Star Wars Destiny Two-Player Game
Designed by Lukas Litzsinger and Corey Konieczka
Published by Fantasy Flight Games
If you read my reviews of the most recently released single Starter sets for the Star Wars Destiny dice and card game system, you'll no doubt recall that I had two main complaints about the starter sets. Firstly, I felt that the Villains Starter was way weaker than the Hero one, as it included only one villain of note and made up the numbers with a high-ranking faceless schmuck. A high-ranking one, sure, but not as much fun as it could be. Secondly, I felt that the single starter model was not the strongest way to present the game, as it relies on getting a friend into the game if they're not already.
Now, I've been making this complaint since the first starter sets (Rey and Kylo, both of which I bought), but had never been in a position to make that point in a review. Someone more influential than me must have been making the same case, because this presentation of the game comes in the form of a two-player box set containing both a Hero and a Villain deck, with some new artwork and such. Players can choose from a Hero deck containing Rey and Poe Dameron, or a Villain deck containing Kylo Ren and....
CAPTAIN BLOODY PHASMA!
They did it! They actually did it! They put a second villain in the Villain deck!
This is just one of the many things I like about this two-player set. The cards are (as before) beautifully presented, with the new art cards really bringing the characters to life to the same level of quality as the original starters which also contained Ren and Rey. The selection of cards is really cool, with a nice mix of artwork from the prequel era all the way to the modern day. We'll most likely get some The Last Jedi artwork in the future but for now it's limited to The Force Awakens.
I really think this is the definitive presentation for the Destiny dice and card system. The two-player selection is sufficiently deep, but they've also made a somewhat interesting change in this version which is to remove one of each of the dice from the main heroes (In the most recent starters, for example, Luke has 2 dice, and Han has one). While it might seem like a move motivated by tight-fistedness, it actually works for me as a change. It tightens up the contents of the set, and allows new players to ease in a bit (if you know what I mean) before getting more heavily involved in the game.
I'm really struggling to find things to complain about. This set is lovely. I guess a cynic could argue that the removal of a dice from each side is a little tight-fisted, but as I mentioned I find it a nice idea to help new players get on board. Top marks.
Rob is the host of the E14 podcasts "The Crazy Train" and "The E14 Gamecast", as well as the host of a number of pieces on E14's Youtube channel. He also appears on the Talk Star Wars podcasts.
