Video games are more popular now than they have ever been, with nearly everyone you know playing at least one. With mobile gaming breaking into the mainstream with hits like Candy Crush and Angry Birds, and consoles like the Wii making their way into even your grandma’s house, more people are playing than a nerdy 80s kid could have ever imagined.
Which is why group-based games like Tabletop Simulator are taking off the way they have. And with a steady slew of DLC, it’s not set to go anywhere anytime soon. If you’ve never played before or just now made enough friends to do so, here’s a few that are new and a few that are tried and true.
Xia: Legends of a Drift System
Gather 3-5 of your friends and compete in an outer space adventure to become the most legendary Captain in the galaxy!
By completing missions, braving spaceship battles, trading the right items in the right system, and exploring the far reaches of the galaxy, you earn money, upgrades, and new ships, all of which can be customized for how you like to play. Just be careful, for while you can certainly target your friends, you'll earn yourself a bounty and the game becomes that much more dangerous.
Zombicide
Ever wonder how you and up to 6 friends would fare in a zombie apocalypse? Of course you have! And that’s what Zombicide is for.
Each character has unique abilities that grow as you level up, helping your team work together as a cohesive unit to survive the undead. Scavenge a multitude of weapons, gear, and resources both for yourself, your team, and the mission, all the while surviving hordes of zombies.
Oh, and by the way, the game only gets harder as you go, as the Danger Level steadily increases and spawns more and more flesh-eating monsters to get you. Good luck.
Warfighter
Call in your squad of up to 6 teammates to take on a variety of dangerous combat missions.
Spend your resource points to select your equipment, weapons, and skills, then take on missions of varying difficulty together as a unit. The combat has been revamped with a system that accounts for new variables such as cover, weapon type, and range, adding a new depth unique to the simulated version of the game.
Each mission is also a separate instance and lasts anywhere from just 30 minutes to an hour, so Warfighter is a good option for gamers who don’t want an all-day game.
Superfight
Who do you think would win in a fight between Superman and Goku? Had this argument before? Me, too. Superfight is all about that.
Make up your heroes by drawing cards containing various attributes and abilities, then argue over who would win in an all-out brawl. Superfight is essentially the Death Battle of tabletop games.
It’ll probably ruin your friendships, but that’s a small price to pay for proving someone wrong, right?
Scuttle
Prepare to scour the seas in a race to gather 21 doubloons against 1-5 of your friends-turned-enemies.
You can battle and plunder one another in the race for treasure just as a proper pirate should. Choose to spend your cards as gold or as abilities and whether to play or draw a card on your turn as you build up your fortune and pirate.
Buying Scuttle also gets you your own treasure in the form of two free expansions: The Curse of Jack Black and Scurvy which add new moves, penalties, and a list of diseases that affect gameplay even further.
Whether you’re playing Tabletop Simulator to make friends or enemies, the game that keeps on giving has plenty to keep you entertained. It comes with 15 games in the base package, and currently has a whopping 24 DLC packs that can be added.
You can pick it up on PC, Linux, and Mac OS X.
Published: Apr 1, 2017 06:24 pm