Batman: Gotham City Chronicles Unboxing and Preview

Published: May 22, 2019 2:00 PM /

Previewed By:


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I'm going to gush a bit here. Monolith impressed me with the production values of Claustrophobia 1643 earlier this year, and they've blown me out of the water with their new game, Batman: Gotham City Chronicles. This 1 vs many game comes in two large boxes, but you don't even have to crack either open to start to realize that this is an absolutely stunning production. Everything about the components of this game point at the quality and care that was put into it. Over the years I've seen production values in tabletop gaming get better and better, and it's fairly obvious with this game that Monolith wants to be at the top of the heap.

The first thing you'll notice when you take a look at the boxes is the art. Not only does the art cover the top of the boxes, but they fit together to form a panorama of the Gotham skyline, with Batman and his friends and compatriots on one side, while some of his most famous foes strike a pose on the other. Not only is there so much stuff included that the game needed to be split in two, but the split actually makes sense game-play wise. The Bat-box includes everything that the hero players need, while the villain box (boo hiss!) contains all of the various components and minis that the villain player will need. When you want to play you can simply hand the villain box to the player who will be playing that side wile the hero player(s) take the other.

Let's take a look at everything that comes in these two boxes. Keep an eye on a follow up article in the near future that talks about our impressions of the gameplay, and see if the mechanics and fun-factor of Batman: Gotham City Chronicles match the stellar production values.

Batman: Gotham City Chronicles Unboxing - Hero Box

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Batman: Gotham City Chronicles contains an absolute plethora of hero figures. You only use 3 during missions, and their skills and abilities vary wildly, so even if you manage to play through all 24! missions that the game has to offer, you have a ton of replayability by simply playing missions over again with an entirely different team of do-gooders. The rulebook is rather long, but the information is laid out well, and learning the basics of gameplay are actually easier than it would appear, although it would be nice if there was an included skills-reference sheet, because the heroes and villains in this game have a TON of varied skills and powers.

Batman: Gotham City Chronicles Unboxing - Villains Box

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After I'd cracked open both boxes I was initially worried about storage. Everything from the hero box fits neatly back in place, but there are a significant amount of tiles and tokens contained on the punchboards in the villain box, with not much extra space to work with. Thankfully, once the punchboards are removed from the box the miniatures box sits lower, allowing you to lay the punched and bagged tokens on top, leaving just enough space to close the box snugly. Since it spans two very large boxes there isn't much you can do about conserving shelf-space with this game, but at least everything that comes in these boxes fits right back in to them.

As I said earlier I'm incredibly impressed with the production value of this game. All of the art is bright and vibrant, the miniatures are highly detailed, and the cardstock and quality of the tokens are excellent. Here's a closer look at some of the bits and bobs...

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Batman: Gotham City Chronicles is a premium product, and it shows in every last component. I'm not going to go into depth about how the game plays here (keep an eye out in the near future for a closer look at the gameplay) but I will say that if you and your group are the type who like deep, complex games that require a lot of thought and planning, especially on the heroes side, then this is probably going to be a game that appeals to you.

If you are already interested in picking up a copy then you'll be excited to know that this game is coming back to Kickstarter on June 4th of 2019, and it will have even more content available than what is shown here.

 

The copy of Batman: Gotham City Chronicles used for this preview was provided by Monolith.

Previews you can trust: To ensure you're getting a fair, accurate, and informed review, our experienced team spends a significant amount of time on everything we preview. Read more about how we review games and products.

 

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twilliams
| Senior Writer

Maestro of cardboard and plastic, former Tabletop Editor. Now I mostly live in the walls and pop in unexpectedly from time to time. If you ever want to talk… More about Travis