Sentinels of the Multiverse

Today's review is of the 2011 release, Sentinels of the Multiverse. For 2–5 players, it takes 30–60 minutes.

Overview

You and your friends are superheroes, each with your deck of cards granting you special abilities (like high-damage moves) or features (like artifacts, equipment, etc.). You are cooperatively against a 'bot' villain (with his/her own deck), and play at a location (with its own deck, too). After all heroes, the villain, and location are chosen, decks are shuffled, players draw initial hands, and the game begins.

The game turns are straightforward:

- the villain goes first, playing the top card of the deck and doing its effects

- each hero goes in clockwise order, playing a card and using an ability

- the location goes, playing the top card of its deck and doing its effects

game in progress; image from here

Generally, the villain deck will put out artifacts or powerful cards that are effectively shields for the main bad guy. The goal is to destroy all the artifacts and the villain before all the heroes die. Heroes will play cards that do damage, enable more actions, or do other things. Can you all succeed in time?

Review

This is a nice game. There are lots of options for villains, heroes, and locations, enabling good replayability. The villain, hero, and location decks remind me of a more complex version of Marvel United. As there isn't any licensed property here, the heroes/villains are all 'knock-offs' with clear equivalents in mainstream culture. The art isn't great, and the cards can be wordy. Still, it's a solid offering, and a definitive edition of this game (released in 2022) might have improved the presentation. Overall, I like Marvel United better, but this is worth checking out.

Rating: B+