Perseverance: Castaway Chronicles – Episodes 1 & 2

We had played the standalone episodes of Perseverance quite a bit, but had avoided the campaign: it demands four substantial games played almost back to back. When the heatwave kept us indoors, we finally went for it. At first, it felt almost like a scam: this much-hyped campaign seemed to consist of merely 3–5 achievement tiles and a small rewards deck. And yet, that tiny addition changes the way the game works remarkably.

At its core, Perseverance remains a fairly relaxed dice-drafting and placement game. In the campaign, though, players are not looking only at the current game: they pursue achievements that unlock reward cards. Those rewards provide bonuses both in the current contest and in the setup of the next one, so every choice gains continuity and weight.

That connection across all four games is the real trick. Even when winning an individual game is out of reach, I am still looking for the best possible closing position, so that I can benefit in the campaign’s next stage. The catch-up works fairly without cancelling out the competition, and the result feels closer to the demanding, multi-layered Trickerion than to a simple standalone dice-placement game. Better still, all progress is recorded on score sheets, so multiple campaigns can run in parallel without the mess that a game such as Dead Reckoning can create.

For me, the campaign raised Perseverance enormously in my estimation. It is brilliantly clever how so little extra material transforms the episodes into one connected experience with momentum, motivation, and meaningful decisions from game to game.

Updated session

The second campaign fully confirmed that view, but also revealed its cost. The two Episode 1 games went smoothly, with the right amount of brain-burn and karate, but they had already exhausted me, so we left the rest for the following day. Episode 2 becomes heavier still through the campaign marks and clearly more hardcore cards and powers; in some places, the tokens that grant extra actions make the game sprawl. After two games with pure playtimes of 3.5 and 4.1 hours, we finished it visibly wrecked. It remains a very good experience, and the campaign truly elevates the fun, depth, and brain-burn—I'm simply not sure I have the stamina to repeat it any time soon. Maybe in retirement, with one game per day at most.