Terrors of London by Kolossal Games

I happen to really like deck building games. I love the deck construction and choosing the best cards to work with what you already have. And I also happen to like horror/occult themes. So it was a no brainer that I would back Terrors of London by Kolossal Games. I reviewed Hero Realms earlier and this plays almost exactly like it. So, you probably ask, why would I want to have another game that plays so similarly? In a word... artwork. The art in Terrors of London is amazing. I spent so much time just studying each card and looking at the detail.

But back to gameplay. I managed to get 3 games played in roughly 90 minutes. This is the perfect length for me. I can play one game multiple times or play multiple games in my regular weeknight game time. And because the mechanics are so similar to other deck builders already out, this game is easy to teach to seasoned gamers and simple enough to bring new players in.

Player board.

Now, one of the things that is interesting is the Horde mechanic. It's very similar to faction mechanics in other deck builders in that these grouped cards gain an additional benefit, but the horde mechanic requires you to link cards via complementary faction icons on either side of the bottom of the card. You have to choose wisely what you want to horde and which Horde ability you want to trigger.

My Warlock getting Haunt. It was the
last time he made an appearance since
my opponent kept picking him for discard

They also add a Haunt mechanic that allows you to keep cards in play rather than remove them from the play area at the end of your turn. This can mean having a good card played in consecutive rounds but you can't abuse it since a card cannot get Haunt if had Haunt the previous round. Why I like the mechanic is that it allows you to choose the card staying in play instead of it being chosen by a card effect (like bases in Star Realms). For example, I had a Warlock card that did 5 damage that I was able to keep in play for an additional round. The combo allowed me to really stack damage for two turns.

One of the drawbacks is that it is only a 2 player game. It's not something you can pull out and have all your game night regulars play. But there are lots of 2 player games on the market and there are lots of times when it's just me and one other person hanging out, so I can pull this out and follow up with some other 2 player game (like Gorus Maximus, which I will have to review at some point).

For less than $50 you get a really good 1v1 deck builder which I think I'll probably pull out quite often. If you like the genre and the theme, I'd highly recommend digging further to see if this game is for you.