World At Play Games Blog: Game Review: Arkham Horror WorldatPlayGames

World At Play Games Blog Post

Friday, October 30, 2009

I'll admit, I wasn't sure what to think of Arkham Horror at first. The game is pretty popular, and has done well enough that Fantasy Flight has created tons of expansions for it, so it couldn't be too bad. However, as a very competitive person, I didn't like the idea of a cooperative board game. After all, what fun is a game when you can't destroy your fellow players and gloat about your victory?

Turns out cooperative play is a TON of fun. I'm still able to be the cutthroat player I love to be, the only difference is that I'm pouncing on a common enemy, not the other gamers playing with me. In case you're not familiar with Arkham Horror, it's a board game based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft (who we took a look at in our previous blog post). The players are investigators who are trying to stop a terrible beast from awakening. Throughout the game, dimensional portals open up and other-worldly monsters appear. The investigators have to battle the monsters, close the portals, all while trying to prevent the evil being from awakening. Ultimately the game ends when either the monster is sealed away, or when it awakens and the investigators battle it to the death.

When you start the game, you're given a choice of investigators and monsters. The game is playable by 1 - 8 players (yes, you can play it solo), but 16 investigators are included, so you have plenty of choices. Also, you have a choice of 8 different monsters to pick. You can hand-pick your team or just draw them at random. The monster you picks has a huge impact on the game's difficulty, and the combination of team members and monster makes each game drastically different. Combine that with the fact that the deck of event cards is much larger than what you'll go through in a typical game and you'll find that it's very hard to play two identical games.

All these options also mean you can change the difficulty and length of the game to suit your needs. For example, on our first playthrough we decided to battle Yig, one of the very easy monsters. If we want more of a challenge, though, we can swap in Cthulhu or one of the more difficult monsters. This is especially helpful if you're limited on time, since struggles against the most difficult monsters take significantly longer than games where you fight an easy monster.

On the subject of length, be warned that this is not a short game. While it doesn't take as long as some of the much larger games we sell, it can still take a few hours to play through. Our first shot took Patrick and myself over 4 hours, although much of that was spent re-reading the rules and clarifying certain things. The rules are fairly easy to grasp, with much of it making pretty good sense. Once you've got a handle on the rules and get a good flow going, you can play games that last between 1 and 2 hours against the easier monsters. Still, this is not an appetizer to satisfy your gaming urges for a short time, it's a full meal to be enjoyed on its own.

The game should also be enjoyed with others. Although you can play it solo, it's really best with 5 or 6 players. Every round of play, a new monster spawns and begins roaming the town. In addition, a gate opens that must be closed. Closing a gate takes multiple turns, so when you're playing with fewer players, inevitably more goats open than can be dealt with. When Patrick and I played with just the two of us, we found ourselves constantly struggling to fight off the monsters and work towards closing gates. Because of this we weren't able to make any progress on sealing away the boss monster, so inevitably it awakened and we were forced into battle. I would recommend, once you get the hang of the game, to simulate having more players by letting each player control multiple investigators. It burdens the players with much more to keep track of, but gains your team the flexibility to do more than just battle an onslaught of monsters and survive. Ultimately, though, there's nothing like having 5-6 people running all over Arkham trying to stop the looming evil.

All in all, I'd have to say that Arkham Horror has put to rest my fears about cooperative gaming. I wish I had a regular group large enough to really enjoy Arkham Horror, but it's still quite fun playing with fewer people, even if it means a constant uphill struggle. I'm anxious to get some of the expansions, which add new areas to explore, new monsters to fight, and new investigators to control. I just wish I had 5 more people with a few hours to devote to battling evil!

by: World At Play Games

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