Review
Simplistic, innovative, dark, twisted and malevolent fun! There is a very gothic, Tim Burton-esque feel to the game, particularly due to the authentic quality of the illustrations and dry wit of the character names and descriptions. For example; for the card 'Attacked by an Angry Mob' the description reads 'Fifty people with torches and pitch forks can't be wrong' ... genius.
Today is a good day to die
The object of the game is quite simple. The player controlling the family of miscreants who has suffered the most wins the game. You can inflict horrific acts upon those of your own family or those of your opponents. However some cards offer some slither of hope to these poor unfortunates, meaning you can cause a great deal of happiness to one of your opponents characters, similarly causing your real life opponent a great deal of suffering... The idea of the game is that the more these gang of eccentrics suffer in life, the greater they will be rewarded in the afterlife - so you have to make sure they are close to topping themselves before finally freeing them and sending them off to the world beyond. You may not kill a happy or content character however, as some form of tragedy must befall them before they pop it...
Tactics for the deceased
As simple as this game is there is a very nice element of tactics involved, this is mostly how and when to use your deck to its maximum effect. The are three areas in which you can inflict pain / joy, the top being common, the middle average, and the bottom rare. So what you can do is override pain / joy by adding the right card at the right time, the best being when your opponent has caused a high amount of suffering to his character, and you override it with a mere trivial occurrence, thus edging you swiftly on your way to a wonderful afterlife. So to put it simply, the rarer the area, the less likely someone can override it. There are also event cards that allow you to steal cards, pick up more, clear all points from a character and even bring characters back from the dead...
Necessary transparency, not just a gimmick
True to the nature of the game the cards have their own clever twist. The cards are actually see-through, a very rare thing indeed and this game thrives on this attribute, it simply wouldn't work without possessing the transparency traits of a passing poltergeist. The cards are very high quality and work extremely well, they even wipe clean if you invite your sloppiest friend over for game. Well done to these guys for their brave and bold approach, may they live miserably in this life, and flourish in the next!
Eulogy
Gloom was a good card game. For Gloom did venture where none had ventured before, and succeeded in doing so. Gloom has a big family of expansions and they will miss Gloom dearly, if not purchased also. I bestow Gloom the card game a whopping 9 out of 10, for bringing so much happiness to those who have suffered so much. Amen.
by David 28/05/2010
