“Deck-building adventure meets tile-laying in the newest incarnation of Clank!”
Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/365717/clank-catacombs
Playing Time: 45-90 minutes
Weight: midweight
Genre: Dungeon Diving Deckbuilder
Designer: Paul Dennen
Players: 2-4
Clank! Catacombs is another in the line of competitive deck builders where players race to the bottom of a dungeon, grab loot and get out. Like always, the game is simple, clean, and frequently hilarious. The deckbuilding portion of the game is the engine, of course, with players buying tools and allies that will help in their quest, but the most powerful tools will generate ‘Clank’ – i.e. noise – and noise attracts dragons, and your character is crunchy and delicious in ketchup.
You simply cannot go wrong with a Clank game, a game that is easy to teach, plays in an hour and is enjoyable to both hardcore gamers as well as the gamer-curious. Almost every Clank game ends with the spectacle of one last straggler trying to escape before being seared like a filet mignon. Which is to say, even if there’s a clear winner, the end of the game is ALWAYS entertaining, and how many games can claim that?
Of the variants, Clank Legacy is very good (and I strongly suspect next year’s entry on this list will go to its forthcoming sequel), but I gotta give it to Clank Catacombs, a variant who changes the formula with room tiles that are placed as you adventure, making the dungeon different in every game. And the game make good uses of this differentiator, creating effects that rotate or move dungeon elements around the board, creating a new puzzle every time you play.
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