When comparing Elder Sign vs XCOM: The Board Game, the Slant community recommends XCOM: The Board Game for most people. In the question“What are the best co-op board games that work best with 4 players?” XCOM: The Board Game is ranked 5th while Elder Sign is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose XCOM: The Board Game is:
Each round is divided into 2 phases: A timed action phase, where players takes their actions, followed by an un-timed resolution phase, where everyonegoes through and resolves all of the actions from the previous phase. During the timed portion of each round players are forced to take their actions as fast as possible by the app, which will punish you if you take to long. This gives your decisions much more weight since you won't always have time to do everything you want to and must make tough calls on where to focus your efforts.
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Pros
Pro Allows for casual play
Elder Sign is a good game to play with newcomers unfamiliar with the rules due to the game not being super difficult (like Ghost Stories). While it does offer a challenge it is not completely stacked against the players like some other titles in the genre.
Pro Good for short bursts of co-op gameplay
Elder Sign is styled as a co-op experience that uses tightly integrated dice mechanics to allow for short and succinct play times of around 90 minutes.
Pro The gameplay is tense and frantic
Each round is divided into 2 phases: A timed action phase, where players takes their actions, followed by an un-timed resolution phase, where everyonegoes through and resolves all of the actions from the previous phase. During the timed portion of each round players are forced to take their actions as fast as possible by the app, which will punish you if you take to long. This gives your decisions much more weight since you won't always have time to do everything you want to and must make tough calls on where to focus your efforts.
Pro Excellently captures the feel of the video game
Fantasy Flight did a great job capturing the feel of the PC version of this game and putting into the boardgame version. Decisions are meaningful as you decide where to deploy your troops, what to research, and how to allocate your resources.
Cons
Con More than 4 or 5 players can lead to a lot of downtime
Elder Sign says it can be played with up to 8 players but playing with that many people can lead to a lot of sitting around, which can be boring.
Con Requires using a seperate (free) app
For some players, having to use a phone or a tablet to play a game can be a major turnoff and might make them reconsider this game.