Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze Review - Competitive Goes Coop?!? I Don't Believe It!

--------------------------------------------
Channels I Recommend (Not a comprehensive list by any means)
--------------------------------------------

Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze, which is themed around the pulp adventures, tall tales, and local legends of the mid-20th century, gives you a whole new way to play Unmatched.

In the game, players work together to defeat one of two villains: Mothman or the Martian Invader. Each villain has a unique battlefield with unique objectives. If the villain completes their objective (or defeats the heroes), the players lose. The villains are aided by a number of possible minions: Jersey Devil, Ant Queen, Loveland Frog, The Blob, Tarantula, and Skunk Ape. The enemies use special action cards and a simple targeting scheme to control their movement and attacks.

The set comes with four new heroes: Nikola Tesla discharges his electrified coils to power up his effects; Annie Christmas gets stronger when she's fighting from behind; The Golden Bat, the world's first superhero, has a variety of powerful effects; and Dr. Jill Trent, Science Sleuth, calls on a collection of gizmos.

Keeping to the Unmatched brand, you may use heroes from other Unmatched sets in Unmatched Adventures, and you can use the included heroes and battlefields to play competitive Unmatched.

TimeStamps:
0:00:00 - Overview
0:08:18 - Ease of Play
0:10:00 - What I Like
0:13:20 - What I Don't Like
0:15:50 - What I Can See Others Not Liking
0:17:02 - Final Thoughts
0:20:23 - 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)

Upgrade Your Game At Top Shelf Gamer (Referral Link)

[SteveSchloegel]

To me I never thought of simplifying Unmatched as a "get close to your opponent and knock them down" type of game. I don't know how many times I would win if I blindly rushed in hoping for the best and not taking into consideration the hero I was playing, the hero my opponent was playing, the map we decided to use and it's tactical advantages and the cards I had in hand. I guess you could hang that banner on a lot of games. Say for instance Marvel United, Too Many Bones, Marvel Champions LCG... etc. Marvel Champions could literally be defined as simply trying to reduce the villain to 0 health by using math. But those who love the game and play it over and over might tell you differently.

I think this thought process could possibly be due to the limited amount of plays that one might have when playing a game. Which, in turn could be due to it not be a "type" of game that particular reviewer enjoys to play. Which leads to my point. I would like all content creators to "consistently" inform their listeners how many times they played the game they're reviewing and at what player counts. This will give listeners a better idea as to how to interpret the review.

[Hasmanian]

Part of the appeal of this set was "If co-op is no fun, at least there will be 4 new fighters." Now that this has proven the concept, I hope we get smaller expansions with just one boss, four henchmen and a board, but all as interchangeable as other Unmatched sets.

[matthewpatrick]

I just ordered this yesterday, so it has yet to arrive. My hope is that it will do for me the same thing that the Red Rains co-op (1-2 players) did for Ashes Reborn. I only have the first Red Rains expansion, where the villain is quite repetitive. However, it has allowed me to explore each Phoenixborn in more depth, discovering and playing with strategies for their unique makeup.

Fingers crossed that this provides similar enjoyment using the Unmatched framework, where I already have 12 other heroes.

Neither Unmatched nor Ashes sees much table time when going head-to-head for me.

[robertthurman]

Very good assessment. The exciting thing about this set (as with the UnMatched series) is the anticipation to see how this will expand in the future. The AI can be developed in many different ways to individualize each opponent. Even to the extent of making AI versions of the current characters to play against. Also they have made an AI that plays the game the same way the players do. That is Amazing!

[elqord.]

Thanks for delivering a focused take on this one. The hype has been unreal but reading the rulebook my first thought was ‘is that it?’

[robschmidt]

Alex have you ever used Board Game Non-Glare Sleeves? After I used I never went back to glossy sleeves.

[stan]

Sentinels of the multiverse is a great shout for a recommendation, i have it on my shelf and still didn't think about that until you said it. Ascension tactics might work as a recommendation too. The base box is $50 if you are okay with standees instead of mini's, and it's also skirmish game with a co-op/solo mode with like 25 characters or something. It uses cards too, but you deckbuild instead of having a pre-made deck per character.

Maybe hoplomachus remastered too because it's a skirmish game with a co-op mode? But you're controlling multiple fighters instead of just 1, and there's dice instead of predetermined cards, so maybe not lol

[namewithheld]

Alex, could you please do a video discussing Mythic's latest update? I'm hoping you will have more information or background than the average person on the comments sections.

[perwesterlund]

Is there too much of a difference in gameplay for it to be compared to Marvel United? I was kind of expecting that as a recommendation in the end.

[goldengaruda]

I've really enjoyed this co-op expansion 😊

[The_Wampy]

I would personally like to see Unmatched Adventures with just 4 bosses and a map with no characters. I did not like the characters included in this box, but I did like the bosses.

[BenBoersma]

Played this for the first time yesterday and we really love Unmatched.
Tales to Amaze felt very flat and uninteresting to us sadly. We did only play against Mothman a few times, but yeah... It's a typical second mode in a competitive game that was never intended to be played as a cooperative game. 😥

[GoodEggGuy]

Have they announced a release schedule for more bosses to fight? Two bosses feels weak - I'd certainly get used to them quickly and tired of the same old same old.

[rolfvansoelen]

Interesting review, it reflects my feelings (and fears) about the game very well, so I suppose I would come to the same conclusion. I do like the system, but at the same time it is screaming for lot of variety and content in order to stay interesting. To me, that is a bad aspect of a game.

[patriziopastore]

Good, I really like it but need at least 3-4 people to have a full experience. Playing solo is less fun although enjoyable