Embark Studios has outlined its plan to deal with Arc Raiders cheaters after they became a hot topic in the community earlier this week.
Cheaters are a concern for nearly all multiplayer games, but they’ve become an especially controversial subject amongst players recently. Reports of cheaters seem to be increasing in recent weeks, as players share clips and stories of others shooting them through walls and from unreachable areas. The conversation then reached a boiling point when popular streamers like Ninja, Nadeshot, and Shroud began publicly voicing their concerns.
"This might be my last day playing for a very long time... Embark has zero control over their game right now"
Embark confirmed it is taking action against the cheating problem in a message posted in its official Discord server. The note comes with an acknowledgement of the discussion surrounding cheaters in the community, promising that the studio is “taking this issue very seriously” as it awaits further feedback.
“Over the next few weeks, we are implementing significant changes to our rulesets and deploying new detection mechanisms to identify and remove cheaters,” Embark said. “This includes updating our Anti-Cheat systems for improved detection and bans, as well as applying client-side fixes specifically addressing the ‘out of map’ glitch.”
It’s unclear if Embark’s efforts will be enough to deter the most problematic Arc Raiders offenders, but it’s at least a sign the studio will take action through January. The message also comes with a promise specifically for streamers, saying the team is “introducing tools for streamers to help mitigate stream sniping.”
“Thank you for your valuable feedback and for helping us make ARC Raiders a fair and fun experience for everyone,” the message concludes.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
2013's Batman: Arkham Origins may not be the most critically beloved entry in the series, but many fans would argue it's the game with the best Batman costume design. Now Hot Toys is finally giving that costume its due with a truly stunning 1/6 scale figure.
Check out the slideshow gallery below for an early look at Hot Toys' Batman: Arkham Origins figure:
This figure stands an impressive 12.7 inches tall and features a detailed recreation of the character model from the game. The head boasts individually rotating eyeballs and interchangeable faceplates that allow for different expressions.
The figure also includes various other accessories you'd expect, including Batman's various gadgets and weapons, electric gauntlets, and interchangeable hands.
This is hardly Hot Toys' first time exploring the Arkham universe. In the past, they've released figures based on Batman's Arkham City and Arkham Knight designs, along with several of the alternate suits from those games and villains like Joker and Harley Quinn. As for Arkham Origins specifically, Hot Toys previously tackled Deathstroke (who makes a cameo appearance in the photos above) and Batman's armored XE Suit.
The Batman: Arkham Origins figure is priced at $300 and is available to preorder on Sideshow Collectibles. The figure is expected to release between January and June of 2027.
Warning: Spoilers follow for various TV finales from years past...
There have been many series finales that have split fandom over the years, whether they involved visits to the Iron Throne, the afterlife, or even Holsten's (and maybe the afterlife, too, in that case?). It's often clear when it comes to ending a favorite TV series that it's hard to keep everyone happy, and frequently viewers are left steaming, even if some others are satisfied.
Stranger Things has become the latest series to divide the fan community with its long-awaited and very controversial series finale. There's even a term for this particular phenomenon - "Conformity Gate" - with some fans clinging to the hope that Netflix would drop a secret real finale episode. Needless to say, that theory didn't pan out.
So with the furor over Stranger Things still raging, let's take a look at some of the more outrageous, divisive series finales in TV history. These aren't bad finales, just ones that made bold creative choices that didn't sit right with a large portion of the audience. Read on for the full list...
In the end, many felt let down by the fates of most characters, along with the nice and neat epilogue that crowned a new ruler of the realm. Even those who didn't hate the finale would readily admit it wasn't exactly the best ending possible. Yes, this particular Song of Ice and Fire saga split the kingdoms and sent Westeros to war one final time.
Lost: "The End"
Lost chose to deliver an emotional finale - based more on the feelings, desires, and ultimate happiness of the characters - over one that answered lingering questions fans had stockpiled over the years. Many liked the focus on the heartstrings while others were frustrated with the lack of specifics.
And no, they weren't "dead the whole time." Well, except for those in the flash-sideways scenes during the final season. They were in a type of purgatory. But the others weren't. Some lived on after the island and died from natural causes. It was then that they all joined up in the limbo church for a final farewell. The fact that none of this was abundantly clear though probably means the episode, and season, didn't do a bang up job exactly.
Battlestar Galactica: "Daybreak"
BSG's three-part mega close-out also wrapped things up with quiet emotion, as the notes from "All Along the Watchtower" created coordinates that led our heroes to a habitable planet filled with primitive humans. Our Earth. Sure, the stripping away of all technology rubbed a few fans the wrong way, but it was the crazy 150,000-year time jump, and the "humanity is doomed to make machines too sentient again" messaging, that split the viewers. It's always going to be risky to leap that far ahead, to the point where every character you cared about is a fossil, for a moral that many fans already understood.
The Sopranos: "Made in America"
Like the BSG closer, The Sopranos' finale really lost people right at the very end. Right when the music stopped and the screen turned to black and a lot of fans thought their TVs went out.
The creative swerve got a ton of flak at the time, though now, years later, many fans and critics have come around on it as one of the more daring examples of "different" done right. And it certainly hasn't hurt The Sopranos in the annals of TV history as it's still considered one of the best series of all time.
Seinfeld: "The Finale"
Yes, it became abundantly clear over the years that Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer weren't great people. In fact, once the show leaned into their shallowness, it hit its creative stride. But sending the guys to prison? Because they weren't great people? It was just a bit too much for many Seinfeld loyalists.
None of this stopped the episode from being a ratings juggernaut though, or the series itself from going out as the number one show on TV. Like The Sopranos, the finale didn't make a dent in the show's legacy. What can we say? Sometimes it's the journey and sometimes it's the end.
St. Elsewhere: "The Last One"
What if there was a popular, long-running, acclaimed '80s medical drama that, right at the very end, told the audience that nothing they'd seen for 137 episodes was even real. And then that weird ending became the show's overall legacy, spoofed for decades by other shows.
This is the case of St. Elsewhere, which closed things out with the reveal that the entire hospital was inside the snow globe of an autistic boy named Tommy. Tommy had been dreaming that his father was the hospital's medical director when, in fact, as revealed in the final scene, he worked in construction. I guess the title St. Elsewhere should have clued people in, right? Anyhow, this final beat left many fans bewildered and belligerent.
Star Trek Enterprise: "These Are the Voyages..."
Though Star Trek Enterprise isn't really considered one of the top tier Trek series, it still had a ton of fans. Some of whom were left stunningly cold after the show's finale jumped six years into the future and split the narrative between the regular cast and a holodeck adventure featuring TNG's Will Riker and Deanna Troi.
This "valentine for the fans," that was meant to connect Enterprise to TNG, fell flat for many as Captain Archer's story wound up feeling like second-billing and under-rug-swept.
Felicity: "Back to the Future"
If you had to guess which TV show suddenly dove deep into time travel for its final installment, not many would have guessed "late '90s college love triangle dramedy" Felicity. Unless you thought it was possible for all J.J. Abrams shows.
Actually, the time travel stuff started a few episodes earlier (after the show had planned out its final episode and the WB Network ordered five more) and viewers got to experience an alternate timeline in which Keri Russell's Felicity got to go back (thanks to a spell from her goth roommate) and make different choices.
Regardless, many said the show just didn't feel like the show anymore by the time it ended. Including the cast. And that might be a recurring element here when it comes to divisive finales -- when, for whatever reason (pacing, tone, freakin' impromptu time travel), the story no longer feels like the one you've been following for years.
Which TV finales did you find to be the most outrageous and divisive? Vote in our poll and discuss in the comments!
Nintendo Switch 2 sales over the holidays reportedly fell short of those recorded by the console's predecessor back in 2017, during its first end-of-year season.
As revealed by The Game Business, Switch 2 sales in the US and within key markets in Europe fell behind the equivalent pace of Switch 1 — something an unnamed senior Nintendo source blamed on a "complicated" economic climate today, and the "absence of a major Western game" during the year-end period.
That particular analysis will likely raise eyebrows among Nintendo fans, as the company launched the long-awaited Metroid Prime 4: Beyond during the period — albeit to a more muted critical response than the franchise's beloved original trilogy. Nintendo has so far made no announcement on how that game has fared.
The Game Business reports that US Switch 2 sales over the holiday period were down around 35% versus the Switch 1's sales performance back in 2017. In the UK, a similar comparison saw Switch 2 lagging Switch 1 by 16%. Even in Nintendo's homeland of Japan, Switch 2 holiday sales couldn't match Switch 1, and were down by 5.5% over the year's final nine weeks.
In France, 2025's final tally of Switch 2 sales was down by "over 30%" versus the amount Switch 1 notched up back in 2017, meanwhile.
While these numbers may take some of the shine off of a successful first year for Switch 2 overall, it's not all doom and gloom. Switch 2's lifetime sales in Japan are still above what Switch 1 managed in its first year, with less time on sale. And in the UK, Switch 1 continued to sell well enough that it made up Switch 2's holiday sales deficit.
Looking ahead, Nintendo has a smattering of first-party games already planned for 2026, including Mario Tennis Fever, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book and Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, as well as Switch 2 upgrades for Super Mario Wonder and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. There's also the FromSoftware exclusive The Duskbloods to look forward to, and the promising-looking Pokémon Pokopia life sim.
But as the Switch 2 prepares to celebrate its first anniversary in June, all eyes will be on Nintendo to roll out a truly new blockbuster entry in one of its biggest franchises. Back in 2017, Switch 1's first year was marked by the launch of both Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Nintendo has not released a major new 3D Mario platformer since, while it will soon be three years since the arrival of 2023's The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Switch 1's other top-selling titles include Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Animal Crossing: New Horizons — and for now, there's no suggestion a big new entry in either franchise is forthcoming. Smash Bros. series boss Masahiro Sakurai has only just finished work on Kirby Air Riders, while Nintendo is opting to update New Horizons for Switch 2 this year, as previously mentioned.
Could we see a new 3D Mario in 2026? Nine years on from Super Mario Odyssey, now feels like the right time. And then there's Pokémon, which celebrates its 30th anniversary next month. Could we get a glimpse soon of the series' long-awaited 10th generation? The arrival of these titles would certainly help Switch 2 keep its momentum, following last year's explosive launch.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Predator: Badlands is making its physical media debut with its own steelbook release alongside a standard 4K and Blu-ray. For those who are dying to add this one to their library, it's thankfully not too long of a wait, as it's set to be released in just over a month on February 17.
Below, we've broken down where you can preorder the film right now, alongside information on the bonus features it comes with. For those who love a good behind-the-scenes breakdown, it seems like there will be plenty to enjoy.
The steelbook case for Predator: Badlands boasts quite the action shot on the front and comes with a 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and digital copy of the film. The 4K and Blu-ray covers are a bit busier and mainly feature the characters front and center, but the former also comes with a 4K, Blu-ray, and digital copy of the film. The Blu-ray release just comes with a Blu-ray and digital copy.
Predator: Badlands 4K/Blu-Ray Bonus Features
There's plenty of great bonus features to look through on the physical release of Predator: Badlands, whether you're itching to watch behind-the-scenes featurettes or deleted scenes. Here's everything you'll be able to watch:
Embodying the Predator - Meet the artists as they bring one of the most terrifying creatures to life on screen.
Authentic Synthetics - Join Elle Fanning as she describes crafting her two characters.
Building the Badlands — Uncover how real locations were transformed into a threatening landscape.
Dek of the Yautja — See the development of the Yautja's home world, spacecraft, and family dynamics.
Audio Commentary by Director Dan Trachtenberg, Producer Ben Rosenblatt, Director of Photography Jeff Cutter and Stunt Coordinator Jacob Tomuri
Deleted & Pre-Visualization Scenes with Audio Commentary by the Director and Filmmakers
We had a lot of fun with Predator: Badlands, giving it an 8/10 in our review. IGN's Clint Gage said that, "Badlands, in shifting the perspective to a Yautja main character, actually highlights what’s been great about this franchise in its better moments. Dek and Thia are an unexpectedly fun pairing that bring a new energy to the franchise and an altogether different kind of hunt. It might not be pulling the skull and spine out of us and screaming in bloody victory, but it gets close." If you're eager to join the hunt sooner rather than later, the movie has also arrived on digital.
If you're hoping to add more movies and shows to your library this January, check out our roundup of upcoming 4Ks and Blu-rays. Here, we've broken down what's coming out over the next few months, so you can plan ahead on what's worth adding to your library.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.
Corsair's Galleon 100 SD is the keyboard I've been asking for for years: a mechanical gaming keyboard with proper Stream Deck keys, complete with the built-in screens, wide Elgato ecosystem integration and customization that make them so useful.
The Stream Deck keyboard looks exactly as you'd expect given the concept, with the usual number pad on the right-hand side of a full-size keyboard excised for a grid of 12 Stream Deck keys. You might not have anticipated the other inclusions though, including a surprisingly expansive 5-inch LCD display above the key grid and two knobbly dials above that.
The Galleon represents a trade-off, as you lose out on the satisfying key feel of a proper mechanical switches for that number pad area, but the flexibility that you get in return from this number of customisable keys, the display and the knobs feels fair.
As well as being able to control Elgato lighting, microphones or cameras, launch programs and make audio adjustments while listening to music or taking calls, Corsair's Galleon 100 SD page shows significant game integrations. Games shown include Helldivers 2 (see your current audio mix and easily perform call-ins with a single key), Star Citizen (activate common functions on foot or while piloting a ship), Final Fantasy XIV Online (identify and perform actions via their thumbnail, rather than by memorising a key assignment) and Cyberpunk 2077 (with both immediate quick actions and further folders for less commonly used controls). It'll be interesting to see how many other games have pre-made profiles on launch.
Of course, the whole other 80% of the keyboard is also important, and here the Galleon looks to follow in the footsteps of recent Corsair flagships like the Vanguard Pro 96. There are Corsair MLX Pulse magnetic switches and an 8000Hz polling rate for minimising input latency, 'flashtap SOCD' for expert counter-strafing in FPS games and a game mode for 'instantly switching to competition-optimized settings'. Typing feel is also accounted for, with the keyboard's aluminum frame packed with multiple sound dampening materials and gasket-mounted switches to guarantee smooth and deep-sounding key presses. A palm rest, passthrough USB ports and per-key RGB lighting are also nothing new, but complete the package.
Of course, all of this tech doesn't come cheap – and the Galleon 100 SD is the most expensive keyboard Corsair has ever produced, costing $350 in the US and £310 in the UK. That's a huge sum, but Corsair is no doubt betting that anyone already depending on their Stream Deck ecosystem would be willing to pay a premium for a product that combines a Stream Deck with a top-end mechanical keyboard. The Galleon 100 SD is available for pre-order now and ships from January 29th.
Artist Dan Dos Santos has left a big mark on the Marvel Universe in recent years, as he's the painter responsible for the 2022 Marvel Masterpieces trading card series. Dos Santos' gorgeous oil paintings for that series and other works will now form the basis of Clover Press' newest Marvel art book.
With the crowdfunding campaign for The Marvel Art of Dan Dos Santos now live, IGN can exclusively debut a new preview of the Spider-Verse-themed portfolio set that will be included as an optional extra. Get a closer look in the slideshow gallery below:
The Marvel Art of Dan Dos Santos is a 9" x 12" hardcover that clocks in at over 200 pages. The book features many of Dos Santos' published paintings alongside rare and unseen artwork. The Kickstarter campaign includes optional bonuses like the aforementioned portfolio, stickers, a slipcased edition, and even original art sketches.
“I’m incredibly excited about this new collection of my Marvel artwork,” said Dos Santos in a statement. “Over 30 years ago, as a young teen, it was my exposure to a similar collection of Marvel art that set me on the path of wanting to be a professional artist in the first place. So it is incredibly apt, and really thrilling, to see it all come full-circle in this new collection of my own. This book represents years of work, and contains hundreds of paintings that I feel are my finest work to date. I labored tirelessly to breathe as much life and backstory into each of these modern mythological heroes as I could. It is my hope the next generation of young artists and fans will find these characters as inspiring as I found them so many years ago.”
Sometimes it's fun to match wits in a board game with other players in competitive matches. But many of the best board games go the other way and embrace the spirit of cooperation. Co-op board games come in a wide variety of themes, with varying levels of complexity so you can find one for players of all ages. Below, we've selected our favorites on the market. For more game night ideas, check out our other roundups, including the best board games for kids and the best two-player board games.
The Spiel des Jahres is the most coveted prize in board gaming, but it had never been won by a 2-player only title until 2024, when Sky Team scooped the gong. Its secret is giving two players the thrill of a fistful of dice to roll and the challenge of an instrument board that requires all sorts of different values and combos to satisfy as they try to land a plane, but then limiting communication, making for an incredibly tense time as you try not to accidentally step on each other's toes. Add in a slew of different scenarios of increasing challenge in different conditions at different airports and you've got the ultimate two-player cooperative experience.
Slay the Spire: The Board Game
f you've every played the video game on which this is based, you'll realise that it's only a short hop to take its insanely addictive deck-building formula and port it to tabletop. And, as we explained in our Slay the Spire: The Board Game review that's exactly what this does, and it's just as insanely additictive as you remember except now you have the added joy of getting to play it alongside friends which, as it turns out, is the big step-up that the game never knew it needed, allowing you to celebrate your triumphs, plot your strategies and bemoan your luck to enrich every tower run.
The Fellowship of The Ring: Trick-Taking Game
The trick-taking concept is so baked into traditional competative playing card games like Hearts that it comes as quite a surprise to find it can be repurposed for cooperative games. But that's exactly what happens here and not only is it just as challenging, exciting and fun as it is when playing head-to-head, but this box of delights also adds a narrative layer that sees you playing through the first book of Tolkein's masterwork via a series of missions, as we broke down in our Fellowship of the Ring: Trick Taking Game review. As a bonus, the production is absolutely lovely, especially at such a reasonable price point.
Nemesis: Lockdown
Lots of board games have tried to replicate the success of the Alien franchise, but it took this unlicensed homage to perfect it. Players must work together to survive a terrifying incursion of hostile lifeforms into a Martian base. You're on a constant high wire between staying slow and quiet or getting things done fast but attracting alien attention. It’s full of detailed mechanics that can spin the game out in crazy directions, from literal firefighting to a gung-ho battle against the extraterrestrial foe. The challenge is tough, the narrative detailed and the tension always escalating. But the real kicker is that it's possible for your friends not to be friends at all thanks to hidden goal cards that could be supportive or could be murderous, or the corporate military wing could be coming to take you all out to ensure your silence.
Narrative-heavy board games have always faced a content problem: there’s only so much variety you can achieve with boards and cards. Sleeping Gods belongs to a family of adventure games that bypassed this problem by putting everything into a huge flip-book, featuring a mix of maps for different quests. Sleeping Gods stands head and shoulders above its peers thanks to two things. First, it’s outstandingly rich storytelling, as you run through a rich mixture of encounters, characters and side-quests as you attempt to guide the lost ship, The Manticore, and her crew home from the strange dimension in which it finds itself. Second, is the detail with which the ship is brought to life, both in terms of strategic resource management to keep her going and her presence in the game world. Such is the wealth of content available that you can easily see a whole different story on a second play through, and such is the fun of doing so that you’ll surely want to try.
Marvel Champions: The Card Game
This is a “Living Card Game,” which means it’s kind of collectable, like Magic: The Gathering, but there’s no random element. You just buy sets and expansions knowing what cards are in each. And unlike a lot of LCG's, deck building is easy because it’s modular, seeing players pick fixed sets of cards to create decks for their hero and the villain you’re all working against. The meat of play features some classic concepts like dual-use cards alongside novel ideas like each player being able to flip from their hero to their alter-ego, with different abilities and hand sizes. This sets up some really interesting combo-based play where you pull off cinematic moves as you work together to thwart the villain’s schemes and save the day.
Frosthaven
To call Gloomhaven a fantasy adventure game is technically accurate, but a bit reductive. It tells the story of mercenaries chasing different goals in a changing world, and the legacy they leave behind. Gloomhaven takes the legacy system from Pandemic Legacy and weaves it into an epic fantasy campaign that takes place over generations. Each hero comes with a personal goal that, when completed, sends the hero into retirement and unlocks new classes and story elements. Upon retiring a hero, you will take control of another, which results in an impressive sense of time progression. The game includes several sealed boxes that are only opened upon reaching certain milestones, which makes Gloomhaven a game with a grand scale that is unmatched in the board game medium.
This epic game is out of print, but now has a sequel, Frosthaven, with an all-new narrative and fresh subsystems which see you expending and guarding the titular town.
Paleo
At first glance, this game of Stone Age survival doesn’t look anything special. You create a deck of cards for the scenario you want to play and distribute them between the players. Then you take it in turns to flip a card from your pile and face the challenges thereon with the skills and stone tools available to your tiny tribe. The magic happens when tribes come together, pooling their resources to overcome one tough encounter, but doing so loses them the chance to interact with the other tribe’s card. All at once, this mirrors a real slice of stone-age life, agonizing over passing up opportunities in order to secure an important prize, while giving players real emergent cooperation in how much they choose to aid each other. The survival narrative and variety of scenarios are just the icing on the rock cake.
Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 (Blue Version)
Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 (Red Version)
Pandemic put cooperative games on the map, and for good reason. Much of the genre’s hallmark mechanics originated here, from action point allocation to player roles with unique abilities. It also spawned a bevy of expansions and spinoffs, but Pandemic Legacy is the best and more revolutionary take on the virus-eradicating co-op game.
It takes the core rules of Pandemic and stretches them into a campaign-length adventure played out over several sessions as you race to cure disease and prevent epidemics. This version introduces permanence as a mechanic, as the rules force you to rip up cards, sticker the board and alter the physical components in other ways as things (inevitably) don’t go your way. The only potential drawback is that you must play with the same players each session, but because the game is so good everyone will be eager to jump back in.
Robinson Crusoe – Collector’s Edition
Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island is a daunting and dark game, but players willing to wade through the sea of iconography, hefty rulebook and stifling theme will be rewarded with a satisfying survival simulation that rewards communication and teamwork. Based on the 1719 novel, players take on the role of survivors of a shipwreck that are must work together to gather food, build shelters, stave off attacks and explore the island. The combination of different scenarios and player characters ensure good replayability, while the survival mechanics do a fantastic job of selling the theme.
A lot of games on this list are, to a greater or lesser extent, strategy affairs. But cooperation is a great mechanic to use in party games too, and Just One tops the list. All the players bar one get to see a clue, and they have to write down a word related to that clue. Then all the clues get revealed to the remaining player who has to guess the original word. Sounds too simple, except the catch is that if any of the clues are the same they get wiped, leaving the guesser far less to work with. It’s an ingenious idea that leaves players caught in an uncertain vice over just how obscure they cant get away with being, while still being worried they might be the victim of doublethink.
The Crew: Mission Deep Sea
You likely know trick-taking games from long time classics like Whist and Bridge. The Crew: Mission Deep Sea cleverly repurposes the concept into a cooperative game through the use of missions, demanding that certain players win tricks of particular types. So you might have to win a trick containing a yellow one, for example, or two consecutive tricks or even no tricks at all. This would be easy if you could show each other your cards, so your communication is limited to one card for the entire hand, recasting the game as a strategic puzzle with plenty of tension as you wait to see whether having to follow suit will tease out a critical card or fail the mission. Fast, fun and with fifty varied undersea missions, this is a pearl of a design. This game earned a spot on our best family board games list as well.
Return to Dark Tower
Some of you may have childhood memories of the original Dark Tower, an extraordinary 1981 fantasy board game powered by an electronic gizmo that gave it a real sense of magic and wonder. Most copies of that original no longer work, but it’s been resurrected and revamped in this new edition, which features an all-new, all-tech tower that connects to a mobile app via bluetooth. It allows you to select from a far wider variety of characters and quests, villains and monsters than the original. The board layout and major concepts of the original, such as collecting warriors, are retained, but between the app and a raft of new mechanics, the game is transformed into a narratively rich, strategic challenge where you must prioritise and deal with a series of ever-growing threats: it can also be played cooperatively as well as the competitive setup of the original. The app provides detail such as dungeon exploration, while the tower lights up and rotates of its own accord, spilling deadly skulls out into the kingdoms below.
Arkham Horror: The Card Game
If your co-op group could use an eldritch touch, get Arkham Horror: The Card Game to the table. In this cooperative card game, players take on the role of detectives who are investigating various supernatural occurrences within HP Lovecraft’s world of cosmic horror. It’s a scenario-based experience with each mission at the mercy of an arcane Mythos, a set of conditions that must be met lest the investigators succumb to insanity.
Arkham Horror features customizable decks that are built around each investigator’s special abilities, and most scenarios can play out over a handful of sessions, lending a feeling of progression to the game. As you investigate new location cards, gather clues, and fight monsters, your detective will amass weaknesses that can hinder future games which, thematically, illustrate the mental toll of dealing with arcane horrors. It's a great horror board game you can play with loved ones.
Spirit Island
Protect your island from a vicious mob of colonizers in this heavy co-op experience. Players are spirits of the land, and must use their unique powers to fend off settlers. Every turn, you’ll play a card from your deck of powers. Matching a card’s element with the element of the spirit usually grants a bonus effect, meaning that careful planning is necessary.
As the game goes on, the colonists will inevitably spread and ravage the land, making Spirit Island a race against the clock. They’re predictable, though, and if you plan efficiently you can head them off before they do too much damage. Players’ cards combo off of each other nicely, too, and there are few things in tabletop gaming as satisfying as eliminating a host of settlers in one fell swoop. Spirit Island is substantially more complex than other games of this style (Pandemic, Forbidden Island, etc.), making it an ideal choice for those seeking a meatier co-op experience.
Connexion
