Sunderfolk

My first instinct when I heard 'use your phone as a controller for a co-op tactics game' was deep suspicion. That kind of gimmick usually papers over a thin game. Sunderfolk from Secret Door and Dreamhaven is the exception I did not expect. The QR-code onboarding takes under a minute, each player's phone becomes their card hand, inventory, and rulebook simultaneously, and the result genuinely replicates the tactile back-and-forth of sitting around a Gloomhaven box without the two-hour setup. The hexagonal grid, card-based actions, and flexible turn order - no fixed initiative, you and your party decide who moves when each round - give the combat a planning depth that keeps experienced tactics players busy. Coordination Mode, which pauses combat so your group can talk through positioning, is essential for a first run and shows that the developers actually thought about onboarding rather than assuming everyone walks in already knowing what flanking means. The class roster is where things get genuinely interesting from a build-theory standpoint. The Berserker is the self-sustaining frontliner: Rage management is the only resource on your plate, and the ability to physically pick up and throw enemies or allies to reposition the board adds more strategic texture than the blunt name implies. The Arcanist manages a Mana economy across turns, uses Decoy tokens to redirect aggression, and can teleport allies or enemies mid-round, making it a high-ceiling pick that rewards map-reading. The Bard passively generates music notes that buff the whole party without demanding constant attention, which makes Berserker-plus-Bard the most forgiving two-player pairing. Rogue rewards positional discipline with a unique dodge and an execute-chain ultimate called Thousand Cuts; Pyromancer manages fire tiles as both a resource and a hazard; Ranger locks down range lanes with marksmanship and nature-root snares. A post-launch update added a seventh class, the Vanguard, which layers a counter-damage passive on top of knockback control. Six or seven classes does not sound like a lot until you factor in Fate Decks - the game's dice replacement - where each draw before an attack can swing buffs, penalties, or class-specific modifiers, and you can customise your Fate Deck composition between missions through town upgrades and the Oracle shop. Between missions you return to Arden, upgrade local vendors, build NPC relationships for gear unlocks, and outfit characters with new skills, weapons, and trinkets. The progression loop is clean and motivating, though the story itself is the game's softest spot. The high-fantasy threat-from-the-shadows premise is functional rather than compelling, and the town NPCs are mostly forgettable despite earnest voice work. The entire cast, including a narrator who plays something like a digital dungeon master, is voiced by Anjali Bhimani, which gives the experience an unusual cohesion - less like a sprawling RPG and more like a storybook read aloud by one very talented person. It works better than it should, and the default difficulty leans a touch easy for genre veterans; bump it up if your group has any tactics experience at all. The one friction point worth flagging for PC players specifically: true online multiplayer requires everyone to own a copy, while couch co-op only needs the host to buy in. Character progress also does not transfer between campaigns, so if you build up a Rogue in your friend's session, that work stays there. Remote play via screen-sharing workarounds functions but is a workaround. If your group is local, none of this matters. If you are buying this to play online with friends across different cities, set expectations accordingly. Solo play is possible - you manage two classes and the combat becomes more of a positioning puzzle - but the social back-and-forth is where the game's real value lives. Strategy fans who usually solo their tactics games should treat this as a group purchase first and a personal one second.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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