Descent Second Edition seem to be the quintessential dungeon crawler, and with so many tiles, scenarios, and minis many may topically agree. I am gonna take a stand right here and say Descent Second Edition is anything but a dungeon crawl game. I found it to more of an action optimization game. If one side can actively manage their actions they win. Secondarily every game we played just felt like a race. Who can get to the objective first and kill/protect it. The is not a dungeon crawl, it is hardly even fun at all.

I would like to put a few other choices forward:

Pathfinder: Adventure Card Game: This game is a straight up Diablo II style dungeon delve. You have an objective and you run around various locations and kill/collect/defeat stuff until you have won. What it lacks in story it gains in sheer game-play via leveling up and loot.

Level 7: Omega Protocol: If you do like the tile/ scenario set up of Descent and like Sci-fi, then I would highly suggest this game. It has a very nice action balancing system and while it doesn’t have as much leveling up it replaces it with a load out system that lets you customize your character from the beginning. Also if you like the thematic setting, the Level 7 universe has two other games in it!

Zombicide: Now I am aware this game gets a lot of flack but the player made content plus the expansion support and game night kits from CoolMiniorNot just pull it all together to make something that I think a lot of people miss. Again if you are interested in the tile laying/ scenario style game play that Descent offers then this is another good alternative. It has levels and gear but is just a kill fest with not a lot of story.

Fortune and Glory: I am going to mirror Jamie from The Secret Cabal here and say this game is amazing. If you like the theme of Indiana Jones and also like having way to many (but necessary) components, this is the game for you. It has a board and can be played a multitude of ways: co-op, teams, or fully competitive.

If you are looking for something to really burn your brain you could also try out Mage Knight. It is fantasy and still has tiles but it is a mix of a deck builder and a hand management game. Very fun if you have the time to learn how to play, which is not a trivial a out of time.

The D&D board games are amazing and I love them. I think Tom, from The Dice Tower, has it right saying they are less dungeon delving and more of just a great co-op game.

I know Descent Second Edition is a good game at its core, but I dislike that it sells it self as a dungeon delver. As is such, I felt the need to bring up a few other games that do it better! Let me know what you think!

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