Elizabeth

This was sitting on the counter at my local game store and I grabbed it since I’m a fan of Pandemic. I have played it with 2 players and 3. Both were fun, the two player version gives you an NPC to play against.

What I like:
1) Simple, easy to learn and takes about 20min. to play once you get it down.
2) This version came with plastic Petrie dishes, so I can use them when I play In The Lab. I was disappointed to find that in the lab didn’t come with is own.
3) Competitive rather than coop. I like coop, but competitive means someone wins every time.
4) Visually, as appealing as original Pandemic and takes up less space.

What I didn’t like:
1) I hope they release expansions. After playing a couple of times, I’ve seen all of the cards. This might lead to limited replayability.
2) Kinda wish there was a backing for the player mutation trackers so that you didn’t have to keep it on the table.

The thing that I love about Gloom is the creativity. Oddly enough, all of the horror added by the Cthulu theme makes it a bit difficult…. or maybe excessive… to add your own flair to the pain and suffering you are inflicting on your family. I think that this is a great version to play on Halloween, but I like to stick with the original for normal game night.

What I like:
1) If Gloom has gotten a little old, the new theme adds a little flair.
2) Story cards and transformations add another layer to game play. Works well if you already have the basics down.
3) Who isn’t looking for a good Halloween/horror game?

What I don’t like:
1) Mentioned above, the Cthulu theme kinda pigeonholes storytelling.
2) New cards-fun. Explaining yet more symbols/mechanics-guh.

One of my favorite things about original Gloom is the opportunity to create an elaborate, twisted story with my fellow players. Any time we pull out the deck we all groan and hope our poor family doesn’t dare to once again visit the moors–the site of many a gruesome death in the past. Or, heaven forbid, dare to visit the circus while it is in town.

What I like:
1) The families are just weird enough on their own to inspire some great story telling, but simple enough to allow for some VERY different interpretations.
2) The design of the cards is beautifully intricate. I love how the clear layers work together.
3) The deck is small and portable. As long as you don’t have too many expansions, it is easy to grab and go if you are gonna play somewhere other than your game room.

What I didn’t like:
1) Probably inevitable with new plastic, but when I first opened the box the cards had an odd smell and it took a few airings for them to lose it.
2: The color coding for each card type is clear once you get used to it, but at first we had to constantly refer to the rules to remember what counted as each type. This is occasionally important.

I bought this game at DCC in the gaming hall. It sounded different from my usual fare, and something I could get my non-gamer friends to play. I was right. The bluffing element and minimalistic deck appeals to everyone.

What I like:
1)The explanation in the rule book was a bit confusing, but the game itself is ridiculously simple.
2)Doesn’t take much space to play. I’m not even sure you need a table…
3)Don’t take this the wrong way, but there is a lot of psychological manipulation inherent in this game.

What I didn’t like:
1)We didn’t grasp the spirit of the game from the rules. We had to play it once to “get it”.
2)Relatively quick game play. Don’t plan on any longform strategizing.

This is the first economy game I remember playing. Someone brought it out after our D&D session as a kind of palate cleanser and I was hooked.

What I liked:
1)I was able to pick up on the basics quickly, and refining an actual strategy was a matter of a couple of games. I didn’t tire of it before I was able to hold my own.
2)There are enough elements to encourage a variety of play styles, but it remains fairly simple. I find games where you have to constantly refer to the rules to interfere with my enjoyment.

What I didn’t like:
1)The length is a turn off for casual gamers. Especially if they are likely to lose the first time or two.
2)Although it is simple, the number of possible choices each round can overwhelm new players. You can explain it in a few minutes, but players that aren’t strategically minded might be easily frustrated.

It is beyond me why I like a game that I lose about 80% of the time. I guess, I like the fact that the whole group has to invest in a cooperative strategy or there is no hope. If any one player tries to do their own thing, everyone goes down.

What I like:
1)Call me crazy, but I like the fact that we spend at least 5 minutes before actually starting the game, but after we select characters, discussing strategy. It is the most mutually dependent game I’ve ever played.
2)We always give each disease a name, the more ridiculous the better.
3)The cure bottles in this expansion are great. They look like actual vials.
4)There are some new characters, which have some pretty interesting abilities.

What I don’t like:
1)It can be hard to get new gamers to be interested in a game when you tell them there is approx. 1 in 10 odds you will win.
2)Some characters are OP, compared to others. Occasionally, one person will feel useless in a game because their ability is barely utilized.

I bought this game on Tabletop Day to play with a few friends that I dragged to my local game store. They are not avid gamers, so I was looking for something easy to learn, engaging and challenging enough that I wouldn’t get bored. This was perfect.

What I liked:
1)The unboxing was fun, we looked over the characters and had a laugh. The cards all fit nicely in the box and I love that there are spacers to keep them from getting disorganized.
2)We read through the rules once and were able to get started rather quickly with no trouble.
3)We voted to play again right away, rather than move on to a new game, so that we could try new characters out. The second game was much different (a plus) and we had to develop a new strategy.

What I didn’t like:
1)I haven’t played it enough to play all of the possible combinations, but I foresee limited replay value. Luckily, there are expansions, but I prefer games that encourage creative thinking rather than discovering the best use for each card.
2)This is possibly something I will get over, but with all of the +/- tokens being the same size, we didn’t bother sorting through for the right one. We ended up just throwing a blank counter on our cards.