First Thoughts: Malifaux 3rd Ed Open Beta

Straight and simple, I have mixed feelings on this. On one hand, they still have good gameplay and many of the units abilities have been better adjusted to be both more effective and tactical. On the other hand, I have issues with a number of characters and the lack of options.

I'm not going to go into too much detail (because it's Beta and can still change), but here are a few of my grievances:

-  Nightmare Box Sets:

So yeah, no surprises here. At the moment there are no substitute cards for these box sets, but as was feared, the Lucus McCabe set is now a split set as there are no options (or upgrades) for Mounted Guard units. As such, these guys are now just displays for me and will probably only get used for playing 2nd edition

- Lack of Upgrades:

I noticed while some Masters did have upgrades (mostly in line with there abilities), a bunch of them did not. This means it's hard to test out different playstyles when they have such a limited option to them. I just hope that they do bring out lots more upgrades down the road, not just for Masters but also for Henchmen too.

- Missing Humor and References:

So one of the great things with Malifaux 2nd Edition was its humorous references and ability names. There seems to be a real lack of that in this and somehow that bugs me really bad. Call it a nitpick, but to me it was one of those key things that made the game fun.

- Keywords, Themes and Gaming:

And finally, we get to one I have real mixed feelings on. On one hand I love themed armies and story driven fun, but on the other hand I feel that these changes really limit how mix and match your crew could be and what styles you can play as. Oh sure, you can still do it at a slightly higher Soul Stone cost, but the changes in each characters rules means that it feels you are forced into these themed mechanics just to have some average competitiveness.

Like I said, this is still Beta and things might be altered before 3rd Edition goes live, but as such my cautious feeling to it feels justified as there are certainly issues I have with it and feel now I need to just stick to Gremlins and give up the other factions just so I can have at least one usable faction. I'll do a proper review once it is out and I'll make my final decision on my continuation of Malifaux then (though now I know what all those forum posters felt when they went from 1st Ed to 2nd Ed).