If you love video games, there’s a very good chance you’d enjoy a good board game too. I’m not talking about Monopoly or Scrabble, although both of those are legendary in their own right. Rather, I mean the full-fat board games you see stocked in game stores, the kind with dozens of miniatures that’ll take you at least a full day to beat. You’ll never have enough shelf space for them, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth buying and lugging around with you as you bully your friends into loving them as much as you.
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Fortunately, board game developers have a habit of partnering with video game developers to create a beautiful mix of the two media. There are a plethora of legitimately great video game board games, experiences that adapt the complex mechanics and themes of some of the greatest games ever made into a physical format that’ll just about fit into a box the size of the average torso. These board games are absolutely worth playing, regardless of whether you’re interested in the medium or not.
5. Frostpunk: The Board Game
Frostpunk is a brutally hard city builder that is pretty much unmatched in its ability to make the player sweat over morally ambiguous decisions. If that appeals to you in the slightest, then let me recommend the Frostpunk board game, an inarguably faithful adaptation that practically carries over every mechanic from the original and then some. Featuring a table-hogging amount of boards, pieces of plastic, and cards, Frostpunk: The Board Game is the quintessential board game adaptation.
You’ll be making a plethora of tough decisions alongside your friends and family, losing almost constantly, and feeling extremely gratified when you manage to pull it all off. Sure, this is a challenging game and one with a rulebook that’s far too big for most people’s liking, but that’s where a lot of the fun comes from. You’ll be banging your head against walls initially and then collectively sighing with relief as you manage to strategize your way through another day. It’s a legitimately great adaptation of Frostpunk and a phenomenal board game experience for those who like their tabletop nights to be on the punishing side.
4. Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game
Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game is easily the best Horizon spin-off game ever made. Its extremely detailed miniatures are a sight to behold, and the co-operative, monster-hunting gameplay is a treat for those who didn’t quite gel with Aloy’s solo adventure. This really is a no-frills focus on combat, a pretty perfect adaptation of how it felt to scour Horizon Zero Dawn’s sun-dappled lands in search of new robots to destroy. You can play it together and try to bring down the biggest robots without dying, or against one another and fight for the glory of each kill.
Regardless of which option you pick, Horizon Zero Dawn’s board game adaptation brilliantly recreates many of the RPG systems present in the game, alongside the gear economy. You’ll improve your deck of cards between each hunt, buy new gear to increase your chances of dealing damage and pulling off valuable parts, and strategize with or without other players as you hunt down each foe. There’s a lot of value to be found in Horizon Zero Dawn: The Board Game, which is then greatly expanded upon in future DLC. Much like its Monster Hunter board game counterpart, this is best enjoyed with prior knowledge of the game, but is still fun for those with even a passing interest in the setting.
3. The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era
If you want to spend well over $100 for the most comprehensive Elder Scrolls board game, then you should go ahead and put your order in for Elder Scrolls: The Betrayal of the Second Era now. This truly is TES in physical form, a perfect recreation of the character customization and creation, combat, exploration, and lore elements of the video game. It isn’t condensed or truncated to fit the new medium. Rather, this is a thorough, expansive, and detailed experience that perfectly simulates the sense of adventure you get from stepping into The Elder Scrolls’ vast worlds for the first time.
You’ll create a character (which involves choosing a race, class, and skills) before choosing a region of the huge world to start in and a guild to be associated with. From there, you’ll set out across the overworld, choosing between combat encounters, narrative quests, or visiting towns, all of which have their benefits. You have a main mission to complete and a handful of days (rounds) to complete it, but what you do beyond that is up to you. There are so many pieces to this huge game, both literally in terms of its components and in terms of what you can get up to, that it offers about as much replay value as its video game counterpart. The only downside is how expensive it can be, but if you’re a diehard Elder Scrolls fan, then it is absolutely worth it.
2. Slay The Spire: The Board Game
Slay the Spire remains one of the greatest deckbuilder games ever created, and its board game is no exception. It faithfully recreates almost every aspect of the game, from its gorgeous art to its roguelike structure, delivering an experience comparable, if not better in many ways, to the ridiculously engrossing video game. Of course, it does away with a lot of the bookkeeping that would be needed to truly replicate Slay the Spire’s complex combat by simplifying certain elements. Yet, even in doing so, nothing is lost in translation.
What is gained is the inclusion of multiplayer. This is where the board game version of Slay the Spire (which is playable solo) truly shines and warrants its existence in the first place. Playing alongside friends is a lot of fun and allows you to synergise your already fairly broken combos to deliver some truly devastating blows. Slay the Spire is a lot of fun alone, but with friends, it feels like it comes alive in a way I never thought possible. If you love Slay the Spire, deckbuilding games, or a good roguelike, then I cannot recommend this enough.
1. Stardew Valley: The Board Game
Perhaps my favorite video game board game adaptation (that’s a mouthful) is the Stardew Valley game. Designed in collaboration with the game’s developer, this pretty much replicates the cozy life-sim elements of the video game, including relationships, marriage, mining, farming, and more. What makes it stand out, much like the Slay the Spire board game, is its co-operative nature. You’ll work together to complete grandpa’s goals alongside the community goals, alternating your roles to keep things fresh and interesting.
One of you might hyper-fixate on becoming friends with everyone, another might spend endless days mining for geodes to turn into all-important relics, and build up the museum’s collection. Each task is as fun as the others, typically involving some form of dice roll (which is always a plus in my book), so no one is ever left out. The production value, components, and general pace of the game are phenomenal and a great recreation of the Stardew Valley experience while adding plenty of its own ideas to the mix. This is a staple in my household and one we whip out whenever we have gaming-enthusiast guests around. I cannot recommend it enough, especially to those fond of cozy games in general.
Which video game board games do you recommend? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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