Elder Sign: Omens Review
Price: $3.99
Version: 1.0
App Reviewed on: iPhone 4S
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Earlier this year, Fantasy Flight Games released the Elder Sign tabletop game. Based in the universe of horror icon H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, it was a faster paced alternative to their flagship board game Arkham Horror. By streamlining many of Arkham’s mechanics and focusing on solving encounters with the use of special glyph-generating dice, games of Elder Sign only lasted an hour or two, rather than upwards of 3-5 hours like its big brother. Now Fantasy Flight has retooled this already sleek game even further and ported it to iOS in the form of Elder Sign: Omens.
Players begin by assembling a team of four investigators from a pool of 16, each with their own unique abilities. These range from restoring lost sanity or stamina, to gaining extra equipment, to changing the type of glyphs generated on the game’s virtual dice. Each investigator takes turns exploring the museum, attempting to overcome one of the many encounters therein.
The only negative thing that I can really say about this game is that it could use more extensive documentation. The tutorial videos are nice, but they feel lacking and I can see newcomers being easily confused and overwhelmed. Veterans, on the other hand, will feel right at home here. Also, it would be nice to have other Old Ones to fight against besides Azathoth, but that would necessitate adding even more layers of complexity. Still, don’t let these relatively minor issues put you off. Elder Sign: Omens is a fantastic, atmospheric game with absolutely gorgeous visuals and tremendous replay value. You’d have to be insane to pass this up, although you may end up that way, regardless.