Mansions of Madness: Second Edition is a fully cooperative, app-driven board game of horror and mystery for one to five players that takes place in the same universe as Eldritch Horror and Elder Sign.
92.00€
Out of stock
Accessibility Tools
143245
People talk about how they want a replacement or re-implementation of Arkham Horror and the common answer is Eldritch. I think that's incorrect for a series of reasons, but mostly because MoM2e fits much better in terms of why people don't like EH as a replacement (it's a fine game, but it's different). MoM2e requires you to engage monsters, there are more consequences, the tension ratchets up as folks become deranged or damaged since there is no easy/consistent way of healing. The Mythos phase is something everyone fears much more. It's much more confined and almost claustrophobic in feel compared to EH's more worldly romp. In short, it's a Lovecrafting experience more so than EH is in many ways. The app is rather slick, even if you do spend a lot of time "heads down" in the app instead of engaged in the board or with other players. I think some things really annoy me about the game though, the inability to heal is thematic, but an annoyance. That I get pegged by the Mythos phase *and* have to do a horror check against critters makes sense, but sort of sucks as you spend all of this time beating on stuff just to avoid gaining gobs of horror. I sort of regret basing the minis, but really, this is a game where the minis are super clunky but sweet (and helpful in terms of narrative as they are imposing with bases, and it makes the rooms crowded) to look at on the board... A real storage solution would help, I guess if I was willing to dedicate a suitcase or a ginormous wad of plick-n-pluck and build something... Last, even for an Ameritrash-style game, it's on rails courtesy of the scenario-driven system and as such, once you play through a scenario two, maybe three times, it falls flat (e.g. you know you have X turns until a critter spawns here, and you know what information an NPC is going to give you). For a thematic experience though, it's hard to beat, but I come away from playing with a sour taste in my mouth for some reason, I don't know. I waffle on a 4 or 5; I want to play it again, but only scenarios I haven't seen (and there is a finite number) and then move on. That twist is because the emotional response is tied to the very thing that it excels at (theme and surprise), it ultimately falters with repeated play...
AJobenhoff
I very greatly enjoy the replayability of the game, how the scenarios never quite go the same as they did the time before so even trying to meta a scenario is not a guarentee for success. I also enjoy that it has an app companion to act as your GM and keep that experience randomized.
agentpatman
So disappointed by this one. Take my review with a grain of salt since I never played the original or watched a lot of reviews. I thought it was going to be more dungeon crawler and we love the horror theme. It’s already a jump that it requires an app which I didn’t mind at first. But the game within a game of mastermind and the other puzzles is so far removed from the theme and gimmicky. It’s the climax of the first scenario that introduces the game. Get to the end, introduce the big bad, then solve mastermind. Why? That’s so silly and anticlimactic after all the hard work you put in. Nothing you accomplished the whole scenario before that matter as you have to play a different game just to have another roll off after that. We actually loved the game before that. The app maybe slowed things down with all the animations after every turn but it was fun to run around encountering things, fighting off monsters, finding objects. Then it went south super quick. To enjoy the game they recommend you practice these puzzles. I’ve never heard that being a part of any board game, normally you practice by playing and get better by playing. Instead you have to practice other games to have a shot at enjoying this one. Obviously this isn’t for me, I get that now, and next time I’ll do better research. I just hope the future of board games isn’t more apps with in game upgrades and mini games. Apps that enhance the board game sound great but if I wanted to play mastermind I’d play mastermind. I had such high hopes, on to the next one. Edit. Played the first scenario a second time. I don’t know if it’s random or they changed the app but we didn’t get the mastermind puzzle. We did get two slide puzzles. However this version was more enjoyable. I still have some issues with the game. The main one is the repetitiveness over the game length. It takes hours of pure luck based dice rolling. Once you play it once you know which rooms to avoid to make things easier so there is little replay value. The ending does seem to change and minor things but the main point and what you do eqch game is the same. I also dislike how long the mythos phase is. You get hit 3 separate times and on your turn you move twice and pick up something and repeat. It’s a cool world but I don’t find the game behind it as interesting or engaging as other types of adventure based games.