When comparing T.I.M.E. Stories vs Gloomhaven, the Slant community recommends Gloomhaven for most people. In the question“What are the best co-op board games?” Gloomhaven is ranked 5th while T.I.M.E. Stories is ranked 8th. The most important reason people chose Gloomhaven is:
Each and every class represented in-game has their own deck of cards. These cards feature skills and abilities that are entirely unique to that specific class. Whether you're attacking, moving, or looting - each class carries out these actions with their own distinct style. Thanks to the sheer amount of variety offered between the classes, no two ever feel alike, and you're guaranteed to get a unique game experience based on the class you select.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Innovative
T.I.M.E. Stories is unique both idea-wise and gameplay-wise. You could consider it a game system rather than a game itself – you basically play through multiple different scenarios based on the same rules and mechanics. It’s reminiscent of a point-and-click adventure game where players solve a huge puzzle together, except T.I.M.E. is a co-op board game. A loss is considered a reset, and you can use the valuable information you learned in your playthrough in your next runs.
There’s also an interesting “save-game” feature that you can use to stop the game and continue from where you left off the next time you come around. It’s done by placing the components in the box in a specific way – there are compartments that represent inventories, “time points”, health points, and the current room you’re in.
Pro Great artwork
T.I.M.E. Stories looks very impressive. The box, the gameboard, and all the components (apart from cards) feature a white, minimalistic, and sci-fi-ish design, but the really striking stuff is in the scenarios. Most of the art comes in the form of panorama location cards and characters cards. Each of the official scenarios is designed by a different team of artists, which creates huge variety in the aesthetics.
Pro Mechanically simple
The basics of the game are quite easy to understand. After setting up the gameboard, choosing characters, and mission briefing, players arrive in the first location and the panorama view of the room is revealed.
When you arrive, you choose which card you wish to examine and read the information on the back of the card. After that, you can spend your “time points” to take one of three actions – move to a different card, roll for something, or do nothing. When your time points reach zero, the scenario is over. If you didn’t manage to beat it, then you must restart it from scratch and keep doing that until you win.
Pro Official scenarios still developed
The creators of T.I.M.E. Stories are still working on future expansions for the game and play testing fan-made content for potential printings.
Pro Custom scenario possibilities
The official site of the board game features a downloadable scenario designer’s kit. It includes all elements you’d need – layouts, icons, etc. There are also multiple fan-made scenarios on board game geek that you can download.
Pro Immersive
T.I.M.E. Stories really pulls players in because of the gameplay design and the thematic nature. It’s like a point-and-click adventure game that requires you to solve puzzles by interacting with your surroundings, but in co-op board game format.
Throughout the game you’ll visit many locations and encounter all kinds of interesting stories and characters. Since you are not allowed to show others the event cards you get when you interact with objects or characters, players are constantly thinking along, communicating what they’ve found, and taking note of things to remember.
Pro Good components
The components of T.I.M.E. Stories are both fine-looking and durable. The gameboard itself is a big, sci-fi-looking surface with dedicated spaces for components. There are many types of cards – character cards, locations, maps, items, etc. They are all made of thick cardstock. The player markers are quite unique – they are wooden cylinders with colored stickers. The box also includes a variety of small cardboard tokens and special dice.
Pro Character classes are distinctly unique
Each and every class represented in-game has their own deck of cards. These cards feature skills and abilities that are entirely unique to that specific class. Whether you're attacking, moving, or looting - each class carries out these actions with their own distinct style. Thanks to the sheer amount of variety offered between the classes, no two ever feel alike, and you're guaranteed to get a unique game experience based on the class you select.
Pro Intense card management
Cards in Gloomhaven represent all of your attacks and movements, as well as determine the order these actions will take place. Furthermore, every class in the game has their own unique deck of cards.
Most of the cards have unique and complex mechanics, but they all follow a simple rule when brought into play: you must choose whether to play the top action (attack) or the bottom action (movement). Once a card is played, it goes into a discard pile. However, by "resting" a few turns and sitting out of the action, you can put them back in your hand.
Managing your cards each round and trying to get a victory in every scenario can be a very intense experience. Knowing when and how to use an card in your hand results in some really tense play where some tough, on-the-fly decisions have to be made. Do you attack or move? Do you save this attack for a tougher enemy later? Is this card worth playing now? Is it worth resting to retrieve cards?, etc.
Pro Exciting enemy encounter variations
There are a whopping 45 different enemies and 12 bosses. Each enemy in the game has their own unique stats along with combat modifiers such as additional damage. As such, each enemy acts and performs differently. Additionally, monsters can be set to various difficulty levels and scale based on how many players are in the encounter. All of this combined allows for a huge amount of variation, and keeps each encounter feeling fresh and exciting throughout numerous game sessions.
Pro Heavy immersion in the world thanks to events
Outside of the dungeon crawling, there are Road Events and City Events that can occur. Road Events take place when traveling to a new location, whereas City Events happen when you visit the city of Gloomhaven.
These events present players with unique and interesting situations and choices, such as meeting a traveler, running into monsters, or finding a new quest. The choices you make during events also influence the course of the story and may provide you with a buff (or debuff) for your upcoming dungeon crawl.
These additional story elements help the world-building along, as they take place during what would be otherwise mundane things (such as traveling a road, or visiting town) and make it easy to stay connected and feel like you're a part of the game world at all times.
Pro Easy to understand
Although the sheer size of the board, tons of cards, and numerous game pieces/tokens make the game appear intimidating, it is quite easy to understand the basics after a short amount of time spent playing. This is due to its clearly defined rules, detailed cards/iconography, and the clean visual presentation of the game board.
Pro Players can join and leave at will
A game can still run at maximum efficiency, even with a "revolving door" of players.
Monsters can be set to scale based on the number of players, so if your friend suddenly has to leave mid-game, it won't be a huge detriment to the group. Players can also drop in or leave the game at any point, as it's easy to add or subtract players to the party between scenarios.
It's all the little details like this that make it a great game to play with a group of friends who all have varying amounts of availability.
Pro Can play solo
Even if you can't find anyone to play with, the game is able to be played solo. You can still tackle events and dungeons solo, progress your character, and enjoy the story without the need for a game master or even a group to play with. This makes it a great choice when the the urge to dungeon crawl strikes, but nobody is available for a long play session.
Cons
Con Not replayable
Once you’ve finished a scenario, there’s little real reason to return to it and play the game again because you will have already experienced the unique stories and solved the puzzles.
Con Requires a dedicated group
Similarly to many co-op board games, it can be hard to gather the same people to see a game of T.I.M.E. Stories through. The fact that the first couple of runs will probably be unsuccessful don’t really help the situation.
Con Not very accessible
While the game isn’t necessarily difficult, chances that someone will finish the scenario on their first run are very slim, which could turn away many newcomers. It can also take approximately two hours to finish a run and five to six hours to finish the scenario.
Con Very pricey
The base game retails for around $50, which is a big investment for only one scenario and the components. Moreover, each official scenario goes for an extra $20 - $30, so you should know if you’ll make the most of your purchase.
Con Can get repetitive
Once you run out of “time points” you must re-run the entire scenario. While you will have the knowledge of ways to solve many puzzles, it can be irritating to blast through the same situations you’ve been in.
Con Luck-based elements
The game requires you to roll dice to finish some encounters, which can be a huge turn-off to a game that basically requires you to solve a puzzle in a limited amount of time. The dice-rolling mechanic makes the overall gameplay much slower and can lead to some frustrating moments when you crack the puzzle but just keep getting unlucky rolls.
Con Takes a long time to set up
Setting up the board between each scenario is very time consuming as pieces have to be carefully arranged according to diagrams, cards have to be shuffled and placed into multiple piles, and character boards have to be configured. This process tends to take much longer than other similar board games.
Con Cumbersome game box
The game box is huge and all the pieces don't always fit neatly back inside. This could make transporting the game a hassle. It's heavy, large, and has many various parts and pieces.
Con Expensive due to being out of print
This game, while popular, is no longer in print. If you're looking to add it to your collection, you should be able to find it on Amazon or various board game hobby sites, but it normally carries a high price tag.
Con Not good for short gaming sessions
While it's possible to play one scenario at a time, the story and encounters are best appreciated and experienced as a full campaign which will play out over several long sessions. Additionally, the board takes quite a while to set up between scenarios, which isn't great when you only have limited time to play.