Descent Road to Legend is the game that brought me from the world of role-playing games to other types of tabletop games. It provided a very rich simulation of a dungeocrawl experience with fun combat that was very tactical. Players moved through dungeon by unlocking a series of checkpoints. They would have to hussle because the overlord could spawn monsters and bury the players in sheer numbers. 
Descent 2nd Edition and its derivatives (Imperial Assault, LotR) made the decision that brevity was all-important. Missions have built-in timers that virtually ensure the players lose after six or so turns. Games are won or lost based on some objective in the end zone. Combat now becomes something that's just...in the way!
Enemies are brittle as glass, and their role is not to engage the players in pitched battle, but rather suck some actions out of them as they get smashed. Players that do well at these games learn to sink as few actions as they can into battle, so they can reach the end zone and rifle through trash or some other sort of scramble. The most prized abilities are things like teleporting and acrobatics that let players disengage.
You know the really sad thing here? Road to Legend got it about 90% right. Dungeons were smaller than in the original game, but they still felt like dungeons. Spawning was still possible, but held in check. What needed to be fixed were the top-tier gold treasure magic items, and some character abilities that weren't well-designed for small dungeons or a campaign style. We just needed a tune up.
I keep hoping FFG will learn, but then I play the LOTR game and sure enough, when orcs show up and the party engages them, all it does is slow the party down .No loot, no XP, none of the trappings that makes combat rewarding, and all the while the clock is running out so the game ends with an unceremonious wheiper. I don't know how someone finds that fun. My group didn't.
Please, FFG, bring back battles. Let us fight, because fighting is more fun than watching a clock.

So about Uthuks...

Berserkers now wear ponytail?
And I see that our sexy blood sisters (witches) gets old.

That app screen as in BurnyBurns' post isn't too great graphically either- very saturated colours- feels too red / too blue like there's some high power floodlights in the scene leaving you wishing it were subtler, but the other app visuals look better (with what they did with Gloomhaven digitally the app should be really good- if not they'll have fallen rather short....)

I agree. Once again. I am not affiliated with the company.
 
”We want to point out that this is not 3rd edition”. 
-Is there another group working with a 3rd edition then? 
”Because of the differences, this is incompatible with 2nd edition”
- I thought we had already established that this is not a 3rd edition. I didn’t ask if Descent was compatible with Battlelore or Runewars either. Telling me that this is Descent for marketing reasons makes it only a bit less manipulating for that part.

So, people ask for continued support of the second edition and they don’t get it. Was Lost Legends deemed such a colossal bet it did not even get normal distribution? People are still searching for english Stewards of the Secret to this day. I am not the one mistrusting in my own product.

Still, people hope for a third edition instead to start over and have new players join. They don’t get it either.
They get an incomplete product (inspired by Descent) with:
Tiles and artwork that the verbal majority dislike. Extravagant characters and miniatures. Obligatory app. Price that almost says this will not sell good enough. A target group (?) with unclear characteristics. 

And the company will be surprised if this tanks. Wondering if this will be an example of the Sunk-cost fallacy or worse.

I'm so relieved that I have no interest in buying this 😄

The game is as worse as I bêta tested it : the art is ugly, the game is almost disconnected from descent universe, the only payable app is a scandal ...
 
Only miniature looks like great, all other is ugly, stupid, boring, and uninterresting. I tried to tell this during the test but I was kicked.
I'm almost sure the game won't live more than Runewars miniatures : few expansions during 2 years if lucky, and that's all. 
With that awfully stupidly high price, the totally disconnection with the fans, the only app driven (and the app is far from being good), I'm really sorry to say that but I hope it will be a big fail so they would never go this way again, listen back to their fan, maybe give the second edition a new life, or a Real respectable V3
 
 
Now, guys, I'm going back on my loved Descent Second edition

Oh boy. That character art is hard pass for me. App is yay and 3D stuff is interesting, but this art style has become one of the sure ways to ensure I won't purchase the product.

Yeah, it doesn't look significantly better than Journeys in Middle Earth (which was already overpriced).

For being more expensive than Gloomhaven, it looks like far less product.  Quality looks good.  From what I've seen, this is not a $175 game, but a $100 game.  The miniatures look great, the art looks great, the app looks great, but not for the price great.  Kind of sad as I loved Descent: Journey's in the Dark, and would have enjoyed an update.  But I cannot see spending close to $200 on a game that has seemingly far less content than a $100 to $130 game.  

The usual problem with app games is that most designers simply use it as a crutch to avoid designing strong mechanics. Apps can be integrated really well in a unique interesting way, but usually it's just pasted on to avoid needing any real mechanics.

I agree, looks like they are leaning way too hard on the digital integration, which could leave the game stranded the moment they stop supporting the app.

Pass.

My biggest problem is the app. Even if this a one and done game, what if I want to revisit it in say 5 to 10 years. Will FFG still be supporting and updating the app or will one day when I update or buy a new iPad and find that the app doesn’t work anymore. Then I have a big box of stuff with no way to play the game. It’s my problem with all app games. 

I agree completely. Seems to me very few material considering the price. And considering actual content of the box will give you some 3 or 4 chained missions with just ONE final villain... and then keep on investing money in expansions and more minis...
Compare it to Gloomhaven, where you can play for YEARS (and don't need further support or an app).

...or at least that was my first impression, content-wise. I know its not really fair to compare it to kickstarter bloats coming down the pipe next year but...lets face...thats whats out there. They re not competing against their second edition...they re competing against Storm sunder, oathsworn and Tanares Adventure. I fear this may turn out the be a very large box containing a very large amount of air.

Love coop, ok with app driven (VERY occasionally). Art is for sure a downer and the price tag is a 'no way'! All that being said I already have LOTR:JIME why do the same thing with different pieces of plastic and cardboard? With owning JIME already the price basically doubles in trying to keep up with both. I am not getting rid of what I already have + don't need/want another app driven game that does the same thing as I am sure both will become obsolete at the same time.

good luck with your setup with all that ugly cardboard around the table...

I entirely agree with you.
I had the same problem with video games, so i can relate. I do tend to play video games less and less, replaced with board gaming time which i enjoy and get immersed into more.
Still, i never really felt like the use of an app like Road To Legend removed any of the magical feel into the game; i feel like it enhanced, or even brought a new interesting approach to it. The same magic i felt as a teenager while playing Advanced D&D (1st Ed) by myself with my own boundless imagination, the excitement of discovery after you tap a door and the app tells you to setup this tile and that tile, with this many monster and terrain features, plus a potential special event. Paper and cardboard can't come up with that except with some random card mechanic and thick adventure books who keep piling up as new expansions get released - though i admit,  i'd perfectly fine with that too. I did collect everything from Descent 1st and 2nd Ed and i DO enjoy the adventure books, cards and even the older, overly complex, brought out of the bat Road To Legend campaign system from 1st Ed with just too much stuff to keep track of! I am neither pro nor anti app driven games, as long as it is well integrated into the game, which seems to also be the case with Descent:LotD.
They obviously appear to have put a lot of effort into the development of this app and, from what i've heard in their recent Twitch stream, there will be good amount of side quests too! Plenty of things to do outside the main quest line, as they said. Also apparently, you'll have the ability to interact with 3D terrain, such as climbing trees, or topple a stone column on a monsters, or use it as a bridge over a gap!
Why not?
There are types of games, or mechanics which i don't enjoy such as card drafting or semi-coop games; Still, i accept them being on the market. You not enjoying it doesn't mean others don't.

I dont have a problem with the app per ce, but that hero sheet art is TERRIBLE. That elf (I am guessing) looks like an anorexic vegabond! Bliah!

While I wish it didn’t utilize an app, I can get past it. One of the worst things in my opinion is the artwork. It just doesn’t look like Terrinoth. I’ve loved the universe and lore and have purchased everything FFG has put out on it but this...I’m just not too sure about. And at about $200, ehhhh, I’m worried.

We all knew it was going to be app driven co-op only game. Which is fantastic. I wish people would stop reiterating on that. But the art work, tiles and 3D objects along with the MSRP...175 USD lol...I have no words. But hey the app sounds really well done and the minis look great. But over all pretty disappointing especially with that price. I really wish they would keep reprinting 2nd ed big box expansions for those of us who are still interested.

this is also a matter of taste and personal opinion.
To me the apps in boardgames are a trend from the past... this apps didnt add anything interesting in boardgames beyond "setup manager" or stupid things as "enemy rolls dices"... nothing that a good board game design can make by his own.
the future in boardgames is to keeping this wonderful magic without the digital, theres the magic... Thats why i love boardgames and videgames bored me...
And yes, is a personal opinion of course, but this is FFG (not sure anymore) and i grow with the best ameritrash designs in history, this hobby is amazing... i dont want app only driven games, not only in my shelves, i dont wantit in the marker.
 
 

indeed... this born as a "forgeatable game"

this happens when a company disconnect with the audience totally....
very bad art and design
poor concept
app mandatory driven - this is a videogame with toys?
the game lenght didnt respond to the modern era
expensive as ****
zero original
and they call it the "definitive" dungeon crawler?
 
i mean... comeon.... everything is bad with this ¿"game"?
 
 
and im not a troll... i spend this last days hyped as **** with this announcement...

My biggest issue is the app. It's one thing to have an app that serves to expand a playable game, but to have the game entirely dependent on the app is not cool in my mind. Am I the only one concerned that the game will be unplayable after Armageddon? What am I supposed to do with this game when I'm sitting on a pile of ashes with no electricity??? (and yes, I am serious)

I hate to start a new forum for a new game with a negative, but this is going to be a hard pass for me, at least for the time being.  They didn’t even finish 2E.  I’m also not a fan of the artwork, and the characters aren’t even the same. 
 
i don’t know. I’m sure someone is excited about this, but at that price tag I’m just wishing more of those resources would have been put into 2E.