When you first encounter Revive: Call of the Abyss, the box art immediately signals that this is something different from the base game. The original Revive box, while beautifully illustrated, has a muted, almost somber tone, reinforcing the post-apocalyptic theme of rediscovering a frozen and fractured world. In contrast, the expansion’s cover bursts with color and energy. The creature at the center of the image has an almost mystical quality to it, inviting curiosity about what this new chapter will bring to the already beloved game. This shift in presentation is important because it sets the mood before you even lift the lid: this is an expansion that adds a splash of vibrancy, a sense of mystery, and a hint of the unknown depths hinted at in the name Call of the Abyss.
Turning the box over reveals a neatly organized description of the expansion’s theme, a summary of its new mechanics, and a visual display of the components. This is an effective design choice because it immediately communicates to players what they are getting. The new tribes, citizen cards, modules, and machines are prominently displayed, suggesting not only more variety but also more potential strategies. For players who love Revive, simply seeing new faction boards and components is enough to spark excitement. The back of the box also makes it clear that this expansion integrates seamlessly with the base game but can also be removed if desired, thanks to identifiable markers on the new cards and components.
Opening the box and sorting through the contents reveals a mixture of familiar and fresh elements. The new tribe boards are immediately eye-catching. They are printed on the same sturdy cardboard as the base game’s tribes, but there is a subtle upgrade in the illustration style. The artwork feels more evocative, with more detail and personality on display. Each tribe comes with its own set of additional components, including population markers, cards, and technologies that expand their identity and create new approaches to the game. Fans of asymmetric gameplay will appreciate this because it means even more replayability and opportunities for creative strategies.
The citizen cards, modules, and machines match the color palette and graphic design of the base game perfectly. This consistency is crucial in expansions, as mismatched art styles or printing can detract from the experience. Here, the publisher has done an excellent job of maintaining the visual language of Revive. At the same time, a small identifier has been printed on these components so that they can be separated from the base game if needed. This is particularly useful for groups that sometimes teach Revive to new players and want to use only the core set, or who prefer to gradually introduce expansions.
Among the most striking components are the Scyphoz cards. These large, beautifully illustrated cards stand out immediately because of their bold use of color and the almost alien look of the creatures depicted on them. The Scyphoz are central to the expansion’s new mechanics, and their visual presentation reflects their importance. They feel like something special—rare, powerful, and worth striving toward in the game. The journey cards, by contrast, are relatively plain. They are functional and mostly consist of iconography. While they are easy to read and understand, they do not quite match the evocative nature of the Scyphoz cards, and it would have been nice to see more thematic artwork here to bring them to life. Nevertheless, they serve their purpose well within the gameplay.
The lake tiles are another new element introduced in this expansion, and they stand out for their darker tone. When placed on the map, they immediately draw the eye because they are so visually distinct from the surrounding terrain. This is helpful for gameplay clarity since players can quickly see where the lakes are located and plan their building strategy around them. However, they do not quite look like lakes, which might be a minor thematic disconnect. Instead, they have a more abstract appearance, almost as though they are mysterious pools of energy rather than bodies of water. For some players, this might actually enhance the otherworldly feeling of the expansion, while others may find it visually inconsistent. Regardless, their presence on the board adds a new dimension to the map and changes the way players think about placement and adjacency.
The physical quality of the components is excellent, matching the high standards of the base game. The cardboard is thick and durable, the cards have a good finish, and the wooden pieces are satisfyingly chunky. The rulebook is compact and well-structured, containing not only the rules for integrating the new elements but also an achievement sheet that adds an extra layer of challenge for experienced players. The inclusion of this achievement sheet is a clever touch because it provides players with goals beyond simply winning, encouraging experimentation with different strategies, and pushing players to explore all that the expansion has to offer.
One of the most important aspects of any expansion is how well its components blend into the base game both aesthetically and functionally. Call of the Abyss succeeds on both counts. When everything is shuffled together, nothing feels out of place, and the game retains its elegant table presence. The expansion does not overwhelm the board with too many new types of tokens or overly complex setups. Instead, it subtly layers new elements on top of what players already know, allowing for a natural evolution of the experience rather than a complete overhaul.
Another noteworthy observation is the way the expansion’s components create a sense of narrative depth. The devotion track, for example, is a new sideboard that sits alongside the score track, and its presence on the table immediately suggests that there is now a parallel path to victory. Its design is clear and functional, with spaces that grant bonuses as players advance along it. This mirrors the victory point track but offers its own rewards, reinforcing the idea that there are now multiple ways to pursue success. This is one of the central promises of the expansion: not just more content, but more meaningful choices.
The tactile experience of handling the new components also contributes to the enjoyment. Placing a population figure onto the large location space on the devotion track feels satisfying, as does drawing a Scyphoz card and revealing its powerful ability. Building next to lakes and claiming their bonuses adds a new layer of spatial puzzle-solving that feels both fresh and familiar. This combination of new actions with familiar systems is a sign of a well-designed expansion that respects the elegance of the base game while deepening its strategic possibilities.
The presentation and components of Revive: Call of the Abyss immediately inspire confidence that this is an expansion made with care and attention to detail. From the colorful box art to the high-quality tribe boards, from the striking Scyphoz cards to the mysterious lake tiles, everything has been thoughtfully crafted to expand the world of Revive both mechanically and thematically. It sets the stage for a game experience that feels richer and more dynamic, inviting players to dive into the depths and explore new strategies. The physical elements alone are enough to generate excitement, and once players start integrating them into play, the expansion’s true value becomes apparent.
Gameplay Additions and Flow
The heart of any good expansion lies in its ability to add meaningful new layers to the gameplay without making the overall experience bloated or unwieldy. Call of the Abyss accomplishes this by introducing a small but impactful collection of new mechanisms that alter the way players approach the game. Each of these mechanisms is designed to work within the framework of the base game, offering fresh decisions and new incentives while leaving the core engine-building experience intact. The result is a game that feels familiar but offers a surprising amount of new depth and opportunities for creative play.
The most significant addition is the devotion track. This track sits alongside the score track on the main board and immediately gives players a new axis of progress to consider. Whereas the score track measures your accumulation of victory points, the devotion track measures your spiritual or metaphysical growth, as represented by devotion points. The clever part about this mechanism is that it does not simply add more points to count at the end of the game. Instead, it creates a tension between two different currencies—victory points and devotion points—that can be exchanged back and forth. At any time during the game when you would gain victory points, you may choose to convert two points into one step forward on the devotion track. Conversely, you may convert two devotion points into one victory point. This is a small but elegant decision point that forces players to consider the timing and value of their actions. Do you prioritize immediate points to stay ahead on the score track, or do you sacrifice short-term gains for long-term benefits by investing in devotion?
The devotion track itself is not just a tally of points but a reward system similar to the score track in the base game. As you progress along it, you reach thresholds that grant various bonuses, including artifacts and other rewards. Artifacts remain one of the most powerful sources of victory points in Revive, so being able to unlock them through devotion is a compelling alternative to scoring points the traditional way. In addition, there is a large location on the track that, once reached, allows you to place one of your population figures for free. This is significant because placing population figures normally requires spending books, and books are often a bottleneck resource in the early and midgame. Gaining a free placement can save a large amount of resources, accelerate your engine, and potentially secure a critical scoring opportunity.
Another reward space on the devotion track lets you draw two Scyphoz cards and keep one. These cards are a major highlight of the expansion and represent unique and powerful abilities that can give players a strong edge if used correctly. The abilities on these cards are generally stronger than those seen on citizen cards and can be game-defining if played at the right moment. When you play a Scyphoz card, you must declare its color and place it on your player board accordingly, which adds a layer of planning since its color will affect how it interacts with other effects in the game. At the end of the game, you may choose what color you would like the card to represent, which allows you to maximize synergy with your scoring strategies. This flexibility makes Scyphoz cards highly desirable and introduces a subtle layer of strategy as players must decide not only when to gain them but also how to integrate them into their engine.
The expansion also introduces lake tiles, which are placed on the map during setup and add new strategic hotspots for players to compete over. These lakes provide devotion points when you build adjacent to them—one point for a small building and three points for a large building. This bonus is only gained once per lake, so timing and placement become crucial. Since the lakes are revealed at the start of the game, players can incorporate them into their long-term plans, deciding whether to prioritize expansion toward them or focus on other goals. Building near lakes also pays off during hibernation, as each lake has a bonus printed on it that grants rewards for every adjacent building you control. This creates an incentive to cluster buildings near lakes and to hibernate more strategically, sometimes even earlier than you would in the base game. This subtle change in the rhythm of the game is one of the expansion’s most interesting effects because it makes the decision of when to hibernate more dynamic and situational rather than purely reactive.
Journeys are another entirely new concept introduced in Call of the Abyss. When you use your switch—a versatile mechanism from the base game—you can now take a face-up journey card into your play area by paying the listed cost. This gives the switch an additional use, which is welcome because in some games its value could fluctuate based on your current board state. After you have acquired a journey card, you may complete it at any time during your turn by choosing a level you have reached and gaining devotion points equal to that level. Once completed, the card is flipped face down and grants a permanent flask symbol for the rest of the game, which can be valuable for activating other effects. This mechanism essentially allows players to create mini-objectives for themselves, trading resources and timing for devotion rewards and long-term efficiency. The journeys act as a way to personalize your path through the game, giving you control over when and how you gain devotion points rather than relying solely on buildings or score conversion.
Each of these new elements—devotion, Scyphoz cards, lakes, and journeys—feeds into the others, creating a web of interconnected decisions. For example, focusing on lakes can push you up the devotion track, which might grant you a free Scyphoz card, which in turn might give you a powerful ability that helps you complete a journey or place another building. This synergy encourages players to diversify their strategies and to think about the game as a series of interlocking systems rather than isolated tracks. The expansion does not just add new ways to score points; it adds new engines and feedback loops that can create satisfying combos and moments of clever play.
One of the most interesting aspects of the devotion track is that it allows players to pursue an alternative path to victory. In the base game, the primary focus is on scoring victory points, unlocking artifacts, and building your engine efficiently. The expansion gives you the option to focus more heavily on devotion, potentially sacrificing early points to climb the track and reap greater rewards later. This can lead to divergent strategies where some players chase high scores early while others invest in devotion and catch up toward the end. This dynamic can create exciting tension at the table, especially in competitive games where every point matters. It also gives players who might be behind on the score track a way to stay relevant by focusing on devotion instead.
The expansion also slightly alters the tempo of the game by encouraging players to hibernate earlier and more often. Because building near lakes grants hibernation bonuses, it can sometimes be optimal to hibernate when you still have a few actions left just to claim the rewards. This can set up powerful turns after reactivation and create a rhythm where players are alternating between building and hibernating more frequently than in the base game. This change keeps the game feeling dynamic and prevents turns from becoming repetitive.
Another subtle but important gameplay impact comes from the fact that the expansion introduces more tiles that do not provide card benefits. Since cards are crucial for most actions in Revive, this means players may need to explore more aggressively or find other ways to replenish their card pool. This pushes exploration into an even more central role and encourages players to balance their actions carefully so that they do not run out of cards at a critical moment. The new tribes in the expansion often have abilities that interact with devotion or provide alternative ways to gain resources, which can help mitigate this challenge if used skillfully.
Overall, the gameplay additions in Call of the Abyss feel like a natural extension of the base game. They do not radically change the core engine-building experience but rather enrich it by adding more avenues for strategy, more points of interaction, and more ways to express creativity in play. The devotion track, in particular, is a standout feature that offers meaningful choices every time you gain points, and the Scyphoz cards add a level of excitement and power that can shift the momentum of a game when deployed. The lakes and journeys ensure that the map remains an area of active competition and that players are constantly thinking about positioning and timing.
The integration of these elements is smooth, and after a game or two, they feel like they have always been part of Revive. This is perhaps the highest praise that can be given to an expansion: it deepens the experience without overcomplicating it, giving players new goals to chase and new puzzles to solve while preserving the elegance of the original design.
Theme, Narrative Immersion, and Game Rhythm
Revive has always been a game with a strong post-apocalyptic theme, set in a frozen world where surviving factions rebuild civilization by venturing out into the wasteland, reactivating technology, and spreading across the map. The base game conveys this narrative primarily through its art, its faction abilities, and its slow unfolding of progress over the course of play. Call of the Abyss deepens this setting by introducing a new thematic twist: the ice is melting, and hidden lakes are appearing across the landscape. These lakes are not just geographical features—they are tied to strange, otherworldly creatures, the Scyphoz, who test the worthiness of the factions before lending their aid. This narrative backdrop provides an evocative reason for the new devotion track, as well as the new systems of scoring and engine-building introduced by the expansion.
The artwork on the front of the expansion box sets the tone immediately. Whereas the base game’s cover art was stark and muted, emphasizing survival and frozen desolation, the expansion’s art bursts with color and intrigue. The creature featured on the cover is simultaneously alien and majestic, inviting curiosity and signaling that this is not simply more of the same but a new chapter in the story of the world. This visual shift helps to prepare players for the slightly more mystical and spiritual dimension introduced by the devotion track. The back of the box also does a good job of summarizing what players can expect—new tribes, new cards, new modules, and most importantly, new mechanisms that revolve around devotion and exploration of these newly revealed waters.
When the board is set up with the lake tiles, the map immediately feels different. The lakes are darker than the surrounding terrain, visually standing out and demanding attention. They subtly encourage players to expand toward them, creating focal points for competition. This small change to the geography of the game world has a big impact on immersion because it changes how you perceive the map. In the base game, the central focus was on unlocking artifacts and spreading across the land. In Call of the Abyss, the lakes become spiritual centers of activity, places where your civilization must prove itself. The first time you build next to a lake and receive devotion points, it feels thematically satisfying—you are interacting with the newly revealed natural world and being rewarded with insight or growth.
The devotion track itself reinforces this sense of a spiritual journey. Unlike the score track, which is purely numeric, the devotion track has a narrative quality to it. It represents the evolution of your civilization’s beliefs or its connection to the world. Each step feels like a milestone, and when you hit a reward space—whether that is an artifact, a free population placement, or the chance to draw Scyphoz cards—it feels like a breakthrough moment in your people’s development. In a way, the devotion track becomes a parallel story arc running alongside your technological and territorial expansion. While the score track measures how successful you are at exploiting the world’s resources, the devotion track measures how much your civilization has grown spiritually.
Scyphoz cards are particularly thematic. Their abilities are powerful and often game-changing, which makes sense given that they represent the favor or gifts of these mysterious creatures. Declaring their color when you play them can feel like aligning your civilization with a particular philosophy or aspect of the creature’s power. The choice of what color they count as at the end of the game feels like a reflection of your civilization’s ultimate identity, as though you are telling the story of who your people became through their encounters with the Scyphoz. The cards are beautifully illustrated, adding to the sense of wonder and mystery they are meant to convey. Their presence elevates the thematic experience because they are not just abstract bonuses but meaningful moments that can turn the tide of the game.
The journeys, while more abstract in presentation, also contribute to narrative immersion. They feel like pilgrimages or quests that your civilization undertakes to deepen its devotion. Each journey card has a cost and a reward, which suggests a trial that must be completed before enlightenment is achieved. When you flip a journey card face down after completing it, there is a sense of satisfaction that mirrors completing a quest in a narrative-driven game. The permanent flask icon it grants can even be seen as a symbol of wisdom gained from the journey, which now strengthens your civilization permanently. Adding these personal objectives gives each player a mini-storyline to pursue, which makes the game feel more individualized and dynamic.
The expansion also subtly changes the pacing of the game in a way that enhances its narrative flow. In the base game, the tempo was largely driven by the need to keep your engine running efficiently and to time your hibernations to maximize your output. With Call of the Abyss, there are now additional incentives to hibernate earlier to trigger lake bonuses. This creates a rhythm where players are moving through cycles of building and recharging more frequently. Thematically, this feels like your civilization is pausing to reflect and absorb the lessons of the lakes before continuing its expansion. Mechanically, this prevents the late game from feeling like a race to squeeze out every last point and instead turns it into a more nuanced dance of timing and opportunity.
Another thematic impact comes from the new tribes included in the expansion. These tribes often have abilities that tie into devotion or create more direct interaction with other players, such as sharing building spaces or locking away parts of the map. This makes the game world feel more alive and contested, as though other civilizations are also responding to the appearance of the lakes and the presence of the Scyphoz. The increased interaction can lead to more moments of tension and negotiation, which in turn create memorable stories. For example, when a player uses a tribe’s ability to block a key location that another player was planning to use, it can spark a race to adjust strategies, leading to emergent narratives about rivalry and competition.
Despite all these thematic enhancements, it is worth noting that Call of the Abyss does not drastically change the overall length of the game. The core engine-building arc remains intact, with players still unlocking artifacts at roughly the same pace and the game ending just as you are reaching peak efficiency. This is actually a strength because it ensures that the expansion does not overstay its welcome. The feeling that the game ends just a little too soon—a hallmark of good engine builders—remains present, leaving players wanting one more turn to see their engine fully flourish. This preserves the tension and excitement that make Revive such a compelling experience.
If there is one thematic element that could have been stronger, it is the artwork on the journey cards. While functional, they are mostly iconography and do not tell much of a story visually. Adding unique illustrations to each journey could have deepened the sense of narrative and made completing them feel more momentous. Similarly, the lake tiles, while striking due to their darker color, do not necessarily look like bodies of water. A more detailed depiction might have helped convey the idea that the world’s ice is melting and new ecosystems are being revealed. That said, these are minor aesthetic critiques and do not detract significantly from the overall thematic experience.
Ultimately, the theme of Call of the Abyss is one of discovery and spiritual growth. It tells the story of a world in transition, where civilizations are not only rebuilding technology but also seeking to prove themselves to mysterious forces and earn their blessing. This adds a layer of mythos to the already rich setting of Revive, turning what could have been a purely mechanical expansion into a narrative continuation of the world’s story. The devotion track becomes the symbolic heart of this tale, representing not just points but a civilization’s journey toward enlightenment.
The narrative immersion is strengthened by the way these elements mesh seamlessly with the core gameplay. You are not just chasing numbers—you are making meaningful choices about how to balance material progress with spiritual growth. You are deciding whether to expand rapidly across the map or to focus on completing journeys that deepen your devotion. You are aligning your civilization with the powers of the Scyphoz and shaping its destiny in a way that feels unique each time you play. This kind of emergent storytelling is one of the greatest strengths of modern euro-style games, and Call of the Abyss delivers it in spades.
Strategic Depth, Replayability, and Long-Term Appeal
One of the most important questions for any expansion is whether it adds meaningful strategic depth to the base game without overcomplicating it. Call of the Abyss succeeds in this regard by providing players with a parallel path of advancement and a series of new incentives to explore. It does not fundamentally change the way Revive is played, but it does introduce new tensions and trade-offs that expand the decision space in interesting ways. The devotion track, in particular, is a masterstroke of design because it mirrors the base game’s score track but with a spiritual and narrative twist. This creates a secondary race that competes for your attention and resources, forcing you to decide how much to invest in devotion versus raw victory points.
Strategically, the first major consideration when playing with this expansion is how to approach the devotion track. Because you can convert victory points into devotion and vice versa, it is tempting to think of them as interchangeable currencies. In practice, though, spending two points to gain one devotion is inefficient and should be reserved for key moments when reaching a specific milestone is worth the cost. For example, if advancing one more space on the devotion track would grant you the ability to place a population figure for free, it might be worth sacrificing points to reach that threshold, particularly if it allows you to unlock an artifact or trigger a significant end-game bonus. This decision-making creates a new layer of tension that is absent from the base game.
Lakes play a central role in the strategy of Call of the Abyss because they provide one of the most reliable sources of devotion. Building next to a lake early in the game can give you a head start on the devotion track, which can snowball into more rewards over time. The key here is to balance the opportunity cost of diverting your expansion toward a lake with the benefits of securing that devotion early. Since lakes are revealed during setup, you can plan your strategy around them, deciding whether to make them a priority or to ignore them in favor of other objectives. In many games, the lakes become points of competition as multiple players race to claim adjacency bonuses, creating interactive moments that heighten the tension.
Hibernation timing also becomes a more nuanced decision with this expansion. In the base game, hibernation was primarily about resetting your engine to prepare for another cycle of actions. With Call of the Abyss, hibernating early can also trigger lake bonuses, granting devotion based on how many buildings you have adjacent to lakes. This can create a compelling reason to hibernate sooner than you might have otherwise, sacrificing short-term efficiency for long-term positioning. It also opens up new opportunities to chain bonuses together—for example, hibernating to gain devotion, which then unlocks a reward on the devotion track that strengthens your engine for the next cycle.
The introduction of journey cards provides players with personal goals that shape their strategies. These cards give you a choice of devotion rewards based on reaching certain thresholds, such as population levels or technological advancements. Deciding which journeys to pursue can influence your overall approach to the game, encouraging you to focus on particular aspects of engine-building. For example, if a journey card offers devotion for reaching a high population level, you might prioritize actions that allow you to recruit and place meeples earlier than usual. Because the journeys are drafted and limited, they also create competition, as players may rush to claim cards that synergize well with their current position. This adds a new layer of strategic planning and tempo management.
Scyphoz cards represent another strategic opportunity because they are powerful and flexible tools. Knowing when to acquire and when to play them is crucial. Since they are stronger than citizen abilities, they can act as game-defining plays if used correctly. A player who times a Scyphoz card to coincide with a key turn can dramatically swing the game in their favor. However, obtaining them often requires investing in modules or advancing along the devotion track to reach the reward spaces, which means you must weigh the cost of acquiring them against other possible actions. Additionally, deciding what color the card counts as at the end of the game can influence your scoring potential, so you may need to think several turns ahead to ensure you can take full advantage of its benefits.
The new tribes introduced in Call of the Abyss further deepen the strategic possibilities. Their abilities often create more interactive and sometimes confrontational dynamics, which can shift the tone of the game. For instance, a tribe that allows sharing of building spaces can open up the map in interesting ways, reducing the level of blocking but increasing competition for adjacency bonuses. Another tribe that locks away parts of the map can force opponents to adapt their strategies, potentially cutting them off from key resources or locations. These asymmetric powers encourage experimentation and force players to adapt their playstyle based on the tribe they are using and the tribes chosen by others. This keeps the game fresh across multiple plays.
Resource management also becomes slightly more challenging with the expansion. There are more opportunities to spend crystals, and several of the new modules and machines require them as costs. This means you must pay closer attention to generating crystals consistently, lest you find yourself unable to take advantage of the new options available. Scyphoz cards often provide crystals, which can be a lifeline if your economy stalls. This creates a subtle synergy between the different expansion components, rewarding players who can integrate them into a cohesive strategy rather than treating them as isolated systems.
The overall impact of Call of the Abyss on replayability is significant. By adding new tribes, new citizens, new modules, and new strategic paths, the expansion ensures that no two games play out the same way. You can choose to focus heavily on devotion in one game, racing to maximize the rewards from the track, and then ignore it almost entirely in the next game, concentrating on traditional scoring methods. Both approaches are viable, depending on your tribe, your starting cards, and the board layout. This flexibility allows experienced players to experiment with different strategies and keeps the game engaging over the long term.
Another important consideration is how the expansion affects player interaction. In the base game, interaction was present but relatively light, mostly revolving around competing for spaces on the map or racing to unlock artifacts first. Call of the Abyss adds more ways for players to interact indirectly, such as through competing for lakes, racing along the devotion track, and drafting journey cards before others can claim them. This added interaction increases the sense of tension and urgency, making your decisions feel more consequential because you know that other players are pursuing similar goals.
Solo players will also appreciate the changes introduced by the expansion. The modified solo rules create a tougher challenge, with the automa now only allowing one build per tile and the switch action moving the tracker forward. This forces solo players to be more efficient and strategic with their actions, and it prevents runaway victories that could sometimes occur in the base game. The addition of an achievement sheet provides long-term goals to pursue, further enhancing the solo experience and giving players a reason to revisit the game multiple times.
One of the most impressive aspects of Call of the Abyss is that it adds all of this depth without significantly increasing complexity. The core flow of the game remains intact, and new players can learn the expansion rules relatively quickly. This makes it an excellent example of an expansion that enriches the game without overburdening it. Players who are already comfortable with Revive will find that they can integrate Call of the Abyss seamlessly into their sessions, while those who are new to the game can easily learn the additional rules after a few plays of the base game.
From a long-term perspective, this expansion solidifies Revive as a game with strong staying power in a competitive hobby landscape. Engine-building games thrive on variety and evolving challenges, and Call of the Abyss delivers both. It provides new strategic arcs to explore, new tools to master, and new ways to interact with opponents, all while staying true to the core design philosophy of the base game. For groups who play Revive regularly, the expansion will likely become a permanent addition rather than an optional variant, as it deepens the experience in satisfying ways.
Perhaps most importantly, Call of the Abyss enhances the sense of discovery that is at the heart of Revive. Each game becomes a journey not only across the frozen landscape but also along a path of spiritual growth and connection to the world. Players are no longer just rebuilding civilization—they are guiding their people toward enlightenment, making choices that shape not just their material success but also their legacy. This thematic and strategic richness ensures that the game will continue to offer meaningful choices and memorable moments even after many plays.
Conclusion
Call of the Abyss is a thoughtfully designed expansion that enhances Revive without overwhelming it. The devotion track is the standout feature, creating a parallel path of progression that encourages players to make meaningful trade-offs between immediate victory points and long-term spiritual rewards. Lakes and journey cards introduce new tactical considerations, rewarding players who plan their expansion carefully and time their hibernations effectively. The Scyphoz cards add moments of power and creativity, giving players satisfying opportunities to turn the tide of the game when played well.
The new tribes, citizens, modules, and machines further expand the possibilities, increasing replayability and encouraging experimentation with different strategies. Interaction becomes more engaging, with players competing not just for map spaces but also for devotion milestones and limited journey cards. Even the solo mode benefits from tighter rules and long-term achievement goals that keep it challenging and fresh.
Most importantly, this expansion preserves what makes Revive special: its elegant pacing, satisfying engine-building, and sense of discovery. Call of the Abyss feels like a natural evolution of the game, deepening its strategic and thematic layers while keeping the experience approachable and streamlined. For fans of Revive, it is an essential addition.