Clank!: Catacombs

What I really liked about Clank!: Catacombs is that it does not stop at deck building: it also has a proper board, a space where things happen, with that pleasant feeling of the game spreading out in front of you rather than being just cards. It is light and breezy, but it does not feel insubstantial on the table.

At its core, it is a deck builder, following the familiar pattern of the original Clank! and the rest of its family. I play with my deck, develop it over the course of the game, and use what the cards give me to move forward.

The board is what gives that whole process some substance: I am not merely building a better card engine, but moving through a shared space where things happen. Catacombs’ new ideas build on the familiar formula without abandoning it, so the interaction mainly comes through that shared playing field.

I would recommend it mostly to someone with no experience of the series, because it is probably the best first stop for me. I have only played the original Clank! once, so Catacombs worked very well for me. But if I had already logged plenty of games of another Clank!, I do not see a particularly strong reason to add this one to my collection.