseidon would be great that would have been the yeah actually I can I can picture that not specifically enough but like each round maybe a different God has a different influence and that is very very thematic yeah especially because that's the whole point of why Atlantis is sinking have you ever played pandemic uh Reina Cthulhu yes that that's the one that I own oh okay uh that one's great and that one um over rounds a different God comes out and changes uh just a one rule and it's like oh God I really hope that one doesn't come out and who okay how are we gonna deal with that that would have been way better like generalize that like just give you more characters these characters almost like I mean I'm I'm fine with like having a location that's specific to him like or the the influence uh artists in person yeah because I did like that like that was cool it's like they knew that they were gonna over complicate and make it extra difficult yeah so then they added in mitigations yeah right you know this this character can ignore one um complication around it's like oh this character can basically gather wild resources like you will get a resource and you can make it work yeah it's yeah it's like I just had to go there yeah you just had to go and then it's like

18:12 okay well Medusa's kind of a pain in the ass you can only defeat her using the shield if you don't have the Artisan good luck so you almost have to meta play this uh which I don't like well when we do that with pandemic though it's like you have to have I'm sorry go ahead no no you got I was gonna say you have to have the uh and then I forgot who it was The Medic or yeah I only I only specifically pick characters whenever we do like all expansions of pandemic because otherwise it's like there's no you're not winning anyway but at least we have the best possible team to try you get like one character that's just like oh good they study scat yeah hmm uh yeah that one I usually randomize characters uh but yes they're our Dream Team better characters in co-ops but uh but yeah it's like so you like what they should have done is just have more of these more special cards more library cards that you just add there's no weird setup no weird nothing you just Shuffle it into your core game and then you have a deck of Gods that just as this thing as this Wrath of the Gods track increases you're adding more rules to deal with like oh man I really hope it's not and yep it's Hades what's he gonna do right and if

19:44 you wanted allies like the Alice could have been cool just not useless yeah not be a meeple like just be another ability you have um maybe a really powerful one-time like [ __ ] oh the Unicorn negates a God's power it's a mystical creature um but alas they didn't do any of that yeah yeah Pegasus you can move your you can move your Atlantean to another location yeah after the flooding yeah um which actually that was one of his potions was when your tile floods you may take your action and then relocate to another tile or location um but that's the problem is he only had four potions to play with it's like oh man okay he's kind of boring now don't really use his abilities at least he had six that were specific and his were he was my favorite it's like oh man okay I want to really get some stuff at the forest so I'm gonna play the character that I roll both two dice and keep the Higher One everyone can come with my leader uh to that location so we can benefit from that uh and then Europe leader just completely negating special um special whatever they were called special misfortunes yeah uh Art's fantastic for what they added um like the Allies I think all look cool the monsters look cool the special Misfortune cards they added all look cool but it's Vincent Detroit so I

21:15 expect nothing less because he's probably my favorite artist it's beautiful you do because it surprised me because I originally did not like the like cover yeah you like it now it's fine I just I personally am not like a Sci-Fi fan so anytime I see something sci-fi I'm just like yeah interesting you consider the Sci-Fi because yeah yeah I guess yeah you know weirdly enough yes mainly because there's I don't know why I can't I guess because attack yeah yeah it feels like because they're we're portaling out aren't we yeah I guess I I guess it is based off technology I and you're right I mean I I guess I would assumed fantasy but yeah yeah it's not future yeah um but what else has he done uh he's done actually have a top 10 list he did the timpani parks he did Heat um he did the cover of heat uh I've drawn I've drawn a blanket I just I just wanted a few examples just to see if I recognize yeah but yeah I mean he's a wonderful artist um yeah I'm actually not really bummed they just didn't do a Gods expansion like I was like that that's such a missed opportunity hey the decade is Young exactly yeah I just have to wait another two and a half years well we just need one more pandemic and they'll introduce and then they'll yeah then they'll go on Kickstarter again I don't know I'm pretty sure people have checked out on

22:45 on this company for a lot of their games thanks for the rule books the rule books or their uh expansions and so anyway on a scale of one to ten what would you guys give Atlantis Rising monstrosities sorry Atlantis monstrosities Rising yeah it actually works both ways I'm gonna give it a dingle four four yeah slightly below average yes because I said it was less than fine that's true what would you give the base game base game I'm gonna stick it out of gosh darn eight eight wow I think it works really well because it is legitimately challenging and you are having to actually like think about like where you're going and what happens if something gets flooded so yeah okay right so just the expansions and now I am coming at this from an angle of I did not buy it and I did not know about it so I was not looking forward to it so I'm not disappointed that's why I'm gonna go six okay it's got a lot of good stuff to it but it has some serious flaws okay uh what would you do for the base game I'd like to play it a couple more times to be sure I feel like base game three I really didn't like it because I liked all the extensions no it's waterproof okay so here's a here's the weird thing it's not now they've played a few times while I'm playing it I'm not feeling like wow this is exciting I'm really enjoying this this is great but everything worked out well and it

24:16 was difficult and it did take all of us figuring out and where to move and where to do stuff so it's that type of game I gotta I gotta say probably eight yeah I'll say eight for it's a it's a Cooperative work replacement really yeah which you don't see a lot of yeah uh and I had forgotten that was an aspect of it uh this is not a game I play a lot um but I'm glad I kept it because I do enjoy Atlantis Rising a lot um I'll split the diff I'll give the expansion a five I think uh the things that I like I do like there's nothing I like hate like I'm and again it's an expansion it wasn't expensive I backed it this was obviously when I was backing a bunch of stuff so whenever like I was like oh man yeah it was an expansion supposed to come out for this um it was never at the Forefront of my mind so I wasn't throwing a huge fit it was like oh hey it's finally shipping I I don't really like most of it I will most likely if I do decide to keep it we'll never play with any of the stuff uh so but yeah I mean I'm analysis Rising I'll I'd also give an eight I've done a run through in the discussion of the original game years ago uh but it's been years so yeah I mean definitely go check that out but I don't know how relevant it is anymore but yeah I I'd agree the base game isn't they but that's it that's our thoughts on

25:47 Atlanta's Rising monstrosities let us know you think of the expansion in the comments below other than that like comment share and subscribe and have a wonderful whatever time of day it is for you hey everyone thank you for watching and I really hope that you enjoyed the video if you would like to see more of my content go ahead and click that subscribe button and the bell to be notified whenever I upload any new content if you feel like supporting the channel you can go ahead and click that patreon link to be taken to my patreon and any help is truly appreciated other than that stick around for any any other run throughs or reviews or cool top tens or whatever I feel like putting on other than that like comment share and subscribe and have a wonderful whatever time of day it is for you