You mentioned in class that the non-munchkin version of Gloom was much more depressing and grim. Given the level of depression that this version had, I don’t think I want to see just how depressing the original is. Nonetheless, I found the game fun and I enjoyed the way that the characters progressed, both mechanically and thematically, like how the cards we stacked on characters had sentences for names ([character] [card], [holly] [was betrayed by the dice]). One thing that I didn’t entirely like about the game was how abruptly it could end. In one instance, it felt like we were just getting into phase 2 of the game when one of the automatically played cards ended the game immediately. That card seemed like more of a snowball card than a headwind card.
I really enjoyed Dominion for the brief time I played it, and I was really disappointed that it ended early. It was really fun trying to remember what people’s decks consisted of (including my own), seeing what kind of strategies people were going for, and how everyone adapted to each other. For example, Desmond went for Militia’s early on and the other players started to grab Moats in response. I grabbed a lot of Villages to start, and when the pile was getting low, the other players tried to buy some Villages before they were gone. The theme wasn’t really ingrained in the gameplay, but just mechanically the game was a lot of fun.