Karak
⭐8/ 10
👥 2-5 players
🕗 45 minutes
👨👩👧👦7+
Gameplay
Karak is a real family game that introduces you and your family to dungeon crawlers.
Each player plays a character with a special ability that will help you defeat monsters. You are going to discover halls and rooms where you can defeat monsters and collect items and treasures. The items will improve the strength of your character and this will make it easier to defeat stronger monsters. The goal is to collect treasures (don’t forget to collect a key first!) and in the end defeat the dragon. The player who collected the most treasures at the end of the game wins.
The gameplay is straight, clear and uncluttered. At the beginning of the game, only the starting tile is on the table. Each turn a player may move up to four spaces. This can be in discovered areas (tiles that are already on the table) and in undiscovered areas. In case of an undiscovered area, you take a tile from the pile and place it next to the tile you are standing on. If it is a hall you can move through it, but if it is a room you need to place a tile in the room. This can be a treasure; if you have a key you can pick it up and open the treasure, if it is a monster you need to battle the monster. You beat the monster if the sum of the two dice and your equipment is higher than the value of the monster.
When the monster has been beaten you gain the item that is on the back of the monster and you add it to your character.
Once you place the dragon tile in a room, and a player defeats the dragon, the game ends. The player who collected the most treasures wins the game.
Review
Karak is a real family game, it is very accessible for kids and the rules are clear and straightforward. Kids really like this game because they can play it independently from a young age. Our 5-year-old son can play (and win!) this game by himself, and he really enjoys that. It is his current favourite game.
As a family game, the theme is very original, it is more appealing to our son than our daughter but they both playing Karak. The quality of the components is very good
The duration of the game differs per game because it depends on when the dragon is on the table. Because of this, the game can sometimes take (too) long. Most of the time the game lasts for about 15-20 minutes, and that is a perfect duration for the game.
To sum up; if you seek a fun and original game suitable for children from age 6+, we can highly recommend this game. Our kids love it.
End score
✔️ fun and original family game
✔️ clear and accessible rules
➖ duration is sometimes too long
➖ a real family game; as an experienced player, there is not much challenge.
This game has been made available to us by the publisher Geronimo Games for review purposes. Our opinion is not influenced by this and remains our own.
Sobek
