Gloomhaven (v1.0.10497.27977 & ALL DLC)

Every expedition feels like a calculated gamble, where a chest full of gold may sit just beyond a room packed with monsters and a single bad decision can end a veteran mercenary’s career. Gloomhaven adapts the celebrated tabletop campaign into a demanding tactical RPG built around grim fantasy, persistent consequences, and carefully managed resources. Players guide a band of hired blades through crypts, wilderness routes, ruins, and hostile settlements while gradually influencing the growth of the town that shares the game’s name. Its mood is dark but not hopeless, with sharp writing and branching events giving even quiet travel moments a sense of danger.

Combat unfolds on a grid, but it does not play like a standard turn-based strategy game. Each character selects two ability cards per round, using one for its top action and the other for its bottom action while their initiative values determine turn order; predicting enemy behavior and your allies’ plans becomes essential. Cards do not simply represent attacks, either: they are your stamina, and powerful actions often permanently remove them from the scenario, creating tense choices between an immediate advantage and long-term survival. Completing missions earns gold, gear, experience, perks, and reputation, while retired characters unlock new classes with radically different playstyles. The full campaign supports solo play as well as online cooperative parties, making it especially rewarding for a regular group willing to communicate.

What separates Gloomhaven from most dungeon crawlers is its refusal to let brute force solve everything. Enemies follow readable behavior rules rather than relying on random AI, so success comes from positioning, initiative control, crowd management, elemental effects, and knowing when to abandon loot for the objective. The class roster starts accessible but grows wonderfully strange, introducing summon users, trap specialists, stealthy assassins, and other builds that can transform a team’s tactics. Fans of XCOM, Divinity: Original Sin, or deep board games will find a huge, thoughtful campaign here, though newcomers should expect a steep learning curve and demanding missions rather than casual fantasy adventuring.