Matthew BaileyThe second part of our “Lorcana” double bill and Game 63 of the “Now & Then Summer Marathon 2024” is “Illumineer’s Quest: Deep Trouble,” which is really interesting and, as a board gamer at heart, probably my favourite “Lorcana” product.
Essentially, “Deep Trouble” is a standalone cooperative game where you play with your local deck against Ursula, who is controlled by an AI deck that follows specific gameplay rules.
“Lorcana” can be played by one or two players, and it’s also a great way to introduce the mechanics of “Lorcana” in a more board game-friendly format. Jack and I first played this all the way back at the UK Games Expo and have enjoyed it again since then.
What’s really unique about this set is that it’s very much a standalone experience. You can think of it as a board game rather than an extension of the trading card game, which will obviously be quite appealing to many people in this group.
The general “Lorcana” experience is very much present, but playing against the AI deck, especially as a team, is an enjoyable experience and a good way to engage with “Lorcana” without having to play a competitive game.
Having played through this now twice, I find it really enjoyable and quite fun. However, as this is priced as a trading card set and not a board game, it’s going to set you back quite a bit compared to what I imagine this set would cost if it were released as a board game without a licensed theme. That said, you do get a decent selection of cards and interesting elements to play with.
The game comes with the AI deck and 2 premade decks to play against her.
One small downside is that the game has been released in the same packaging as the “Lorcana” gift sets, which generally aren’t designed to store the contents after opening. As this is very much a standalone board game set, you ideally want to keep all the components inside the box after opening it, meaning this isn’t really the best packaging for the experience. I would have much preferred it to come in a Ravensburger board game box, especially considering Ravensburger clearly has the tooling for that kind of set.
I really hope this wasn’t a one-off and that they release more cooperative sets like this in the future.
If this does interest you, all I will say is that this is actually from a previous “Lorcana” set, so it may not be available for long and will likely go out of print fairly soon. So if you’re interested in picking this up, you’d better do it sooner rather than later.
