Sleeping Gods (2021)
(2021)Games7Days, Banana Games, Keep Exploring Games, Lotus Frog, Lavka Games, dV Giochi, Red Raven Games
Sleeping Gods is a cooperative campaign adventure game where 1-4 players become Captain Sofi Odessa and her crew, lost in a strange world in 1929 aboard their steamship, the Manticore. It features an open-world storybook experience with exploration, mystery, and branching narrative paths that can be played across multiple sessions.
The Verdict
based on 39 reviews
The reviewer considers the original 'Sleeping Gods' his all-time favorite board game, lauding its deeply immersive, story-driven gameplay and its capacity to transport players into its imaginative world.
“So, just because Sleeping Gods didn’t end up in the top slot, it’s still a really great game. The number of hours my wife, daughter and I played the game is in the dozens.”
The reviewer enthusiastically praises 'Sleeping Gods' as an exceptional and immersive open-world adventure, declaring it their number one game of all time due to its compelling story, vast content, and unique mechanics.
“Sleeping Gods is just a paragon of world-building, a master-class in story-telling, and quite simply, a masterpiece.”
The reviewer considers Sleeping Gods to be a masterpiece, highlighting its beautifully told story, innovative combat mechanics, and vast amount of content that ensures a compelling and lengthy gameplay experience.
“If you want to spend an hour or two over several sessions living in another world and being another character, then Sleeping Gods is the game for you.”
The reviewer enthusiastically praises 'Sleeping Gods' as a masterpiece and the best adventure game, highlighting its compelling narrative, engaging turn structure, interesting combat, and well-designed ability and item cards that make each campaign a joy to explore.
The reviewer expresses immense admiration for Sleeping Gods, calling it their favorite narrative-driven board game due to its expansive, mysterious world, engaging storytelling, and personalized adventure experiences, despite noting some minor drawbacks.
The reviewer highly praises "Sleeping Gods" as an exceptionally immersive and replayable adventure game, stating it was their top game for 2020/2021 due to its captivating nature, despite acknowledging only minor, nitpicky flaws.
“Sleeping Gods shows you don’t need a familiar licence to make a board game that captures many of the best parts of video games, without sacrificing the things that make tabletop gaming unique and enthralling in its own right. It’s a sprawling, engrossing epic that I can’t wait to explore further - and has left me excited to see where the board game's upcoming sequel Distant Skies goes next.”
“Sleeping Gods is Ryan Laukat’s magnum opus. The artwork, the writing, the world building and the combat system are all top-notch.”
The reviewer considers Sleeping Gods a fantastic and grand adventure, praising its immersive narrative, beautiful artwork, and engaging blend of storytelling with combat that feels like a modern Dungeons & Dragons experience.
“Gorgeous production, wonderfully diverse characters, and an epic adventure to get swept up in makes for a hugely replayable experience.”
The reviewer considers 'Sleeping Gods' a fantastic and excellent narrative-driven sandbox game, declaring it his game of the year, with its only minor drawback being the consistent starting point of campaigns.
“My time with Sleeping Gods was a remarkable experience, one of the best weeks of gaming I’ve had in a long time. Simply put, Sleeping Gods is Ryan Laukat’s masterpiece.”
“The reviewer hails "Sleeping Gods" as the best storytelling game and one of the best cooperative board games they have ever played, praising its open-world feel, engaging exploration, and memorable 15-hour campaign.”
The reviewer highly praises "Sleeping Gods" as the best story-driven board game they have ever experienced, highlighting its unique combat, meaningful choices, immense replayability, and sprawling world, despite acknowledging its somewhat fiddly setup and large table footprint.
The reviewer highly praises "Sleeping Gods" as a fantastic narrative-driven board game with a mysterious world, engaging storytelling, and beautiful artwork, making it their favorite in the genre despite some minor issues like taking up a lot of table space and potential downtime with more players.
“I have finally found my ultimate adventure game with Sleeping Gods, it hits all the right buttons for me being an exploration driven game with a choose your own adventure mechanism. Exploration feels most important in this game which for me is perfect.”
“With "Sleeping Gods," Laukat is pushing his design elements even further, resulting in an exciting new open-world concept for board gamers to enjoy. And with 13 unique endings available to players, those who take the plunge will find plenty of replay value available to them.”
The reviewer highly praises 'Sleeping Gods' as a deeply thematic, highly replayable campaign game with an immersive story, noting its initial complexity and finicky combat as minor drawbacks.
“Sleeping Gods is now my favourite narrative driven board game with beautiful artwork and a world map that takes your breath away with its grandeur. The adventures you go on, and customisation to your character, feel personal and that any time you play no one else will have the same experience.”
“The reviewer regards "Sleeping Gods" as their favorite narrative-driven board game, emphasizing its stunning artwork, grand world, and the personalized feel of its adventures and character development. They praise its fantastic storytelling and the deeply immersive experience it offers.”
The reviewer highly praises 'Sleeping Gods' as a fantastic and their favorite narrative-driven board game, highlighting its expansive world, engaging storytelling, beautiful artwork, and strong solo experience, despite noting minor issues with table space, replay momentum, potential downtime with more players, and challenging combat.
The reviewer highly praises Sleeping Gods as a triumph of design, finding it consistently satisfying and recommending it for players who enjoy rich narrative experiences and exploration, despite some minor drawbacks regarding repeatable combat and quest vagueness.
The reviewer highly praises Sleeping Gods for its free-roaming, open-world sandbox experience, drawing a comparison to the exploration style found in The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker due to its interconnected atlas.
The reviewers found Sleeping Gods to be a highly enjoyable, grand narrative campaign game praised for its beautiful art and immersive world-building. Despite requiring significant table space and having a fair amount of management, these aspects do not overshadow the overall positive experience.
The reviewer highly praises Sleeping Gods for its compelling narrative, unique approach to character perspective by utilizing all nine crew members, and its successful execution of a sprawling, sandbox adventure that surpasses similar games in the genre.
The reviewer highly recommends "Sleeping Gods," praising it as the pinnacle of exploration and storytelling mechanics in board gaming for delivering everything fans of the genre desire, despite noting minor drawbacks such as somewhat repetitive combat, underdeveloped characters, and a slightly disappointing ending.
The reviewer highly praises "Sleeping Gods" for its exceptional art, immersive theme, quality components, and extensive story content, noting that it offers many hours of exploration and adventure, even in the base game.
The reviewer finds 'Sleeping Gods' to be a beautiful and engaging narrative campaign game, praising its immersive story, exploration, and art. While acknowledging a few drawbacks, including one significant issue, the overall experience is highly positive, offering an evolving adventure akin to other acclaimed story-driven games.
The reviewer expressed significant enjoyment for "Sleeping Gods," praising its immersive story and expansive exploration. Despite some minor frustrations related to managing multiple characters and a desire for a companion app to streamline gameplay, it's considered a highly engaging and potentially top-tier narrative adventure.
The reviewer praises "Sleeping Gods" as an evocative, open-world, storybook-driven adventure with charming art and streamlined combat that fosters a sense of wonder and exploration. However, they note that the game's randomness and occasional difficulty might not appeal to everyone, and it requires considerable table space.
“An epic sandbox narrative that will pull you in and find you at the mercy of a mesmerizing story filled with far more highs than lows.”
The reviewers found Sleeping Gods to be a good and fun game, appreciating its rich universe and engaging side quests, making it a solid entry point for narrative campaign games. However, they noted a lack of an overarching story and felt the combat could become repetitive over time, preventing it from being truly amazing.
The reviewer found 'Sleeping Gods' to be a visually stunning game with enjoyable mechanics, particularly combat, but ultimately felt that the extensive game management detracted from the narrative experience, preventing her from fully loving it despite her initial desire to do so.
While acknowledging the beautiful components and enjoyable combat, the reviewer ultimately found 'Sleeping Gods' to be too much like work due to excessive game management and not enough compelling story, preventing her from fully immersing in the narrative experience she had hoped for.
The reviewer found 'Sleeping Gods' to be a repetitive and isolating experience for solo play, feeling that quests lacked connection and overall narrative drive, ultimately deciding to sell their copy of the game.
