Announcing a board game IP is being attached to a video game is news I generally meet with a nod and a sip of my coffee. I have a few friends who are into board games, but we don’t get together nearly enough for me to be attached to any one intellectual property. When Artefacts Studio (The Dungeons of Naheulbeuk, Disciples: Domination) and New Tales (Waven, Fading Echo) announced that this prestigious board game, Terrinoth, which has 20 years of history, would be brought to PC and consoles, I nodded and sipped my coffee.
After several days with a head cold, I finally sat down to play it, and it played fine. I loaded up the game, went through the tutorial, and started my first mission. I’ve played quite a few of these games, and the board game adaptations of today feel different than the Interplay Dungeons & Dragons style CRPGs of yore.
Most of that has to do with gamers just moving on from those things. The CRPG hasn’t always been niche, but the Japanese definitely knew how to market their console RPGs better. The C in CRPG generally stands for Computer, but I think a more acceptable word might be Choices. These are games that let you make choices.
You can imagine how disappointed I was at the lack of choices in the mission I was able to play. The level design rocked. When you’re in an isometric dungeon, it’s really easy to make it sprawling like some enormous sewer system. Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent used its space wisely. It capitalizes on that with a tile on the ground called the Eyes of Kurnos.
Standing on the Eyes of Kurnos, the player can look around the area the Eye overlooks. Allowing the player to adjust strategies, maybe avoid a fight, or find treasure chests. Unfortunately, it’s all pretty linear. While the occasional chest might stray from the beaten path, the majority of your time is spent following the golden path.
Part of the board/tabletop game mystique is the ability to role play, the choices your characters make take them on their adventure. This is the primary challenge in the RPG space: how much freedom can you realistically give the player?
When I finished the level, all of my characters had leveled up, and I was excited to get back to camp and mess around with them. During my first mission, I acquired a few new skills from treasure chests. I like the idea of having abilities that are tradeable, sellable, like items. No such luck, though, as I was booted back to the main menu.
On further inspection, the abilities were all specific to each person, leaving me to wonder why you would bother making them items and not something inherent to the hero’s character? Another aspect of tabletop gaming I enjoy is character progression. Starting that character and seeing them through to the end. Disappointingly, back at the main menu.
Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent Is a Controller-Friendly Board Game RPG
Even still, Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent has a lot going for it. A big plus is how well it plays on a controller. I swapped back and forth between keyboard & mouse and using a controller to play, and it was seamless. Though I couldn’t figure out how to pull my group out of follow-the-leader mode when using the keyboard, so arguably, you could say the controller is the primary way to play.
This is a big plus because there simply aren’t enough experiences like this that run well on consoles. It’s nice to see that given some priority.
Likewise, the cutscenes that set up and break down the missions you run are given the Dragon Age treatment of stories told through images of stained glass. Beautifully designed stained-glass windows that tell the story of Terrinoth. I really enjoyed that.
Heroes of Descent not only plays well on a controller, but it feels like the type of thing you could easily pop in and out of. The developers spoke about the importance of game nights and playing with friends. Though I played by myself, alone, in a room with a small humidifier covered in blankets, I could see why it’d be more enjoyable with friends.
The mission structure allows for a full campaign or individual missions with friends, creating stopping points that let the game night end and a new one begin. Dungeons are full of breakable objects and things to interact with. Some objects even have character-specific interactions that add depth to the characters themselves.
Likewise, the rules were all easy to understand. I personally have not played a game in the world of Terrinoth, but it played like something I was already familiar with. Which is why I think Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent is already off to a good start.
I am not familiar with the world setting, but because the systems and control scheme were so familiar, I was able to focus on what I didn’t understand and play through the game as if I were enjoying it as a child. Perhaps emphasized by the level of granularity provided in the difficulty menu, allowing for very specific changes to both the players and NPCs in battle.
Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent has no release date yet, but the studio is aiming for Q2 2026, with a firm date hopefully set in the next few months. A demo is arriving shortly, and I think it’s worth a shot. New Tales and Artefacts Studio is also aiming for release on PC/Mac, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
At the very least, Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent is a competently made game. It looks good, as well. I’m looking forward to more of it.
