Talisman Digital Edition Review
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Talisman Digital Edition is the virtual board game space created by Nomad games that emulates the play of the board game Talisman 4th Edition Revised. How does this game stack up against the board game itself and other digital board games out there? Let’s go on a quest together and find out in.
Talisman Digital edition was first released back in October 2013. The game has since been receiving updates including the expansions that were released for the physical version of the game as well as recently some digital only expansions such as the Realm of Souls, Ancient Beasts, and the Clockwork kingdom expansions. New expansions are still being supported for this game to this day.
Where Can I Play Talisman Digital Edition?
As of right now Talisman Digital Edition is available on the following platforms:
App Store (Apple)
Google Play (Android)
Steam (PC)
Nintendo Eshop (Nintendo Switch)
PS4
So that means that today, it’s pretty easy to pick up this game online from anywhere and start playing.
Interface
The interface to the game is fairly intuitive. The board itself makes it easy to understand when it’s my turn to roll the dice as well as follow the current players turn and their actions.There is an easy view to see all the perks and bonuses to your character on the screen as well that expand out if you want to read specific cards that I have found very handy, especially for follower cards that I pick up during the course of the game.
The home interface is really easy to follow and picking characters as well as the amount of players and the expansions that you want to utilize. The character cards are available for view on their perks when choosing them for your game. The names of the expansions are also available from where the character comes from.
The board moves from character to character per turn and highlights the spaces available to move or are affected by any effect when playing cards. One thing that I like is that the game tries to thematically tries to zoom in and out of areas at different times of the game. This can be countered by the player so they can see the entire board, but it does keep the screen from appearing static all the time.
When searching the board you can double click on spaces and see what cards are there. They will blow up to the center of the screen and show you the card description. Underneath in the information tab it will also say the name of the space and that space effect. For instance. If I had 1 card of the space, but the space was draw three. I know that I would still draw 2 cards and deal with them all in the appropriate order once my turn moves me there.
The characters playing will appear on the upper left side of the screen along with their current alignment and their Fate score, cash, health, physics and strength numbers. There is also the color jewel next to the character so you can see where they are located on the board easier. These sections of the characters can be expanded by clicking on them so you get full access to their items they are carrying as well as their existing trophies. and trinkets.
The game will prompt you to hand in trophies to level up strength of physics levels when your character passes 7 possible per combat type of trophies levels. Another perk of the digital system doing some of the remembering for you.
Talisman Digital Edition Gameplay
The game play is similar to how we play the physical game on many aspects. The game still plays on the six sided die that is rolled by clicking on the dice on the screen or the dice icon on the interface when it’s your turn.
An easy plus to this game is the decision speed of the PC characters. When playing the physical game, we have all been there when a player takes a good 5 minutes on their turn analysing the entire board. The game allows for 6 players. If you are wanting a shorter game, an easy way to do this is to just limit the game to less characters.
The game plays as expected very similar to the physical game with acception to some of the expansions that can be purchased.
The game does all the math for you and keeps track of follower abilities and items so these do not take as much time to sort through when entering combat and can be easily tracked and added. It almost takes more effort to not give your character the bonuses and item uses they are allotted.
One area that this game could significantly improve is the use of spells. Understandably this part of the game was hard to emulate because they are not always turn based spells. But I have played many games and I still have the issue missing the correct time to play the spells that I desire.
Another area that could use improvement in my opinion is much less important as it could just be my own negligence. I would run into missing a role or accidentally re rolling my dice with a fate once or twice a game. When playing for a long time, this can be a big deal because I accidentally clicked one more time then I should have.
Other than that I would say that the game is really easy to follow and accomplishes everything it sets out to be really well.
The PC AI is really bad. There are decisions that they make in this game that no sane Talisman player would ever make. I get that AI can be hard to do, but if it gets to the point where I can band on the AI making bad decisions, that just means that it’s a system that needs improvement. If possible, play this game with your friends over AI.
Graphics
The graphics in the game are nothing new, they get the job done and look good. It translates what everything is in the game and translates what each character is well. The graphics should transfer really well to the Nintendo Switch version of the game once it’s available. The character models are based off the miniatures received in the actual game. The new miniatures that are received with the expansions that never made it to physical form look very in line with the existing content as well so there is no jarring difference either in appearance of quality or art scheme.
The game has a lot riding on it from the art. Fortunately, the game has had amazing art given to it so this was probably not a struggle. Event the digital only expansion art is really well done and pays respect to the physical expansions and the game.
There is not much happening behind the board with a fog type background that is animated that changes based on the color of the character that’s turn is currently active. Just another visual cue that it’s someone else's turn that is a nice subtle hint.
The graphics are well handled where a first time player will be able to pick up the game extremely fast and follow what and why things happen for themselves as well as PC characters or if you are playing online with a group, you can see what they did on their turn.
Sound Design
If I am reviewing a digital game it would be remiss if I did not talk about the audio of this game. There is not not to say about it here though. It’s passable. The rolling of the dice sounds nice, but all the other effects like weapon swings, growls and other sounds the game offers are pretty un-offensive. The music is un-offensive as well. It’s background music that can be toggled. I find that I enjoy the game best when I am just listening to my only music or talking to my friends that I am playing against on Discord.
Talisman Digital Edition Multiplayer
Multiplayer is actually really well done here. The ability to save multiplayer games is a cool functionality that the physical version of the game doesn’t have. I know that when the game comes out at my house they run much longer than one normally would and would cause for players to sometimes not finish a game. In the digital edition this can be avoided. I would recommend that anyone in your talisman group gets at least the base game and gives this a try. especially if your group has to travel hours just to play a game in the physical world.
The turns move slightly slower but still the game feels like it moves faster than a physical game. It’s a must though to be on Discord or any other voice servers to communicate with your groups for these games otherwise they can quickly become a drag.
Once again I must emphasise that playing with friends is much more enjoyable and there is less stupid decisions made as a result my the players you are going against due to the simplicity of the AI when just facing PC characters.
Digital Only Expansions
The digital only expansions are a really nice incentive to pick this game up. Sure, the main game is in reprint at the time of creating this review along with talks of a brand new expansion being created for the game. The digital version has so much to offer including the ability to play with people anywhere.
The Lost Souls expansion extends the game significantly since players do not immediately die when they hit 0 life like they would in the regular game. Instead they are sent to an alternate board where they fight to get back to the main board. I think this is a really neat feature that only the digital version of the game will ever be able to capture. This expansion also comes with alternate decks to draw from in the spirit realm as well as 2 alternate ending cards.
Ancient Beasts adds 2 new character types as well as new monsters and other card types to the game like beast cards and beast reward cards. It also comes with some new terrain cards that alter the map by changing the terrain space. Finally the expansion here comes with 2 new alternate ending cards.
The most recent expansion at this point is the Clockwork Kingdom expansion. It comes with a traveling shop NPC character called Cog. When encountering this character you will get a material card. The cool thing about this expansion is the material cards allow for the invention of devices. This is another thing that I feel can only really be done in digital, otherwise gimped in the physical version of the game. The expansion also gives 3 new characters to play as well as 2 more new alternative ending cards.
The expansions tend to do things that the physical game would not be able to handle gracefully so it really starts to differentiate this game from the physical copy with the expansions if you are looking for something new. They’re well thought out and really well done and make the digital version a must get for Talisman enthusiasts.
Conclusion
There are not many games out there that emulate the real version of the game so well let alone build on it in such a way that can really only be accomplished in the digital space. Nomad games has knocked this one out of the park and I recommend it to any person that enjoys playing board games. The games last around 1 to 2 hours depending on all the additions that are added to them. If you are playing just the base game, you can expect around 1 hour. the expansions allow you to add another hour or even 2 to that digital game. Obviously online play cannot be measured as well as it comes down to your players speed on their turns.
Is this game fun. Yes, if you like Talisman, you will like to play this game. That being said Talisman can be overplayed at times and this game can burn you out if you play it more than twice a week as at the end of the day, this is still a longer style game that does take commitment and is best played with friends.
This is easily a game worth picking up and ranks up at the top with board game emulators. There is clearly love for this game that has been put into it by other Talisman players at the development studio. If you want to pick up a copy you can go to this: https://store.steampowered.com/app/247000/Talisman_Digital_Edition/ on Steam to get your copy. If you are waiting for the Switch release, it will be coming around in the next year.
