I played the Dearly Departed scenario for Mansions of Madness, and this is my review of it. My short spoiler-free summary is that Dearly Departed is a fun but difficult scenario with a focus on relentless combat. For the rest of this review, there are minor plot spoilers, so don't read on if you want everything to be a surprise.
Dearly Departed is actually a scenario for 1st edition Mansions of Madness, and I only own 2nd edition. I decided to play the scenario anyway because I [incorrectly] assumed the 2 editions probably shared most assets. I've researched it since, and apparently there are 15 tiles in 1st edition that are different to those in 2nd edition, and several different miniatures. I've looked for a copy of the 1st edition game (or even just the tiles) but so far I'v had no luck in acquiring a copy. So I played this scenario knowing that it would require some adjustments.
The first problem was the first tile, which didn't bode well. The scenario requires a square tile featuring a front yard and a porch, which 2nd edition (and at least 4 expansions) do not contain. I replaced that tile with the Conservatory/Garden Path tile from the original game, but doors and walls are in different locations. The next tile required was the interiour of a chapel, which I replaced with the Ballroom tile. The Basement tile exists in 2nd edition, but it's a different layout to the one in 1st. The only tile I encountered that was [mostly] the same as a tile from 1st edition was Yard 4/Tool Shed.
Obviously this isn't the scenario's fault. I wish Fantasy Flight sold just the tiles and miniatures, because I'd happily buy them separately. Failing that, it's relatively easy to substitute tiles and miniatures for the ones you don't have, as long as you're happy to defer to the onscreen map over what you see on the table in front of you. It's not ideal, but it can be done.
And I did feel it was worth doing. The thumbnail of the scenario shows a zombie's hand popping up from a grave, and I am very much a fan of zombies. I wanted to play this scenario and, despite lacking the correct tiles, the scenario did not disappoint.
This scenario is rated at 5-stars difficulty level in the app, and I think it's largely for relentless combat. I'm normally pretty critical of the Mansions of Madness app for its inability (or disinterest) in failing to read the room the way a human Games Master would. For this scenario, however, that works. If you expect anything in a zombie scenario, it's more zombies.
I do feel that each zombie has more health points than I'd expect. Zombies are supposed to be slow and relatively easy to kill, and these zombies are slow and hard to kill. It averages out, but it doesn't feel 100% right, and I think when I play the scenario again I'll kill zombies with any hit, but spawn zombies regularly. The time it takes a zombie to get into the chapel may provide a temporary relief from the onslaught, but the threat is ever-present.
I can't overstate how much combat there is in this scenario. The first place I went was to the chapel, where I encountered a witch. That's a monster before the end of turn 1. By turn 2, there were zombies on the board, which I was able to hold off for a few turns by barricading the doors. By turn 5, there was also a maniac on the board, who avoided the 2 zombies at the barricaded door and circled in through the open door that had torn down by the other zombies.
It was a true onslaught, to the point that it felt a little like a wargame. Your primary mission is to destroy zombies, so by necessity the rest of the scenario becomes a secondary concern. That's not always what I want from Mansions of Madness, but it's exactly what I want from a scenario advertising a zombie infestation.
On my first playthrough of Dearly Departed, I played with Leo Anderson, Ursula Downs, and Daniella Reyes from the Path of the Serpent expansion, and Wilson Richards from Beyond the Threshold. I tried to send Wilson Richards (who had acquired a rifle) and Daniella into battle while Ursula and Leo investigated the basement. Thanks to a bunch of really bad attack rolls, Daniella and Wilson made basically no headway. Between the 2 of them, they managed to deal 1 wound to a single zombie over the course of 3 turns (that's 6 attacks).
This is a 5-star difficulty scenario, and it's not just for the monsters. The Mythos events in this are tough, sometimes imposing facedown Horror cards with no chance to negate. Ursula Downs was fully Insane by turn 5, with a private win condition of ending in a space with a bladed weapon and exactly 1 other investigator. The starting equipment for the scenario included a machete, which I'd given to Ursula because her miniature wields a machete, so that was half her win condition met. It took some work to maneuver her into a space with just 1 other player character, but because there was a chance that a trap door had become unlocked by something Wilson triggered in the basement, Daniella ended up alone in a space on turn 7. Ursula moved into that space, and won the game for herself immediately when turn 8 began.
That left a lot of the scenario as a mystery to me. While I've technically beaten the scenario, I certainly haven't played its story through, so there's a lot of play left in this one.
Mansions of Madness isn't primarily a combat system, and this scenario sort of proves that. The skill you're told to use is unpredictable, so you're often not rolling enough dice to score the successes you need. Clue tokens provide you with the power to override a sub-optimal roll, but you only get Clues in exchange for investigating, and you can't investigate if you're too busy fighting off monsters.
However, part of the strategy of Mansions of Madness is replaying a scenario using the knowledge you gained from a previous session. I know there's a lantern by the side of the house, and that the basement is entirely in darkness. I know there's a graveyard that bears a lot more investigation. I learned a lot from the initial playthrough, and I'll bring that knowledge into the next session.
It's also significant, I think, that Ursula ended up winning due to a goal provided by the Insane condition. Most new players of Mansions of Madness have an understandably negative connotation with Horror and the Insane condition. Horror does tend to hinder what you can do, and Insane sounds bad. The more I've played the game, however, the more it occurs to me that going Insane is essentially an unadvertised win condition. If your experience of Mansions of Madness is a bunch of losses, then it's worth re-framing Horror and Insane. They may seem scary, but they can be an avenue to a suprise win. You may not save the world from Cthulhu, but at least you can outsmart the Game Master.