My Take On Sentinels of the Multiverse

I've got a tabletop gaming community in my region that has been small but steady and slowly growing, especially in recent years. I participated this past Wednesday in one of the many gaming meetups and played a couple games of Sentinels of the Multiverse, a co-op comic book styled card game.

Players choose pre-made hero decks that represent a single super hero and their powers, resources, etc. They then agree on a super villain to battle and an environment in which it takes place, both being decks of cards themselves. The environment presents cards that can both help and hinder the heroes while the super villain is just nasty and wants to kill everyone.

Not too long ago, Shut Up & Sit Down reviewed this game (http://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/v/sentinels-multiverse/) and I have to agree with them: it pretty much just comes down to doing damage and waiting for your turn to come back around. It can boast to be a truly cooperative game in that the defeat of the enemy results in a victory for all players. There is no way to win more than the others (even if they're all dead). However, the designers seem to have missed the spirit of cooperation and even the sense of teamwork that should come from a group of supers coming together to defeat a foe. Players may certainly attempt to form a strategy within the confines of their chosen hero decks, but there is little to no direct assistance you can lend your super team mates during their turns. You do as much damage as you can to as many targets as you can, say "I'm done" and wait until it's your turn again. Kind of blah, really.

Being the game designer that I am, and given the relatively simplistic rules of this game, I feel there is potential for some creative house rules that could greatly improve it. Also, a mechanic that I enjoyed was the incapacitated hero abilities. When a hero reaches 0 hit points, their character card is flipped revealing three ways the player can continue to affect the game. When it is the incapacitated player's turn, they no longer play or draw cards, but may choose one of the three effects. This keeps a player in the game and, to some extent, eliminates elimination. I'm definitely stealing this idea at some point.

In short, not a great game, almost a good game, not going to get it for myself. I'd play it again, but mostly to try and find ways to improve on its shortcomings.