Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu
Beings of ancient evil, known as Old Ones, are threatening to break out of their cosmic prison and awake into the world. Everything you know and love could be destroyed by chaos and madness. Can you and your fellow investigators manage to find and seal every portal in time? Hurry before you lose yourself to insanity.
40m
2 - 4 Players
Ages 14+
airjudden
Like [thing=260428][/thing], it uses some of the basic mechanics of Pandemic and improves on it by adding new mechanics and creating a stronger thematic connection. Major differences are that your hero cards have an insane (nerfed) side. There is an insanity die you roll in certain situations. The "infection track" also involves a group of ancient ones, revealed one at a time (Cthulhu is the final one and is one of the ways you can lose). Along with cultists, you have Sheggoths who are tougher to kill and cause insanity checks and revealed ancient ones. In other words, it does a good job of fitting the Cthulhu mythos with some of the familiar mechanics of Pandemic, just as [thing=65532][/thing] and [thing=260428][/thing] do, but there are enough differences to make it not feel like a theme pasted on to a mechanic. The differences are the best parts. This game isn't going to retire [thing=15987][/thing] or [thing=253344][/thing], but if you only have an hour and you are jonesing for a Lovecraft fix, this is for you.
Attika
Unlike prior Pandemics -- which were exercises in evaluating probabilities and pressing your luck -- this game is simply a luck-fest. Yes, it has nice/decent components, and yes it has thematic art and gameplay, but these simply can't offset the enormous swingy-ness of the player card draws and bosses. Bleh. I won't turn down a game if someone else suggests it, but I won't be the one suggesting to play it. And I LOVE Pandemic.
ALGO
This game is good because Pandemic is fundamentally good, but its new mechanisms (sanity and gates) are not significantly better than those in Pandemic itself. Plus the board is super dark and the artwork, while nice, becomes completely invisible as soon as the super distracting bright teal coloured miniatures are placed down. I do however, like the Shuggoth (moving epidemic) rules very much.