Six Sided Summoner Preview

Note: This preview uses pre-release components and rules. What you see here may be different from the final, published game. This post was a paid preview, you can find out more information here.

The crystal of light has guarded your small seaside village for as long as you can remember. But today a monstrous dark monolith rises in the distance, and shadowy creatures approach your gates. Can the guardians of light save your peaceful town from the encroaching forces of darkness?

Six Sided Summoner is mostly cooperative (with a competitive variant) lane control game that should take about 30-40 mins to play. It can be played with as few as one player, but really shines at 4.

Gameplay Overview:

Players in Six Sided Summoner control one or more Guardians (depending on player count) protecting the crystal on one side of the board. The object of the game is to destroy the encroaching minions before they make it to your crystal and destroy it.

Each Guardian has unique movement and powers. Players take turns moving and using their abilities to attack minions, support your fellow guardians, or shore up defenses. If a guardian goes down they may respawn, but at the cost of damaging your own crystal.

Shadow creatures are summoned in waves and advance from the opposite side of the board down lanes towards your crystal. Additionally, with each respawn phase a new chaos card is enacted, making the dark a little bit more powerful. More shadows can spawn between phases if creatures cross a certain threshold.

Players win if they can manage to beat back and destroy all waves of the shadow onslaught, even if some guardians were lost in the fight. Players lose if the light crystal is destroyed or all guardians are defeated.

In the competitive variant, two players face off with two guardians each and chooses a crystal to align with. After that it’s guardian versus guardian with the same respawn rules as the co-op. A player that reduces their opponent’s crystal to zero or defeats both of their guardians wins.

Gameplay Impressions:

If you like lane control games of the video variety, this is going to be right up your alley. With varying creature types and powers, and an unending wave of monsters to stop, Six Sided Summoner combines the best parts of a dungeon crawl with the speed of an online game. Set up is a snap and the rules take about ten minutes to go through completely.

The competitive mode is a fun twist for two players, but cooperative with where this game shines. If you really want to succeed, your entire party will need to put their heads together. Who’s laying traps? Who’s coming in from behind? What’s the best position for an assault? And why is the turtle STILL splashing around in the fountain?

Unique player abilities will ensure that everyone feels like their contributing. Right now, my personal favorite is the Spider Queen – able to place webbing for straps as well as affect some pretty nasty damage. It’s a nice touch that all the creatures have attack and support abilities. No single person will feel like they need to hang in the background while others have all the fun.

The art is phenomenal. If Hayao Miyazaki and Tim Burton had a baby it would be Javier Gonzalez’s striking work for Six Sided Summoner. Not even exaggerating, the combination of otherworld fantasy with a slightly macabre edge is fantastic. The art direction and graphics add a lot of flavor and atmosphere to the game and made me excited to get into the story and game from the onset.

Also included is a tracker for minion waves. If you’ve ever sat around with a piece of scratch paper trying to determine which minion has what wound and who had taken eight damage and maybe that was prone now, no one knows? You will entirely appreciate its addition.

Final Thoughts:

Six Sided Summoner is a terrific cooperative game for both players of online MOBAs and dungeon delvers, as well as groups that enjoy building strategy together. Unique player abilities will keep everyone at the forefront of the action and random chaos cards present interesting challenges for replay. Shorter game time also makes it a great contender for early nights or multiple play-throughs. If your gaming group likes lots of strategizing and dynamic cooperative play, consider adding Six Sided Summoner to your game shelves.

As always, we don’t post ratings for preview copies as the components and rules may change from the final game. Check back with us after the game is produced for a full review. This post was a paid preview, you can find out more information here.