Review Details

Shadows Over Camelot

Product Rating:

Product Review (submitted on December 9, 2008):

Shadows Over Camelot is a great introduction to collaborative games, being easy to learn and play and relatively short in play time. More serious gamers will probably be more interested in Arkham Horror. The premise of Shadows is that the players play as the Knights of the Round Table. Their goal is to complete quests and earn white swords to place on the round table. If they can acquire 12 or more swords with the majority being white swords, then they win. However, if Camelot is surrounded by siege engines, if there are more black swords, or if 7 black swords are on the table before the end, then the knights lose.

Every turn includes a progression of evil and a heroic action, with many options for each. Progressions of evil include drawing a black card, placing a siege engine, or losing 1 health. Heroic actions include movement, performing a quest duty, healing, or accusing. Undermining the knights is the possibility of a traitor. At the start of the game all the knights are dealt a loyalty card from a deck of 8. Only one of those 8 cards is a traitor card while the rest are loyal. The traitor works against the knights. Even after being outed, the traitor can still cause significant harm to the group.

Each of the knights have special abilities that can help the group. For example, King Arthur can trade cards with other knights while Galahad is able to play a special white card at no cost. There is a separate rule book for all the quests in the game, which includes fighting the siege engines, the war with the picts and saxons, tournament of the black knight, search for Lancelot, the black dragon, quest for the holy grail, and the quest for Excalibur. Each quest requires the knights to use their white cards in different ways and are relatively well summarized in the quest rule book. Some quests have relics that are acquired if the quest is successfully completed and the relics can help the group.

The components included with the game are very nice. The artwork is very beautiful and colourful. The knight figurines themselves are nicely made plastic molds but are uncoloured save for the base. Despite having many different components, the game is easy to organize and store in the box.

Overall, the game is fun, but a bit simple. The game rules itself suggests that the players avoid collaborating aloud in case of a traitor, but in reality close collaboration makes the game very easy to beat. This makes the game great for newer gamers, but a bit disappointing for serious gamers. I would recommend getting the Merlin's Company expansion along with this game if its easiest will be a problem.