The board gaming hobby has become more and more popular over recent years, with board gaming YouTube channels like “Shut Up & Sit Down” and the more recent “Dicebreaker” helping players into the hobby and introducing a wider audience to games other thanMonopolyandPictionary.
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However, fans of video games might not see the point in the tabletop experience. After all, computers can provide players with a much more visceral and immersive atmosphere, without the hassle of having to set up or pack away components. However, the social and tactile experience of tabletop games is not to be missed, and several board games provide similar mechanics and themes to video games, making them the perfect entry point for digital gamers looking to dip a toe into the hobby.
8Pandemic
For fans of the hit gamePlague Inc,Pandemicis a great choice. This modern classic is responsible for popularizing Legacy games withPandemic Legacy, which somehow managed to surpass its originator in creativity and cooperative fun.Pandemictasks players with preventing the spread of a dangerous virus and finding a cure before it’s too late.
AlthoughPandemic Legacyis arguably more akin to a video game than the originalPandemic, it’s also less accessible. For fans of video games looking for a smaller step into the world of board games, it’s hard to go wrong with the original.
7Kingdom Death: Monster
This notoriously large, long, and complex cooperative horror fantasy experience is not for everyone, not just because of its overwhelming size, but also because of its overwhelming price.
Kingdom Death: Monsterhas players play through a long and arduous campaign, progressing their characters and collecting various equipment and items to battle their way through each scenario and defeat the various bosses in the game. It’s not accessible by any means of the imagination (it has a “Complexity Rating” of 4.26/5 on Board Game Geek), but it can evoke the same feelings that can be found in horror fantasy games likeDark Souls. Both the setting, RPG elements, and the boss-centric gameplay loop make this worth looking into for anyone with a large budget that’s looking for a deep and long-lasting experience.
6Zombicide
The originalZombicideoffers a streamlined and condensed zombie-slaying, dice-rolling experience that’s both easy to learn and fun to play. The game evokes asimilar feeling to that of theLeft 4 Deadfranchisewith its fast-growing hordes of zombies, cooperative action, and various weapons to find.
Zombicideis great for players looking for a simple game with a lot of miniatures who love to roll dice and enjoy moment-to-moment action over slow-burning strategic gameplay. In a sense,Zombicidecaptures the action-hero feeling a player might get in a hero shooter and translates that to the tabletop format.
5Arkham Horror: The Card Game
For fans of deck-building card games likeSlay The Spire, this cooperative Lovecraftian game has three scenarios that players will struggle to complete. This game is tough and gritty, creating a very grim-dark atmosphere with its challenging gameplay and dreary Lovecraftian setting.
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Before starting the game, each player will have constructed their very own deck, which represents their inspector. It’s unsurprising thatArkham Horror: The Card Gameplays very much like some popular indie card games, given that card games are primarily a tabletop format, with the concept of deck-building coming from classic games likeDominionand TCG’s likeMagic: The Gathering.
4Nemesis
Fans ofAlien: Isolationand other survival horror games should look no further thanNemesis, a semi-co-operative science fiction game where each player controls a member of the crew, equipped with their own deck of cards, starting equipment, and skills.
Along with avoiding the Intruders (vicious aliens ready to tear players apart if they make too much noise), every player must focus on their individual objectives to win the game. Players will have to work together to fend off the Intruders, but their objectives and agendas often create interesting and climactic moments of conflict. In a sense, this evokes a similar atmosphere to that of games likeAmong Us, but there’s no doubt thatNemesisis a great choice for survival horror fans.
3Unmatched
Unmatchedtakes both obscure and broadly known IPs, as well as public domain characters, such as Sinbad the Sailor, Robin Hood, and even Marvel heroes like Luke Cage and Ghost Rider, and pits them against one another in a card-based fighting game.
Players will take control of a character via their unique deck, stats, and passive ability. Each deck contains different gimmicks and strategies, and the game uses a unique combination of melee and ranged combat to create unique back-and-forth scenarios. The game’s combat is a stripped-back and simple card system that fans of card games are sure to love mastering, and its strategic decisions and psychological elements make it play like a turn-based tactics game combined with fighting games likeMortal Kombat.
2Gloomhaven
This notoriously large board game actually hasa digital version on Steam, but it could be argued that nothing beats the tabletop experience, especially when the game is played with friends (yes,this game can even be played solo). The game is focused on tactical, turn-based combat through playing various cards drawn from a personalized, customizable, upgradeable deck. Each deck (and the RPG-like progression of them) is unique to each player’s character. The game even has secret unlockables, quests, and several other elements drawn from video game tropes.
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Combined with theGloomhavenmobile app, which makes handling the logistics of the game a lot easier,Gloomhavenmanages to give the feeling of a cooperative dungeon crawler with the tabletop magic that comes from playing face-to-face with friends. There’s a lot of mechanical depth, a thought-out narrative, and plenty of enemies, items, and scenarios that help to keep the game fresh. It’s unlikely that many players will ever finishGloomhaven, but for fans of large-scale board games and video games alike, this is a must-play.
1Twilight Imperium
Ever wanted to experience the slow-burning tactics of agrand strategy gamein tabletop form? At the time of writing,Twilight Imperiumhas seen four editions since its original release in 1997, and its sci-fi strategic gameplay with diplomatic elements has kept it a mainstay of the board gaming hobby.
Twilight Imperiumsees players choose a unique alien race with their own passive abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. There’s a tech tree to follow, resources to manage, and massive fleets of plastic spaceships to build. Each game sees players contest over randomly drawn objectives to score points, racing to the finish line as fast as they can. The game features extremely simple combat largely based around die rolls and the occasional “action card,” but the real strategy comes from the diplomacy (or lack thereof) between players, as well as the positioning of player fleets.
For fans of 4X games, grand strategy, and science fiction,Twilight Imperiumcan’t be missed. While it does take a notoriously long time to play, especially with higher player counts, it’s truly an experience like no other that is sure to bring joy to fans of grand strategy video games.
