Pandemic
Pandemic 2nd Edition
After five years of Pandemic, hundreds of thousands of players have been contracted by the virus! To celebrate this milestone, Pandemic has been completely re-designed. With new artwork by Chris Quilliams (Clash of Cultures, Merchants & Marauders), Pandemic will now have a more modern look, inside and outside the box. With two new characters: the Contingency Planner and the Quarantine Specialist, face the game in ways you never thought possible. Brand new challenges are waiting for you!
Game Overview
Four diseases have broken out in the world and it is up to a team of specialists in various fields to find cures for these diseases before mankind is wiped out.
Players must work together, playing to their characters' strengths and planning their strategy of eradication before the diseases overwhelm the world with ever-increasing outbreaks. For example, the Operation Specialist can build research stations, which are needed to find cures for the diseases. The Scientist needs only 4 cards of a particular disease to cure it instead of the normal 5.
But the diseases are outbreaking fast and time is running out: the team must try to stem the tide of infection in diseased areas while also towards cures.
A truly cooperative game where you all win or you all lose.
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Overview: Pandemic is a cooperative game in which 2-4 players team up to contain and cure catastrophic diseases threatening the global population.
Gameplay: Each player is randomly assigned a role card which gives his character special abilities to use during his turn. Four different colors of wooden cubes, representing the diseases, are seeded on the board by drawing cards from the Infection deck
During your turn, you must choose four actions to take, including moving around the world, reducing disease buildup, and finding cures. Next, you will draw two cards from the player deck. These cards will usually be locations which can be used for faster travel and curing diseases. Also in the player deck are Epidemic cards. They will increase the rate of infection and reset the Infection deck, creating an unpredictable situation and hampering your current strategy. Lastly, you will draw cards from the Infection deck based on the current rate of infection. These will add infection cubes to the board and possibly force an outbreak during which an additional cube is placed on EVERY adjacent city!
The players win by discovering the cures for all four diseases. They can lose in three different ways: failing to prevent eight outbreaks, running out of cards in the player deck, and running out of infection cubes from any of the four colors.
Pros:
- Random roles and difficulty to win increase replay value.
- Innovative game mechanics.
- Takes about an hour to play, can be used as filler game.
- Excellent gateway game as players do not need to compete and can learn as they play.
- Difficulty can be customized by choosing amount of Epidemics
- Unpredictable Epidemic draws create tension because victory is never guaranteed.
Cons:
- Experienced players may dominate strategy discussion causing negative play.
- Unpredictable Epidemic draws create tension because victory is never guaranteed.
Historical Figure/ Fictional Character I’d Most Like to Play With: Louis Pasteur
Pandemic is one of the best cooperative games available. It combines quick, strategic gameplay with a random antagonistic game system to generate an entertaining experience.
Strong Suits
- A game where everyone works together
- Very challenging yet fun
- You can change the difficulty level from easy to insanely hard
- Easy to teach to others
Weaknesses
- It can kill the fun if one person is telling everyone else what to do
- You will lose, especially on the higher difficulty levels (this may motivate rather than discourage, depending on the group you’re with)
- Certain “roles” may be more fun to play than others.
Suggestions
The key to enjoying this game as a group is to give the Dispatcher and Medic roles to the right people in your group! Sure you are “supposed” to hand them out at random, but I suggest you give the Dispatcher to the person in the group who is the most outspoken and most likes to control situations. I’d then give the Medic to the quietest person in the group, that might typically get overpowered in a collaborative situation.
The Dispatcher has extra abilities to move people around the board, which is great for a “leader” personality. The Medic has an awesome ability to go through and cure lots of diseases, which makes someone with a “follower” personality have a lot of fun and help out the group in a big way.
Summary
I love this game! The theme of viruses spreading over the globe, is one that almost any gamer or non gamer can enjoy. This is a big reason my wife likes this game as well, because it isn’t dragons or zombies or anything too fantastical.
If you’re looking for a game you can play with others instead of against them, this is a MUST HAVE for your game collection. You’ll find you’re communicating with everyone in your group the whole time, as opposed to other games where you might rarely say a word to anyone until the end of the game.
Pandemic is one of those games that defies logic; it’s one of the few purely co-operative games out there — with no one set to turn coat and become a traitor later on — and it actually gets harder the more people you play with, not easier. Pandemic is the sort of rare game that appeals both to strategic/power gamers and social/party gamers. It’s relatively lightweight as boardgames go, and the rules for the game and the objective of play are both fairly straight forward.
The premise is simple: up to four diseases are spreading around the globe, infecting cities at a geometric rate, and players take on the role of one of a handful of biomedical doctors, researchers or support engineers in a race to outpace the spread of each disease. Each role has a unique ability that can be used in the fight to stop the spread of disease, to find a cure, or in the final eradication of each disease, but it’s only by working together, synergising each role’s effect that players will start to make inroads into the spread of the disease.
And that is where Pandemic shines. As a truly co-operative game that calls on players to very actively work together, Pandemic excels. A group of players each playing their own game — even experienced players — will never beat the epidemic, even at the game’s tamest setting (and yes, the game comes with three progressively more difficult settings of play), and part of the strategy of the game is learning to identify synergism between the abilities of the roles on offer to maximise their effectiveness.
The theme of the game both sets and suits the pace of play perfectly. As play progresses, the diseases spread from localised areas, using a nifty mechanic that both ratchets up the intensity of the spread of infection, and keeps the base of infection in localised hotspots. There is a minor ‘take that’ element to the game; players have a very limited pool of very special effects and events they can call on in emergencies … but the game effectively has these too, and the rate and pace it which throws out these curve-balls means players can rarely rest. Mechanically, the game does an excellent job of keeping the levels of anxiety high, and it’s usually only a matter of time before that spills over to panic as various outbreaks slowly yet inevitably get out of the player’s control … do you focus on one disease in one area, hoping to eradicate it from the game completely while a second rages out of control … or should you try and keep every disease fenced in, on the chance that a slight reprieve will give you the time to push for a cure?
The game board is pleasing to the eye, with little chrome (superfluous components or rules details added to a game to add a feeling of theme, usually at the expense of mechanical balance and efficiency), and a good level of iconography provides intuitive information without continually having to read detailed card effects, or seek rules interpretations, keeping the pace of play lively.
Co-operative games aren’t for everybody. People play boardgames for many reasons, and the direct competitive element is one of them. But while Pandemic is a co-op, at times it definitely feels like the board itself is playing against you, and players will come to dread the growing sense of anxiety that builds as the diseases start spreading faster than they can contain them.
Pandemic is a great co-op game where you and your teammates race around the world trying to stop epidemics and hold off rampant outbreaks of disease. Each player gets a different occupation with various abilities and the the team uses these abilities and special cards they draw to control the spread and find cures.
The main strategy is to cooperatively maximize the application of the tools and abilities you have at your disposal on a turn by turn basis with your eye on the ultimate prize to find cures before time runs out.
Tension is generally fairly high and it’s a great game for a group of problem solvers. Note that it can suffer from bullys who decide all the actions for the group or if new players sit back and let others tell them what to do — in such cases the game can be tedious for those not actively engaged.
Co-op games can also suffer when we’ve figured out the basic strategy and the theme evaporates into the metagame. With some games we’re left feeling that winning is just about luck. But think about it, any co-op game has to have a good deal of luck involved or it would be winnable almost every time. The key for designing a good co-op game is to add enough player options and interaction to at least make it *appear* that the players’ actions and strategies make a big difference.
Pandemic gets this down well. If the cards aren’t with you, you can’t win, but you can try…. stretch yourselves to the limit. You’ll still lose, but the experience can still be a blast!
This isn’t to say one loses at Pandemic often, but like most good co-op games you can adjust the challenge to make it difficult — making a win very satisfying.
Most cooperative games are meant to be fun. Most aren’t very hard, but just promote a sense of working together instead of competing. With Pandemic it’s different. This is a cooperative game that is hard, very hard. It is so from the first time you play it and when you grasp the basics, there are always higher levels of difficulty to try out. Teamwork and strategic thinking are essential to winning, for the diseases don’t wait…
In Pandemic you are a member of a disease-fighting team (part of the CDC – Center for Disease Control and Prevention) based in Atlanta. The world is on the brink of a global disaster, because of four diseases that have infected some cities already. You need to combat the diseases and find a cure for them before it’s too late. Every player will randomly get a card with a specific role (like Scientist, Dispatcher, etc.). Each role has a special ability that will be vital to winning the game.
Each player gets four actions which for instance allow him or her to move around the board (depicting the Earth with some major cities on each continent), treat diseases present in a city or try to help discover a cure for one of the diseases. Players can also use their special abilities (the Scientist for instance can more easily discover a cure).
For most actions you need cards. These cards are dealt to you at the start of the game and they might represent cities on the board or some special action that gives free stuff (like a free research center – you start with just the one in Atlanta).
After each player has done his or her best to limit the spread of the diseases, the infection phase starts. A deck of cards has been created at the start, containing some city cards. Depending on the infection rate (this increases when an Epidemic card is drawn) cards are drawn and disease spreads in the cities (add cubes of certain colors to the city). When a fourth cube would be added, there is an outbreak and the disease spreads to adjacent cities. This might trigger a chain of outbreaks, so players need to reduce the number of cubes in cities to prevent this. Too many outbreaks and the game will be over!
When the players find a cure for all four diseases they win. However, when there are no more cubes of one type of disease left to place or there is an eighth outbreak or the draw pile from which players draw two cards each turn is empty, it is over and the players lose.
At first glance Pandemic seems a straightforward game. At the start there is not that much disease on the board and you have a lot of actions to do something about it. This is deceptive, however. The board might quickly explode with disease rampant all over the place and you and your fellow players having a hard time even keeping a status quo. I remember my first games (at the easiest level) that all ended in losses (and big ones!). So you really need to learn and replay this game to get the hang of it. Some roles greatly interact and some don’t, so you need to talk a lot and try to plan ahead. Playing alone is no option. When one player decides to try something not agreed on, you will probably lose fast. In that sense this is a real cooperative game with no room for single glory. You win as a team or not at all!
Personally I think Pandemic is a smart take on the cooperative game genre. While some cooperative games are fun they are mostly not difficult or challenging enough. With Pandemic you are constantly challenged and at the edge of your seat when cards are drawn. Will there be an outbreak just where you hope there wouldn’t be one? How will get out of this new situation? You really need to think strategically and get all players to make their best effort. Otherwise the world is doomed and a global pandemic will crush humanity…
Pandemic is a cooperative game where everyone wins or looses together. But don’t go thinking this means you will always be winning, Pandemic can pack a mean punch especially once you start playing at heroic levels.
The game works in two stages players turn and infection turns. Players each get a unique role (Scientist, Operations Expert, Dispatcher, etc) and can do four actions a turn like move, trade cards, cure diseases etc. The roles each give some special power (for instance the dispatcher can move other players). The goal for the players is to cure the four diseases which is done by collecting cards. This would be super easy if you didn’t have infection running rampant as it would appear this world has zero disease containment strategies and a whole lot of people who like contracting diseases. At first the cities are infected at random by drawing cards but as the game progresses the infected cities cards are reshuffled and put on top of the deck so the sick just keep getting sicker. The game seems to start off easy enough but if you don’t speed towards cures you’ll soon find yourself succumbing to small pox in Cairo.
Everyone will need to work together in order to ensure that Bobby can give Suzy the cure to Polio in Mexico City while Drake clears up the disease running rampant in Bangkok. This required cooperativity leads to the number one complaint people have this game which is that one person will become a loudmouth and take over the game. I have to say this doesn’t really happen with my friends and never with my family. Not because we aren’t loud and bossy but actually because we are all loud and bossy. So Pandemic becomes a fun game where everyone is yelling over each other about the best strategy and whoever’s turn it happens to be gets final say. However if you are a nice polite person who plays with nice polite people and you had the misfortune to have me present I could see how it might not be fun for you. Although I’d probably still have a good time, so that is why I like Pandemic. Alternatively people have house rules where no one is allowed to talk except when they are in the same city as someone else. That would also make the game WAY harder but maybe that’s your thing.
Next I want to mention replay value (or replayability if you like made up words). The base set comes with five different roles, so if you are often playing four players you would probably know them inside and out pretty soon. However which cities become infected can also affect your strategy. Also you can ramp up the number of “Epidemics” (infection deck reshuffling) to change the difficulty level. However if this is not enough for you there is also an amazing expansion that contains tons of new ways to die of your favourite disease.
Finally I will talk about theme. Overall its implemented well, the roles abilities make some sense with their names. You get to jet-set around the world like some awesome microbiologist superhero (side note: I took a course where we learnt that the doctors who went to Zaire to fight Ebola were called “Medical Cowboys”, so that’s what I call my friends and I when we play) curing disease. I guess I kinda wish that the players got some disease (like if you are in a city when an outbreak happens because it would keep the theme but really that’s just a geeky sub-complaint because I really do love this game and play it all the time.
This is a game where I love to loose. It is obvious by how quickly I want to reset the board and give it another go. We have played through Pandemic about a dozen times and I think I’ve only won about two times. But every time we lose it feels like you are so close and, “One more time!!!” is being shouted across the table.
GAME PLAY:
You are a team of researches out to cure several epidemics ravaging the world. Each player has a special ability that makes this a bit easier for them. On your turn you draw one infection card that puts a new disease marker on the board and you also draw a player card that will hopefully get you closer to curing the disease.
Curing a disease is done by gathering a number of like color cards and getting them to the research center on the board. For instance, five blue cards cure the blue disease. Get it to the a research center and you can start curing the people.
Does finding a cure save that region the disease spreading? NO! There are still people out there without the cure running around not washing their hands spreading their filth all over the place! In order to eradicate the disease you have to cure each city, wiping out the disease.
Do this with each of the five diseases and you can win. It’s a tall order, especially since there are a number of ways to lose. Running out of disease cubes, running out of infection cards, or too many outbreaks could all lose the game for you. You better like losing to play this game because it will chew you up and spit you out!
COMPONENTS:
Their nice, but nothing special. I think the board has nice art work. The pieces are more functional then a piece of stunning art.
PROS:
Great replay ability. It will have you coming back for more.
It has a short training time, making it easy to teach to new comers.
Decently short play time allows for multiple play thorughs
Good price point
CONS:
I think you’ll hear this over and over as you read through the reviews, and it pretty common with co-op games, but look out for the general. That one player who is always trying command the other players where to go and what to do. It’s not a con on the game, and just like most games, you have to have the right people to bring the best of the game out for all to enjoy.
OVERALL:
This is a fun game where the theme does a great job driving the game and making you feel the pressure that things are getting out of control and you are going to lose. One of the great things about this game it can often time be more fun to lose to than to beat. When you lose you feel like you were so close and you just needed on more move or break or card and you could have saved the world. Win or lose, this is a game that you will enjoy.
I’m sure others have mentioned this before, but co-ops sometimes have a fault tied to them. You see, when everyone works together, sometimes a leader emerges, and the game can devolve from a team, into one person playing the game, others doing as he/she states. Pandemic, unfortunately, can easily fall into that, having a Supreme Science Expert detailing possible choices for each player…helpful? Yes. Necessary? Not at all.
The game itself is fantastic. Players are dealt one role, which bends a single basic rule for them. You were told you needed five cards of a colour for a cure? Not if you’re the scientist. You can heal only one cube per action? Not if you’re the medic. It’s nice to have each player focused on one aspect of the game. The Researcher is a powerful character, made even more so by the help of a Dispatcher. The way the roles interact is fun and exciting!
After you deal with how your role affects the game, you may notice that there are an awful lot of diseases around the world, and that’s when the real game starts. The goal is to fine a vaccine for each of the four diseases, and doing that requires a small bit of thought from our trusted team of scientists. Utilizing their hand of cards (which are in limited supply, and should be used sparingly), players can move swiftly around the board, keeping the cubes at bay. For, when one disease accumulates too many cubes (a fourth would be added), it spreads to all adjacent locations, causing a headache for everyone. (In my experience, Asia hates us the most, and will accumulate more disease cubes at the start than anything else.)
After all the good actions of quelling the disease, finding cures, being happy, there is a second phase of bad-ness. The Infection deck has a card for each location. After the happy turn, players draw cards from this deck relative to the Infection Rate (which increases as Epidemics are drawn from the ‘Good’ deck) and place one disease cube of that cities colour on the city pictured. So, the plague continues! Yay!
This game is really excellent. The Roles are great and different, the disease forms in a variety of ways, and while each game has a similar feel to it, you’ll never get the exact layout you had before. The only thing that hampers this game is the possibility of an Overlord becoming rampant, but the little people can revolt if that happens.
My wife and I got this two years ago in Seattle. We spent 8 ours in the store playing Pandemic, Dominion, and Citadels to try them out. This was not my first choice to take home because I’m competitive by nature, and didn’t really think it would be fun if everybody wins, but I was wrong. This game will make you sweat as you work to eradicate the diseases.
I think one of the best things about this game is that it will never be the same, diseases will always spread differently, and those darn Epidemic cards will turn up just when you don’t want them. We once had two in a row and the next one came two turns later, which ended the game. Winning certainly isn’t easy, but the challenge is fun, and if you lose, you lose together.
After a few tries by ourselves, we decided to bring it out for others to play, too. Well, that didn’t work so well. The two of us, mostly me, ended up dominating the game, plotting out which way to go and what diseases to cure next. I don’t think our friends had too much fun that first time, since they haven’t played since.
What really makes the game fun, though, is when you play with 4 people that know the game. We played with two of our friends that are loud and outspoken, and there were a few arguments about the best way to proceed. Four opinions and five epidemic cards makes for a very fun game that often creates a stress level factor usually only seen at Defcon 5!
Pros:
- Tons of replay value
- Different levels of difficulty allow for more relaxed play
(especially if you have just been trounced by the black cubes!)
- Fun from the beginning, but increases with experience.
Cons:
- When playing with a mix of new and experienced players can lead to a game that is managed by one or two people.
- Can get a little aggravating when the diseases win 5 in a row!
Overall, this is a great game that gets better the more you play.
This is a quick game to pick up. It can be a quick game to play. I’ve lost in five minutes before. But it’s a really great game to play. (I promise I have won a few times!)
I will be honest, if you have someone you play with that likes to control the game play, this is not the best game. The people that are new to the game will be stuck a little bit with the first few moves. A person that likes to control the action of the game can get a bit over involved early and may never give up that control.
I’ve said how much fun it is to lose, and that there is an issue with heavy handed gamers, now on to the good parts. This game is really, really fun. Yes, it’s really tough to win, but it is possible. When you do win the feeling you get is exhilaration – You’ve saved the planet from biological destruction! Even the feeling you get when you lose is quite exhilarating – “Ahhhhhh! Outbreaks.”
All the people that I’ve played with have really loved the idea of a cooperative game. They have also enjoyed the different roles that you take, and the way that you use those roles. The movement actions can be somewhat difficult to get at first, but within a round everyone usually has it. The whole removing a block for curing a virus usually takes about two rounds to figure out. Within that time hopefully you’ve managed the viruses well, because people have it now, and they are travelling around kicking virus butt.
There are just so many frustrating aspects to the gameplay (in a good way) that make this game really great. Shuffling cities back into your draw pile after an epidemic – maddening! Outbreaks – insanity! Disease spreading just after you have found the cure – ridiculous! It’s a great game because it creates a sense of panic to do the right thing, and even when you do the right thing, up pops another problem somewhere else.
Overall, a really great game. I find it’s good for people who are not competitive (against other people) but enjoy a challenge (and are ok with losing!)