Catacombs Review

Dexterity meets dungeon crawler in this unique experience from Elzra Games.

In Catacombs, players attempt to navigate through 8 floors of a dungeon while fighting the Catacomb Lord's various minions. One player plays as the Overseer, controlling the Catacomb Lord and minions while also controlling the game. The other 2-4 players control the heroes that are trying to vanquish the Catacomb Lord. This is achieved through flicking your players pieces at the enemies on the board. If you hit a disc then it is 1 damage (unless there's other modifiers). Most of the minions only have 1-2 health until the later stages where you'll see more powerful creatures. Once the final stage is reached, the Catacomb Lord's Lair, the heroes must take on the Catacomb Lord. This is no easy feat as the lord as lot of different tools at his disposal and can do a ton of damage and by now the heroes have taken a beating. Kill the lord and the heroes win. Kill the heroes and the overseer wins.

The Good: Catacombs is a fantastic game! There is a ton of content packed into the core box providing a lot of replayability. There are 4 Catacomb Lords, 6 heroes, 3 double sided dungeon boards, and a bunch of different items and enemies to uncover. I loved how much strategy and thought went into this game. You needed to be strategic with when you'll try and hide from the other player or when you'll commit and try to take them out. There's a lot of different shot types and effects as well.

The Okay: For someone that may not be as experienced with playing hobby board games, there can be a lot to manage. In a 2 player game, one player needs to control all 4 heroes, their player boards, and their items. Once the flow of the game really starts going, it does not seem to be a huge issue but my wife has been subjected to playing games with me for the last 18 months so she's getting pretty good at managing a lot of moving pieces.

The Not So Good: This was a similar complaint I had with Catacombs Cubes, there's a lot of stickers to put on the discs. I recruited my wife to help me out with them this time at least. I absolutely understand the need for stickers, though. The cost of screen-printing every disc would be insane I'd imagine.

Overall: 9/10

I loved my time with Catacombs. There are so many different elements that I enjoy. I'm a huge fan of dexterity games. This felt almost like Crokinole just with more imaginary violence. This is a game that went straight to my top shelf of favorites and I cannot wait to play this again with more players and a different lord. If you're someone that enjoys flicking discs then Catacombs should be at the top of your list.