Clank!: Catacombs

Clank!: Catacombs is a light deck-builder with a real board beneath it: a broad shared space where the game can actually put on a little show. It follows the familiar shape of the original Clank! and its relatives, while adding enough of its own touches that it does not simply feel like the old game in a new box.

At heart, it is still a deck-builder. You build up your deck and make use of the cards as the game moves along. The board gives that process something tangible, rather than leaving the whole evening as a neat arrangement of cards in front of you.

Movement and decisions now play out in a shared space, so the game has the pleasant feeling of unfolding on the table in front of everyone. Its new ideas do not replace the series' basic DNA; they freshen it up without sending it somewhere else entirely.

I liked it a good deal, perhaps partly because my own experience of the original Clank! amounts to one game. Had I already played another entry in the series to death, I cannot see a particularly urgent reason to buy this one as well. But for someone with no Clank! history, Catacombs is probably the best place to begin — quietly excellent on a Tuesday after work.