From Pixels to Pieces: Six Top Board Games Inspired by Video Games
Video games have long drawn inspiration from physical games, such as chess, Scrabble, and Dungeons & Dragons. For instance, deck-building collectible card games have gained immense popularity in digital formats with hits like Slay the Spire, Marvel Snap, and Balatro. Now, a growing trend sees games moving in the opposite direction, swapping pixels for pieces and screens for spinners. Here are six standout board games based on video games that offer unique and absorbing table-based entertainment.
Company of Heroes 2nd Edition
Publisher: Bad Crow Games
Price: £119.70
The Company of Heroes video game series, set during the Second World War, utilizes real-time strategy elements like conquest, resource management, and levelling up to create dynamic battlefields. The board game adaptation replicates these mechanics with custom dice and a range of miniatures, bringing a hectic war zone to your kitchen table. When enhanced with expansion packs featuring extra vehicles or terrain, it not only plays like the original but visually mimics it, offering an immersive tactical experience.
Slay The Spire: The Board Game
Publisher: Contention Games
Price: £91
Mega Crit's successful deck-building roguelike, Slay the Spire, tasks players with ascending a spire while battling bizarre creatures by playing, trading, or redrawing cards to improve abilities. The board game retains this core gameplay, translating monster encounters to colourful cards and representing the dungeon path on a large board with tokens for random stops like shops or campfires. It introduces four-player cooperative play, adding a tense team element that will also feature in the video game sequel. Currently one of the highest-ranking video game adaptations on boardgamegeek.com, it justifies its steep price with engaging mechanics.
The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era
Publisher: Chip Theory Games
Price: £138.14
The Elder Scrolls role-playing adventure games have garnered fans and awards since the 1990s, making physical spin-offs inevitable. Betrayal of the Second Era is a notable co-op adventure packed with a 90-plus-page rulebook, 167 dice, neoprene map mats, and numerous enemy and spell tokens. It replicates the open worlds of the video games, offering an intricately conceived sandbox for hours of play. With five "gazetteer" books providing branching interconnected adventures, each lasting an hour or two, and supported by expansions, it feels less like a board game and more like a fantasy lifestyle.
Stardew Valley: The Board Game
Publisher: Concerned Ape
Price: £49.94
Based on the beloved rural life simulator, Stardew Valley: The Board Game challenges one to four players to improve their valley through farming, fishing, and forming friendships. While the original video game has few prescribed goals, the board game accelerates the pace by giving players just one game year to complete a range of socially virtuous tasks. It trades the laidback original for an ultra-thematic, cooperative approach where success depends on teamwork. The colourful cards, board, and tokens capture the cosy aesthetic of the video game, ensuring a less stressful yet engaging experience.
Portal: The Uncooperative Cake Acquisition Game
Publisher: Cryptozoic Entertainment
Status: Out of print, available on eBay
While Portal and Portal 2 are set in abandoned laboratories, this board game focuses on Aperture Science's glory years. A board of interlocking isometric rooms creates an ever-changing conveyor belt that shunts rooms and occupants toward incineration. Players place worthless test subjects and valuable cake slices on portals, aiming to eliminate one and hoard the other. Designed by Valve, the video game's creator, it is rich with the same snarky humour, making it a unique and witty adaptation.
This War of Mine
Publisher: Awaken Realms
Price: £54.99
Released in 2014, This War of Mine is a gruelling survival game inspired by the siege of Sarajevo, where players must keep civilian characters alive in a dangerous war zone. The board game is considered a high-water mark in adaptations, faithfully duplicating characters, events, and core mechanics like the day/night cycle. Central to this is the Book of Scripts, filled with choose-your-own-adventure-style moments. So close to the original, it arguably makes playing both versions unnecessary, but fans will appreciate experiencing the tense, engrossing world with up to five friends.
