Leave a Review Elder Sign
Excellent, with only minor flaws
Upon the recommendation of a friend, I picked this up earlier today. Having gone through and completed all three of the scenarios, I must admit, I've never had more fun losing my sanity while sealing away eldritch horrors of the deep.
There are some notable flaws that cost me a few extra sanity points, though. Specifically, the portal is just a touch too slow to respond when working through tasks quickly, and the disjointly modal UI leads to a couple problems in content being obscured on the screen (for example, when a player is checking their inventory on the Adventure selection screen).
I also had great difficulty finding gems on the Cthulhu campaign during Adventures (I assume this is deliberate and RNG-related), and I noticed that while Sister Mary may notably ignore the glyph locks from Ryleh, she failed to ignore locks in some cases where multiple monsters locked the same glyph. I would presume that while the former pair are features (making her the intelligent choice for a trip to see Old Uncle Cthulhu), the latter is probably a bug.
Overall, I am quite pleased. This build cries out for more of the Ancient Ones found in the box set, and I hope they, along with additional content and expansions, break the seals that bind them sometime soon.
J͍͈̘̤̣͕̾ͣ̀ͮͥoͪi̖̟͉̠̟̔ͨn̪͉̲͚ͫ̿ͦ̉̍ͦ ̮͔̥͞u̠̹̜̳͛͂s̉͒͛͒͒͌̽͘.͖̮͓ͮ̿͝Show lessGoldkinDrake
Good fun
I really like this game. It is challenging (very challenging in to the new comer), but once the game play clicks in to place, this is an addictive and fun distraction.
The presentation values, from the graphics to the sound are extremely high.
The difficulty level is very tough, but the more you play the more you start to figure out the mechanics and strategies required.
I've not played this style of board game before, but it works really well in the digital format on iPad. There is a bit of a learning curve, but it's not too steep, and by the third or forth game it should start to make sense.
Well worth it. If you like board games, you can not go wrong with this one. I hope we see more expansions in the future.Show lessJay249
Fantasy Flight never fails
I have never played the board game version of Elder Sign, but I have played its "big brother" Arkham Horror, and I am a huge fan. Omens is extraordinarily fun to play by yourself or with others, it is intense, exciting, and very streamlined. The Call of Cthulhu expansion is well worth purchasing and is, in my opinion, the most fun of the three game scenarios available.
Newbies to the franchise, be aware: this game, like its big brother Arkham Horror, is meant to be challenging, and can often be frustratingly so. You will not win every time. It took my friend (a veteran tabletop gamer, like myself) and I 15 attempts to defeat Cthulhu, but every attempt just made us want victory even more. If you don't deal well with spine-crushing adversity, you will not like this. Even Yig's Anger (the easiest scenario) can throw so much oppression at you that your only option is failure. This game is meant for people who love a challenge.
That being said, this game easily lives up to Fantasy Flight Games' standard of excellence. It will take a game or two to learn, but it is well worth it. For best results, play with a partner.Show lessqridproqro
Beautiful App with Horrible Play Balance
This one is a mixed bag. The app itself is beautiful and the mechanics of the game are well suited for the iPad. The play balance of the game, however, is horrible. On normal difficulty, I've won every single game I've played including my first where I had no idea of the best strategy. On hard, I've won a couple of games out of a couple of dozen attempts. It's not much fun to choose between winning all the time or only when you get very lucky. Seems like this could be easily fixed by adjusting the midnight effects such that doom advances more quickly on normal difficulty and less quickly on hard difficulty.Show lessGary Seven
Challenging
Can be fun but also quite a challenging game and it leans a bit too much on the luck side for my liking. Hopefully Fantasy Flight will release Arkham Horror for the iPad sometime in the future.Ruroshinn
Terrible Garbage
The teaser images declare: "Test Your Sanity"... no kidding. This dull, random, painful experience will also test your patience.
I had hopes that the world had finally made a decent Lovecraft-themed game. Doing so shouldn't be difficult, but alas, this is yet another disappointment.
In attempting to improve upon the dreadful boardgame counterpart, Arkham Horror, the app only succeeds in streamlining the pain, distilling it to a pure form.
After wading through the quagmire of instructions, gameplay basically boils down to a single button tap, which produces a hopelessly random result. It's like fending off a horde of zombies by playing Russian Roulette.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!?????
Beautiful graphics, and the fact I can't rate zero stars, are the only reasons this gets a single star.Show lessZom-fan-attix
1.1.3 clearly NOT working with DLC
Having previously loved this app, and having bought and paid for all of the in app purchases (particularly the Call of Cthulhu add-on), you can imagine my disappointment on finding that the app no longer registers my purchase of CoC and wants me to buy it again. Jog on! This is intensely annoying and as such I cannot recommend the app to anyone at this time. God knows when this will be fixed, or if I will be able to get a refund. The app store's great right up until you hit a problem like this, then - boom! - you're on your own. A terrible shame.Show lessChilling Demon
It Gets No Better
Like the card and board games from which it was adapted, "Elder Sign: Omens" is brutally unforgiving. The odds are completely stacked against you at every turn and you are doomed to fail more often than not, often in spectacular fashion. You are not going to win every time. Maybe not even half of the time. However, it never feels unfair. It only serves to make each win that much sweeter.
The games are long, intense and use the Lovecraft mythology in a spectacular fashion. Of all the games that I have played on my iPad, this gets the highest recommendation. It works wonderfully as a single player or as a play-and-pass experience. The art, the pacing and the replayability are all top notch. I certainly hope that it continues to be supported with more content.
If you have no experience with this series or other similar games, I would say that it should take you no longer than 1 to 1.5 playthroughs to grasp the mechanics. If this is your first experience with the series and you want to branch out into something even more challenging and grandiose, I recommend giving the "Arkham Horror" board game a try.Show lessgodzilla bankroll
High quality
Fantasy flight is known for high quality board games. I am so glad to see that translating to their mobile products. That said, I have never played the board game version of this game so I cannot speak to how well it compares.
This game is very polished. Great mood music and graphics really set the tone. I had always resisted any game in the Lovecraft worlds because I am not really into scary/horror stuff, but this was much cooler than I expected. Cut scenes, great help (some even with video), good strategy/luck blend.. This game really is a very nice piece of work. My hats off to the whole FF crew.
As for downsides.. It did take me about 5 games to really understand what was going on in this game. If you are willing to invest the time it is worth it. The games are a little long but it does save your progress if you need to stop and I have enough board games on my iPad that are short. This scratches a different itch.
It took me about 8 games to win my first game against Yig (the easy one).. But I am sure that it was just my slow learning curve..
Okay.. Now for shameless begging.. Please please please FF, keep bringing more titles to iOS.. Blood Bowl Team Manager would seem a port-able game.. But most anything in the catalog would be good.. This was a fantastic first effort!Show lessWrightBrain
This game will laugh in your sad face as you fail.
Great art and atmosphere. Very addictive.
However, only play this game if you have a masochistic streak. You've GOT to self hate because the Azothoth and Cthulhu levels are beyond difficult. Most gamers like imagining that they are being faced with challenges that could send them to the asylum and don't want to play a game that could ACTUALLY put them there.
When the text in the screen shot above (at the time of this writing) says "Test your sanity" THEY'RE NOT LYING!!!!
"Challenging" is not even the word. Sometimes you'll have as little as 5 glyphs that you have to, by chance only, match precisely with 5 glyphs... IN ORDER!!!! What?!? And that's on Azothoth level. The Cthulhu level is harder. The chances of getting that hand in glyphs is like winning the lotto, but theres no money to be won.
And when a penalty at midnight event appears exactly AT midnight, and you still have to pay the penalty, the iPad becomes very light in my hand and comes dangerously close to being launched and shattering against the wall.
Games are only fun when there is some chance of winning, or unlocking cool stuff. I finally beat Azothoth and unlocked one puny character after all of that. The nearly impossible Azothoth must be defeated again and again and it seems that all hope is lost.
A fun play but the win/lose ratio needs some work.Show lessX-Bot
