Talisman 5th Edition is the latest edition of a fantasy adventure classic that (despite very rarely getting its flowers in any best board games list) boasts an equal number of stalwart defenders and outright haters. With a mixed reputation of being broken yet brilliant, Talisman was well due to a fresh lick of paint and a warm welcome into this decade of board gaming.
To be frank, even the most recent edition of Talisman in 2007 was slightly before my time, so I had a decent amount of research to do before diving into the newest iteration. After all, I figured I owe it to long-time players to at least try to tap into some of the nostalgia this title evokes. Despite not having quite developing the same level of Stockholm syndrome for Talisman as most tabletop oldheads have, I did come to see the charm — thanks primarily due to the upgrades made in 5th Edition.
Talisman 5th Edition features & design
- Talisman gets a facelift
- Including a techy upgrade to its manual
- Your tabletop will be a beautiful mess
Talisman 5th Edition’s manual is well laid out, aesthetically cohesive, and does a great job grounding the explanation of mechanics through the use of examples and a handy flowchart. Many players won’t see all of that though, given it includes a QR code on the front cover leading to a how-to-play video. Welcome to the future, old man. This is not your dad's copy of Talisman. Personally, I much prefer flicking through the rule booklet at my own pace than watching a demo. However, it's definitely a helpful feature; especially when playing with a larger party who'd usually have to play 'pass the parcel' with the manual or nominate some unfortunate soul to read it aloud.
The stackable cones that represent your life, strength, and craft (a stat similar to wisdom) are a fun and easily discernible way to visualize these metrics across the course of the game. They all fit pretty cleanly around your character card too, reducing the likelihood of accidental cross-pollination between your stats and that of another player. The point at which you start running into problems with this is when you begin to accumulate spells, items, followers, and of course, a talisman. There’s no real designated area for these bits and bobs to sit on your playspace and as a result, you’ll find yourself taking up even more table area than you need to just to keep things tidy and easy to read (this is bad news, considering the game board alone is pretty massive). I've seen some folks design and 3D-print organizers/dashboards and I'd maintain that these are almost essential for anyone who plans to play Talisman 5th Edition even semi-regularly.
Speaking of character cards, each character has differing stats and special abilities that aid players in their journey. These abilities can offer anything from boons in particular areas of the map to perks that can be activated at any time during play. These are somewhat well-balanced but really, I’d recommend playing a full-strength Troll or a full-craft Wizard and committing solidly to solving problems with your particular skill of choice. Alternatively, you can opt for the classic strategy of choosing whichever character looks the coolest. If that’s your deal, you’re in luck with Talisman 5th Edition. Both their character card portraits and their miniatures are jam-packed with character. These are designs that expertly balance high fantasy cliche with something that feels unique and modern.
Across its game pieces, cards, miniatures, and expansive game board, Talisman 5th Edition delivers a level of quality that certainly feels like an upgrade from prior editions. If you’re a diehard Talisman defender, you can pretty much take that as my final verdict.
Gameplay
- An adventure with twists and turns aplenty
- 5th Edition unlocks the secret to eternal life
- Snakes and Ladders but make it D&D
In many respects, Talisman is like high fantasy Monopoly. For the vast majority of your play experience, you'll just be rolling to determine distance traveled across the board, and then populating the board with Adventure cards that alter the outcome of landing on a given space. There are a couple of shifts in this formula depending on exactly what path you take in your journey but fundamentally, it's a board game that is fairly easy to set up and understand.
What drives up the perceived 'weight' of Talisman, at least from my perspective, is the sheer unwieldiness of it. The basics of combat can be understood by even the newest of board gamers (afterall, it's basic arithmetic with extra steps) and there's no room for umm and ahhing about your build like you might find in other dungeon-delving tabletop offerings. Really, what's going to throw a spanner in the works is the cruel hand of fate flicking you in the forehead and demanding to know why you're hitting yourself.
Even in Talisman 5th Edition, randomness plays a massive role in how any session pans out. Secure yourself a streak of blessed rolls and you can find yourself wrecking the Elder Dragon within an hour. Failing that, you could find yourself ping-ponging back and forth across the board in a process not unlike very low-grade torture. While it makes me seem insufferably Gen Z and will one day age this review like milk, I can't resist saying that Talisman is the purest distillation of the It's So Over / We're So Back meme – even at your peak, you're a just dice roll or card draw away from failure.
"As someone who grew up playing multiple versions of Talisman (3rd Edition by Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight's 4th Edition), I was pumped to check out this update. I spent years journeying across that 2D world with its many expansions, so it would be like going home. But you know what? Abigail's right. Sometimes things aren't so shiny in retrospect, and the luck-based roll-move-level-up loop can't compare to the dungeon-crawlers we have now. Still, it's undeniably nostalgic, beautiful to look at, and endearingly old-school. It lets me revive my beloved troll for another quest, too, so that's something..."
- Benjamin Abbott, Tabletop & Merch Editor
In line with a more lenient ‘toadification’ system and expanded uses for fate tokens, there’s a key change made in Talisman 5th Edition that helps to ease the blow of mid-game defeat. As if taking a cue from the last 10 to 15 years of video game indies, Talisman 5th Edition implements a kind of roguelite system in response to player death. If your character hits zero life, rather than sitting pouting and looking at your phone, you return them to the Village space with all their items in tow. Renewed life comes at cost though, and if you haven't kept your pockets lined with enough gold to buy back your full health pool, you’ll still be just barely clinging to life.
Even with its changes implemented, Talisman 5th Edition commits another Monopoly-eque sin: it has an obtrusive positive feedback loop. That's to say — in the majority of cases — those who are winning will be fairly sure to keep winning. Sure, everyone’s liable to botch a dice roll or run headfirst into an encounter they're not at all prepared for but once you’ve reaped the stat and inventory benefits of a winning streak, you’re much more equipped to deal with catastrophe. Unfortunately, all that culminates in usually seeing the winning achieve their victory in slow motion. It’s anyone’s game early on but it doesn’t take long to reach a kind of point of no return. It’s here — with no real option to strategize your way out of failure — that most people’s commitment to the game starts to falter.
If you happen to be aimlessly hanging out for a couple of hours, a game of Talisman 5th Edition won’t detract from your good time. You and your friends can ooh and ahh at the various curveballs thrown throughout a playthrough and at times, this is a genuine thrill. All that said, don’t be surprised when the game overstays its welcome and one of you finally dares to ask, “Can we just call it here and play something else?”
Should you buy Talisman 5th Edition?
Talisman 5th Edition goes a long way to provide some aesthetic and quality-of-life improvements to this classic and that's definitely commendable. However, while some board games run like a well-oiled machine, Talisman sort of runs like a push bike you've left out in the shed for a few years. Does an odd part of me love this rusty ol' velocipede? I mean… I couldn't stand to give Talisman 5th Edition a lower score despite its obvious flaws. So, while you might need to oil up the chain with some house rules and you may very well find yourself tempted to throw it into a ditch, there's a weird, contradictory fun to be had here.
Ratings
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if...
How we tested Taloi
Our reviewer played Talisman multiple times to get a better sense of its mechanics and longevity. They also tried it with different player-counts to see how the experience varied.
For more on our process, don't miss this guide to how we test board games. To get a broader overview, see the GamesRadar+ reviews policy.
For more recommendations, don't miss the best adult board games or the best 2-player board games.
