Threshold: Brilliant Ideas, Broken Execution

A: Alright, listen up, tabletop adventurers! What if I told you there's a game promising to cram a 50-hour, full-blown MMO campaign onto your kitchen table? No computer needed. Just... cards.

B: Oh, that's a bold claim, Eve! And it's exactly what we're dissecting today with Threshold, by Open Owl Studios. It's currently funding on Gamefound, and the base pledge is sitting at about a hundred and thirty bucks.

A: A hundred and thirty to get your hands on this beast in... April 2027, by the way. But the core pitch here is brilliant: 'your deck is your hero'. It's not just marketing fluff. Every card you play, every hit you take, everything gets shuffled into this living, breathing representation of your character. It creates this incredible tension, right? The faster you burn cards, the more you do, but the quicker you fatigue. And fatigue means wounds.

B: It really drives home that push-your-luck feel. And hey, before anyone asks, we're not doing a tutorial here—if you want that, check the link in the description. We're here to help you decide: buy or skip? And with a 50+ hour campaign, you better be sure it's worth that wait.

A: Okay, so let's flip it. What actually *works* in Threshold? Because there are some genuinely brilliant things here.

B: Oh, absolutely. The 'deck is your hero' system? It's not just marketing. It genuinely feels fresh. That tension between spamming cards for power and saving them to avoid fatigue... it's a constant, engaging decision.

A: And the build diversity! I mean, a free respec in town? That's just liberating. You find a new piece of gear, pivot your entire strategy, no penalty. It actively encourages experimentation.

B: Yes! It's like, 'Oh, I found a Pyromancy affix! Time to completely overhaul my Guardian to blast fire!' And the loot chase, honestly, that MMO dopamine hit is *real* here. Rolling those dice, upgrading items... so satisfying.

A: And the big one for me: simultaneous turns. That completely eliminates downtime. You're never just sitting there while your friend grinds a twenty-minute dungeon. You're doing your own thing, exploring, earning loot. It's fantastic.

B: Right? Huge win. But, okay, let's talk about where it faceplants. Because we don't sugar-coat here, and frankly, this might sting a little for the developers.

A: Oh, it's gonna sting. First off, the rulebook. I have to say it: catastrophically inadequate. Seriously, unplayable without Discord access and designer clarifications. Key terms undefined, no examples... it's a mess.

B: Catastrophically inadequate is being kind. And then there's the Hearthstead rest action. That thing is fundamentally broken. Free healing, full deck reset, free landmark actions, *and* you can teleport there for free?

A: It's an exploit loop! You can just spam it to reset your entire hand indefinitely. It screams 'unfinished prototype.'

B: Completely. And the difficulty spikes? We hit Brutes around hour eight, and it was like running into a brick wall. No warning, just suddenly everything we knew about combat was invalid. They hit like trucks and wiped our hands.

A: Our maximum health was seven! They hit for five and made us discard our entire hand. It was brutal. And component issues! Tokens not fitting, dials slipping, tiny text, massive table space needed... it's a lot to overlook.

A: So, the moment of truth, Adam. Our final verdict, our score for Threshold is... a 6 out of 10.

B: And that really sums it up, doesn't it? It's a game with extraordinary ambition, honestly, some genuinely brilliant ideas, but it's currently held back by significant execution problems.

A: Precisely. Which brings us to our core recommendation: Wait. Not 'skip entirely,' because there's so much good here, but absolutely wait for final production reviews. That rulebook alone, man... catastrophically inadequate.

B: Exactly. And those design exploits, like the Hearthstead rest action, it's just fundamentally broken. Plus, for a 50+ hour game, those narrative hooks are just so weak right now. It really needs time to mature.

A: Absolutely. Threshold has potential, but for now, hold off. That's our take! Bye! See you in the next video!