My concern here is that even the promised rules updates sound simplistic and shallow. Not necessarily easy per se, but the code doesn't have a lot of nuance.
I picked up a new game today (DP Prem), and while I was at the guy's house, he had me play a game of IMDN Prem. I had never played a Prem before, and I hate Maiden music, but this game was awesome! There is so much going on in parallel, and there are multiple ways to attack the game. Even if you are just an average player, you could choose your path through the game (focus on modes, or the [whatever it's called] multiball, or the Power cards, or whatever). In one game, it drew me in. I could see the game has legs, and could last in a collection because the path wasn't so linear.
Moving over to HWN/UM, the code is so barren by comparison. Adding another mode, or a mini-wizard ultimately doesn't change a whole lot about the experience. It's just such a rudimentary take on a ruleset.
I really like the themes of both HWN and UM, and ordered both games () with the intention of keeping the one that resonated with me more. I don't *hate* them, but I'm definitely not connecting the way I hoped, and I'm not sure the expressed rules direction will fundamentally change my feeling. When I first ordered them, I feared I wouldn't be able to decide which game to get rid of. Now I'm far more concerned whether I'll have any desire to keep either.
On the flip side - I DO *hate* Maiden music, and yet IMDN Prem connected with me in one game 10X more than HWN or UM have since I've owned them.
I REALLY want to be wrong here, and I kinda don't have a choice but to ride things out. Hopefully the game(s) turn around, or they at least level off in value so as to not lose my ass x2. Unfortunately, I'm feeling like a re-imagining of the rule theory is needed.
HWN follows a movie storyline, so this seems potentially harder to do. But UM is wide open. Similar to how GZ has tons of parallel variety (shocker - Elwin) UM has a theme that could support the same. I'm not expecting the impossible here (Spooky code rivaling Elwin), but when the price of the games are the same, I'm at least hoping to be in the same ballpark. Unfortunately I'm not even sure if these games are playing the same sport.