Divinus

Designer: Filip Miłuński
Artist: Matijos Gebreselassie, Karolina Jędrzejak, Mateusz Komada
Published: 2024
Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 45-60 Mins
BGG Rating: 6.9
BGG Ranking: 7583
Publisher: Lucky Duck Games
Mechanisms: Dice Rolling, Legacy Games, Tile Placement, Variable Player Powers

Game Description:

Divinus is a competitive, legacy, tile-laying, digital hybrid game in which you play as a demigod seeking to gain the favor of the Gods and ascend to a new pantheon. Players embark on a twelve-scenario campaign that will see them exploring lands, completing quests, interacting with Gods, and impacting the outcome of the epic clash between Greek and Norse pantheons.

Quick play overview:

This is an APP driven campaign game, where players will add stickers to improve their demigod. App will also be used to scan some stickers which will give players a story about an epic battle between gods.

The game starts very simple with players rolling their dice and using them to take a tile/turn. After each scenario some additional possible actions will be available but the tile taking action remains the MUST do action.

There will be tiles available on spots 1 through 12. Players will do some math (addition & subtraction) and place one or more dice on the numbered spot to take that tile and place it on their own board, trying to finish the scenario quests first and also compete for the end of scenario goals.

If you are out of dice or you cannot place your remaining dice, you can REST by taking back all the dice, rerolling them and refilling the empty slots with new tiles.

Games will end in the round when a player places the 16th tile in a 4x4 grid.

MINOR SPOILER: Players will get dice stickers that will make their dice stronger with multiple number/side or extra effects. Later in the campaign, players will be able to use ONE “demigod” action per turn, from the many available actions on top of the MAIN action. Which will make the game more interesting but also much longer. Add to this, stickers that will add extra bonuses on specific actions and you have a very different tactic for each player.

Final thoughts:

The campaign started great. Quick games with enough fighting for the wanted tiles. Each scenario has different quests that push players to rush for middle game scoring and then trying to fix the map for the end of scenario scoring. I liked it a lot.

Soon players will get stickers that will add extra stuff… and with stickers comes the problems. There is no info on what sticker you will get by completing a certain quest or story tile. If players knew it in advance and then decided to put all their eggs into one basket just to get a specific sticker, which would be an acceptable excuse why some stickers are better than others. But stickers are mostly delt at random and some are much better than the others. There was one that totally broke the game.

FINAL SCORE:

Gameplay & How often I want to play it: 6/10

The base mechanism of the game is fun and extra demigod actions add to the depth of the game. But all the extra actions also change the game from a quick 45 mins into a 90min beast.
After finishing the campaign, I do not have any incline going back for more. At least until the memory fades. Hopefully the expansions will keep the games shorter.

Art & Graphic Design:

The game looks great and the final maps will look very pleasing to the eye. The stickers work well and the app with the story is easy to handle.

Rules & Complexity:

The game starts simple with easy to learn rules. Every now and then, there will be more rules added to the rulebook that will make the game more complex but still easy to manage.

Theme & Mechanism fit:

Playing as demigods who are trying to impress the gods and improving their skillset during the campaign is a nice theme. Rolling dice to do so… doesn’t really fit the theme.

Fun & Replayability:

I liked the gameplay better at the beginning of the campaign compared to the end. A tile laying game should be quick, not a 90 min endeavour. That said, we had a good time playing through the campaign, and we were looking forward to the following games… until the OP sticker made one player a god, while others remained demigods.