BaldGameGeek

On the Brink is almost essential for those that enjoy Pandemic for one reason and one reason only: it fixes two of the roles of its predecessor. Previously, two of the roles were almost entirely useless as their abilities rarely assisted the team. These have since been fixed up with updated cards: simply put the new role cards into the deck, and throw away the old- you’ll never have a use for them again. While we’re at it, the new roles have been well thought out. They won’t make you crave them every game, but you won’t be disappointed to receive them. This is certainly a good thing, as it indicates the new roles are sufficiently balanced to ensure the abilities of one person are never more important than the abilities of the collective team.

The components are a nice addition. The comparatively huge meeples of Pandemic have been replaced by smaller meeples that seem more in place on the board. The petri-dishes provided to house the virus counters, while no more useful than a zip lock bag, are a nice touch.

Then you have the bio-terrorist role and the new purple virus. This provides an interesting mechanic where the bio-terrorist travels the world secretly spreading a virus of his or her own (purple) which provides an added layer of difficulty. How does it go down at our table? Meh, take it or leave it. It certainly amps up the difficulty, but we find the difficulty is just fine without them. Ultimately, the bio-terrorist role just comes off as messy to me, and doesn’t seem to flow with the original game as much as I would like.

All in all though, it’s a worthy addition, if only for the added variety of roles, the repairing of previous roles, and downsized meeples alone. At $33 on Milsims, it’s not a bad pick-up by any means. It fixes and adds to the original game, and if you have a particularly destructive or uncooperative player that just wants to watch the world burn? You’ve got the bio-terrorist role right there for them.