Welcome to my first official board game review. I talked a bit about board games here, but thought I should put my expertise to good use by saving other board game enthusiasts (and would be enthusiasts) some hard earned coin. For those who just want to know the gist of the review, you can skip to the Buy If sections for each review.
Good news! Found a machine that completely obliterates time. Pic below.
Arkham Horror is a board game for 1 to 8 players. It's a massive, sprawling, grueling, campaign to stop Lovecraftian nightmares from overwhelming your city and the world. When I first opened the box, I was blown away with the pure amount of stuff in it.
All sorts of dials and tokens, and no less than 10 decks of cards (each with a separate purpose). Being a good board game host, I wanted to play it before I introduced it to family and friends. Guess how long it took me to learn. Go ahead, guess. I dare you.
6 hours
Yup. By myself it took about 6 hours to learn the game backwards and forwards. To be fair, I took frequent breaks. I just couldn't help thinking that this was a lot of work for what was supposed to be a leisure activity.
Briefly, the game works like this. You set up the board and choose character sheets (you can also choose characters randomly, although your chances of losing go up significantly). Then you choose a monster (also randomly, if you want), and set the rest aside. The monster creates different effects on the board, and awakens under certain conditions (trust me, you don't want it to awaken!) At the very beginning of the game, the 'board' gets a turn. During this turn, a portal to a hellish dimension opens up somewhere on the board. To beat the game, you and your friends must either close all of the portals or seal six of them (to seal a portal is the same as to close it, only you need 5 clue tokens to seal it permanently and stop any portals or monsters from spawning there).
Basically, it's a cooperative game in the same sense as Pandemic where you and your friends are against the board game itself (which behaves according to certain rules).
The game takes about 3 to 4 hours to play (you heard that right) when you first start playing. But once you have some experience the turns will move faster, and you might be able to get through it in 2 if your group is small. Most of the fun of the game is the vibe and ambiance as you fight valiantly against the night. The game is just so darn detailed and gives so much for it's $50 price tag.
But there's a problem with Arkham. For all the pieces and cards and movements... you just don't get to make a lot of really interesting decisions. There'll be decisions that can seriously effect the game, but they'll usually feel accidental or minor.
So then, down to the nitty gritty. Should you buy it?
Buy Arkham Horror If:
1.) You don't mind having a game that you will only play, at most, once every few months.
2.) You don't mind spending several hours getting to know the game - alone - before you introduce it to others.
Don't Buy Arkham If:
1.) You're trying to introduce your friends to a wider variety of board games. This may scare off newbies.
2.) You want a game you can play once a week.
Conclusion:
If you're looking for better co-op games for a similar price, try Pandemic (Legacy - trust me, the Legacy version is the way to go) or Space Alert.
image is from boardgamegeek.com & cloudpost.us
All proceeds from these posts go towards more board games!
