INTRODUCTION

“Something seethes within you, pulling you back from the brink of sleep. In the blink of an eye, you’re on your feet, preternaturally alert. Is it your adrenaline? The wraith shoots you a challenging look before disappearing into the trees. You feel the weight of your sword in your hand, though you don’t recall having drawn it. You set off in pursuit of the creature with bounding strides.

But something is amiss. The feeling grows with each step you take. The wraith you are chasing should be fleeing more quickly. He should be hungry for prey, villages to haunt. He shouldn’t be drawing you deeper into this forgotten wood.

This forest… Have you been here before? You don’t think so, and yet…”

Since the dawn of time, the world of Kivros has been under the watchful eye of the Soul Raiders; powerful and devoted warrior-mages who have sworn an oath to protect the realm and its inhabitants from the forces of darkness, sending these tortured souls back beyond the Veil from which they spawned into the land. Designed by author Marc André (Splendor) and published by One for All, this upcoming cooperative adventure game has one to four players taking on the role of newly knighted Soul Raiders as they venture forth onto a quest of adventure, exploration, and self-revelation.

Full disclosure: I was kindly provided a preview copy containing prototype components and a prologue chapter of Soul Raiders’ overarching story from publisher One for All in exchange for my honest opinion. As is the case with all the content on table for ONE, I am not receiving any monetary compensation for writing this article.

COMPONENTS

As a disclaimer it is worth emphasising that everything you see in this preview copy of Soul Raiders are prototype components that are subject to change including the rules document and art assets. With that said I am really, really impressed with the aesthetic qualities that is on display. This is hardly surprising when considering that the impressive team of artists involved in this project includes the talents of Magali Villeneuve, Guilaume Tavernier, and Borja Pindado to name but a few. The result is a high-fantasy world that steers away from the occasionally brooding narrative and aesthetic structure that permeates similar games in the adventure genre, think The Witcher but less grim. Another key aspect of Soul Raiders that deserves recognition is the way the game presents female protagonists as strong, powerful individuals that wear clothing and armour that is functional and not hyper-sexualised, as opposed to the tiresome and downright degrading “scant bikini chain mail” tropes of yesterday. Games like the One Deck Dungeon series and Soul Raiders just goes to show that the representation of women in board games can and should move on from the pinup aesthetics.

Overall if the quality of this preview copy is an indication of publisher One for All’s attention to detail and commitment to this project, then I am most certainly looking forward to experiencing the finalised version of Soul Raiders.

GAME PLAY

As someone who plays board games more or less exclusively solo, Soul Raiders is the sort of game that makes me extremely happy seeing how the core design remains unaltered regardless of player count. Over the course of several chapters your hero will explore mystical locations, interact with its denizens, and engage in combat be it with weapons or magic against the terrors that roam the lands bringing forth the plague of darkness upon the world. All of these actions are powered by a deck of cards, the composition of which being unique for each Soul Raider. These action cards are dual purpose, offering a generic point value which can be spent to perform a basic action like moving or engaging in combat. Alternatively, the cards also grant a bonus which can be used to perform a much more powerful action if paired with another action card of the same suit. For example, a green movement card might grant the player a +2 modifier if used in conjunction with another green card whereas the red combat cards usually tend to increase your attack strength based on number of enemies.

This mechanism of deciding to perform several minor actions or combine your cards for a single yet stronger turn is interesting for several reasons. First, it allows the game to present multiple paths of exploration for your hero. With a starting hand of only four cards per round, the question of whether or not to spend two or possibly even three cards to progress on a more difficult albeit safer passage through the seemingly abandoned ruins is an interesting conundrum to say the least. Or do you instead decide to risk it, choosing an easier path hoping to not stumble upon a terrifying beast lurking in the shadows? Secondly, because the action cards are dual-purpose with a generic point value accompanied by a specific bonus activation you rarely find yourself stuck in a corner unable to progress during the remainder of your turn due to the randomness of drawing cards blindly from a deck. Finally, the action cards form an almost symbiotic bond with the overall round structure.

Rather than having each hero keeping track of their own individual health, Soul Raiders instead features a shared collective level of stamina known as Vitae which is represented on a track that loops around the edge of the main board. Regardless of player count, the exhaustion track will inevitably tick down a certain number of spaces after each round of play depending on the current threat level which constitutes the third part of this game mechanism trinity. The higher the level of threat, the more Vitae loss at the end of the round. In addition, the threat level also dictates how many monsters to spawn when instructed or even the severity of negative effects like poison. What is fascinating about this game system is the fact that once the Vitae marker makes its way all round the track your hand size decreases by one, representing the increasing amount of fatigue your hero is experiencing as a result of prolonged exploration or armed combat with the forces of evil. Seeing how your starting hand consists of no more than four cards, having one less to draw at the start of your turn is a severe blow to the progression of your Soul Raider. And although you can mitigate the loss of health to a certain extent by playing more cautiously there is no escaping the inevitable Vitae loss that occurs during the Reaction phase at the end of each round, acting as a timer which puts pressure on you to progress forward before your hero becomes too exhausted and subsequently succumbs to the darkness.

Which brings me to my main concern regarding Soul Raiders as a solo experience and that is the difficulty. Make no mistake about it, at times this game can be tough bordering on punishing due to the uncertainty of what the story cards might contain. In one instance my hero entered a new location, since I was not in hiding I was instructed to reveal a particular story card which instructed me that I was in fact plummeting down a trapdoor where my only salvation was to discard a specific value green movement card. Suffice to say I ended up landing in a pit of spikes, causing me to lose even more precious Vitae. When a game literally pulls the rug from under my feet it tends to leave a rather sour taste in my mouth, especially when the game already is a challenge in of itself. I suspect a large portion of my misgivings has to do with the notion of these warrior-mages sharing a collective pool of stamina, emphasising that Soul Raiders act as a single unit bound by their oath. Which in of itself is an interesting thematic representation of the core game mechanisms, the problem though is that this does not translate particularly well into solitaire play seeing how the number of Vitae lost at the end of each round is completely independent of the number of heroes. And even though Soul Raiders can be played solo using a single titular protagonist I was constantly aware of the game signalling that it is calibrated towards a higher player count. Just as an example, there are spell cards that allow two heroes to swap locations with one another which, as you might suspect, becomes rather pointless when solo playing Soul Raiders. A solution to this would be to play the game controlling two heroes, which in theory is absolutely feasible seeing how the game is a cooperative experience with no hidden information. Personally, I have never been particularly fond of this solution in general as I much prefer being able to focus and immerse myself on a single character.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Setting aside the solitaire aspect for a moment, there are unquestionably many good qualities to Soul Raiders. The dual-purpose nature of the action cards and how they are integrated with the escalating notion of fatigue is a fascinating design choice, creating a sense of urgency whilst simultaneously preventing the game from bogging down in an endless sea of side quests and bookkeeping. And based on the quality of the art assets provided in this preview, prototype version of Soul Raiders I am confident proclaiming that this is one of the most visually stunning board games I have seen and I for one cannot wait to experience the finalised version.

As for the solo experience I am cautiously optimistic. It is not that the current solitaire state of Soul Raiders is bad, quite the contrary as it has been my experience that the actual core game mechanisms lend themselves well for solo play. But I do hope that the final version of the game presents a more fleshed-out solitaire mode that takes the difficulty of playing with lower player count into consideration.

Look forward to Soul Raiders from author Marc André and publisher One for All launching on Kickstarter July 7th.