Any opportunity to get back into Leviathan Wilds is a good thing. That’s another way of saying you already know my impressions of Deepvale. As expansions go, nothing major has changed. There’s one new character, one new class, and another seven hospital-sized colossi to beef up the original game’s already ample rotation. In one sense, it’s rather workmanlike.

But when you have a game as good as this, it’s better to not over-alchemize the formula. Leviathan Wilds was already near perfect. With Deepvale, Justin Kemppainen reveals himself at top form, unspooling his most confident creations yet.

Titanic antlions… we are so back.

When it comes to leviathan-taming, the story thus far is the same as the story in continuance. You and some friends play as wranglers with climbing boots and grappling hooks. Their mission, as before, is to scale twitching monstrosities driven rabid by infected crystals. Rather than putting down these majestic creatures, your mission is one of healing. Climb the beast, break the crystals, let the thing scamper away.

For those who never played the original, first of all, maybe read that review instead. The basics are pleasingly straightforward, using your Earth-born knowledge of physics to understand that climbing takes effort, falling is easy, and when a monster’s limb flashes a menacing red, it’s time to clear out. For all that, Leviathan Wilds is also wonderfully tangled. Turns, such as they are, are wide-open. In most cases, non-active players are free to act, spending cards or dropping out of danger, keeping everybody engaged and the action freewheeling. At its best, when your health is low and the corruption is clouding your vision, with limited actions to evade danger and break that last crystal, Leviathan Wilds resembles an engineering puzzle.

The expansion hero and class are both firecrackers.

Deepvale puts its best foot forward where it matters most: the leviathan design. These ones lean into the wilder aspects that made the original game’s later titans such a joy to scale. There’s more movement than before, with card overlays that shift at regular intervals, such as a lizard who scampers across mountain-length stalactites every time you strike the crystals on its back, shedding your climbers unless they tighten their grip. On another map, an ozymandian carving teems with vermin that swarm around your crew, threatening to overwhelm you with sheer numbers. And in another, gravity disappears entirely.

Discovering not only these new tics, but also how to master and overcome them, is what sets Leviathan Wilds apart. Everything, from the illustrations to the behavior of the leviathans themselves, is so perfectly evocative of your standing objective. It’s a rare game that uses its artwork to not only communicate majesty, but set it into motion. That’s precisely where Kemppainen succeeds best.

Of course, there are other little additions as well. The new climber makes good use of his focus token, the one appendage of Leviathan Wilds that’s always bordered on vestigial. It’s nice to see it featured, in other words. The same goes for the new class, which gradually builds a personal die until its power can be unleashed.

Those additions, however good, are minor. And suitably so. As ever, we’re here for those leviathans.

Swarmed by vermin.

To some degree, it’s tempting to say the new roster isn’t essential. After all, the original game already provided seventeen of the things. But on the whole, the new creatures are so well done, and slot so effortlessly into that principal cast, that revisiting the game feels like meeting up with an old friend who was already the coolest kid on the block, but has somehow, over the past year of absence, grown into an even cooler version of themselves. It’s generous and warm, but as tricky as ever.

Which is really all there is to say about Deepvale. To spill too much would ruin the surprise. For those who appreciated the original game, it’s so nice to go bouldering across yet another pair of crystal-infested shoulders.

A complimentary copy of Leviathan Wilds: Deepvale was provided by the designer/publisher.

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