At the presentation where Sunderfolk was revealed, I smiled (a little knowingly) as I saw the obvious Gloomhaven inspiration. I frowned as the developers spoke about its plan to make board gaming more accessible, which seemed to boil down to turning them into video games. I audibly hmm-d when I saw that this video game was polluted with a second screen; each player would need their phone in hand to control the game.
Then I sat down and had an excellent time playing a couple of hours of thoroughly enjoyable couch co-op with my fellow games journos.
Sunderfolk, the first game by Secret Door, one of two studios that make of Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime’s new company Dreamhaven, certainly nails the fundamentals. This co-op tactical RPG sees up to four players taking it in turns moving animal characters around a hex-map, taking on skeletons, goblin-like creatures, and some truly irritating spiders in turn-based combat that requires a fair bit of coordination.
There are six characters available, each one a combination of a DnD class and animal (bat bard, bear-barian etc), and each plays rather differently, with a set of unique moves and mechanics. For instance, the seriously cute salamander pyromancer can create fire tiles which cause problems for friends and foes, but which it can jump into to power up its attacks. Meanwhile, if the rogue can end their turn not adjacent to an enemy, it gets to automatically dodge the next hit.
Your actions consist of cards that have movement and attack actions wrapped into one, and turn order is dictated by the players, encouraging you to discuss each other’s positions and capabilities to see who should act next. Sunderfolk is aiming to be as accessible as possible, and it does a very good job of slowly introducing you to more abilities and concepts, unlocking new cards as you progress.
The gameplay was surprisingly challenging, however, at least on normal difficulty. We soon found out you’re not going to get far by brute forcing encounters; against hordes of baddies, minimizing damage is key. After being trounced two/three times in a row, the game’s director told us there was an easy mode with endless lives for more casual players to enjoy. Fortunately, after this questioning of our tactical prowess, we actually began to coordinate our abilities, and hey presto, started to succeed.
Before that we were still having fun enjoying the tomfoolery. Sunderfolk is not utter chaos but there’s an unpredictability in enemies’ (and even some of your own) abilities, and the game seems to encourage a certain amount of messing each other about which I think is inherent to the couch co-op mode of play (and all the best board games).
From ignoring enemies and beelining for the treasure, to pushing each other out of position or activating a monster right beside your allies, the hijinks were enjoyable with complete strangers and would be a blast with friends. Usually we didn’t get each other killed, either.
The weirdest thing about Sunderfolk is that you all need to have your phones charged. The game can’t be played without a companion app that serves as your controller.
In my interview with Secret Door, the devs explained they’d experimented with different ways of implementing this, and aimed to keep players focused on the shared screen as much as possible. At one point a representation of the big screen display would appear on the phone, but now you look at the phone to pick your ability card, then it’s eyes back to the main screen, your finger slides dictating where you move and what you target.
For the most part, this was unexpectedly intuitive. Occasionally, I found it a little tricky to select my intended hex, but I was the only person who seemed to have even these slight issues, so I must concede that my digits may just be clumsier than most.
The main reason for pulling phones into the mix – usually anathema to both board game and DnD groups, and the cause of my initial skepticism – is to allow a strategy game to work smoothly in couch co-op. The app serves as a constant rules reminder, letting you look up mechanics, take better scope of the board, and generally be better informed about your options, all without impacting the other players or slowing down the action.
I thought it would detract from experience, but for the most part it worked exactly as Secret Door intended. We were still chatting, trash-talking and having a sociable, fun time. The extra screen didn’t seem to matter. Right up until the point the first big fight was done and we reached town, that is, at which point I was painfully aware that we were all sitting in silence staring at our phones.
Now, it makes sense that a lot of the busywork of shopping and equipping items would be done through everyone’s personal screens, but one choice I couldn’t understand was that most of the interactions with characters are also done on an individual level. Each character has their own personal relationship tracker with the townsfolk (an impressive menagerie with a puffin and hyena being two of my favorite designs) and conversations take place in private.
Everyone does come together for important chats, so perhaps this whole system is just a light distraction, a fun way for people to occupy themselves while Jim spends 10 minutes agonizing about which robe to buy or Samantha grabs a snack. Still, it was jarring given how successfully the phones had blended in during combat.
The game’s director, Erin Marek, described it as “a little bit of a reprieve” from the intense, cooperative experience in missions, a chance to chill and engage with your own individual characters and their relationships – or take a break IRL. But I wanted to see everyone’s conversations, darnit!
The only game I can think of that combines phones and couch co-op in anything like the same way as Sunderfolk is silly party game Jack Box. This is obviously a much more strategic experience, but there were a few playful moments in which the shared DNA became more obvious.
For instance, every so often a player will secretly be asked to name something that will later show up in the game. Thanks to my contribution, the deadly arrow-launching ogres that proved a minor speed bump compared to the horrible, web-spinning, constantly moving arachnids of later missions (damn those spiders), would forever be known to the denizens of this world as Bow-gers.
Secret Door’s studio head Chris Sigaty described how this system could be used for more important moments too, like a Dungeon Master handing players a slip of paper with secret info.
Speaking of which, while board games like Gloomhaven are obviously the mechanical inspiration for Sunderfolk, the game has big DnD vibes. You start in a tavern (where else?) where you’re introduced to movement mechanics by being asked to push an unruly penguin out of the bar.
The game’s narrator is Anjali Bhimani, the Overwatch voice actor who more recently has become a celebrity in the tabletop world, with guest appearances on shows like Critical Role and Dimension 20. Bhimani does an impressive job. Rather than playing all of the game’s characters, she’s clearly embodying a Dungeon Master putting on silly voices, and the result is utterly charming.
However, despite RPGs’ focus on player-led narratives, Erin Marek told me that due to the constraints of a small team, the main story of Sunderfolk is not branching. You can go down different paths individually with different characters, but an ambitious story, “wasn’t something we wanted to tackle with our first project”. However, she did tell me that in the course of a campaign you’ll play about 31 missions, and there are 38 in total, so your choices will determine what you see.
Overall, I had a good time playing Sunderfolk, and my initial misgivings were almost entirely laid to rest. I do wonder if there is an audience for this kind of game, though. Will the cute aesthetic and accessible approach be able to draw in non-boardgamers to a tactical tabletop-style RPG? And will the luddite brand of board gamer be able to get over their phone-phobia for long enough to give it a chance? Only time will tell, but I for one found Sunderfolk both fun and interesting.
Source: Wargamer
