Recently, board game review titans The Dice Tower deleted their Darwin’s Journey review after a pretty big rules mistake, which essentially corrupted Tom Vasel’s gameplay experience. There was even an official apology issued, which was well received by fans, as it was self-critical and came through as honest and genuine.
Now, The Dice Tower has reshot and reuploaded their review with the correct implication of the rules, and as Vasel suspected – it did improve his gameplay experience. So much so, that Darwin’s Journey’s rating got up from a 7 out of 10 to a very rare 8 out of 10 – and that’s just for the base game. The Dice Tower also played the game’s Fireland expansion, which further upped the rating to a 9 out of 10 – a rating that The Dice Tower almost never gives.
The Importance of Reading the Rules Right
This entire situation should serve as a warning that reading the rules correctly is very important in the board game world. The Dice Tower’s current saga with Darwin’s Journey and its Firelands expansion is a clear testament that one could get a very wrong impression of a game by incorrectly interpreting even a single line of text. It’s important to note that a 7 out of 10 rating might already be a pretty good game, but again, a 9 out of 10 rating by The Dice Tower is an excellent game – and that’s a pretty substantial step up the ladder.
The reshoot of the video saw the entire Dice Tower team appreciate the original game and its expansion a lot more and further backed up its high rating on BoardGameGeek, which currently sits at 8.2. In comparison, Darwin’s Journey: Fireland Expansion has a BoardGameGeek rating of 8.3. The team praised the game’s mechanics, complexity, and options involved, which are further enhanced in the Fireland Expansion.