Ambitious is definitely the right word for this game. I've put about 7 hours in to it so far and can definitely say I've not played anything quite like it. It's huge, full of unique art and writing, and has managed to surprise me quite a few times.
I can see it getting repetitive, particularly as there's not a huge amount of storytelling - and from what I've heard, some people aren't enjoying the need to replay hours of content when you die - but so far, I'm impressed.
The second printing (+ expansion) Kickstarter is live at the moment (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1926712971/the-7th-cont...) which seems like it's adding a lot more content. I'm in, but whether I'll still be interested in playing more when it ships in October 2018 is another question...
With tabletop games kickstarter is effectively an outsourced preorder system. The game is finished but they can judge how large this print run needs to be and collect money for it early, you are basically guaranteed a product. This assumes your reason for avoiding kickstarter is that you'll get scammed or not receive a product do to incompetence (which has happened to me with videogames and hardware products). Otherwise its likely you'll have to wait until late 2018 or early 2019 to buy this game or try to find a copy of the first run of the base game somewhere.
We can never say never, but very low probability to be in retail ever. The high cost of +1,200 cards doesn't leave room for a retailer's margin.
More generally, Kickstarter and retail become more and more independent due to that factor. Monolith, Mythic Games, Cool minis or not, Serious Poulp are all now building Kickstarter only products.
I've heard that it may never come out to retail due to the production quality. It would be too expensive to make and sell retail.
Your best bet is to find someone selling it second hand. There will be plenty of people who backed the kickstarter and then decided they no longer want the game.
> Will The 7th Continent be available after this campaign?
> Given the high production cost of the game, The 7th Continent will not be sold in the “traditional” retail circuit. As we have said on the main page “This is your last chance…to get cursed!”, therefore, please assume that this is one, if not the final chance you’ll have to acquire the game as it is now.
I can see it getting repetitive, particularly as there's not a huge amount of storytelling - and from what I've heard, some people aren't enjoying the need to replay hours of content when you die - but so far, I'm impressed.
The second printing (+ expansion) Kickstarter is live at the moment (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1926712971/the-7th-cont...) which seems like it's adding a lot more content. I'm in, but whether I'll still be interested in playing more when it ships in October 2018 is another question...