Vast: The Mysterious Manor Review

Vast is yet another asymmetric game from Leder Games. This time, players are attempting to complete their specific characters' goal. This can vary from killing the spider if you're the paladin or controlling certain things if you play as the warlock. The core game has 5 different characters that you can use, each with their own win conditions. Most of this can be done by exploring the manor. As you move around, you'll uncover new rooms that can buff certain characters or hinder others. Each character has their own ways to slow down other players as well, such as the paladins lanterns which make it so skeletons can't enter the tile (they want to kill them). Any time you find yourself in combat, it's a quick check of attack vs. defense values and the loser retreats and the winner gets stuff. The player who completes their objective first will win.

The Good: While there's a lot of different characters, the playstyles are generally very straightforward. There are also included set up aids that give you insight for how to handle each other faction. For example, the spider wants to run away from the paladin, kill the skeletons, mostly avoid the manor, and doesn't care about the warlock at all. The overall synergy of characters being pushed towards one another while also staying away is masterfully done. Seeing minis from Leder Games is almost jarring but it's also a welcome change. While I love the wooden bits from their games, the minis help with the overall atmosphere of the game.

The Okay: An issue that is almost always prevalent with Leder Games titles is an ambiguous rulebook. This is a bit easier to follow than something like Root or Oath but there's plenty of interpretation needed and flipping back and forth to get where you want to be. This is somewhat expected when there is as much asymmetry in play and the foresight to include player aids and descriptive boards was a huge help.

The Not So Good: I think my biggest complaint here is that the solo mode only allows paladin v. skeletons. It works pretty well and gives an excellent introduction to the character but when there's 5 (7 with the expansion) characters to play with, it'd be nice to have ways to integrate them all into the game somehow. Yes, I realize there's fanmade variants but I wish it was a thing right out of the box.

Final Thoughts: Like controlling your own haunted house, quite literally, Vast is full of unpredictability. You never know what's in front of you and there's no guarantee that what's there will be there when you come back to it. The fact that every faction plays entirely different from each other gives you tons of replayability. While Vast isn't as popular as Root, it's much more approachable. Instead of a sprawling war game in a cute costume, this is like an escape room in a cute costume.

Thanks to Leder Games for providing a review copy.