Eldritch Horror

Warning, slightly long review and other comments follow. As a long-time fan of the actual Lovecraft stories, I was excited to hear about this game. I had first been introduced to Lovecraftian gaming through the Call of Cthulhu RPG, but never could get a group to play. I had then heard of Arkham Horror, but I never seemed to have the money at the right time to buy it. Then I just recently heard about Eldritch Horror. I must say, I LOVE this game! If you are brand new to Lovecraftian gaming but are familiar with the stories, you will love this game even more as you will "get" the references used and likely why somethings happen the way they do. The quality of everything from the game-board, the individual (thick and sturdy!) pieces to the game box itself is just a joy to touch in your hands. Apparently Fantasy Flight Games has a reputation for this. As my first FFG game, they have made me into a loyal customer. On my first game playing it, as suggested in the manual for beginners, I chose to go against Azathoth. My partner and I had done pretty well at first thinking the game was pretty easy so far. But then when the doom track hit 8 or so, things went downhill fast. I was hit with a couple different madness conditions such as paranoia and amnesia on top of being cursed. Finally the doom track had hit 1 we had almost solved our 3rd and final mystery to defeat Azathoth, and we had only 1 mythos card left. If that doom hit 0, Azathoth would wake up and devour the world. Well we used that last mythos card. Lucky there was no doom advancement. Still only at 1... but that means our mythos deck is all gone. We continue anyway just to see how it plays out expecting that we will lose. After all... if you can't draw a mythos card when you need to, the mythos phase ends and the investigators lose. Well in that turn, we solved the 3rd mystery but can't claim it until the end of the mythos phase. Closed an other-world gate that was open and continued on to the mythos phase. No card to flip, game over. We thought we had lost. HOWEVER... according to the games reference guide under "Winning" pg 12, "If a mythos card cannot be drawn during the Mythos Phase, the Mythos Phase ends and investigators lose the game." To win a game, you must solve 3 of 4 mysteries before Azathoth wakes up (doom track hits 0). Since we couldn't draw a new mythos card, according to the above rule, the mythos phase ends, and the 3rd mystery is solved... therefore we win. It's a conflict. Do we win, or lose? According to the reference guide under "Conflicts" pg 4, "If multiple effects would be resolved at the same time, [my 3rd mystery solved therefore win, mythos deck empty therefore we lose] the active player decides the order in which they are resolved." So it looks like I could choose that the mystery was solved before I had to flip the next card, therefore I win. In addition to that, the section on "Winning" on pg 12 again also says "The game immediately ends when an effect specifies that 'Investigators win the game,' or 'Investigators lose the game.' In the rare circumstances that both these effects happen at the same time, investigators win the game." THEREFORE WE ACTUALLY WON!!! It was so intense of a game, even when we thought we had lost, I was on the edge of my seat. We had a blast! For confirmation, this scenario has happened to others with this game. If you go to boardgamegeek and check the forums on this game, there is a thread called "Last second loss against Azathoth". Not my post, but pretty much the same thing happened. The info from there sealed it for me. I won my first game with my partner... barely. Now as I said, this is my first Lovecraftian game so yes, that means I have NOT played Arkham Horror which according to many... this is a sister game. This is NOT intended to be an easier or harder version nor an expansion. As such, I cannot comment on how good, bad, long or epic of a game it may be. I hear allot of people who bicker about which is better, or should they drop AH since they now have this one? People being defensive about AH because they have spent SO much money, time and effort into that game including its vast number of expansions. I will say however that I would LOVE to play and learn AH someday. But until then, this game does it for me. Yes, there desperately needs to be more cards which thankfully an expansion is on its way sometime soon with a at about 88 new research cards and over 100-150 new encounter cards among other things. (likely within the next couple months from what I am hearing). So this is going to be a temporary issue. Allow me to digress a moment. I don't think one needs to BE better than the other. Each one is designed for a different kind of player in my opinion. AH is very lengthy, has more things to deal with such as skill sliders, much more as far as decks and such. EH, tends to be much quicker of a game with a built in "timer" via the mythos deck and (from what I have heard from Arkham veterans) more streamlined and easier to follow rules for beginners among some other nifty changes. Also some negative ones most likely. Some will be drawn to AH, others will be drawn to EH. EH is (I think) not meant to replace AH at all. AH has many expansions, it continues to be in print with many, many loyal fans. I can't imagine FFG just shutting that down. I think that for actual fans of the Lovecraft stories among others, it is great there is this diversity. Someday I hope to even pick up Elder Sign which is much more luck based as it is very much a dice-rolling game. There are fans of that kind of thing who want to get into Lovecraft games but don't have any interest in AH or EH because of time or table space. All in all, if you don't have Arkham Horror, but want to try out Lovecraftian games, get this game. If you own and love Arkham Horror, you should get this game. It is shorter to play and likely just as fun. If you want to know if you should keep Arkham Horror after buying this game, I would say yes. This is not intended to replace Arkham Horror unless you want it to.

Let's make something clear: this game is not for everyone. It's likely that if you're reading this review, you're already a hobby boardgamer and looking for something a little on the "heavy" side to play. Eldritch Horror fills that roll admirably without becoming cumbersome. Years ago, Fantasy Flight games released "Arkham Horror," a take on Lovecraftian fiction set in the town of Arkham. The premise of the game was simple - monsters spewing through gates, investigators trying to stop them, and a great ancient evil biding its time until it arrived to destroy the world. If the premise was simple, the actual gameplay was the complete opposite. There was very little intuitive about playing the game. In a way, the fact that players were so hapless and helpless fit the theme of Lovecraft very well. A compelling story could be told... in between the hundreds of time one might stop to clarify something in the rulebook. Eldritch Horror is a much better game than that. In fact, it's a great game. The theme still shines, and is in fact helped by taking the adventure to a global scale, rather than just the city of Arkham. Starting with the second time I played the game, it takes me between 20 and 35 minutes to set up the game, depending on how many players I have. Perfectly reasonable for a game of this scope and magnitude; it looks big on the table, but trust me when I say you shouldn't be intimidated. Unlike many heavily themed, hobby-level board games, this one actually makes sense as you play it. Skill checks are handled simplistically through dice rolling. It's a system that works, and is so accessible you can teach even the most casual gamer to play. Here is where I stopped to consider whether I would give this game only four stars, though. While you're working on maximizing your character's stats to roll the maximum number of dice (successes are represented by 5's and 6's), something things just *happen* to your character, things which are inherently unfair, and if they happen too soon in the game, could go as far as to make things feel "unfun". Here's the thing, though... that inherent disparity of power between your investigators and the world fits Lovecraft so well. True horror isn't the capable adventurer staving off every threat with his quick wits and impressive luck. True horror is a powerless victim against an unknowable evil. In most other games, I would have knocked off the star, but Eldritch Horror gets to keep the star for their consistency. The game, however, has a pretty cool mechanic to make up for what happened. Once an investigator is knocked from the game, you can get another character out of the box, place them on the board with their starting goods, and get back to work. The game is not over for any player who was just unlucky, unless of course the team does so poorly that they start losing all the characters in the box. Further, with the exception of a couple methods of death (such as being "devoured" on a few cards) usually the character hangs around the place of their untimely demise as a potential encounter. This is a wonderful mechanic! Characters are killed off, sure, but they receive their final curtain call if you have time to spare for your fallen comrade - often giving their items or other assistance to the new characters. Finally, this game is perfectly playable as a solo adventure. I like solo board game. I'm married to a gamer, but she's quite picky about just which games she'll play and some of these heavier ones aren't her thing. I don't have a local gaming group, either. That's okay! A reasonable twenty minutes to set up, and off I go. While the game does work (and officially supports) using just one character, most solo players prefer playing with two characters. Use as many as you feel like, since this is a cooperative game the decision really is up to you. One warning with this: the game is easy to understand, but after two characters I feel like the normally reasonable amount of detail you need to keep up with for each character suddenly becomes a slog. Playing with four characters was cool, and made a board that was full of action and synergy, but I found myself forgetting about my character's abilities when I needed them. If you have a serious board game hobby, I hope you give Eldritch Horror a try. It's deep enough to keep you coming back for a long time, and easy enough to teach your less experienced friends without scaring them off. Enjoy!

Altro gioiello per la serie Arkham Horror. Un gioco a sé stante che vi porterà in giro per il mondo (la plancia è il mondo!!) degli anni '20 a bordo di treni e navi. Dovrete investigare, combattere e resistere alla pazzia. Pe chi come me ha già giocato ad Arkham questo gioco non lo sostituisce ma è promosso in pieno in quanto non è affatto un sequel del suo fratello ma un gioco a parte con dinamiche diverse, veloci e comprensibili fin dall'inizio. Per la versione inglese si considera che lo sappiate bene l'inglese in quanto i testi narrativi delle carte sono molto complessi e richiedono una padronanza medio alta della lingua. Altrimenti beccatevi la versione italiana.

Amazing game - very easy to learn, difficult to win. Win or lose it's a lot of fun with friends. Would recommend getting at least one mini expansion though, for more encounter variety.

An interesting game, I recommend you to try it. Good quality of workmanship.

One of the best boardgames I played, a must in the collection

Çok istediğim bir ürün olarak aldım fakat ambalajı açtıktan sonra kutusunun hasarlı olduğunu gördüm. Köşeleri yırtık ve ezik. Bu yüzden de ürünleri saklamak ve kapatmak bir hayli zor. İçerisindeki ürünlerde herhangi bir hasar ya da eksik olmaması bir nebze de olsa iyi bir haber. Genelde çok kullanılan ve koleksiyon ürünü olan kutu oyunlarında ambalajın düzgün olması çok önemlidir. Çoğu yerde hasarlı ambalajlar daha düşük fiyata defolu ürün olarak satılır.