Left Him in the Dust (Review of Clank! Legacy: Acquisitions Incorporated)

While there is a lot of buzz around legacy games these day, there aren't actually that many true legacy games around. A legacy game is one that is a campaign style (multiple sessions connect to each other), but your choices and actions leave a lasting "legacy" on the game. This usually comes about through adding stickers, tearing up cards, and/or writing on boards. I could be wrong, but I believe the first, or at least most well known, of these games is Risk: Legacy. That is not one I've played, but I have played three more-or-less legacy games now: Charterstone, Gloomhaven (see that review here) and now Clank! Legacy. I've spent the last nine months playing through the game with my friends Stirling and Brennan and this past Saturday night we played our last game (read about that here). 

Clank! Legacy takes the basics of Clank! (the full review can be found here), and adds legacy elements to it. Not only are you building a deck, running from a dragon, and trying to steal as much loot as possible, but from game-to-game you are changing your character and their deck as well as the board and your progression through the campaign. Legacy games are always hard to review because it's difficult to give specific examples without spoiling the game for others. If you do a search for Clank! on my blog, you'll see how often I have posted about the legacy and base game and it's, probably, very obvious that I love all renditions of Clank! Therefore, I'm going to give a spoiler-free review so that after you hear me rave about it, you will go out and buy it yourself! What are we waiting for? Let's dive in.

TOTAL PLAYS: 10 (or so) competitive

COMPONENTS

If you're a fan of the cartoony Clank! art like I am, there is just more of it here to love. I don't know anything about the Acquisitions Incorporated brand apart from this legacy experience, but their humour seems to fit perfectly with the style that is already present. All of the cards and boards are exactly what you'd expect from a Clank! product - good quality. Maybe not the best or highest quality, but nothing to complain about.

There are a few complaints that I do have, however, about the newly added legacy components. For the most part they are wonderful, but you do get some issues with the stickers. Sometimes they don't fit on a card properly and you have to trim things a little bit so the card can still be shuffled and used properly. Some stickers land on the board right on a fold and then tend to pop off the board when you put it away and take it back out. The stickers on the board also aren't super forgiving if you don't put them on exactly right and if you're a perfectionist, this can drive you a little crazy. I realize how nit-picky these complaints are, but I'm a reviewer! It's my (unpaid) job to find the little nits and pick at them! 4/5

RULES

If you've played the base game of Clank!, then you're pretty much ready to jump right into game one of this legacy version. That being said, read the rules carefully because there are definitely some changes. One rule change that I missed right off the bat was that there are no set amount of minor secrets - every time a player lands on a minor secret space, they pick one from the bank. In the base game, there are two minor secrets per space and then they're gone. I think we played this wrong for the first three or four games before I figured it out. As with most legacy games, each session tends to add new rules and components to the game. There are never too many new rules added at a time, so you never feel overwhelmed, but by your last game you realize just how much new stuff you are doing compared to the original game. 

Due to the massive amount of rule changes and possibilities and story entries that need to be read, there are times when a new aspect is a little confusing or there is a player error and something gets confused. At one point, we realized that I had read some rule wrong and we had to kind of back up three games and fix a few things and add some new things to the board. Player error, not really the game's fault, unless it can be blamed for just having so much content. There was also a brand new rule that was introduced at one point, but it seemed to be out of order and we were a little confused until we decided to just house rule it until it made sense. These seemed to be more of a game issue, although it was likely partially player error as well.  All of that to say, no, it's not perfect, but it's sure darn good. 4/5

GAMEPLAY

There is one huge reason why I like the gameplay more than the base game and one huge reason why I like it less.

First, the positive: there is definitely an aspect of cooperation involved in the legacy version. In order to accomplish all of the things you want to accomplish, unlock all the new locations, and reduce the number of negative consequences to you and/or the party, you need to come together sometimes. I LOVE this part of it. I'm not really a big fan of "take-that" games (where you purposefully attack/damage/ruin your opponents) and the regular game of Clank! does contain some of that. It's still here as well, but there is a lot more cooperation, which I love. It made my friends and I feel like we were a team, but we still wanted to see who was the best on the team.

Now, the negative: I so wish that I could have played this solo. It was amazing playing with my friends, but I think it could have been a great storytelling adventure for one person as well. The base game is my #1 solo game and I think adding the legacy components could have put this one on top. I've already sent Renegade a message saying there better be a sequel and it better have a solo option (that sounded more threatening than it was supposed to...).

In terms of the rest of the gameplay - it's all great. It takes the beauty that is Clank! and adds the legacy components of customization and consequences, as well as a hilarious story and rolls it into one amazing package. 5/5

REPLAYABILITY

This can be a particularly challenging aspect to review for a legacy game, or any storytelling game for that matter. Once you've played through the whole thing and figured out a good chunk of the story, is it worth playing again? I have a few different thoughts on this.

Let's say that you do get sick of the story after one go through. Well, that still gives you 10 (or so) plays before that happens and then you end up with a custom board that you can play one-off matches off forever and ever. That's pretty good.

What about this though - we finished the game and probably only used 2/3 of the stickers (maybe even less). There were also 15-20 cards that we never saw in the game. If we played through the game again and made different choices or had different game-to-game outcomes, who knows how different the story and the board could be?

Of course, we can't forget the fact that the story is woven into a game of Clank! - which is different every time. The trade row is different, the players are different, the map is different, the strategies and actions of the players are different. So many things in the actual game itself can be different from game to game. 

I've already volunteered my brother-in-law Logan to buy his own copy of this and offered to play through it with him as well. Yes, in a heartbeat, I would play this again. 5/5

FUN

It is rare to have a less than 30% winning percentage in a game and still have so much fun playing it. That's because the real point of Clank! Legacy is not winning, it's the experience. This game is a shared adventure with a party of like-minded adventurers. Yes, of course, you're going to try and win. Yes, obviously, I left Brennan in the dust to die a few times, but only because he had won SO MANY games with SO MANY points. 

Why is the game so fun though? I'm a big fan of deckbuilding in general, especially the way that Clank! does it. That feeling of growing in power and having some awesome turns near the end of the game is great and very present in the legacy version as well. Here, however, there are some added ways that you can customize your deck and character that are very enjoyable. It's difficult to say much without giving anything away, but there is more opportunity to grow your character and deck over the course of the game besides just the usual game-to-game purchases.

Besides the joy in building your deck, there is also much joy, humour, and laughter to be found in the story. If you think you would enjoy a sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek commentary on fantasy adventure games, this story is for you. Lots of important and meaningful choices but filled with wit and candor. What a blast of a story! All the little bits and pieces attached to the story, that I can't fully explain, just add to the theme.

My one real downside in the fun zone came at the very end of the last game. I'm trying my dangdest not to give anything away, but I was a little disappointed with how end-game scoring happened. To me it was a little anticlimactic, perhaps a little too sarcastic, and sort of a downer on the end. I also wish there was more cooperation throughout the entire game because, again, I'm not a big fan of competitive and cutthroat type of games and I think this could be just as good without it. To be honest, though, these are my only critiques on the fun factor of the game. I loved it and would play it again in a second. 9/10

TOTAL SCORE: 27/30 

Stop reading this blog, find two or three friends, and go buy this game right now. Well, ok, maybe you can wait until we don't need to socially distance anymore, but we played five of our games distanced from each other - two through video chat and three in my garage with me moving all the pieces. Not ideal, but we still enjoyed it. This is THE legacy game to own.

If you want more information on my review system, check out the full description here.