While I had initially passed on it, Star Wars Destiny the collectible card game landed in November 2016 with a bang on the gaming scene and its clear over the last year it has gained momentum globally.  It celebrated its 1st birthday in style, enjoying a top 5 spot on the ICV2 most sold collectible card game on our little blue planet.  While I have been slacking on reviews the last few months (work, life, etc.) and the result of a very RPG focused agenda, I could not ignore this one any longer, I had to take a closer look.     Destiny has enjoyed a very quick road to success as far as collectible card games go, though it should come to the surprise of no one given that FFG was behind it.

It really just seems like Fantasy Flight Games doesn’t know how to fail and while it took some leg pulling to get me to shell out for a CCG (more on why that is later), I finally got behind the wheel, albeit belayed, to give this little Star Wars bird a thorough whirl.

Overview

Final Score:  (3.9 out of 5 Stars)

Star Wars: Destiny is a classic formula for a CCG dueling game on the surface.  Two players build decks and face off against each other trying to knock the other out to win the game.  Like all FFG games however, Destiny takes the theme, in this case Star Wars and pushes it a bit closer to its roots.   By making it about special Star Warsy signature characters with special powers and throwing  the entire thing on its head by adding specialty dice the game entered into an entirely different CCG genre than most card games fall into.  While not a white elephant, the genre today is quite thin competition wise.

We have seen this emerging genre before in games like Dice Masters (its primary competitor), which has also been very successful (enjoying the no 9 spot of top 10 collectible games on ICV2 as of this writing).  Star Wars Destiny however boasts a powerful IP, the stupidly high quality components and original art work of  FFG and two of the most successful designers at FFG Corey Konieczka and Lukas Litzsinger. Suffice to say, it has a lot going for it out of the gate.  Today we look under the hood of this year old stud and see if it earns all of its accolades.

Components

Score: 
Tilt:

Pros:  High quality components made to last, dice in particular are extremely well done, awesome visual appeal that gets you in the mood.

Cons:  The box and storage are poorly thought out, the extra storage binders sold separately are not a whole lot better leaving you on your own to find a storage solution.

Star Wars: Destiny follows the very high standard that we have grown accustom to for games coming out of Fantasy Flight Games.  The card stock is the best you can get, the dice quality is amazing and the entire thing has a spit shine on it that will get you excited to play with the pieces.

The dice deserve particular mention here, I already mentioned Dicemasters which is the only point of reference in this rather small genre, but by comparison, Destiny blows it out of the water, it may just have the best dice I have ever seen in a dice game or any game for that matter.  The dice are big, colorful, clear and of the absolute highest quality.  They are a joy to roll, just the feel of them in your hand is going to get your gamer juices flowing. Compared to Dicemasters which, well lets just say it, was a big disappointment component wise, FFG really invested in Destiny’s signature component and it shows.

If there was any disappointment for me it was in the packaging, which I consider a “none review-able” item in terms of scoring a game, but I’m going to bitch about it anyway.  The absence of a storage solution will annoy you.   Booster packs are obviously a “rip them open” situation, which is fine, but there really is no good “box” to put your stuff in when it comes to Destiny.  The two player box has a very flimsy box that rips easily, which won’t last and it uses the side opening boxes all gamers loathe as do the pre-built expansion decks.  While the plastic casing inside was pretty good, giving you a place to put some of your dice and perhaps some hope of a solution to store some what you will ultimately collect, quite simply after opening the game and opening some boosters I was left with a mess of cards and dice with no where to put them.

FFG does offer Dice Binders, which would have been great even if sold separately, but I found the choice of being able to store 40 dice but only 44 cards only further fueling my frustration.  Basically a single deck has 10-14 dice in it, while having exactly 30 cards.  The binder is way too big for a single deck of dice, but far too small to have more than 1 deck because a lack of card storage.  It’s not a terribly smart accessory, leaving everyone trying to scramble and figure out an alternative storage solution.  It’s kind of lame enough to put things in a non-reusable box, but offering a pointless accessory is pouring lemon juice on the wound.  Suffice to say I was pretty disappointed, but luckily this component has nothing to do with the quality of the game so I mention it more out of frustration than any impact on the games score.

Theme

Score: 
Tilt: 

Pros: Fantastic artwork, quotable cards and familiar characters will delight the senses and give you that Star Wars feeling.

Cons:  Some might find the blending of eras and lack of cannon annoying, for the record, I do not.

The big advantage of using a big IP like Star Wars is that once you throw some pictures of Darth Vader on the cover, you already have a built in following to the theme.  When I judge a games theme however I’m trying to make a connection between the setting and the mechanics.  Does the theme influence the mechanics and shine through while you play, does it fuel the imagination or impact your sense of the experience, is there some sort of concept of time and place, does it tell a story through play.  All of those things help to enhance a game and are important if you are buying into a game hoping to get some replication of the Star Wars universe.  Does Destiny provide this?

The short answer is yes and no.  Its not exactly what I would call a storytelling experience.  The combinations can get pretty weird as the entirety of the Star Wars universe is blended into a single game.  You will see content from the Phanthom Menance, the old trilogy, the new trilogy, the cartoon and a bunch of stuff you probably have never heard of unless you are a die hard consumer of everything Star Wars.  While it maintains what I would call “The Star Wars feeling”, there really isn’t a sense of a story, time or place, but rather a kind of scramble of everything into a single game.  Now I would imagine most people will not really care, but the first time I built a deck I had Nute Gunray, Boba Fett and a Tie Pilot all in the same deck and that is only a slightly weird combination in terms of what is possible.  If your sense of cannon is easily offended and throws off your sense of Star Wars continuity, this game will abuse that to all hell as you mix and match characters, equipment and locations from pretty much every source and era of the Star Wars universe to make your decks.

To me personally this was more a quirk than a problem, everything in the game is definitively Star Wars and belongs in the theme as a whole and the whole concept of trying to maintain cannon in a CCG is far fetched anyway.  The theme shines largely through the fact that every card in the game is universally quotable and as a Star Wars fans playing cards like “He doesn’t like you” instantly takes me back to the movies.  That with the amazing art, is more than enough to give Star Wars: Destiny a well deserved passing grade.  Its very clear that the designers of the game were Star Wars fans.

If you are looking for a more thematic experience, one in which the cards mechanics are linked up to a thematic story and experience, I would venture to guess Destiny is probably not that game.  While it certainly houses Star Wars as an IP under one roof, its really more of a game about gameplay than trying to accomplish some sort of thematic tale of events, for that you might need to seek out the Star Wars LCG.  Even there however I think you would find that there is a general blending of “everything”, as this is really how most card games are, this one is no different.

Gameplay

Score: 
Tilt: 

Pros: Streamlined, easy to teach, easy to learn mechanic. Robust card pool with a wide range of deck building options make this dueling game a winner.

Cons: It’s a small game with big investment requirements, in particular if you plan to compete.  Casual players should approach with caution.

I think without argument when it comes to dueling card games, gameplay is without question the single most important element that needs to be done right for it to be successful, a moot point when one does a review of an already successful game, but none the less.  For any collectible games unfortunately there are many external factors that can really affect the gameplay experience,  in particular ones like Destiny that use the random booster concept.  While I won’t dwell here, I will say that I prefer the now well establish FFG Living Card standard which alleviates a lot of the anxiety and potential gameplay or balance issues randomness and investment differential can create.  When buying into a CCG this really comes with the territory and in many ways is an extension of the games “pre-game” deck building concept.  I will talk a bit more about my feelings about the CCG concept later, but let’s first talk about the gameplay in general.

On the positive side, the mechanics of the game itself and how it incorporates dice in particular is really well thought out here.  Destiny is a very tight and streamlined game, cutting out a lot of the nonsense of old school CCG’s like the “I can’t do anything” turns or “Mana screwed” issues, or “not enough cards dilemma”.  All that is eliminated and in a fashion that is both fair, consistent and reliable.  Each turn from the first to the last round is going to have you contemplating your plays one action at a time, rather than complaining about some shitty game state you find yourself in.  There is always something you can do, in fact, most of the time there are hard choices and tactical decisions that you must choose between which really fuels both deck building (the pre-game, game) and the constant re-assessment of the in progress game.  There is constant tension throughout, your always trying to solve some puzzle at every stage of the game.  You are rarely out of options.

I especially liked the fact that there are very few “no result” dice results, which is great given its a dice game and a part of your success will be affected by how well your roll.  You might not always get what you want and depending on how you built your deck you may or may not have things to control your dice, but because you can discard a card to re-roll dice and most dice generally have only positive results (something), your getting benefit from them most of the time in some way.  Its interesting as well how despite a pretty massive card pool, each card/dice combination brings something new to the table.  There are no “bad” cards really that I found, there are just cards that are clearly designed with certain types of deck builds in mind.  Sure, one can say that clearly some cards are more competitive than others, you will of course see the emergence of a meta where certain cards see more play.  That said however I found that when I zeroed in a character, a piece of equipment or even a certain mechanic, there was a deck waiting to be built out of it.  This creative pre-game deck building element of CCG’s in general is arguably one of the most addictive parts of the game, though your collection will dictate how much flexibility you have here and unfortunately this will also affect how balanced your experience will be.

The point here however is that there is a lot of design space when it comes to deck building assuming a robust collection and let’s face it, when it comes to card games like Destiny or really any collectible game, even miniatures, the concept of list building or deck building is a game in its own right.  You will spend countless hours contemplating “builds” and when discussing the game you will always be talking about it in terms of deck building.  This is part of the fun and really part of the gameplay of Destiny, trying to find that perfect combination of cards and tactics to win more than you lose.  On a competitive level you’re always working on trying to outsmart the meta and in a sense in competitive play I imagine this becomes an entire new level of gameplay where you know what people will play and your trying to build decks that can beat those decks.  This stacking of concepts gives Destiny many layers of game to explore but aiming to play competitively isn’t going to be the only driver to trying to find that perfect deck combination.  Its a built in feature of the game, serious, casual, competitive or not, you are going to be trying to build the best decks you can.

On a ground level there is much to like about Destiny but my favorite really has to be the hero design.  Each hero card has a two costs, a one die cost and a two die cost.  With only 30 points to spend on heroes, it means you are not going to have this “put the best you have in a deck” approach.  The cost is a huge limiting factor ensuring the most powerful heroes come with the drawback of limiting who you can partner them up with.  This tender balance is well done and while their are certainly some pretty great combination that formulate the competitive meta, the game really isn’t won or lost on heroes alone.  The deck you build that supports them is far more critical, in particular the equipment that brings in additional dice.  A seemingly innocent 10 point hero can be turned into an unstoppable machine of death with the right combination of gear and this both plays into the strategy of the deck building and the tactics at the table.  This all in turn helps to bring that tightness of play to the game.  Contemplating the possibility feels endless, even with a small investment you will discover countless combinations to try out, driving both the addiction to collect and to play.

Its unfortunate however that to get the most out of pretty much every hero you will need to collect both dice for him.  The way the cost works out, if you buy 1 die for say 11 points, getting the second one might only cost you 3 or 4 points more.  Hence building decks with heroes for who you don’t have 2 dice for is extremely inefficient and doing so will definitely result in a sub-optimal deck that in turn will affect your rate of success in particular when facing more optimized 4 dice, dual hero decks.  This makes collecting a sizable collection that much more important to deck building and in general to your success in the game.

Many cards have zero cost, or are low cost, which means your success isn’t really driven by resource availability during a round entirely.  In fact you will spend most rounds with very few resources or sometimes even none and it does not prevent you from participating aggressively in the events of the round.  I love the fact that the game goes back and forth with each player getting a single action you, the end result is that you always have an opportunity to respond to the changing state of the game based on your opponents last play.   This fuels the game tactically as it ensures that while you can plan, you must constantly adjust.  Pulling off those deadly combos isn’t just a matter of fact, there is a counter to everything both in terms of cards you can field in your deck but also what order you make your plays, the timing of them and of course the always important results of the dice.  Battlefileds are also a part of the overall strategy of the game and can sometimes offer significant advantage to getting your timing right.  All this amounts to a consistently interesting and ever changing state of affairs on the table.   You might have a plan, a player takes one action and you find yourself completely re-assessing the entire round.  Things turn on a dime and I absolutely love that.

In short, the game-play is absolutely fantastic from a mechanical stand point, you have a lot of control over your destiny making this without question one of the most aptly named games in the FFG lineup.

A big part of your success in any match is going to be in the pre-game deck building, really a game in its own right and a core part of CCG’s in general.  You have a lot of choices to make here including which characters to use, what equipment, upgrades and support cards to add to your deck which in turn defines what dice you will have available in the course of the game and of course the all important event cards which is really where much of your subtle strategy comes from.   In many ways this is also the flaw of the CCG model because what cards you have available is a limiting factor of your collection, one that is largely randomly done through the booster concept.  Its particularly a problem when you are on a tight budget and you find yourself facing opponents with a more flexible income.  This differential can and probably will create some imbalances.  You might not have those 2 dice heroes, so you may find yourself facing 4 dice vs. your 2 or 3 from your limited collection and that is a major unbalance in the games structure.  In fact I found even after buying all of the starter packs and 2 of the big booster boxes I only have  5 heroes for who I have 2 dice, significantly reducing not only what parts of my collection I can make but in particular what types of decks I can make that are optimized.  Most of my decks are made up of 3 heroes 3 dice, simply because I have no other option and when facing a 4 dice deck I’m at a pretty severe disadvantage.

Suffice this is just part of the CCG model, for better or worse.  The question of course is, should this affect the games score and the answer is a simple no.  I can’t count being a CCG against a game if a CCG is exactly what it intends to be.  It’s a collectible game, collecting is part of the game, an expensive part and if you think that’s unfair than you should definitely skip this game, but it does not make Destiny any less of a game.  Mechanically speaking I have to rate the game with the assumption that I have the entire collection and in that capacity this is a fantastic game.

The caveat for me in the model is the 2 dice hero model balance of the game.  Essentially the game is designed on 30 points worth of heroes, however the average cost of a 1 die hero is about 8-12, and the average cost of a second die for the same hero is 3-5.  This means that if you spend points for 1 die of a hero, if you don’t buy the second die you have locked your deck into being a 3 die deck in all but the rarest circumstance with no way to work out the math any differently.  This creates an inherent problem with how collecting works, but more importantly it impacts greatly the global balance of the game where effectively a player who has a set of 2 die heroes of every sort will always be able work out decks to have 4 dice, but a person who does not have 2 dice heros to work with will be locked into the less optimal 3 die decks constructed from either 2 or 3 heroes.

To me the decision to balance the game this way hurts it. Only including 1 die in a booster, not to mention making all heroes “rare” or “legendary” at the least means that you will struggle to make use of your collection even if its fairly robust.  I for example don’t have any 2 die yellow (good guy) heroes in my collection which means all yellow hero (good guy) cards are effectively not used at all unless I want to play with a sub-par, 3 die decks which frankly after a few frustrating efforts I know well enough that it’s just not fun.   The disadvantage is too great against a 4 die deck.  Effectively these 3 die types of decks feel incomplete and can create a frustrating experience to say the least when facing a player who has a complete 4 hero deck.

I think this pain point is significant enough to affect the score of the game, to me, this is more a design decision problem than a CCG model problem.  Grant it, it can be overcome through collecting but personally I think there is a limit to how much a CCG model should impact the balance of a game based on collecting and how much a CCG model can demand before you can make use of your collection.  I would say right now, after 200 dollars spent, perhaps 10% of my collection is viable to be used in a deck thanks to this awkward hero/die pairing issue.  Most of the cards I can’t use are great and I would love to use them but the lack of the 2 dice hero pairings I need to do so means I have to build those less effective 3 dice decks. After a fair amount of testing it’s abundantly clear to me that 4 dice vs. 3 dice is more than just a disadvantage, it’s a serious unbalance, its not game breaking but not easy to ignore either.  In short, you need the pairings, its really not an option in most cases.

Still, from a stand

Replay-ability and Longevity

Score: 
Tilt: 

Pros: The robust nature of CCG’s combined with FFG’s commitment to the product means this game likely has a long and bright future ahead of it.

Cons: To really get the full experience you are going to have to dive knee deep into this, with a constant push to expand your collection driving your replaybility.

The really nice thing about collectible card games is that we can generally rely on the publisher to continue to put out expansion after expansion for their game, in particular with FFG.  This in its own right gives Destiny a huge advantage in this category as we know it will be heavily expanded.  For CCG’s, expansion is also one of the most important categories as decks get old, cards get old and you are always going to be chasing a refresher.

Still lets assume for a second you don’t make a major investment in the game, how much can you replay that same 2 player starter deck before it gets boring and loses its polish.  The answer is more than you expect, but probably not enough. Considering the two player box is 30 bucks retail, I would say you get considerable bang for your buck, but CCG’s like Destiny beg to be expanded, its assumed you will deck build and it really is about finding new and clever ways to beat your opponents.  I think the 2 player set is a nice, cheap way to find out if you like the game, but in the end unless you expand your replay-ability is going to be fairly limited.

Personally after a few plays I was ready to start deck building and needed cards to do it with.  I think I got the 2 player set, played 4 or 5 times and ordered 2 booster boxes in the same week.   I managed to get it on a discount but by the time I was done ordering stuff I was a good 200 bucks into it.  The question now is how far will this take me?  The answer is not nearly as far as I had hoped.  Part of the problem is the dependency on 2 dice hero pairings.  As mentioned before after 200 bucks I still don’t have pairings for the vast majority of my heroes, in some cases entire sections of the game, for example I don’t have 2 dice for yellow heroes so my yellow hero cards really don’t have a home in any decks right now.  That was disappointing.   Suffice to say you will need to collect, trade and/or buy off the 3rd party markets to really get that replay-ability and deck construction possibilities going that this game is capable of and that is going to be a significant investment of your time and money.

Each time you add to your card and dice pool you are going to see worlds opening, new deck possibilities, new approaches and in turn more replay-ability.  Really this is typical of collectible games, their longevity generally relies on expanding your collection and Destiny is no different, but in my opinion its far more difficult to do with Destiny, due to the way the model is setup.

In general though I think the replay-ability is very good, there are significant variations in the different sets and new mechanics are introduced in each set that shake things up and refresh certain elements of the game opening up the reusing of cards you might have previously overlooked.  I also think with each new set the 3 hero, 3 dice combinations become more viable and competitive than before.  I noted that when building decks “digitally” with online deck builders with cards I don’t have yet I was able to construct some 3 dice, 3 hero decks that I believe would be a significant challenge for a 2 hero 4 dice deck.  Suffice to say I think some of these collection vs. balance issues can be resolved through mixing the sets and opening the door to more ways to replay the game.

I have high hopes for the longevity of the game, but CCG’s need to establish large card pools for that longevity to really stick.  Destiny remains a question mark in that department, I’m not 100% sure how far I will take the game, but certainly FFG is going to tempt me with the constant expanding.  I think Destiny has a bright future for the dedicated player.

Conclusion

Star Wars: Destiny is a challenging, varied and robust game that takes this genre to an entirely new level.  Its got the chops to be a great competitive game and its design streamlined to a point of near perfection.  It really is an absolutely fantastic game.

Unfortunately it’s CCG model not only comes with the standard economic trappings and overhead of a collectible game but is burdened by a core balance issue if you are not fully committed.  If you want to make reasonably competitive decks, even more so than typical CCG’s, you are going to have to invest heavily, perhaps more so than other CCG’s out there.

I would say for experience CCG players looking for their next challenge this is definitely one you should not pass up, but for casual gamers I think this is one to skip.  The 2 player game is too limited and getting into it uncommitted is going to be disappointing.  Its an all or nothing game in my humble opinion.