Cryptozoic, who has announced a new board game based on the seminal classic Batman The Dark Knight Returns.
The game will launch a kickstarter early next year, and while details are relatively scarce, what they’ve revealed so far is incredibly interesting. Designed by Daryl Andrews and Morgan Dontanville, the game will be a single-player campaign, which is pretty unique in itself. Playing as the grizzled, aged Dark Knight, the game will take Batman through a “gauntlet” of “old and new villains… and even his most powerful ally.”
You can play single, stand-alone missions, or a larger campaign where each mission changes the parameters of the next. What’s more, there will be an “attrition” element as opposed to the usual leveling up, and while it’s not exactly clear what that entails, it’s certainly piqued my interest. Frank Miller‘s Batman The Dark Knight Returns is perhaps one of the most iconic Caped Crusader stories of all time
Miller’s Batman The Dark Knight Returns forever changed not just Batman, but the comic book industry as a whole, bringing a darker and more cinematic feeling to the genre. The series is regarded as setting the stage for the modern Batman knew today, and majorly impacted the character’s overall shift in tone.
The story depicts an aging Bruce Wayne during the Cold War as he comes out of retirement from crime-fighting to don the cowl yet again. In this new game, the player is responsible for Batman’s fate. Batman brings his unique form of justice back to a Gotham that now opposes him as his journey brings him into conflict with both classic and new villains. Designed by Daryl Andrews and Morgan Dontanville, this new single-player board game throws fans right into the story.
The game features four separate replayable adventures, each of which can be played as standalone missions or combined into one large epic saga where stats and decisions carry over from one to the next. The game is absolutely beautiful, with character and vehicle game pieces that bring Miller’s designs to life.
The game gives comic fans an excuse to revisit one of the most classic Batman stories in a totally new way, while also still standing on its own to be enjoyable for those unfamiliar with the source material. The whole thing is insanely charming – even coming with Batarang dice – and the gameplay itself matches the quality of the design. Players traverse familiar Gotham landmarks in search of clues as they gather to fight and detective cards while triggering various events and battles, all while racing against the Doomsday clock. The Game is looking to be one of the most promising board games on the horizon, for sure.
