Designer: Kevin Riley

You play as a Breach Mage, the last line of defense against really big bad monsters eager to destroy the last desperate remnants of Civilization, who hang out in a place called Gravehold which, frankly, does not sound like a great place to party. There you will attempt to make civilization’s last stand against the darkness, armed only with a handful of crystals and a spell called ‘spark’ which is absolutely as ineffectual as it sounds.

Interesting Mechanic: Cooperative Deckbuilding. There are a hoard of deckbuilding games, and there are a hoard of cooperative games, but these streams don’t cross very often. Aeon’s End does so fairly elegantly. Deckbuilding stacks are constant (like Dominion), and each mage has powers to help heal and manipulate the spells of their allies as they race against a rather aggressive clock.

Aeon’s End isn’t an easy game, and the game is paced in such a way that you constantly feel like you are in more trouble than you actually are. However, it does a very good job of creating a sense of cooperative stress and panic that is the hallmark of good cooperative games.

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(Photo Credit: Miniature Market)