Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion DLC makes the digital Gloomhaven even higher than the board sport | Video games | leisure

Launched back in 2017, Gloomhaven is rightfully considered one of the best board games of all time. An absolute beast of a board game, Gloomhaven features nearly 100 scenarios, 17 playable classes, and more maps than your local Clintons branch. Suitable for 1-4 players, Gloomhaven is a so-called legacy game, which means that campaigns continue from one scenario to the next. Gloomhaven is so popular that it’s spawned a video game spin-off that’s superior to the original in many ways. Here’s why.

As much as I like Gloomhaven, the video game has one or two major advantages. The main one is the lack of preparation time required to enjoy a campaign scenario or two.

Even if you’re lucky enough to own your own board game table, playing Gloomhaven requires some fairly lengthy setup times between scenarios. Of course, it’s even worse when you have to pack everything away.

The space required to play Gloomhaven is linked to the construction times. You’ll need a fairly large table to fit everything, which isn’t ideal if you live in a small apartment.

As someone who only plays Gloomhaven every now and then, I usually have to spend about 30 minutes reading the rules to remind myself how to play.

Gloomhaven on Steam has an excellent tutorial, not to mention some practice scenarios to dig into. Elsewhere, playing against the computer ensures that you can’t make mistakes or “accidentally” break the rules.

Priced at £27.79 on Steam – plus £13.99 for the newly released Jaws of the Lion expansion – you can enjoy the full Gloomhaven experience for around £40 if you’re ready to go virtual.

The board game, on the other hand, will set you back at least £100 for the core experience, plus another £40 for the Jaws of the Lion spin-off.

Speaking of Jaws of the Lion, Asmodee Digital just released the expansion on Steam.

Jaws of the Lion includes four new mercenaries including the Red Guard, the Cleaver, the Demolitionist and the Voidwarden. You will pit these heroes against ten new monsters and bosses.

Add to that 25 new scenarios for a total of around 30 hours of content, especially when you factor in the new city events and combat objectives.

“A dark cabal has begun kidnapping the town’s less fortunate… and it sort of falls to you to get to the bottom of it. Thankfully, redemption in Gloomhaven comes with a price…” reads the official description.

“The Jaws of the Lion DLC is the digital adaptation of the board game of the same name and expansion to Gloomhaven, the critically acclaimed dark tactical RPG.

“Recruit four new mercenaries with unique gameplay and explore a previously hidden side of the city of Gloomhaven through an arcing storyline filled with new enemies and bosses.

“The new campaign will be unlocked directly on the existing map of Gloomhaven once the core game’s second scenario is completed.”