WBG Score: 6.5
Player Count: 2-4
You’ll like this if you like: Land vs Sea, Doing LOTS of stickers and admin
Published by: Lucky Duck Games
Designed by: Filip Miłuński
This is a review copy. See our review policy here - SPOILER FREE REVIEW
Divinus is the ultimate demigod experience. If you are looking for one? Take on quests, challenge Greek and Norse gods, and shape your own mythological destiny. Each game unlocks new quests, stickers, LOTS of stickers. And the god characters in the story keep the legacy element fresh with their constant requests, mischievous behaviour, and combative nature. With the app guiding the narrative, players will use their dice to select and lay down tiles, create new worlds, complete quests, and hopefully gain divine favour. What that all means by the end of the experience, well, let's see if you get there first.
But it's not just about impressing the gods. You'll make permanent changes to your playing character (your demigod) and the game world by collecting artefacts and making seemingly pivotal decisions that alter the course of the game throughout. Battles, holy sites, and even the fate of gods are in your hands. Your choices matter and have apparently lasting consequences. So, let's dive into Divinus, get it to the table, and see how it plays.
How To Set Up Divinus
For your first game, there are only a few rules to read, and set up is pretty simple. This will change quickly. Rules wise. Set up remains relatively quick and straightforward throughout the campaign.
First, layout the game board and separate the tiles two their two separate backs. Remove any based on your player count, using the symbol on the tile and place them face down in two separate piles on the designated spaces for them on the game board. Then turn over six of each, placing them face up onto the numbered spaces on the board.
Each player at the start of the campaign needs to choose one of the four demi gods to play as. Take the associated box and dice for this character, and place it in front of each player.
Next, take out the game one god cards. There is a small card box for each game n the main box. In each one you will find the components you need for each part of the campaign. In the first box you will find four god cards. Place these in their designated spaces on either side on the top of the board. These will set you main scoring challenges for the first game. Some components will run through game to game, some will be removed permanently from the game after a few uses. But don't worry, the app does a very good job at clearly explaining all this as you play through.
You are now ready to play. Later games will require little more set up, adding extra things, but I don't want to spoil that here. Just know the opening game is far from the complete experience.
How To Play Divinus
Players will roll all their dice and then starting with the first player, use any combination of dice to claim a tile. As many dice can be used as each player wants, but each die can only be used once. You could use simply a die showing a "one" to take the tile in the "one" space. Or you could combine dice such as a "one" and a "two" to claim the tile in the third space. You can also combine dice to reduce your number, so a "one" and a "three" to claim the tile in the second place. However you want. Take the tile and place the die or dice you used into the space the tile came from. Do not replace the tile.
The tile that is taken is placed in front of you. The second tile you take this way must connect to the first tile you took, with one side matches the tile you have already placed. Subsequent tiles must be placed in the same way, matching one other previously placed tiles side. You will be building a 4x4 grid over the course of each game.
Players continue like this until they run out of dice, or do not have any dice that they can use. At this point, you will take back all previously dice, re-roll all your dice, replace the tiles from the spaces you took the dice, and then hand back over to the next player. Essentially you miss a turn, but get all your dice back. So, you want to use your dice as efficiently as possible as soon as someone completes their grid, that is the end of the game. You cannot fall too far behind in your own grid by refreshing your dice too often.
The main that players are looking to do as they build out their grid is to match terrain on the tiles and complete the mission set in each round god mission cards. This is mainly about creating the largest number or largest amount of certain terrain. But later in the game, this evolves to other challenges. All focused around specific tile placement.
As the games evolves, stickers will be added All over. Into the rulebook, (lots there!) onto tiles. New powers onto your own god character box. You will even change the numbers on your dice. As you take and play tiles with stickers on, some will be numbers that link to the app; either by scanning them, or much more simply by adding in the two digit number. This will then start a story, with a fair bit of text on the app you will need to read. At the end, you will need to make a choice based upon the events that you just read about. Your choice will affect the rest of the game of all parties, but mostly you. Allegiances will be formed. Behaviours judged!
In later games, getting tiles with number stickers on that you have interacted with before will be beneficial. It will help you with various parts of the story, and opportunities to "level up" your character by attaining certain tiles, offering certain powers. But there will be benefits for other players to take these tiles and interact with them as well. Of course, on top of the opportunity to stop the original player to take this tile from doing so. It can be a bit of a rush when these tiles come out. And as such, if any are drawn during the initial set up, you need to replace them with another tile, and shuffle them back into the stack.
Once the first 4x4 grid is formed, players all take one final turn, and then the app will take you through end game scoring. Players will score extra points for completing their grid, as well as the challenges set by the gods for each round. New parts of the story will evolve, more stickers will come out, new rules will be introduced, and a new round can then begin. after the final game, you can reset and go again by buying a refresh pack, or play your now unique version of the game in one of challenges.
Is It Fun? Divinus Legacy Board Game Review
I want to love this game so much. There is so much about it that excites me. And some of the game is brilliant. The game itself is a little simple, but if you like tile-laying, it offers a nice challenge. Each game is quick, there are simple and clear goals to aim for, and the process by which you do this with the dice is a lot of fun. The issues comes more with the legacy parts, the story, and crucially; the stickers. The story is quite long. There is a lot of reading. Normally I want to read every word and not miss a thing with games like this. But by game four of Divinus I found I was skipping through pages of text just to keep the game going. I found it frustrating to keep pausing the game midway, when it usually moves at quite a nice pace, for one player to have to read out three pages of flavour text. This is not always conducive to the best game experience, and is very uncommon for me. I usually want to devour everything.
After each game, when you want to crack on with the next chapter and try the new rules or components added to the game, you will be busy with a fair bit of admin. Adding stickers to the rule book, game board, and dice; running through various mid-game clean-up phases, and reading a lot more text. The flow again is frustratingly interrupted. Just when you excitement is peaked, there is admin to do.
The concept of this game sadly is better than the execution. But I hope a lot of learning can come from this. There is a great game within this. It feels like an early edit. The directors somewhat egotistical cut. But with a few tweaks and a lot of cut backs in the stickers and text this would be a great experience.
Now, of course, some will love this. The text and stickers all come together to make this a rich and evolving experience, which some will love. Some may even expect it for a legacy game like this, and so do I. Usually, I would lap it up. It just crossed the border of deep, layered, evolving and fun into laborious.
Adding stickers to dice can truly enhance the gaming experience by providing a personalised touch and a unique aesthetic appeal. And let's be honest. It's just a fun thing to do in a game! It also brings a genuine sense of ownership to the game. The varied ways to score points in the game, influenced by the different demi-gods each round, introduce a layer of complexity and strategy that keeps players on their toes. This dynamic element ensures that each game session is different and presents new challenges for players to overcome. It adds depth to the gameplay and encourages players to adapt their strategies based on the changing requirements each game.
This balance between familiarity and novelty ensures that players are constantly invested in the game, making each session something you want to get into. But, ultimately, the success of the game has to be measured by its legacy elements – the lasting impact it leaves on players, the memories created during gameplay, and the overall enjoyment it provides from the story and development of the rules. By combining evolving mechanics and rules, customisable components, and dynamic gameplay, the game does create a cool experience that resonates with players long after the dice have been rolled. But you will need to judge for yourself if the admin to get through is worth it for the payoff that Divinus delivers.