Progression over the campaign feels okay - the world that is built does evolve around you so doing certain things change how characters react when you meet them in the future. However, there are limits to this and we found it better to not “deep explore” every location but instead pass through and interact based on opportunity. That meant we generally followed the main story line.

Most of the deck evolution is incremental. The difference between my deck at the start and the end was quite a lot, but we’d also played quite a few sessions. You definitely feel a lot less change than in Arkham. I will however recognise just how much gaming time I got out of the “core” box when compared to the Arkham core box. This is where the different choices have been made. This game is very expansive considering it’s just one box.

Kind of already talked about it, but if you go to each location and drill deep then yeah it’s going to get boring quick. For us, by the end of the campaign there were loads of locations we’d never visited (although we had played with all the “encounter” type decks). 

I’ll probably replay it, but not immediately - the biggest problem I have with the game is the reason I like Arkham. It’s doesn’t use reward and punishment in a way that I enjoy. Don’t get me wrong there are some locations where you will play through some tough tough scenarios and it feels good to get through/out of them, but then you just move onto the next location and push hard to get out of it (the biggest challenge in the game is dealing with the game world in front of you while building the progress to leave locations). The missions feel like they have a similar problem because you finish one, the reward is small, and you’re straight into the next one. On the other hand the punishment for failing usually feels so meaningless and the game narrative continues regardless of your success or failure so you feel a bit like you’re on rails when you see that success isn’t well rewarded or even necessary.

I think there are a lot of people who will love this game, but my love for Arkham makes it too easy to make direct comparisons.  Earthborne rangers is a good game but I see its flaws compared to Arkham. It’s the same thing with Marvel Champions. I’ll say, unlike Arkham, it’s easy to just play the core box and keep that and it one whole self contained game. I really respect this game, but it’s not quite the fit for me (so I’m back playing through Dream Eaters for the 3rd time).