Image taken from https://boardgamegeek.com/image/7976770/leviathan-wilds

Designer: Justin Kemppainen
Publisher: Moon Crab Games
Artist: Samuel R. Shimota

Leviathan Wilds is a cooperative card-based action selection game (can play true solo but I used two characters) where players work together to scale a leviathan and free it of its binding crystals. To do so, players select a climber and a class and gather the action cards associated with each to form their deck. Over the course of the game, players utilize those cards for their action points to move around and attack and/or for their unique ability. Once used in either fashion, the card gets discarded.

In my opinion, one of the most difficult aspects of this game is the fact that each character falls when they have to reshuffle their deck. Climbing the leviathan to reach the crystals is obviously vital to success so dropping can be seriously detrimental.

Besides the fear of falling, each leviathan also has a set of five threat cards that negatively impact the players throughout the game. While the card system itself isn’t revolutionary, I really appreciate how they did the steady escalation with them. Essentially, each card has a standard half and an enraged half. As the rounds progress (and a round is marked by resolving all five cards, one at a time), more and more cards become enraged, meaning the game gets steadily more difficult.

Not only does each leviathan have their own threat cards, but each also has unique mechanics and/or other additions that mix up gameplay and add extra challenges. On top of the leviathan variety, there are also numerous climbers and class combinations to experiment with. I tried all of them at least once, but after a few plays, I found my preferred combinations and stuck with them.

So, as you can see, there is phenomenal variability in the box. There are seventeen leviathans, eight climbers, and eight + classes. Somehow, though, despite the apparent insane replayability between the leviathans, climbers, threats, mechanics, classes, etc., after ten ish games, the gameplay started to feel repetitive. I will admit, this could be because I usually selected the same climber/class combinations, but even though each leviathan did truly feel different and unique, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was continually doing the same thing to achieve the same goal. Play cards, travel to the crystals, attack the crystals. That’s it.

On another note, the art in this game is absolutely incredible! Also, for the record, the deluxe edition is very nice with its storage tray, an extra mutation pack, wooden components, etc. but it’s definitely not “necessary”.

I’m kinda in a weird place with this one. I really enjoy it and I think it’s very well designed, but I need a break. I still have five leviathans to battle in the base game, so I’m interested to see if I want to come back to it and finish in a couple months or so.