Review - Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent

Roberto Nieves
16 minutes ago
7 min read

Developer: Artefacts Studio, Shine Group

Publisher: New Tales

Platforms: PlayStation 5, PC (Steam), Xbox Series X|S

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5

Tabletop games laid the groundwork for many of today’s games. Their worlds, characters, and rulesets all created a foundation that many games would follow. Dungeons & Dragons set a benchmark that many games today follow. These rules translated to video games, such as Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked. The same can be said for the myriad of tabletop games that exist, including the land of Terrinoth.

With a history and lore that has spanned decades. The Realms of Terrinoth have made it into video games with the release of Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent for consoles and PC. This tactical turn-based RPG adapts a board game rich in lore and redirects its focus into being an accessible and thrilling adventure. Despite some gameplay and storytelling deficiencies, this is a solid adventure that works.

Once Upon A Time

Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent is a turn-based strategy and adventure game themed to the world of Terrinoth from the Descent board game by Fantasy Flight Games. The original game launched in 2005, designed and produced by Kevin Wilson. The original game had players take the roles of adventurers and dungeon-crawl through various complexes. One player is the villain, the Overlord, playing cards to challenge the heroic players. The goal is to win by exhausting the heroes. Various rulesets balance the battle between the Overlord and the heroes.

Descent was expanded upon through various books by Aconyte Books, exploring the various corners of Terrinoth. It’s a land ravaged by darkness and wickedness, but after some time, explorers from various realms begin forging ways to re-enter this land in search of treasure and ancient secrets. These include Orcs, elves, sorcerers, and even half-human dragon hybrids. There is political conspiracy and high adventure, and at the center of it all, dungeons that need to be plundered.

Heroes Descend

Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent is a tactical turn-based dungeon crawler RPG in which players embark on various dungeons throughout the land of Terrinoth. The story serves as a prequel to Descent: Legends of the Dark. Players assemble a ragtag group of adventurers and participate in various dungeons across four themed chapters. Each chapter contains several dungeons to explore, each lasting about an hour or more to complete.

Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent was built on the foundation of creating a far more accessible and reachable tabletop experience set in the world of Terrinoth and the Descent books. There are no complex rulebooks to read, though there will be tip boxes to point out what you need to know in the game.

Learning the Basics

A tutorial mission introduces the gameplay mechanics of Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent. Firstly, there is the adventuring phase. Players take their group to roam around a dungeon, exploring secrets and progressing the story. There are optional quests to complete and treasures to unearth. Choosing which character to lead makes a difference. One character, Kharaz, can smash obstacles to reveal hidden locations. Another character, Cedwin, has a mechanical arm that can ascend different ledges. Depending on the character selected, secrets can be unlocked.

There are optional quests to complete and treasures to unearth. Each dungeon is highly explorable. These optional quests are not required, but they do open up opportunities for gaining experience and loot. One dungeon had me figuring out a puzzle while another had me participating in a lantern ritual to put the dead to rest while fighting enemies. These secondary quests sweeten the experience of dungeon crawling. Secondly, there is the combat, where Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent ramps up.

Know Your Role

Combat is a tactical turn-based affair with tiles and movement. This is a combat experience all about placement as well as your strategy. Specific movement placement, elevation, cover, and environmental aspects are all factors in the combat. Players move across the battle area to strike targets and eliminate the opposition. There are environmental attributes to consider as well, such as smashable cover. Additionally, these dungeons can be played online in four-player co-op.

Each character has their own array of attack and special abilities. The cleric is fire-based and can torch enemies with her lantern. The Sorcerer uses a wide variety of magic. The Paladin can use their sword and shield. There are eight characters in the game to work with, each providing their own unique traits to the combat. While each of these characters is formidable in combat, it’s how they are utilized that leads to victory or defeat.

I Have The High Ground

Using traits is good, but positioning is important. Using cover allows players to potentially avoid incoming magic or arrow attacks. It’s not quite like XCOM, where cover is essential, but it should be utilized. The biggest element is elevation. Gaining a height advantage is essential in combat, especially for characters with ranged attacks. Overall stats improve, including defense. With the right position, it makes it that much harder for the enemy to hit you. However, the same rules are applied the other way around.

After enough attacks and time, characters gain what is known as a synergy attack. These attacks make or break a battle, providing a vast amount of power to a team. Once initiated, all team members are affected, but each character has their own Synergy ability. It’s important to choose wisely. The Paladin, for example, roars across the board and greatly increases defensive stats. The

cleric scorches the battlefield with a holy fire. Finding the right synergy is important.

For Justice

At the end of each dungeon crawl, players are rewarded with experience points and loot. There are different assortments of loot to choose from. Whatever is not chosen is sent to the shop. Using experience points, players allocate those points to enhancing abilities and unlocking more perks. For anyone familiar with RPGs and dungeon crawlers, you’ll feel right at home.

The combat in Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent is wonderfully exciting. It felt amazing using the different characters and their abilities and taking down hordes of foes in a dungeon. Even the tougher, more boss-like enemies were a blast to handle. The game does keep players on their toes with enemies that use various tactics and who often send in reinforcements.

Pyrrhic Victory

The controls, animation, and UI all work well too. Everything is readily available and readable. It’s clear the team did their homework, received player feedback, and made this a strong, streamlined tabletop experience. This makes Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent appealing in that it can introduce players to the world of tabletop adaptations. Even on normal, Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent puts up a fight. However, this does open up one of the game’s flaws.

There are some serious difficulty spikes within the game, some of which probably shouldn’t have been featured in a game on normal difficulty. While I don’t mind a challenge, there were plenty of fights that had me surviving off the skin of my teeth, especially early on. One fight with the vampires, in particular, took me several tries, and it was only the second dungeon in the game. If players are in for a fight, they’ll find it here, though I do wish it’d be a bit more tailored to the desired difficulty.

Woven in Words

The presentation is serviceable. Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent does feature a distinctive look and feel, as the team did a good job bringing the game visually to life, with unique dungeons and biomes. However, the writing and acting could have used a little bit of work. I wanted to find out more about this world and the characters that inhabit it. While there is some good banter amongst characters, I feel there could have been more dialogue and interactions with members of the party. For example, Kharaz, the human-dragon hybrid, is a cool character with a neat backstory. I wished there was more dialogue to further flesh out these interesting characters.

Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent was developed by the same team that made The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos, a game known for its comedy and writing. The two IPs couldn’t be any more different, but I feel that in the focus of streamlining the experience, they could have worked on the writing more to flesh out the world of Descent. The same could have been said about introducing players to it. It’s a universe rich in high adventure and fantasy, and I wanted to see more.

Straight to the Action

It isn’t easy to take a universe and streamline if for adaptation, let alone a decades-old tabletop game. To that end, Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent does a good enough job in its interpretation of the board game and the universe it inhabits. There are cutscenes and full voice work featured, and while it could have used more established cutscenes or NPCs to talk to, the work that is done is adequate. However, if combat is your primary focus, there is a lot of game here, and it is strong. Between the dungeons, secrets, and replayability, you are looking at well over 40 hours of gameplay here.

Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent may be a little too simple for those looking for a more hardcore tabletop adaptation, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent is a remarkably strong gameplay experience, met with a solid presentation. While I would have wanted more, I can’t fault the effort that went into making this game and refining it into an experience that makes the genre more accessible.

Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent

Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent is a solid game that makes this a good welcoming title for those unfamiliar with tabletop adaptations. Its combat and strategy give players a challenge, while the story and presentation do a serviceable job in introducing players to the world of Terrinoth. Gather your party and plunder the dungeons. It’s time to rid the land of Terrinoth from darkness.