Tomb of Annihilation Pt2 -- Surprisingly Short, Surprisingly Fun

I finished up Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation yesterday on normal mode, and it was pretty great! Acererak was a worthy final foe, but I almost wish he was a tad harder! 

Imagine if THIS GUY was an unlockable and playable character . . .

Halfway through the fight he starts teleporting all over the board and healing each turn while dropping AOE nukes on  you, but it was nothing the dream team of adventures couldn't handle.

Things in the game actually got better in the last half of this game than they were in the first. Especially after two things happened:

1- I learned I could rotate the map using the Q and E buttons -- then I could finally solve some of the puzzle tiles that popped up while playing.

2- There was finally a tile aesthetic change.

Yup, as you descend into the Tomb of the Nine Gods, you ditch the jungle themed tiles and enter into the dungeon themed tiles . . . and a few other interesting surprises like being chased by a gigantic Stone Golem steam roller.

I may have to play this map again and actually try to kill the golem instead of running . . .

Unfortunately the biggest surprise was how quickly the game ended when there appeared to be so much more map to explore. I'm guessing that they planned for expansion, but the game didn't do well enough monetarily to warrant it.

Just look at all that empty unexplored space to the east . . .

The game does have DLC material, but unfortunately it comes as an additional hero you can play (the druid) or a pay to win weapon and supplies for each of your characters.

The only point here seems to be to sell me something I didn't need.

So after defeating Acererak, the game becomes about unlocking Steam achievements and finishing the game on Horrific mode and also trying to craft all the items for each character. Each character has a main hand, off hand, armor, and an accessory that can be crafted up to legendary.  To get the items to craft, you basically just need to play the game.

Basically . . . can I turn the nodes on the map purple . . .

I like the game well enough that it'd be a fun challenge to turn all the nodes purple, and I very well may do that, but I'm unsure how much longer I'll play the game.  

I did like how playing this game reminded me of how much I enjoy turn-based combat and Dungeons and Dragons in general. That's reward enough.

Happy Dueling!