Talisman’s 5th edition is fine, just watch the how-to video first

Starting up a session of Talisman: The Magical Quest Game always seems like a great idea at first. Who wouldn’t want to engage with a languid, high-fantasy romp of a board game with their friends? What’s the harm in spending some time with what amounts to a Hyrule- or Skyrim-inspired take on The Game of Life? Smash cut to four hours later when no one is anywhere closer to the end of the game, and I guarantee you that someone (or maybe everyone) at the table will be carefully evaluating their life choices.

I’m fairly certain that I’ve abandoned more games of Talisman than I’ve finished over the years, and that’s why I received word of its 5th edition release with extreme skepticism. Now that I’ve gone a few rounds with it, I can confidently say that it plays more quickly than ever before — but it still drags on for a bit too long.

Talisman places you in the role of one of 12 stock fantasy characters such as the priest, prophetess, or warrior, each with their own special abilities. Perhaps you can beguile your enemies rather than fight them; maybe you can use your mind in battle instead of your brawn; maybe you get a spell. Set off upon the largely linear path, collect the right resources to progress to the next most inward circle of the map, and beat your head against whatever walls appear along the way. Lose all your life points? Just go back to the village and start over again, although this time the base rules say that you can keep all your equipment. Should you succeed in a challenging encounter on the game’s last space — known as the Crown of Command — you’ll emerge from Talisman victorious.

Image: Hasbro

That’s it. That’s the game.

For this 5th edition, Talisman’s roughest edges have been trimmed off. For instance, turning into a toad is more of a novelty here than a reason to begin picking at your boils with a potsherd. But for those who miss the sadism, those rough edges have been preserved and then gift-wrapped in the form of optional rules for you to implement on your own.

Regardless, the experience as a whole remains just as milquetoast as the original. If you gave me all the board gaming options in the world — a Matrix-style armory, a featureless white space filled with nothing but row upon row of every conceivable dice- or card-based board game in the world — I would honestly pick Talisman just about dead last. That’s because I am a grown-ass man with plenty of more entertaining options.

On the other hand, I could see kids having a good time with this. But it’s important to understand that the manual, which comes in at a hefty 30 pages, is not a great experience for children. It bounces around a lot, scattering information across multiple sections in ways that make reading it a bit confusing, and it seems to fall a bit short of discussing strategies for winning — or even advancing. So while the game says it’s suitable for ages 12 and up, I think the level of difficulty here is a bit more than your average middle schooler can handle.

The product’s saving grace is a nine-minute how-to-play video referenced only once, on the very front page of the gameplay manual. Once you’ve digested that clip, the thick little booklet becomes more of a glossary for looking up details and edge cases. That how-to video is a remarkably efficient way to learn the game, but blink and you’ll miss it as it’s only included as a smaller-than-a-postage-stamp QR code printed right on the cover.

Talisman: The Magical Quest Game – 5th Edition is available at retail and online for $59.99. It was reviewed using a retail copy provided by Hasbro. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.