All On Board! Review-In-Progress: More Than Just Fun And Games

All on Board offers a platform to play iconic board games in impeccably dressed virtual spaces – it just needs more time.

As someone with an embarrassing amount of dusty board game boxes sitting in storage, I found All on Board’s promise of a clutter-free and immersive digital alternative intriguing. Digital board game programs aren’t a new concept, even in VR, with Tabletop Simulator finding a home on headsets all the way back in 2016. Still, All on Board is pitching a fresh look at the genre, bolstered by thematic storybook settings players can immerse themselves in as they play licensed products with friends. 

All on Board operates more like a well-dressed social platform than a game. Once you open the app, you’re dropped into a social hub to browse games and add other players to your session. The base game includes board game classics like Chess, Parchisi, Checkers and Go, which you can play cooperatively with friends or on your lonesome.

However, premium licensed games like Terraforming Mars and The Binding of Isaac need an additional purchase. This makes for a limiting first impression, though you at least get 25 minutes of playtime to test them before taking the financial leap. If one player owns the game, others can join and try it without the additional cost — another avenue of ‘try before you buy’ if you’re still curious after your initial test run.

Once you pick a game and start playing, you and your friends will appear as somewhat customizable cartoon avatars sitting across the table from one another. Modification currently amounts to a series of preset heads and upper bodies, and the developers note that full-blown customization will arrive at a later date. The cartoon avatars don’t feature mouth movement, which can be a bit strange given the intimate proximity. However, I did find once my co-op partner began chatting and moving their arms and head around, the initially uncanny first impression wore off quickly. After all, the game is always the focus. 

Inviting others to your session is as easy as sharing your session code. It’s a small touch, but I'm pleased that the session code is consistently clear and visible whether I was in the central hub or the middle of a game. Adding to the positives, All on Board also allows for cross-platform gaming, meaning players with Quest headsets can sit at the table with PC VR users and vice versa. There is also an option to join as a spectator and hang out with your friends without investing in the inevitable betrayal and drama that comes with board games.

All on Board’s multiplayer wasn’t an entirely seamless experience, though, and when playing checkers with a friend, we noticed a few issues where the on board information wasn’t aligning between the two of us. This isn’t a big deal in a simple game where it's clear who is winning; however, this may cause more complex problems with more complicated offerings like the competitive Bazaar-hopping game Istanbul. Thankfully, if you run into any issues and need to reset, a frequent autosave keeps track of your progress. You can also reload anytime while playing — if only real-life board games had quick save and quick load…  

Where All on Board shines is in its thematically dressed and carefully decorated game rooms. Terraforming Mars drops you into a futuristic space dome surrounded by red dirt planes with various stock-tracking tickers plastered overhead. Escape The Dark Castle, on the other hand, pops you into a spooky cel-shaded dungeon with flickering flames that create an unnerving atmosphere. My personal favorite piece of environmental lore came in Rallyman: GT, where tyre-screeching occasionally entered the background mix. Each space feels like a meaningful extension of the base game, and I'm thoroughly enjoying inspecting the details between the fantasy worlds.

A key aspect in the enjoyment of board games is the tactile experience of snatching up cards and rolling dice, something The Game Kitchen has considered carefully when designing interactions for All on Board. Dice have a pleasant bounce when you throw them, and picking up cards is met with a comforting papery sound. However, on a few occasions, I found the tracking could get a little muddled at times, especially when playing on busier boards, complicating the process of pinching an individual die.

An important warning to consider is the lack of guidance when engaging with All on Board’s suite of tabletop simulacrums. For example, say you purchase or try out The Binding of Isaac. Instead of having the game explain any rules, it drops you into its impeccably dressed world, free to pick your seat and play. You can lift your digital wristwatch and prompt a “how to play” video explaining the rules.

The problem is that you still need a level of rules awareness to get a game going, and pressing set face buttons when highlighting an item only explains the object in question. I appreciate that All on Board tries to emulate a realistic board game experience, warts and all. Sadly, this feels like a missed opportunity for a digital platform to go the extra mile and include tutorial prompts for those less adept with the source material.

Elsewhere, a few technical issues only compounded the need for an intrusive helping hand. In one instance, my friend dropped out due to a network issue and needed to load back into the game. When they did, they didn’t automatically assume their established position at the table and ended up a spectator for the match, unable to interact with the pieces. An opportunity for me to mischievously mess up their game soon appeared, and it took a considerable amount of trial and error to realize we could reload a previous save. That allowed them to retake their victorious position – much to my chagrin. All on Board doesn’t always account for those new to the platform, which is a shame. 

One perhaps unintended benefit of All on Board’s hands-off approach is that it opens the door for differing interpretations of board game rulesets. In one match of Checkers, I pretended I was winning by crawling my way into their seat while they simulated eating my pieces and tried to distract me by pointing into the distance.  The game descended into chaos as I began throwing their checkers into the bag, earning points for lousy sportsmanship and revelling in my terrible glory. In this way, the lack of oversight will be rewarding to those who want to goof off while catching up with their mates — an underrated but important facet of a typical tabletop experience.

All On Board! Review-In-Progress - Final Verdict

All On Board doesn’t feel like a complete experience right now — more of a work in progress. It’s a solid tabletop simulator with standout atmospheric set dressing, but there’s still a lot missing here that is not backfilled by the jovial banter between friends it can capably summon.

Features evident on Kickstarter but absent at launch like expanded character customization and custom games feel as though they would really benefit the experience and turn it into a definitive one-stop-shop for VR tabletop. We’ll have to wait and see if it eventually achieves that goal, and I’m keen to return when these updates arrive.

UploadVR uses a 5-Star rating system for our game reviews – you can read a breakdown of each star rating in our review guidelines. As a review-in-progress, this is currently unscored, and we'll revisit this review following further updates.