Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition Base Game – Solo Review

A couple of months ago, I had an itch I couldn’t scratch.  Growing up, I played card games like Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon TCG (in that order even, if you can believe it) and every so often, I just want to shuffle up some cards and play a game.  With that said, I’ve definitely dabbled with Fantasy Flight’s Living Card Games and while I enjoyed LOTR LCG and Arkham Horror: The Card Game, I found both to be demanding in terms of time and money required to keep up with the frequent releases.  So with that in mind, I was on the hunt for a card game that had fewer releases to buy but could hopefully still scratch that itch.  Enter Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition.

Being a casual board game fan, I was aware of Sentinels as it’s been around for quite some time.  In fact, Definitive Edition is now the third edition of the game which means this is the most streamlined and polished version of the game yet. This review won’t discuss the previous editions since I haven’t played them but I thought it was worth mentioning to prevent confusion. I would hate for some to read this review and buy an older edition unknowingly as well. I think the fact that this is essentially the third edition helps explain the incredible value of this game but we’ll talk more about that later on.

Sentinels of the Multiverse is a game about superheroes taking on a supervillain in a brawl.  The game is designed around a team of 3-5 heroes slugging it out against in an opponent and of course, there can be only one winner!  The game operates in a series of phases.  The Villain goes first, the heroes then each get a turn, and then the Environment has a phase too.  This keeps the action moving along at a nice clip, for the most part, and it makes the game easy to learn as well.  Personally, I found that Sentinels is balanced best with a team of four heroes.  While there is some scaling in the game, I felt at a disadvantage with fewer than four heroes so that is something I recommend to anyone about to try the game.

One of the things that makes Sentinels of the Multiverse unique amongst card games is that there is no deck construction or deck building.  Every hero has its own preconstructed deck and you can pick one or more heroes and start playing right away.  My background is in deck construction games so I wasn’t sure how I would like this and it’s something I look forward to discussing more later on in this review.

The Future of Greater Than Games and Sentinels of the Multiverse Definitive Edition – As I write this in the summer of 2025, there is a lot of economic turmoil, particularly around tariffs which is negatively affecting the board game industry.  As a result, from my understanding, most of the staff at Greater Than Games were laid off.  They make Sentinels and so this is obviously terrible news. Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition has an expansion, Rook City Renegades, that was released and another expansion that should be delivered after a successful Kickstarter at some point.  With the news of Greater Than Games financial challenges, copies of Definitive Edition, especially Rook City Renegades have disappeared online and its not clear what the availability will be going forward.  Hopefully, when you read this, things will have changed for the better and this is all a distant, unpleasant memory. However, I want to acknowledge the current reality before I start reviewing the game because I’d hate to interest you in it, only for you to find out that you basically can’t purchase it anywhere.

Things I liked and you might too – To start with the most important part of any board game, Sentinels is fun to play and has strong thematic gameplay.  You could call the game a boss-battler in that every time you play, the heroes square off against a villain who is trying to defeat you before you can do the same to them.  The boss generally has fairly high HP and it will take you a few turns at minimum to do enough damage to win the game.  All in all, the game just feels like a superhero brawl with ebbs and flows in the action and plenty of tense moments, as it should.

Something that gives the game variability and theme is the environment deck. There are different locations or settings you can select for the battle. Each turn you draw an environment card and they typically feel pretty thematic as well.  For example, one of the settings is the equivalent of Marvel’s Savage Land where dinosaurs rampage and cause damage to each other, the heroes, and the villains.  Its both fun and adds a bit of flavor to your game.

The heroes are also thematic and each one plays differently than the rest.  For example, Wraith (who could be called a female equivalent to Batman) uses items to thwart the enemies.  Since she’s wealthy and resourceful, she has a lot of ways to get the cards she needs when she wants them too.  It is thematic to play and satisfying when you can pull off combos and/or get a hero’s engine going.

Another example of a highly thematic hero is Bunker. He is perhaps most reminiscent of Iron Man and if you can get his engine going, you can equip him with a wide variety of weapons which charge up each turn. You’re then left with the fun and satisfying challenge of managing his weapons and using the right tool for the job on any given turn. Building up a huge blast with his Omni-Cannon is a joy and highly effective at eliminating your foes too.

And that satisfaction tends to grow the more you play Sentinels too.  The thing that most surprised me is that I slowly but surely learned how to play each hero and I got better with each game under my belt.  I learned how the heroes, the villains, and environments worked which helped me become better at the game.  Sure, your luck varies from game-to-game (more on this later) but since there is no deck construction, the only thing that can improve is your abilities and if you’re anything like me, you’ll feel the improvement over time. For example, once you know how a villain works, you can often surmise which heroes might do better against it than others. Putting together a team that helps you reach victory is a great feeling too, of course.  Getting better with each game you play is a cool and gratifying part of playing Sentinels of the Multiverse and I can’t say I’ve ever played another game that operates in this manner.

It is good that you will learn and improve because Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition also has a nice difficulty curve.  You can start off with an easy villain like Baron Blade and eventually work your way up to middle and heavyweight challenges as you desire.  I never felt too overwhelmed as I climbed the difficulty curve and I appreciated how well-designed it is too. There are plenty of board games where things are not balanced as well and you end up going from manageable difficulty to really hard which can be frustrating. I feel like this game does well at balancing different levels of challenge and there’s something for everyone in the base game.

It’s also worth mentioning that there is a great variety within the Base Game.  There are six villains to face and each one comes with an advanced difficulty which is basically a bonus rule that makes them stronger.  There’s also an alternative version of each villain known as a Critical Event that changes up their rules a fair bit.  These add a surprising amount of gameplay as the villain decks generally stay the same.  Heroes are somewhat similar in that there are twelve different heroes and each one has an alternate version, with a different power to try out. There’s also six environments to try out.  More so than other card games on the market, especially the Living Card Games from Fantasy Flight, which are known for have Core Sets that are lacking in content, there is a lot of value in the Sentinels base game. Of course, if you add expansions then the variety starts to skyrocket but even if you’re just looking at trying the base game, there’s a lot of gameplay to chew on here and plenty of ways to keep things fresh and challenging for you too. Before I wrote this review, I’d estimate that I’ve played Sentinels 30+ times now and I never felt like the game was growing stale until I had tried out and beaten all of the different villains.

Lastly, Greater Than Games deserves credit for designing a box that can just about fit all of the cards and comes with some organizational tools like plastic bags for counters and a small box to fit your oversized hero and villain cards.  If you don’t sleeve your cards, they will all fit nicely in the box with room to spare.  If you do sleeve your cards, they don’t quite fit though, unfortunately.  I used Dragon Shield sleeves and found that about 3 hero decks don’t quite fit in the box.  Everything else does fit which is a bit of a shame but I know its hard to design a box that is going to work for every configuration of sleeves.  There are a number of other card-based board games that do a worse job in this regard as well so Greater Than Games deserves credit for what they’ve designed here.

Things I didn’t like and/or you may not enjoy – How someone feels about the lack of deckbuilding and deck construction is obviously subjective but I think it’s important to acknowledge all the same. With there only being preconstructed decks, you get what you get in terms of each hero, environment, and villain deck. In other words, you can’t alter the decks to change the strengths and weaknesses of a hero, for example. 

Coming from a background of CCGs like Magic: The Gathering, I expected to tolerate this part of Sentinels of the Multiverse but to my surprise, it wasn’t really a downside in the end.  For one, it speeds up setup.  All you need to do is pick your heroes, environment, and villain deck.  Shuffle each one.  And you’re ready to go!  For the most part, the heroes are pretty balanced and not very frustrating to play which is not the norm for preconstructed decks in collectible card games.  Often these decks have some noticeable flaws and are intended to give you a taste of the game but also make you want to buy more cards to improve your deck.  That’s not the business model here and I think the game is actually better for it.  It also makes Sentinels a pretty friendly game for new players.  While using a hero a few times will make you better at using them, the preconstructed decks make it easy to toss one to a new player and teach them the game as you go.

If you have experience playing card-based games, this likely won’t bother you but its worth mentioning that luck does play a role in the gameplay of Sentinels of the Multiverse.  It’s not unusual for one hero out of four to struggle to get going a little bit or just not draw the most powerful cards over the course of the game.  Having said that, many of the heroes are streamlined so you’ll get to do at least some fun stuff with them in most games.  Its also worth mentioning that many heroes have card draw or cards that let you search for key cards out of your deck which helps mitigate bad card draws too. 

Of course, the opposite can also be true. The villain or environment deck can be harder on you than other times depending on what you draw. Generally, I would say they’re pretty consistent and well-balanced but there are the odd game where you have some bad luck. Having said that, I don’t think luck determines the results of games generally. The heroes you bring to the table matter much more than your card draws. So as long as you have some tolerance for luck, and you should if you play any card-based game, then this potential weakness can easily be overlooked.

One thing that can’t be ignored is that certain parts of the game are a bit clunky.  Going through the Villain phase, in particular, feels a bit like a chore to get back to the fun parts at times.  Some villains, like The Matriarch, can fill up the board with a lot of minions and they take time to work through as they all have their own abilities that come into play in the Villain phase. Its generally a matter of performing one skill or attack on each card but it still takes some time and focus to get through this phase.  This part of Sentinels feels outdated and is one of the least fun parts of the game. I’ve played more modern card games, namely LOTR LCG and Arkham Horror: The Card Game and they both make this much quicker and a bit more exciting.

One other minor challenge is that some of the villains are a little harder to understand than they need to be.  I found this to be more true with the alternate versions than the base versions.  The issue is that the alternate villains use the same cards but the designers tried to really change their rules.  I like the creativity in the designs but at times, it’s hard to wrap your mind around some of the rules and it might take reading those cards several times to comprehend them.  Other card games out there have come up with smoother and easier to understand ways of doing this and I think its another way that Sentinels could improve in the future if there is another edition, for example.

And finally, this will vary from person-to-person but its pretty likely that you’ll find some heroes click with you and you enjoy using them and others just don’t.  I found that the more I played, the more I grew to appreciate various heroes but having to play 3-5 times to get to that point might not be everyone’s idea of a great time.  Of course, some people will settle in and mostly use the same hero or heroes once they find one they like and there is always a risk of the game becoming stale as a result too.  Adding expansions can really help as each one comes with plenty of heroes to choose from but because the game has no deck construction, you tend to have a stronger reaction to each hero. If it suits your playstyle then you’ll love it, but if not, there’s nothing you can do to tweak the deck and make it fit your playstyle better.

How is this game solo? – The good news is that Sentinels is a great solo game.  That is the only way I’ve played it and I really enjoyed the base game.  Truthfully, I have avoided Sentinels in the past because I heard you had to control four heroes which sounded pretty daunting.  It is actually pretty easy, especially if you’re used to playing a CCG like Magic: The Gathering or one of FFG’s living card games.  The turns are simple and straightforward to play through and the counters help you track all of the different boosts and penalties.  Sentinels is generally less complex than playing something like Magic: the Gathering which counterbalances the need to manage four heroes nicely.  Unless you strongly prefer to play True solo (aka one-handed), I would say Sentinels of the Multiverse is a great option for anyone looking for a meaty solo game with plenty of content in the base game. If nothing else, being a solo player can help you immerse yourself in the theme and play it at your own pace which is a nice option to have.

Final Verdict: Avoid, Try Before You Buy, or Recommended? – Sentinels is not a new game and it is instead one that has had several coats of paint applied to try and keep it somewhat up to date.  There are games that arguably have slicker rules and are more modern feeling but that doesn’t diminish the fun you can have with Sentinels at all.  It’s a great solo experience, if you like card games and don’t mind that luck is part of the game. The fact that you don’t have to buy tons of expansions to keep up with the game was attractive to me and the base game alone provides a ton of value. If you enjoy deck construction, then you might miss that in Sentinels. I enjoy making my own decks overall but I was surprisingly okay with the lack of deck construction in Sentinels of the Multiverse. Deciding which heroes to bring to a given fight does matter and experimenting with the options is a lot of fun. For these reasons, Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition is Recommended whether you’re a solo gamer exclusively or looking to dabble in it and play the game with friends other times too.

Of course, who knows what the future holds for the game and whether Definitive Edition comes back to store shelves or not.  If this doesn’t happen, then this review probably serves more as a eulogy to a very fun game which would be a shame.  Hopefully, Definitive Edition becomes widely available again because this classic is well-worth experiencing.  I’m hanging onto my copy in the hopes that I can get the expansions for it later.  I can easily see there being a hundred plus hours of fun with this game if all of the previous content is rereleased.