Will the heroes have the coordination and teamwork necessary to save the villagers? Be careful, you're being hunted by classic monsters like The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula, and the Invisible Man. Each hero has a set number of actions available to set the stage for the inevitable onslaught of the monsters in their game. As you approach the monster phase, villagers may be placed around the board, monsters take action, and heroes await their next turn to seek victory.
Spider: I loved the theme. Everything was great: the art, the cards, the feeling. The theme was present in everything and very strong. The makers picked up the classic monster vibe, but not fear. It's hard to describe the feeling, but I felt like I was in one of the classic movies.
The components were great. The monster figurines were perfect. The item tiles were clear and fun.
Cat: I agree, I thought the theme was spot on. The art is exactly representative from the old movies. I loved the item tiles and the mechanic of having to place them at the locations. The luck of the draw aspect of not knowing if you would get the piece you need really added to the game for me.
I liked the fun extras associated with the different monsters like the soul symbol or the hunted sign. I liked how each monster had a home base to start from. I thought the instruction booklet was written well. Just like any game, it took time for me to make my way through, but once I made it through the book the game play went pretty smoothly. I've learned that I like to watch truncated playthroughs before playing and I think it's a good idea for this game.
Spider: It seems like a game that would be easy to teach people. The complexity comes with the different mechanics for each of the monsters. That led to a ton of deployability. There are many combinations of monsters that can be faced. We typically faced two or three monsters and it worked out well most of the time.
I felt like when playing Horrified, it was tactics over strategy. There were moments when I questioned my moves and the risks inherent with moving. There weren't really times when we disagreed in where to move our heroes or how to approach the monster conquest. It was easy to set up, it was smooth. It wasn't a brain burner. Every time we finished playing, I wanted to play again. I really liked the co-op aspect. It was just fun to play with another person. We chatted along the way and socially it was a really laid back experience to play.
Cat: I agree, I felt like communication was super easy with this game and teamwork was pretty seamless. The abilities and the action numbers seemed appropriate and I felt like we were able to really work well to handle the monsters.
Spider: One thing I didn't really like was that the game wasn't too stressful. It all depended on the cards. I felt we were able to anticipate what the monsters would do and the cost of losing a villager or being sent to the hospital wasn't too much of a disincentive. I anticipated a more stressful feeling with having impending throw downs with the monsters. We were able to mitigate most of the responses. I expected there to be some kind of catastrophic monster fight. It was a game of avoidance, gathering items, and then banishing. Maybe if we would have played at a higher difficulty, then it might have been more stressful.
Cat: I think I felt a little differently. I felt the tension pretty hard. I really wanted to save all of the villagers. I thought the stress was just at the right spot.
Overall Ratings:
Pros:
Theme
Communication enabler
Ease of play
Cons:
Could be more tension
Spider: Three Spiders
Cat: Three Cats
