Cracked LCD 11.1: Tales of the Arabian Nights Review
A classic has been reborn -- and Michael can't get enough of it.
Date: Thursday, August 06, 2009
Author: Michael Barnes
It’s not about figuring out the best route to fulfill a quest or figuring out which choices are going to yield more Destiny or Story points. It’s a game that is probably more fun when you’re losing, since when you’re losing you might be a penniless, sex-changed, beast-form cripple on the run from a vengeful Djinn. The laughs and good times that surround the game are really kind of incomparable to what you get out of other games because the level of detail in the stories is just right- they’re vague enough to be interchangeable and lock into your character’s larger narrative, but they definitely offer a lot more than “you find a +1 sword”. The stories fire the imagination and engage the players on a much more creative level.
Unlike any other adventure game short of traditional pen-and-paper role-playing games, TALES OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS is about the creation of narrative, myth, and the role of fickle fate in our lives as we accumulate experiences, talents, and memories and become a part of a larger story. Other adventure games may have a greater strategic element or more complexity in terms of character development, but none have matched this game’s ability to generate a narrative fabric. Every time I play the game I am in awe of how the conceptual theme of the game is so complete, that effectively players are participating in the adventures that will become 1001 ARABIAN NIGHTS. At the end of every game, what you are left with is a mutually created narrative fabric, a tapestry of events and situations that chart the course that you’ve taken through the evening with your friends and family.
The return of TALES OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS was definitely worth the wait, and now all that’s left is for this generation of gamers to go out and play it for themselves. It really shows the potential of the board game medium to tell stories and without labyrinthine mechanics or esoteric structures to render the game inaccessible or procedural. This is one of the Great Ones, and in 2009 it has emerged as a timeless classic that anyone with any interest in hobby gaming should be playing.
