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This Week’s Explorable Games
This round of Explorable Favorites is from BoardGaming.com member Game Ninja. The games selected from her Favorites shelf were:
- Alhambra
Queen Games, Rio Grande Games | Published: 2005 - Betrayal at House on the Hill
Avalon Hill, Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast | Published: 2010
These games will be explorable until next Monday, February 2nd.
After you’ve explored these games, let us know what you think about them in the comments below!
Alhambra is a favorite of my wife’s. We have played many two player games of it, and it also plays great with more. I am kicking myself for not having done a review of the game before, as now I am missing out on all of those coveted “yes” votes, and I don’t have the time this week to do one, so I plan to grumble about that silently.
House on Haunted Hill is an awesome movie (not that piece of garbage remake, mind you) and the game sounds neat too. I don’t know that I am looking to rush out and buy the thing, but I would love to find someone who has it and play a game or three.
These explorable games are getting downright regular around here. Thanks!
I have spent a lot of funny times with different groups of friends, exploring the haunted house and betraying each other… It is one of the first board games i bought years ago, and still gets out of the shelf once or twice a year. I use is specially when i have a group of mixed gamers and non-gamers, and i always get a good result, in the shape of LoL.
I played Alhambra, and of course it is a classic. I have only tasted the basic game, and do not know how it is improved by the bunch of expansions it has. Definitely not for power gamers, but for my sister and me it is a game we can play with our parents, so a good family game.
Oh gosh the sacred shelf spotlight has graced my favourite games! It’s soo exciting! 🙂 @HaiKulture Thanks and here’s a go as to why Betrayal and Alhambra are a couple of my favs…
I find Betrayal is great for my story telling friends. I really like the house crawling bit where as a group we make up stories about each room as we go, building suspense to the haunt. Every game is different depending on who we are playing with and the abundance of haunts available. Having that much replayability is really important to us.
Alhambra was a surprising favourite for me. When I first heard about it I thought it sounded boring and slightly confusing. Then I found it 60% off at Chapters and thought “Hmm it can’t be that bad. It has won awards right?”. So we picked it up and love it! It is like a giant puzzle and everyone gets really intense about making the best alhambra.
Always meant to give Alhambra a try but never got around to it. It’s still on my radar.
Played Betrayal at the House on the Hill a few times when it was first reprinted. There were a lot of problems with the components then. The tiles were warped to the point they weren’t useable and the sliders usually broke. The component mess and the fact that game play did not score big with my gaming group shelved this one. Hopefully the component mess has been sorted out by now.
I have played Betrayal and I liked it.
@SP How sweet! 🙂 Congrats @Game Ninja (Of course @SP, according to House Rules you must now poke @Game Ninja so we can find out why they make the Sacred Shelf Spotlight 🙂 )
Betrayal at the House on the Hill is a great ‘mood’ game for spooky times and winter nights. The front end is easy enough to learn for not particularly gamey types and the back end secrets are always somethig to look forward to. (Although it can get clunky if one of those non-gamery types does turn traitor and has a complicated Haunt). House 1.0 came with The Boy and lives on his shelf along with House 2.0 (because – you know – it had a half dozen new scenarios. *sigh* I’d roll my eyes but I’m of the same mindset.) The more Ox Bellows the merrier – that guy should have had his own Adventure Serial Radio Show!
When the new version came out I kind of hoped there would be an expansion because the front end can get fairly repetitive while waiting for Traitor Time after multiple games. Then I remembered it was a Wizards of the Coast boardgame! *yuk yuk yuk knee slapper*
Great explorable games this week!
Betrayal is one of my all-time favorites, despite a few elements that could be improved. The dice absolutely hate me whenever I play this game, but I keep coming back for more because it is absolutely dripping with theme (in my favorite genre, no less) and quite fun with the right players. I pull this one out for anyone interested in the theme and semi-co-op games. It is always a hit and my go-to gateway game.
I have yet to play Alhambra, but it’s certainly on the wish list, just not that close to the top since there are other great games on there. I love the premise and the potential player variability from 2-6. That last factor is a huge selling point for me, as I play with varying group sizes.
Betrayal is another one of those games where the experience is just as important as winning. Of course you should do your best at winning but to me it is just as much about having fun and not taking it too serious.
Best served in a winter evening with dim lighting.
Gotta love all the Canadians popping up in the comments to this 🙂
I heard a lot about Alhmabra but never played it – have seen it in several non-gaming stores too, so I presume there is some broad appeal there.
Betrayal is a fun game with lots of scenarios, but something just keeps me from really liking it – maybe it’s a very general setting, maybe the lots of reading required during play. Just doesn’t click for me, though I had a good time playing it a couple of times.
Betrayal was a lot of fun when I played it the one time, and I can see how there would be plenty of replayability, given the number of different scenarios that could be triggered, and the traitor being a different player every time. This game is definitely on my wish list!
Never played or heard much about either before, but they both look good. Thanks for the new explorables!
Good games.
I find it interesting that Alhambra had seven reviews early on (back in August of 2011), and only five since. I would have guessed it would have more, especially given the review totals for Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, and Ticket to Ride. Shows what I know.
That’s my fiancee!!! Awesome 🙂
Both are great games for different crowds. I like to play Betrayal with a group ready for an adventure. Alhambra is great for people who like puzzles.
2 good explorable games
Betrayal falls into the category of games that I would like to own but I don’t because I have no one to play it with
Alhambra is a classic game that I will get eventually.