Gloomhaven

20 hours in and loving it.

Initially had some issues and bugs regarding multiplayer, but verifying the game file integrity seems like its cured that.

No set up or pack down time makes it a lot more accessible!

As someone who really enjoyed the tabletop version of Gloomhaven, I was excited to try the digital version — and while it has its perks, it definitely feels different.

The digital version is a lot more convenient. Not having to leave a giant board set up for days is a huge plus, and navigating everything is way easier with the interface. That part alone makes it super accessible, especially for casual sessions with friends.

That said, I personally found the tabletop version more engaging. The digital version has a lot of animations that, while nice to look at, slow things down a bit. It just doesn’t have the same feel of being hands-on and fully immersed like the board game does.

I also had a bit of trouble setting up a party and inviting friends — it worked eventually, but it took a few tries to get everything running smoothly.

Overall, it’s a solid way to enjoy Gloomhaven if you can’t get a group together in person, but for me, the physical version still holds the top spot.

Actually very fun port of the board game, simplifying the setup and shortening the play time, while keeping the mechanics faithful. Really enjoying it!

Digital version of the board game saves you so much time and effort, you will be able to try out and unlock all of the classes, eventually. Hard to go back to the board game after this.

If you're coming here from the tabletop version, this does a great job recreating the game digitally while speeding up a lot of the gameplay (enemy turns, placing damage tokens, etc...). If you're unfamiliar with the tabletop game, I've noticed a lack of tutorial pop-ups while playing the first few scenarios that I would have expected in a game like this and it is probably worthwhile to get a good idea of the rules before starting the first scenario, otherwise it's still a great turn based rpg.

Just made it through by the skin of my teeth, i'm heading back in!
Great game!

I'm a big board gamer, but this app is EXPONENTIALLY better than the game in real life, automating everything for you and keeping track of all of the minutae. Highly recommended for people that like turn-based tactical co-ops and/or board game lovers that want to try out this highly ranked board game.

The digital version is really cool and it's nice to have everything automated for you. That is, when you aren't getting constantly disconnected. It's 2025. The game is 35$. This is ridiculous.

Another stupid thing is that DLCs must be owned by ALL players in your game for it to work. If you "activate" the DLC as the host, ONLY people with the expansion will be able to join.

Very gloom. Much haven. Would recommend. A little clunky.

Yeah, it's great. Except when your friend blows up an explosive rat in your face. Then it's less great.

Love the tabletop version of this boardgame. This is nice because it takes care of all of the tracking of the game elements.

Nothing goes wrong with this game other than the vibe becoming a little bit gloomy and boring after around 100 hours

Great representation of board game on PC! Totally recommend

Excellent value for money! This was a lot of fun to play coop.

Go make some buds and buy Hero Quest, its cheaper, easier to learn and more fun.

great game! first time playing it, recommend guildmaster for noobs like me.

I love the concept but I think the gameplay is too restrictive and unfun. Like, when you manage to figure out the right combos and sequences of events, it can be super fun and exhilarating but expect too much from you to even hit those moments in a rate fashion. Wish it was more flexible and more open ended game rather than each encounter being a puzzle with an optimal solution.

Not encountered any bugs or the like myself. Fancied Gloomhaven the board game but wasn't keen on the idea of time spent setting up/ tearing down so thought i'd give this a go. Have to be in the mood for some serious thinking though one bad move or burn them cards too early and you're done for

Great replayability, excellent card based progression system with plenty of modification options and perks

One of the worst support by publisher/developer. Unable to resolve a simple cross-save bug that is persistent across all platforms. This is a simple and basic fix. Get to it.

Bullshit mechanics - can basically lose a scenario based on dumbest luck despite playing all your previous hands well, wasting an entire hour. It's a skip for me

Gloomhaven is a board game that is essentially a card board video game. This adaptation just turns it back into a video game. The tabletop version is a blast, but the digital version takes care of all of the book keeping, runs the enemy AI for you, tracks your progress, does setup/tear down for you, and doesn't require the players to be in the same physical location. It's an improvement in almost every way. I played through the entire digital campaign with two friends and I eagerly await the day that Frosthaven digital is inevitably released so we can play through that too.

There's more than enough content to justify the cost. The actual board game runs for around $100 when you get it on sale, so getting this digital version during a Steam sale is much cheaper, even for four people. There are about 15 characters, all of which perform different roles and play drastically different from one another. The game has about 90-100 different scenarios and dozens of different monsters to encounter as well.

One caveat, unless you're a specific type of person, you're likely not going to want to play this solo. It's set up so you can play two-handed, but IMO, it's best played with other people, with each person only needing to run one character.

If you're familiar with, and enjoy the boardgame, I'd say this is a must purchase. I have the physical game but the setup time and space it takes means unfortunately it doesn't make the table too often... and the friends I play it with aren't local to me.

The UI takes a little bit to get used to - I do on occasion still accidentally use the top/bottom of the wrong card for movement only and get frustrated that once you accept the move you can't undo even if you don't reveal anything - this doesn't happen in the physical game or tabletop version. But despite this, the graphics are fun and immersive whilst staying true to the boardgame. The multiplayer works well over Steam

The only bug encountered so far is on occasion the client in a multiplayer can't see the text on their cards when selecting cards which is frustrating.

Pros: I love the whole wibe and genre, it's unrelenting and RNGsus will punish you but with skill you can tip the scale in your favor
Cons: Takes a considerable time and if you don't read the rules you will lose many scenarios as this is not an easy mode game.

Good fun game. Sometimes you have to grind it out. Very difficult to win on any of the hard modes.

ETA 2: App hangs itself after wanting to try Guildmaster Mode.

ETA 1: Custom Campaigns do NOT ALLOW continuation -- you can play your "campaign" only for one (1) session on your computer.

Ridiculous and cumbersome controls. The board game is a breeze; you can dynamically and easily act and react. This video game does not explain controls, and basic rules (e.g. which hex is targetable) you must infer by already having reviewed options for a New Game -- good luck if you didn't!

Neither "solo" nor "digital" is probably the best way to experience Gloomhaven, but digital is probably the best way to experience Gloomhaven solo. If you have an in-person group, go for the physical game; if you are reading this soon after I type it, how about Jaws of the Lion while waiting for Gloomhaven 2nd edition later this year. I have not played with online multiplayer, and I have yet to meet anyone who recommends that.

The digital implementation seems adequate. It is imperfect, but it also handles all of the setup, cleanup, and bookkeeping. Granted, the fiddly physical elements are part of the experience of board games, but we are already assuming you don't have a group and oh golly I cannot imagine setting up all those maps for a solo game.

I had a good experience with Gloomhaven digital. I do recommend looking up a PDF of the scenario book, just because some scenarios do not explain the special rules well or visibly, whereas the book calls your attention to them. Granted, that spoils some ambushes, but it is helpful to know what the game expects you to know. Part of the digital handling of special rules is just spawning more enemies, not throwing up a paragraph shouting "this pipe/tree/whatever spawns more enemies until you fix/destroy/whatever it!"

I play the boardgame version and this is a pretty good substitute. The levelling up is much quicker but it is a great stand in for the proper game. Pretty faithful recreation of the mechanics and the feel and a great way to learn the game.

Initial play is challenging as you work to understand the card burn system. DO NOT PLAY MORE THAN tWO CHARACTERS INITIALLY. There is no benefit and keeping powers and cards straight makes for prolonger turn play and more shenanigans.

Amazing how well balanced this game is. There are 17 character classes (that I've unlocked so far - maybe more?) and every one of them requires different styles of play and interacts with others in novel ways. Since parties consist of up to 4, that leaves huge numbers of combinatorics and the same level replayed with a different combination is an entirely different strategic challenge and experience.

Plays much faster than the board game and it's fun as long as you can manage multiple characters on your own.

Brilliant game. The Board game is exceptional as well

After many hours of playing the original table top edition of Gloomhaven. I am very dissappointed with the weird movement and illogical AI of the digital game.
Has anyone else experienced the unbalanced R&G of the combat modifiers?
We've been playing on Normal difficulty

Classic!

I really want to love this game given how much I appreciate the tabletop version. I really wish I could recommend this game as a faithful adaptation of the original version. This game is so broken I have to assume a drunk monkey with only a passing understanding of what a computer is did the coding. The interface is unintuitive garbage. The likelihood of mistaken inputs is absurd despite there being numerous prompts for input confirmation (seriously, how can you make such a broken input system with numerous guard rails?!?) Multiplayer connectivity is about the most shoddy I've ever experienced with endless disruptions in character control and forced wait while connections are reestablished, along with being unable to ingest new players in the middle of a round after they've been dropped from the session. Multiplayer view is completely ridiculous, forcing each player to watch what the other players are doing rather than being able to look at their own cards and plan their next turns. You cannot see all of your character's information (e.g. available cards, battle goals, personal quests, etc, from all phases of the game. In fact, no single phase will allow you full information. Movement cannot be undone on a turn despite being something of zero consequence excepting when a trigger occurs, such as opening a door. And my personal favorite: the Berzerker will randomly exhaust during missions when he's carrying a particular card. This is a known bug that has been present for OVER TWO YEARS!! Honestly, the developers of this game are among the most contemptible people I can imagine. They do not deserve your money or your respect, especially when cashing in on such a well developed title in the first place.

I will continue playing this game with my brothers because we are separated by 2000 miles and this is the only option we have of continuing our campaign, but I can confidently say that such a paradigm is the only in which I would recommend this title.

Very faithful adaption of Gloomhaven from the boardgame. In some ways, its even preferable (no set up or clean up, can play the solo scenarios without people being bored) but a bit easier because it lacks the random nature of you not knowing what other people are doing. I am hopeful Frosthaven will get the same treatment.

this game has a ridiculous system of dying when you run out of cards which deplete with each turn. feels as if you have to play exactly as they want without them telling you how they want you to play. i played the first encounter 5+ times and couldn't win even when i dumped the difficulty to easy. not because my characters where being killed i would run out of cards which insta KOs your character. there is no tutorial, so if there is a mechanic im just missing i will never know. the reddit posts about running out of cards only suggest using a very specific strategy which totally limits player freedom and choice

i found this game incredibly difficult. i don't think i beat the first encounter before i gave up. i have never played the table top but i heard good things so i decided to give this a shot, i glad to head that it's not like the table top.

I wish I could recommend this game, I really do.

The gameplay is great (not perfect), but the engine is so damn buggy it's not worth playing it. There are frequent desyncs between players in multiplayer, which boots you back to the menu in the worst case, and foces the leader to kick all other players in the best case. The line of sight tool barely works.

It's more frustrating than anything. Your time is better spent elsewhere.

I assume the game has been abandoned in an unfinished state due to lack of updates and numerous unaddressed issues.

I immediately couldn't launch the game because of a glitch. During the game your cards can simply disappear and you have to close out and reload, losing progress for that round. Repeatedly, glitches will kick one player out or desync them, or just stop any player from updating.

Honestly it's sad because it has so much potential to be like the board game, if only the developers followed through and finished it.

Shame on Twin Sails Interactive, I'll actively avoid and ward people away from their games in the future.

A faithful adaptation of the hit board game that does all of the heavy lifting for you. I enjoyed the multiplayer game for 38 hours before it started to feel too repetitive.

It's a co-op tactics game. That's kinda neat. And much love to the friends I played it with, but: that's kinda where it ends.

Gloomhaven is a game that uses a novel-but-kinda-annoying card mechanic to make generic dungeon crawls complicated and time consuming. If you want to kill Not-Exactly-Orcs and Not-Exactly-Elves in caves that are exactly 3 rooms, in search of treasure that consistently kinda sucks: well here ya go I guess. Gloomhaven's claim to fame is largely in board game-ifying a deeply videogamey experience, so feeding that back into a video game is sort of a Pooping Back And Forth Forever vibe.

Also it got mega buggy when the devs changed and rebuilt large chunks of the game for some reason? But that's mostly been worked out at this point, so if your only concern is bugginess, I can attest that it is Mostly Functional as a software product as of the last time I played.

There are a very limited amount of interesting choices in battle, rather you're always forced to figure out what the optimal choice is if you don't then you loose your progress in the battle and have to start over. The game does not respect your time at all.

Because of this limiting factor, it makes the battles feel more like bookeeping rather than an engaging affair. I feel this is another case of "the emperor's new clothes syndrom" where if you don't like it there must be something wrong with you instead of the actual gameplay being with the weak "get good" mentality.

I played tabletop Jaws of the Lion with a group of 4 and it had its moments, but was honestly kind of a slog. But the core Gloomhaven experience still seemed interesting, so I took a chance on the Steam version and really glad I did. I'm a tabletop gamer by default but this is a rare exception where I preferred digital. Really good experience, easy to manage the overhead and just focus on the mechanics and core game. There's a little oddity to the interface on Steam Deck but I got used to it quickly.

Invested 200 hours of gaming show that I really wanted to like the game.

I generally do like challenging games, but the regular campaign played on normal is for masochists. I had to retry >50% of the scenarios, some of them multiple times, to solve them. Most of them have a nasty twist requiring a very specific strategy which you usually find out when you are already half-wiped or out of turns. This becomes a brutal repetitive grind. Not my idea of fun. Mind, that was AFTER I learned the mechanics with the sandbox campaign. I found the boss fight scenarios were by far the easiest (I had 3 which I all managed easy on the first try) This also shows that the overall difficulty balancing is, well, strange.

The additional sandbox is MUCH easier because of the more predictable scenarios (also on normal difficulty I usually manage every scenario on the first try) but repetitive, Gets boring.

Add to that that the game is buggy and crashes from time to time.
Meh, feels like 200 wasted hours now.

I want to like this. It has everything I love in a game. But holy cow... your goal: Kill all enemies in all rooms.

In the very first room: Killed all enemies, all good guys are at 30% health, burned half of my cards. Double check to see that I'm on easy mode. Yup. Open door and see double the enemies at full health.

How does anyone beat the very first quest? Easy mode acts like insane ultra death mode. I can play Honor mode on BG 3, but this... this is a challenge I'm not sure I am willing to accept. I want to. I want to see this through, but holy poo poo. I just do not see how anyone can get pass the second room, let alone complete the quest.

Tutorial guides you through every button click you have to make until you start your first mission and then you are thrown into a fight with zero further tutorial of any combat mechanic.
You have to figure out your self that rests take place during the fight, that you need to rest to re-use your discarded cards, that you die once you have no more cards, entering the next room (and all further rooms) is part of the same fight and probably a lot more I don't want to figure out by retrying the fight again and again. It feels like this game expects you to have read the manual of the board game.

Also the UI feels a bit messy, I'm never sure which fighters turn it is or if I just accidentally skipped an action instead of confirmed it.

The computer is a cheating bastard and the difficulty is way too hard. 10/10, hard recommend. Looks great on any hardware too.

I thought this game looked cool so I shot my shot. I returned it lol. It felt un-intuitive and clunky. I had to read 100 pages to figure out how to attack. I killed the enemies in the first battle and it never ended and after 53min I simply had had enough. VERY UN FUN. 1 out of 10, would not recommend. Not for casuals who don't want to read a manual for 30 minutes trying to figure out how to attack :( Then have to search for how to end the FIRST mission. The art and design was cool tho.

Tabletop > this version.

That being said, both are absolute masterpieces in my eyes. If you have ever played the OG game, you will understand. It is such an elaborate board game and I am pleased with the way it translated to online play.

The game offers solo adventure and group campaigns. This online version is actually more beginner friendly and eases you into it nicely. I really like the lore and the voice acting they have incorporated. You get to pick from a vast array of mercenaries (and unlock more along the way), you get to choose a personal mission to work towards throughout the game and you can customize your player deck and equipment.

I can appreciate how much work must have gone into making this adaptation and that's why I love it so much. What I don't love are the bugs and glitches that I encounter on a regular basis when I am in the full swing of a campaign with friends. It is easily resolved with a hard reset of the game but it is still annoying. Thank god the game saves every player round >.>

Even with the resets, I have spent over 140 hours in this game and I have enjoyed every moment. No regrets.

I would recommend getting both versions of this game, seriously. Such an amazing dungeon crawling experience <3

P.S. please make Frosthaven x