Sentinels: amazing adaptations of board games for digital media

In our review we will talk about two games: “Sentinels of the Multiverse” released in 2014 and “Sentinels of Earth-Prime” released in April 2023. Both games are brought by Handelabra Games, which specializes in adapting board games for their digital versions.

The reason I bring both games with such distant release dates to the same review is because “Sentinels of Earth-Prime” is fully compatible with the game released in 2014, allowing players to combine all of its content into one package, including fan-created content in the steam workshop, so the game becomes massive with content for many hours of fun, but does this fun work well in a live? Let’s find out.

Environment, Art and Soundtrack bring a greater immersion to the player

Something that draws a lot of attention in the game right away is the fact that, unlike other board games adapted for the digital environment, the game not only emulates a table with its cards spread out, it simply brings us to a comic book page where all the characters are very well positioned. This allows the player to feel immersed in that battle and helps its audience better understand what they are watching, it even includes exclusive artwork of the heroes injured when they are low on energy or defeated when they are incapacitated. There are also unique dialogs for hero and villain combinations.

Each villain and each scenario has its own soundtrack, which is very well tailored to each environment and character, helping you feel more inside the story.

There is a lot of content here for a player and his audience, who like board games and stories, to follow, as there is an in-game library with details of all the characters. Each image on the cards tells events from their adventures, so it allows you to explore quite a bit. However, it is something that the streamer needs to be careful to bring to his audience, because he needs to explain a lot of the game. A new person coming to the live stream may feel lost with so much information on the screen.

Online cooperative modes with crossplay can generate a lot of engagement

The game has an online mode with direct crossplay with the mobile version, which is the same as the PC version, allowing up to five players to work together as a team to defeat a powerful villain and create their own stories or even a live roleplay.

However, unfortunately, it requires that all participants have the same content, so even if I have all the dlc, I will only be able to use the same heroes and villains that everyone else has in the room. Unfortunately this is something that may turn some people away, I imagine that players who like the game and don’t have the dlc and can test it in a match with friends may be interested in buying it in the future, so for me this is a negative point.

However, according to a message on the forums, this is something the developers are considering for the future. Hopefully it will happen, as the game has many secret characters that can be unlocked during gameplay, and doing this in a group will always be more fun, especially if you can count on the help of your community.

In addition, there are weekly challenges set up by the developers for players looking for an extra challenge, allowing you to test your skills, and these challenges can be played online or solo.

Sentinels: Digital board games are not for everyone in a livestream

Well, like it or not, board games are more of a niche and slow-moving type of games, so playing with friends helps a lot if you can create some fun moments that will help your audience stay on their toes while playing, especially since some villains are quite difficult.

People who like and know board games will be more comfortable watching, while other people who don’t like something slower and more strategic may not feel as interested. So it is necessary for the streamer to be more attentive and interact more with his audience to explain more about what is happening during the gameplay and maybe even call them to play and teach them.

The game was tested both in its PC and mobile version and in both cases ran super smooth and very light, I had no problems with performance.

Unfortunately, because it has a lot of text and many cards, the game is only available in English, so this may put off some people who do not master the language, after all it is a game with a certain high learning curve.

Fezudu