OblivAeon Isn’t Just A Game, It’s An Epic Journey
For over 2 years, fans of Sentinels of the Multiverse have been waiting the arrival of OblivAeon. Now that it’s here, everyone is shocked at how expansive it is.
While not yet available in retail, some early copies and some Kickstarter backers are getting their copies of the latest and final expansion to Greater Than Games’ Sentinels of the Multiverse series of games. If you’ve never heard of Sentinels of the Multiverse, here’s a quick recap.
Players join forces, taking the role of comic-style heroes battling against a villain, using their powers, gadgets and allies to their advantage. Meanwhile, the villain fights back using all manner of attacks and abilities. Double meanwhile, the Environment itself creates stress for both sides, with anything from Distortions in Reality to actual, literal dinosaurs to some cops with nothing left to lose. The game play itself is pretty straightforward. Each player, villain and environment has a deck of cards and on their turn, they play cards, use powers and trigger effects based on the cards in play. All very simple. However, don’t let that make it seem like it’s a boring game. Sentinels of the Multiverse is so expansive, thematic and strategically deep you could play it over and over and never play the same game twice, even if you tried. It’s one of my absolute favorite games and I’ll jump at any opportunity to play it.
So, What the Heck is OblivAeon?
OblivAeon is the latest expansion for the game and, presumably, the final one. On top of the game itself, Greater Than Games has been using the expansion to tell a story. In this story, reality has been warped and twisted and timelines shattered. Throughout these rifts, heroes and villains came into our own timeline, and while in these timelines some recognizable heroes are tyrannical villains, other oppressive villains become indispensable allies.
The culmination of this story and the accompanying expansions comes down to the emergence of OblivAeon, a being beyond time and space who wishes for nothing more than to end all of reality. This new foe will require every hero in the multiverse to band together. But even that isn’t likely to be enough, so some long-standing villains will have to put aside their differences to join the side of good to save their own world from ruination.
Okay, the dramatic and theatrical stuff is over now.
OblivAeon is a HUGE expansion. While the core gameplay remains the same, everything else changes. First of all, you no longer play in a single environment. Now, there are two separate “Battle Zones” with their own Environment. Players and villains can move around to the different Battle Zones and will only be affected by the cards and effects in that Zone.
So, yes. I know. You’re not the only one thinking it. This looks like a lot. And you’re right. It is. OblivAeon brings a lot to the table, literally and figuratively.
Sorry, Luke Hector, for blatantly stealing this shot from your review video.
If you don’t like games where there are a lot of things to keep track of, OblivAeon isn’t for you. But if you’re like me and you like the challenge of having multiple problems to work through all at once and that feeling of overwhelming dread creeping over you, then buy a copy of OblivAeon right now. There is so much here and, admittedly, there are so many tokens and game effect triggers and minions and abilities and powers and effects and everything else to all pile on at once….. it can be too much.
Still, I’m the sort of person who likes that kind of thing, but it’s not for everyone. Still, OblivAeon brings a level of epicness that I have never seen in any game before. If you want a truly thematic experience that will get your heart racing with each turn and where revealing every card makes you wince in anticipation, this game will do that for you and so much more.
I realize I haven’t really touched on much of the gameplay and how it works and the mechanics used. There is so much new ideas and concepts here, I think it would be folly of me to even attempt it. To prove my point, here’s an example. Typically villains in Sentinels of the Multiverse are a double sided card and will often flip over once or back and forth throughout the game.
OblivAeon doesn’t have a character card. He uses an 8 page booklet to describe how he plays. If that doesn’t set the grounds of the scale of the game, I don’t know what will.
If you’re hesitant, I get it. Like the title of the article says, OblivAeon is much more then “just a game”. It’s a multi-hour, brain-melting, heart-attack-inducing, sweaty and epic thrill ride of an adventure which is not for the novice hero.
If you haven’t guessed by now, despite some people’s hesitance to the scale and “fiddlyness” of the game, I still hugely advocate for it. I love games of this scale and I look forward when the time arrives I get my own copy.
Thanks for reading!
