Clank! Catacombs Review - It's More Clank! But Now With Dungeon Tiles!

The catacombs of the skeletal dragon Umbrok Vessna are mysterious and dangerous. Portals transport you all around the dungeon depths. Wayshrines offer vast riches to intrepid explorers. Prisoners are counting on you to free them. Ghosts, once disturbed, may haunt you to death. Despite all that, it's time to leave the board behind with Clank! Catacombs, a standalone deck-building adventure.
Each trip into the catacombs is unique since you lay tiles to create the dungeon. You can play using only the all-new dungeon deck, or you can include cards from previous Clank! expansions.
Find your fortune (and escape the dragon!) in Clank! Catacombs.

TimeStamps:
0:00:00 - Overview
0:07:36 - Ease of Play
0:08:11 - What I Like
0:09:49 - What I Don't Like
0:12:32 - What I Can See Others Not Liking
0:13:49 - Final Thoughts
0:15:13 - Recommendations

5.0 - My absolutely favorite games. You can pry them out of my cold dead hands.
4.5 - Love this game! At the same time missing something that would make it a 5. Could be hard to table, lacking variability, a little light, etc.
4.0 - Really great game, almost always keeping, although has meaningful complaints as to what takes away from the experience.
3.5 - Really enjoyed, don't love it, may lose out to better games but the idea of never playing again is a bit sad.
3.0 - A good game, would play and suggest with the right people, if I never played it again wouldn't lose any sleep.
2.5 - A game I'd play again , but will never suggest it myself
2.0 - A game I don't want to play again
1.5 - A game I can't find any reason to recommend
1.0 - A game that is just bad.

My Game Table (Non Referral)

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[Josh-hzvz]

I understand the rating since you don’t like the Clank system, but I loved this game. One of my highlights of the whole year!

[DrFrige]

The beauty of the catacomb system is that the board changes every game, so it makes the playing field more even between novice and expert players. Expert players know how they will maneuver on a set board like the original game but this... was awesome. We played against a seasoned player and the scoring at the end was VERY close (yeah she still won anyway LOL) BUT NOT BY MUCH!!!

[nicholasbrouillette]

One of my favorite things about Clank! is how much stuff you can get, I find it very rewarding to rack up a pile of various loot while exploring! I also really like the addition of the lock pick system, it makes exploring more interesting and thematic

[Q-kp]

There's one con you didn't mention: player elimination. They tried work around it, by letting the eliminated player draw cubes out to add tension, but that's not enough. You can get easily 10mins+ downtime went you're eliminated.

[dougsundseth]

This game is a top 20 (maybe top 10, but it's a big gaming universe) game for me. All the things that are problems for you (except for the quality of the lockpick tokens, on which I absolutely agree) are positives for me. Part of pushing your luck is the chance of pushing too hard. Part of the variability is the variable card row, though it's of course annoying when somebody else gets that card you really want. And all the things you can pick up in the game allow for a variety of experience that I really like.

I also like that you can easily include most of the card deck from any of the other Clank! games to this one to increase its replayability. (I leave out cards that have mechanics specific to other boards, like underwater or curse areas.)

Horses for courses and all that; I expect to have this game in heavy rotation for quite a while.

[draphsor]

I strongly prefer deck building with a river of cards rather than a fixed market. More variety FTW! :)

[seansmith]

When are we getting an updated tip 10 solo list it's been 2 years!

[darbyl]

I liked the fixed boards of original Clank! and expansions, so I was skeptical of having random pathways and token placement.
Well, this is another level, in a good way. The artifacts can pop up anywhere, and the higher values can be on the opposite side from your location. That becomes a challenge, and a choice to make. The new and evolving layout makes getting back to the start more challenging. The prisoners, portals, and ghosts improve an already great game. And the market now has health and lockpicks for sale, which may be sold out just before you wanted to buy them! Now I agree that this is the best version. I will sometimes play the older version, since Temple Of The Ape Lords has a neat mechanic with moving tunnels. But, this is the one to grab most of the time.

[elqord.]

5 out of 7 time stamps started with the words „as far as…“

[emilymone]

I MUST ask, if you prefer a fixed card market over a variable market. What stops somebody from always doing the same strategy by building the same optimized deck every game? I think more player agency and asking players to adapt to dynamic game states is far more of a positive point for any game.

I also find it odd that you thought the game should have removed mechanics, whether it be prisons, ghosts, Monkey Idols, etc, as I feel like those also give players more to think about. Again, more agency and opportunities to change their strategy and adapt to a dynamic game state which keeps the game fresh and exciting.

[thereal]

Gunna have to heavily disagree with you about base clank mechanics ( clank additions, attacks, crystal caverns) all are very fluid and simple. great game (haven't played catacombs). I agree about the market is somewhat luck based, but I feel it evens out over the course of the game. Legacy definitely broke the flow with all the sticker adds, but still the discovery was fun.

[guandjs]

I love Clank! I enjoyed this version a lot too but as I already have most of the expansions for original Clank (as well as Space and finished Legacy), I don’t think I will get this version too (esp as a friend has it now). Most of the elements you mentioned are good design to keep things competitive and create indirect interactions that I like best. If you get stuck in the depths, it is usually because you got greedy which is a good risk/reward system. Thanks for the review!

[amethyst]

What are some of your favorite deck builders with fixed card markets?

[CptBumFlufff]

Spot on with component quality thoughts, very thin and flimsy. My lockpick tokens and one of the room tiles split apart, not glued properly and super thin...

[Art-oxbj]

Do you get clank or damage when you enter hunting tile ?

[ChadHensley]

I've always enjoyed Clank and have gotten to play a friends copy in the past. Been thinking about getting this one for my collection. Definitely agree with static card markets in deck builders. Might need to give this a go before buying my own copy. Thanks for the review!

[dlm]

Is there not a certain area you can reach in Catacombs that if you don't get out in time you still count your points? Like the depths in base Clank? Alex was complaining about getting 0 points but in the other Clank games it's not hard to make it to the respective "safe zones" to count points. You are really going deep and pushing your luck if you can't make it back above the depths in time.

[Jovanny_pcpp]

When people told me about the game clank

The game I pictured was clank catacombs so when I saw the original game I was big disappointed so now seeing clank catacombs I'm mega excited

[simonb]

Really don't understand the comment about potentially missing adding clank. It's literally written on the cards. As someone who likes deckbuilders, you should be used to reading what's on them, no?

[Schlagathor]

I didn't push my luck ever in this game and I died only because of luck; scoring 0 points.

I give this game the same score. 0/10