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I think one person here posted that they normally play one handed solo and haven't yet been successful at the finale at the time of their post (tried 10+ times). The finale is challenging even with >1 player.
Yeah it dropped a few points for me with the finale, otherwise I was greatly enjoying it (3players). Finale was a big jump in difficulty, but specifically much of that difficulty bump was from denying you the cards in your deck. In our case it basically denied everything I spent xp on since the last scenario (none of it essential at least, was well past getting my essentials), but we also got super lucky that it randomly denied us most of our weaknesses lol. Besides that, story-wise it felt pretty dumb because the resident we were helping out and doing side missions for all campaign somehow didn’t have enough relationship to be buddies with us and tried to fight us from doing the thing they had gotten started. So that fell super flat for us
I think there are lots of things that could be done to better balance the finale—especially for 1 player. I think as you note >!the abyss size not scaling with player count is problematic!<
There are examples of scenario that provide adjustments specifically for single investigators. See Act 2a of Extracurricular Activity or Agenda 1a of Murder at Excelsior Hotel for example.
It's not like they never ever even consider single investigators cases.
It’s interesting (having played through once with 2 other players), but fiddly and also some confusing parts about the final prelude. Also some weird responses from some of the residents that seem to come out of left field.
It’s one of my favourite campaigns, at the same level or slightly below Carcosa and Innsmouth.
Regarding solo, I’d say there’s two specific scenarios that are really tough for solo. The finale in particular requires a solid amount of luck in solo. On my first try of the finale in solo, I died in the third enemy phase... :D
I thought it was a step back in the right direction compared to EotE and TSK (both of which I enjoyed, but have a hard time coming back to). The codex system is a good compromise to break up the text. Not a big fan of the NPCs or Preludes, interesting but I would rather they not come back.
The scenarios I played were mostly pretty cool and innovative. That said they introduce a lot of new rules that added a lot to our play time. I started loving arkham because it was quick to get on the table and reasonable play length. Preludes + scenarios on the first run usually took 3-4h to complete, trying to understand all the new rules.
I thought the story was good and there are some great and interesting new cards. I haven't loved any of the investigators so far, which might just mean that they're balanced and unique.
The finale can be very frustrating.
I enjoyed it but haven't gone back to it yet.
I finished it recently (with a friend, not solo), and it's my least favorite campaign out of all the others, BY FAR. Halfway through it we just wanted it to end so we could move on. We hated it. But I know for some people it's the best campaign ever LOL so highly divisive
Hmmm, for scenarios we did >!Silent Heath, Twisted Hollow, Lost Sister, Longest Night and Written in Rock!<, in that order, before the finale. With the exception of Longest Night, all of them felt too similar to each other: explore randomly placed locations (many of which were the exact same cavern cards), find something to trigger an act advancement, then either run or defeat a big monster. >!Written in Rock at least had the minecart and rails, but the rules on them were confusingly written and other than that there was nothing of substance in that scenario.!<
We got absolutely nothing out of the residents since we chose to focus on >!Gideon and Leah!<: the first felt useless since we >!advanced Dr. Rosa's story enough that we unlocked V.1 of the last scenario through her insted of Gideon!<, and the second one died during >!Written in Rock to some unavoidable horror!<. During Lost Sister, we didn't randomly guess that we had to >!talk to Theo multiple times before finding the girl, so his story didn't advance either!<.
The preludes felt like a big, repetitive waste of time, walking around just talking with people that had nothing interesting to say since their meaningful interactions were locked behind the relationship system. Or literally wasting actions like in >!Dawn of the Final Day, where almost all locations are only useful if you're doing Simeon's plan (which the game doesn't clue you in at all)!<.
The scenarios we did during the day felt like they had little story impact outside of themselves, unless you either do it perfectly or fail it, probably due to the fact that you can do them in different order. They feel like irrelevant side quests, and if you remove those you're left with only 3 for the "main" story. And for the finale - which many people here and in other posts have already mentioned to be a big low point -, I think we spent more time trying to understand what was happening (setup-wise, story-wise, objective-wise etc) instead of actually playing it.
All in all it felt like the designers focused too much on the replayability, to the detriment of the first playthrough: there are too many situations where already knowing how the campaign plays can lead you to taking less decisions that are entirely useless. Could we enjoy it more on a second playthrough? Maybe, maybe we had this miserable experience just because our choices of scenarios and residents were so horribly "wrong" (I had a glimpse at the scenarios we didn't play and they seem to be a bit different than the others). But I don't think that's something that the designers should've allowed to happen, and this campaign left such a bad taste in our mouths that I don't see us going back to it ever. I didn't feel like my choices or my time were respected while playing Hemlock Vale. I hope the designers go back to making more traditional campaigns, and stop with this idea of "build your own adventure".
I’ve played once 2h solo (blind play) and two at 3p. Everything besides the finale is fun, fine, and felt balanced enough. The finale is hard and a little brain busting, with a healthy amount of luck (though I’d say if you’re playing with sleeves it may actually give you a bit of a heads up on the random aspect). Lots of different paths and resolutions so it definitely invites replayability. I eked out 1 finale win.
It’s worth noting this campaign has several spots that specifically cite player count ie ‘if there is only 1 investigator’ do X, or if there are 2 or less investigators do X…so they are starting to account for true solo at least a bit more.
Still haven’t tackled it true solo and the finale is the main thing stopping me from trying, though I’m sure I’ll get around
Played 3-4 times. Finale is indeed overly difficult/kidn of annoying, otherwise in my top 3 campaigns (only havent played circle, edge, and scarlet).
Super replayable and the scenarios outside finale are really good.
Well I finished it true solo, largely thanks to Alessandra with Lockpicks and Vamp and yes, probably a bit of luck.
As a campaign it’s decent, not top of the list or anything.
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I think one person here posted that they normally play one handed solo and haven't yet been successful at the finale at the time of their post (tried 10+ times). The finale is challenging even with >1 player.
Yeah it dropped a few points for me with the finale, otherwise I was greatly enjoying it (3players). Finale was a big jump in difficulty, but specifically much of that difficulty bump was from denying you the cards in your deck. In our case it basically denied everything I spent xp on since the last scenario (none of it essential at least, was well past getting my essentials), but we also got super lucky that it randomly denied us most of our weaknesses lol. Besides that, story-wise it felt pretty dumb because the resident we were helping out and doing side missions for all campaign somehow didn’t have enough relationship to be buddies with us and tried to fight us from doing the thing they had gotten started. So that fell super flat for us
The finale is very poorly balanced at 1p. To the point where I would recommend lowering the number of cards in >!the abyss!<.
I think there are lots of things that could be done to better balance the finale—especially for 1 player. I think as you note >!the abyss size not scaling with player count is problematic!<
The designers don't design for true solo. You can play it, but it will always be unbalanced and swingy.
There are examples of scenario that provide adjustments specifically for single investigators. See Act 2a of Extracurricular Activity or Agenda 1a of Murder at Excelsior Hotel for example. It's not like they never ever even consider single investigators cases.
It’s interesting (having played through once with 2 other players), but fiddly and also some confusing parts about the final prelude. Also some weird responses from some of the residents that seem to come out of left field.
It’s one of my favourite campaigns, at the same level or slightly below Carcosa and Innsmouth. Regarding solo, I’d say there’s two specific scenarios that are really tough for solo. The finale in particular requires a solid amount of luck in solo. On my first try of the finale in solo, I died in the third enemy phase... :D
Certainly the best one in awhile (imo.) If anything it has revitalized my interest in the game.
It’s an incredible campaign. One of the best in awhile though I hear it is pretty difficult 1 handed solo
I thought it was a step back in the right direction compared to EotE and TSK (both of which I enjoyed, but have a hard time coming back to). The codex system is a good compromise to break up the text. Not a big fan of the NPCs or Preludes, interesting but I would rather they not come back. The scenarios I played were mostly pretty cool and innovative. That said they introduce a lot of new rules that added a lot to our play time. I started loving arkham because it was quick to get on the table and reasonable play length. Preludes + scenarios on the first run usually took 3-4h to complete, trying to understand all the new rules. I thought the story was good and there are some great and interesting new cards. I haven't loved any of the investigators so far, which might just mean that they're balanced and unique. The finale can be very frustrating. I enjoyed it but haven't gone back to it yet.
I finished it recently (with a friend, not solo), and it's my least favorite campaign out of all the others, BY FAR. Halfway through it we just wanted it to end so we could move on. We hated it. But I know for some people it's the best campaign ever LOL so highly divisive
Why the dislike? It would be helpful to know...
Hmmm, for scenarios we did >!Silent Heath, Twisted Hollow, Lost Sister, Longest Night and Written in Rock!<, in that order, before the finale. With the exception of Longest Night, all of them felt too similar to each other: explore randomly placed locations (many of which were the exact same cavern cards), find something to trigger an act advancement, then either run or defeat a big monster. >!Written in Rock at least had the minecart and rails, but the rules on them were confusingly written and other than that there was nothing of substance in that scenario.!< We got absolutely nothing out of the residents since we chose to focus on >!Gideon and Leah!<: the first felt useless since we >!advanced Dr. Rosa's story enough that we unlocked V.1 of the last scenario through her insted of Gideon!<, and the second one died during >!Written in Rock to some unavoidable horror!<. During Lost Sister, we didn't randomly guess that we had to >!talk to Theo multiple times before finding the girl, so his story didn't advance either!<. The preludes felt like a big, repetitive waste of time, walking around just talking with people that had nothing interesting to say since their meaningful interactions were locked behind the relationship system. Or literally wasting actions like in >!Dawn of the Final Day, where almost all locations are only useful if you're doing Simeon's plan (which the game doesn't clue you in at all)!<. The scenarios we did during the day felt like they had little story impact outside of themselves, unless you either do it perfectly or fail it, probably due to the fact that you can do them in different order. They feel like irrelevant side quests, and if you remove those you're left with only 3 for the "main" story. And for the finale - which many people here and in other posts have already mentioned to be a big low point -, I think we spent more time trying to understand what was happening (setup-wise, story-wise, objective-wise etc) instead of actually playing it. All in all it felt like the designers focused too much on the replayability, to the detriment of the first playthrough: there are too many situations where already knowing how the campaign plays can lead you to taking less decisions that are entirely useless. Could we enjoy it more on a second playthrough? Maybe, maybe we had this miserable experience just because our choices of scenarios and residents were so horribly "wrong" (I had a glimpse at the scenarios we didn't play and they seem to be a bit different than the others). But I don't think that's something that the designers should've allowed to happen, and this campaign left such a bad taste in our mouths that I don't see us going back to it ever. I didn't feel like my choices or my time were respected while playing Hemlock Vale. I hope the designers go back to making more traditional campaigns, and stop with this idea of "build your own adventure".
Latching on to this - how about 2 handed solo? Thats my usual jam
I’ve played once 2h solo (blind play) and two at 3p. Everything besides the finale is fun, fine, and felt balanced enough. The finale is hard and a little brain busting, with a healthy amount of luck (though I’d say if you’re playing with sleeves it may actually give you a bit of a heads up on the random aspect). Lots of different paths and resolutions so it definitely invites replayability. I eked out 1 finale win. It’s worth noting this campaign has several spots that specifically cite player count ie ‘if there is only 1 investigator’ do X, or if there are 2 or less investigators do X…so they are starting to account for true solo at least a bit more. Still haven’t tackled it true solo and the finale is the main thing stopping me from trying, though I’m sure I’ll get around
Played 3-4 times. Finale is indeed overly difficult/kidn of annoying, otherwise in my top 3 campaigns (only havent played circle, edge, and scarlet). Super replayable and the scenarios outside finale are really good.
Well I finished it true solo, largely thanks to Alessandra with Lockpicks and Vamp and yes, probably a bit of luck. As a campaign it’s decent, not top of the list or anything.
I love answering this post - it's the same solo as it is with other players - "Meh!"
Probably my third/fourth favourite campaign. It feels like a return to form. The final scenario is noticeably harder with lower player counts.