For the artwork, atmosphere, music and writing I would wholeheartedly reccomend this one. The way the game's systems are designed, speak to the imagination, requiring dedication to a theme and they are presented in a way that is exciting and satisfying. Things like day/night and your character's purity/corruption, cause great differences in mechanics. The world has enough character and colour for you to believe there's an entire world of wonders out there to discover and indeed there are amazing details and happenings to be stumbled upon in the forests and in the mountains. The way a stoic guard dog's tail wags when he defeats someone brings a smile to your face. Armello is a wonderful, intriguing world to visit. Since I'm a sucker for such things, I'm happy with my purchase and getting my money's worth.


However, as a game and compared to other boardgame, it has shortcomings that obligate me to give it a thumbs down and leave a few warnings.
Part of the problem is that this is a very short game, the standard ruleset used for sittings that count for achievements and multiplayer, shorter than 9 full turns (counting both day and night cycles, as you'll only get new magic points and cards after a single day). That alone isn't enough of a flaw. I'm fine with quick, satisfying games that don't take a lot of time.
There is also quite a bit of random luck involved. Certain events are incredibly rare, certain quests only carry certain rewards at random and the spawn points of certain mobs and objects are hit and miss. This alone, isn't a fatal flaw either, as I'm fine with the luck of the draw if at any moment, fortunes can turn with good RNG.

However, the combination of short game WITH a lot of luck involved, coupled with victory condition that require a solid fall-through, is a definite flaw. Luck and Randomness can only give players a balanced experience when given enough time, which Armello doesn't allow for. The result is that you'll need to make the best of your starting cards, location and quest and that the likely victory condition out of 4 (and most of these condition pretty much exclude the others) is already apparent from the first few turns. You need to follow through quickly, or lose the game before turn 3. There's no writing your hero's story, thinking on your feet or realistically hoping out for late stage game changers. The gameplay design messes with the game's ability to tell a story and your ability to create one.

Want to go for the "dark ending" by corrupting your sneaky rodent character? Not likely when you're not getting any corruption cards and Banes spawn too far away.
Want to heal the kingdom by gathering spirit stones as the bear priestess? Not so when all your Spirit stone quests just so happen to fall in statistics that you're low in, or all the naturally occuring stones fall in the wrong hands.
Prestige and Kingslayer victories then become the most likely options, but the both of them are so reliant on combat skill that it leaves half the game's potential superfluous. The best of the people on multiplayer can carefully min/max their way towards consistent victory, but this sort of ratrace seems oddly incongruent with how Armello presents itself.

All of this is hallmarked by me avoiding multiplayer competition somewhat and just wanting to do all the single-player achievements to see all that the world has to offer, but constantly restarting the game while doing so in the idle hope that this time, the game gives me what I require to properly progress on my chosen path or see the things I want to see.


Again, reccomended for the atmosphere and storytelling should lady luck allow it, not so much as a smooth, flexible game.


EDIT: After a small discussion with one of the game's developers below, I'd like to humbly propose Gremlins Inc. as a game that - despite being a looker but not nearly possessing Armello's art direction - also has karma, money and politics mechanics, but is as a boardgame, far better and more closely designed around revelling in RNG and making positive use of it. When going for victory, especially in multiplayer, Armello's RNG either keeps you on the track to victory or pushes you off it permanently, facillitating the kind of anguished min/maxing that goes - in my opinion - against the game's atmosphere. Gremlins Inc.'s sense of universal chaos is shared much more evenly, creating equality, and its cutthroat setting makes it a better competitive title in both body and heart.

Hello there stranger! (or potencial stalker :OO), this is Armello one of the few digital boardgames that i genually like and simply because it plays like one and it's not overly complicated like many others digital reboots.

Anyways aside from the smooth and fun RPG system that it's not the worse to get used to but also challenging this game offers a scavenge style lore. Which means you'r only given the base part of it and the rest is in: items descriptions and quests. And as a side note most of the cards that you play are a bit animated a beautifully draw :)

Зарабатываем деньгу на новые игры тут!!

This is a great game! This has a lot of depth and strategy. Definitely easy to learn and hard to master. There's mix of turn based rpg, dice, and cards! An RPGer's board game masterpiece. Would love for them to add additional character types and skins. The art is amazing, would love to see more.

This game is like crack, can't quit playing

10/10 would kill the king again... and again... and my wife never gets to win 'cause I just keep killing the king.

Fun game, but was completely unaware there was no singleplayer campaign to speak of. Read they have no plans on implementing one, that's a bummer.

The art is very impressive with a unique style, it's something I'd expect from a blockbuster game. The 2D and 3D art meshes very well and the animations(both 2D and 3D, again) are top notch. Props to whoever the artists are!

The gameplay itself is interesting, but I haven't played enough to really comment on it as I'm still learning it.

Overall, I'd recommend it if you're aware that it's not really meant to be a singleplayer game. I don't regret buying it despite not researching it first, I'll probably play it with friends from time to time.

Also, it works flawlessly on Linux which is always a plus for me.

ah, Armello. a game that takes cards, dice and a board, perfectly fusing them together into a cute and cuddly massacre that will leave the land covered in blood and fur. replay value is excellent due to randomized boards, a huge variety of cards with a staggering array of effects, and the amazing ways you can combine it all into a new story every time, and that's not even taking into account the characters, their special abilities, and their jewelry! if you like board games, furry creatures, and absolute craziness, then this game is for you! i give it 4 out of 5, mostly because i feel the price of 20 bucks is a little steep, but if you like this sort of thing, it's definately worth every penny!

I have enjoyed this game quite a lot in the last few weeks. I bought the Steam version over the GOG version because Steam gets updated with the current patches, but GOG only gets the primary releases which means they're several major patches behind. I will never play the multi-player, but I have heard the wait times are abysmal. The single player is quick, cut-throat, and utterly savage with the AI showing no mercy. I like this game, and would highly recommend this game for anyone that loves board games and hates having to play with jerks in real life. This game simulates the experience without losing friends.

Ups and downs, but fun regardless, especially so when playing with friends.

It's good in that the gameplay is solid and straightforward, with a simple set of rules but a lot of room for skill and creative maneuvering. It's particularly interesting in that it's not always clear whether it's good or bad to accumulate or lose points in a certain statistic. Some games you will want to be poor, some games rich, some games you'll be forced to make unconventional plays, and some games you'll find it better to suicide in certain situations, even though suicide is a bad thing in this game. Or is it?

Only thing that bothered me about the game was that it just took too long for the AI-controlled units and entities to take their turns.