Elder Sign: Omens – Lovecraftian horror for your mobile device

It is not always easy to translate a physical game into digital format, especially in the compact size of a mobile device. Fantasy Flight Games struck gold with their app version of the Elder Sign board game, successfully capturing both the tense horror atmosphere of the original and transposing the exciting dice-rolling into a seamless touch-based experience. Hovering around $4 and available for iOS and Android, this is a great app to add to your phone to itch a board gaming scratch on the go. This will be the perfect game to play alongside the likes of blackout blitz that is becoming increasingly popular amongst people who enjoy playing games for money.

The game itself is set in Lovecraftian mythos – an alternative version of the 1920’s with heavy infusion of the supernatural and the interdimensional. Great Old Ones – ancient beings of unimaginable power are lurking beyond the thin veil of reality and are struggling to break through. An old museum, filled with relevant artifacts, threatens to become a portal into our world. Should the ancient evil awaken and step into our world – destruction would surely follow so a ragtag team of investigators come to the museum to solve the mysteries it holds and prevent the Great Old One from manifesting.

Welcome to Arkham – It is not a nice place.

The game consists of a series of adventures – at each point of time you have six to pick from. A player has six green “glyphs” – dice-like components that generate one of six random results, symbolizing the results of investigations – peril, lore, terror etc. You “conjure the glyphs” (read “roll the dice”) and then use the results to match these up to the “tasks” – required combinations to complete the adventure. If you are able to complete all the tasks of the adventure – you succeed and are rewarded, otherwise you fail and suffer the consequences.

While that may seem like an entirely luck-based exercise, the game actually has a fair bit of strategy and probability management. Certain abilities allow you to manipulate the results of your “rolls” changing one results to another or retrying an unlucky roll. Certain items allow you to either get additional glyphs/dice or save past rolls for future use.

Looks like I generated enough lore to solve the secret of that mask!

There is a fair bit of diversity in the game – base offering comes with four Great Old Ones, each with their own challenges and difficulty level. You can challenge and you can select your team of four from a group of seventeen investigators. The adventures you will face are randomly drawn and varied. There is a lot of game here for just $4.

The game features excellent mood-setting art and the interface is intuitive and easy to learn.

If you are familiar with the board game – know that the app uses the rules almost exactly the same way with only a couple of notable exceptions. One – it completely removes the board game’s mechanics of battling the Ancient One – once they awaken. It is a welcome change as the idea of fighting Cthulhu with a tommy gun never quite seemed right to me. Second change is that glyphs “saved” using spells can only be used in current adventure, not reserved for future ones. This change unfortunately reduces spells’ efficiency and does a small disservice to the game as a whole.

A variety of 1920`s stereotypes are at your service!

One of the Elder Signs: Omens greatest strength is how easy it is to turn it on, play a couple of adventure and then leave it until later. This episodic nature really lends itself well to the hectic way you might be playing on a mobile device. At the same time if you have more time to kill – you can definitely play a more dedicated game. A full game will take about 20 minutes. At this point the game is strictly single-player with no multiplayer options. If you’re looking for an online, mobile gaming experience that allows you to interact with live casino experiences then you may like to try your hand at some of the games found over on the Conquer Casino website (found here – www.conquercasino.com). With slot games, roulette, and more, there’s something to suit all tastes. It’s a good way to switch it up a bit when you’ve had enough of other games and are looking for the chance to win something! And if you don’t like casino games, you can try multiplayer online battle arena video games. These games will not only let you play, but they can also let you interact with other players at the same time. Some online gaming platforms let you choose champions with different skills. When you are unsure of which champion to choose, then you might find a Yone guide or another champion tutorial that matches your personal preferences. Take your pick and have fun!

Once you grow tired of the base game – the three excellent expansions available for $2-3 each do a magnificent job of broadening the game’s horizons. While these do add your regular “more items, investigators and adventures” – each presents a unique campaign that takes your team to different locations for unique (and very tough) challenges. These are highly recommended. If you’re short on budget, you could try to access these expanded versions via game mods like those available on https://happymodios.com; if you do get it, you’re lucky! This could be one of the most interesting games you’ve come across in a while.

Whether you like Lovecraft, the Elder Sign board game or just looking for a cool new app on your phone – Elder Sign: Omens comes highly recommended, sure to help you kill some time in a tense and engaging way. You can get it for your iPhone, iPad, Android, or even PC.