Vantage
Vantage is an open-world, co-operative adventure game that features an entire planet to explore, with players communicating while scattered across the world. With nearly eight hundred interconnected locations on four hundred cards and over nine hundred other discoverable cards, the world is your sandbox.
I've been having a lot of fun with Vantage since I received it about a week ago. I played one two-player game and a few solo games. The game feels different than any other board game I've played before. It's not often I play a game and don't really care about the victory condition. I even opted to continue playing after "winning" yesterday to keep exploring.
The game starts by dropping each player in a random location on a vast planet and gives you all the freedom from then on. There's a mission to nudge you in a particular direction, but you can totally ignore it and decide for yourself what would make this game interesting. It's also a very easy game to play, it's easy to setup and start and after a game or two, I suspect most won't have too many questions about how to play. And if you do, you can always just use this rule written in the rulebook:
Universal Rule of Thematic Fun If you are ever in doubt about a Vantage rule, card, ability, or anything else, choose the most fun answer that makes sense thematically.
The game is huge, I've only scratched the surface and I'm itching to dig into some of the things I've only been able to glance at. And I don't think I'll ever come close to seeing it all. There are hundreds of locations, almost a thousand different cards, 7 storybooks, and 6 characters.
I'd love to talk about some of the adventures I've played, but I wouldn't want to spoil anything, it's really fun to explore and find what's in the box.
I recommend this game for people who like exploring and discovering things. I don't plan on playing this at more than 3 players, but it might be fun if everyone's familiar with the game. It's also not for you if you want clear objectives and winning conditions, the goals and missions feel more like suggestions than requirements.