CHENNAI: For years, the release of a long-awaited movie would be preceded by a flurry of tie-ins — video games, board games, collectable figures, you name it. As far as the gaming side of this went, few tie-ins were ever much good — most were just attempting to cash in on people’s excitement and/or nostalgia. Thankfully, that’s not always the case and, today, we’re discussing a game that’s a definite exception to that rule — Thanos Rising.
Thanos Rising was released alongside Avengers: Infinity War last year, and is a cooperative game for 1-4 players. Each player controls a team of Marvel superheroes (based out of Wakanda, or the Avengers compound or so on) and must recruit more heroes and defeat villains while trying to stop Thanos before he collects all the Infinity Stones. On your turn, you choose the sector that you’d like to go to, either to recruit a hero or fight a villain there. Then you roll the Thanos dice, which causes the Mad Titan to attack a particular sector (damaging every recruited or unrecruited hero there and triggering villain abilities) and get closer to discovering one of the Infinity Stones. As you might imagine, Thanos getting his hands on any of those are bad news — each Stone messes with you in different but equally annoying ways — and if he gets all of them, it’s game over.
Luckily, you can start fighting back now. Gather the dice indicated on your base card, as well as any bonus dice unlocked by hero abilities, and roll them. Heroes and villains need particular combinations of symbols in order to be recruited or defeated, and you must assign at least one of your dice to a card before you can reroll the rest. Rinse and repeat until you’re done, having hopefully added new heroes to your team or taken down a baddie along the way. Recruiting heroes isn’t just useful, it’s also necessary — if Thanos defeats ten heroes over the course of the game, that’s another way he can win. In order for the players to win, they’ve got to eliminate a certain number of villains — based on difficulty level — without Thanos hitting either of his victory conditions.
As befits a good co-op game — especially one based on Infinity War — Thanos Rising isn’t easy. The number of times Thanos just happens to target the most vulnerable sector will soon put you under the cosh, and it can feel like trying to hold back the tide. The dice-based gameplay does add a certain amount of randomness but, with the number of rerolls and mitigating hero abilities, you’ll never feel completely beholden to the whims of chance. The production deserves a call-out too, with a gigantic — and, to be honest, not really necessary — Thanos figure that dominates the central board. A cardboard token would’ve done the job as well, but this adds a table presence that can’t be ignored. The Infinity Gauntlet board, complete with Infinity Stones, is also a nice touch.
All in all, Thanos Rising appears to be that unlikeliest of beasts — a tie-in that’s actually good, and can stand proudly on its own feet without leaning too heavily on its source material. If you’re a die-hard MCU fan and you’re looking for ways to distract yourself after Endgame, this should definitely be on your radar.