Number of Players: 1-4
Time: 1-2 Hours
Age:10+
Game Type: Mission/Skirmish
Gamer Type: Advanced
Difficulty: 7
Lore-based games are always interesting. Anything with a robust history of information always has experts and ‘experts.’ This situation can lead a game to have a difficult time placating all the people playing the game. Deliverance takes on one of the richest histories in the world when they enter into the realm of Christian lore and legends. Their game deals with the battle between heaven and hell, with angelic characters that many people will recognize.
Story
When you are pulling form the Greatest Story Ever Told for your source material, you better be accurate and you better be pretty deep. Lowen games did well in both of these categories. While it is understood that there needs to be some creative liberty with a game – especially in dealing with something as serious as heaven and hell – Lowen games handled this well. There is some filling in the blanks, but a lot of the material uses scripture or tradition as a source for the information. 9 of 10.
Artwork
Another reason why Christian lore is not a popular topic for games is because, well, how do you match the artwork of Christianity? From early Catholicism to the Cathedrals of the Middle Ages to the Orthodox church, Christianity has brought forth some of the best artwork in history. Even modern American churches have good artwork giving glory to God. Competing with this is difficult. However, Deliverance delivers on this as well.
The artwork for the game is functional, beautiful, and brings the players into the game. The tokens denote where and when they are supposed to be used on the modular boards. The dice are very cool. The minis are nothing short of being works of art themselves. The box is a medium thick box, so it will fit with your other medium boxes. The cover art is excellent and brings players to the game – what’s not to love? 9 of 10.
Mechanics
Throughout the game, you are trying to save the souls of the saints from the demons harassing them. To do this, you play in an RPG-style world where you improve your character and gain items. Many of these items are what you would think of angels having, some have some creative liberties. Overall, it is pretty cool. The randomizer is a dice, which as noted before, is very cool looking. The angels are minis and the demons standees and tokens. It is a great battle game where your skills are as important as your aggression. 6 of 10.
Strategy
As this is an RPG, this game is about building your character as your engine. Players have a lot of options as they develop their character, which makes each play through different. While there is a skirmish mode for shorter session, the game is built around a mission book which gives ample opportunity to develop your character. Rush and offense run hand-in-hand in this game – completing levels quickly or killing demons quickly is a good strategy. Defense depends on your character; you can load up on the defensive abilities/items to make yourself into a tank. Overall, this has good strategy around. 8 of 10.
Novelty
Christian games (that are good): relatively rare. Game based on angels with some Biblical accuracy: rare. Pitch in some great artwork and good strategy and you have a game that you do not see the likes of very often. The added bonus is that the mechanics are simple enough that anyone can pick them up, but it does take a while to master. To see a big box game, which has an appeal across the board, and a play style that is quick to pick up (the first time you play, it may take a minute) and you have something that is fairly unique. Though the price is higher (totally worth it), this game has massive appeal and is cool in all the right ways. 8 of 10.
Overall
The only disappointment that I had was that Raphael did not make an appearance in this game (the other archangels were there). Other than that, this is a great game. While it does take a little time to set up, the learning curve is quite quick for this one. And when good vs. evil is so clear, it is fun for the whole family. With a score of 40 out of 50, this is one of the highest scoring big box games this year, which leads to a definite recommendation to pick up the game. Anything that gets people talking about religion while fighting on the right side (no one has to be the bad guys) is aces in my book.
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