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| | Features | An all-new board game designed by Corey Konieczka (Battlestar Galactica and Runewars)Based on the beloved horror fiction of H.P. LovecraftEvery game tells an engrossing new story and presents a deep mystery to solveContains 32 detailed plastic figures, over 300 cards, over 200 tokens, nearly 70 puzzle tiles and much more
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| WARNING:| CHOKING HAZARD -- Small parts. Not for children under 3 yrs. |
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| | Description | Mansions of Madness is a macabre board game of horror, insanity and mystery for 2-5 players. Gather your fellow investigators and unravel the dark mysteries within before it's too late. Based on the horror fiction of master writer H.P. Lovecraft, Mansions of Madness creates an engrossing new narrative every time you play. Each game takes place within a pre-designed story that provides players with a unique map and several combinations of plot threads. These threads affect the monsters that investigators may encounter, the clues they need to find and which climactic story ending they will ultimately experience. One player takes on the role of the keeper, controlling the monsters and other malicious powers within the story. The other players take on the role of investigators, searching for answers while struggling to survive with their minds intact. Both the engaging plot and the stunning components will draw you in to a world of cosmic horror. The beautifully rendered modular map tiles show every intricate feature of the rooms you'll search and the monster figures represent the otherworldly forces of evil in horrific detail. The bases for each monster figure even have slots into which you can insert that monster's token, displaying only the pertinent statistics. All together, the thirty-two included figures, over 300 cards, over 200 tokens and markers and nearly 70 puzzle tiles,will help immerse you in a sanity-bending story of terrifying mystery. Do you dare enter the Mansions of Madness? | |
| | Product Details | | Product Length: | 11.75 inches | | Product Width: | 11.75 inches | | Product Height: | 4.0 inches | | Product Weight: | 5.95 pounds | | Package Length: | 11.6 inches | | Package Width: | 11.6 inches | | Package Height: | 4.0 inches | | Package Weight: | 5.95 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 30 reviews |
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53 of 54 found the following review helpful:
 Previewed, and purchasing.... Mar 08, 2011
By Kevin P. "Enthusiast"
This review is for the overall game experience of Mansions of Madness, with one side note...I've only played this once on an easy level as the Keeper.
Here's what you should know:
This game has quite a few mechanics and rules associated with it, and mostly at least the Keeper will need to familiarize himself with them before the game (so it runs more smoothly), but it is fairly simple to play once you get the hang of it. THe learning curve isn't very high and the instructions are fairly easy to use.
The puzzles seem fairly easy, but designed to take more than one person/turn to complete and add a neat element to the game. There's also many different levels of each puzzle (progressively more difficult) but nothing that people probably couldn't figure out.
There were five of us that showed up to the game, so one of us was the keeper (myself) and two of my friends joined with a couple that also came and made up the four investigators. This is a 1 vs. 4 kind of game, as one person will always be playing the side of the monsters. Plan on several hours to play this game.
The Keeper gets cards to play all game, and then two small decks of cards to draw from during his turn. He also gets "Threat" tokens that he uses to purchase a one-time use of an ability. You get a number of threat tokens equal to the number of players to use, with several ways to score more in the game. (You can also hold over threat tokens for later). The Keeper is also in charge of an event pile that you add time tokens to, and when the number of tokens equal the number on the back of the card the event happens. The investigators need to win before the last Event card happens. In this fashion the Keeper knows everything (how many rounds the investigators have to figure things out, what the game end goals are, where all the items on the board are). THe investigators need to figure it all out without dying in the process.
Combat is done through cards, basically flipping over cards until you find the right kind of combat for both monsters and investigators. That part was kind of a downside because you'd flip a lot of cards sometimes for the right kind of combat. It kind of made me want separate decks for different kinds of combat, but that would lead to a lot of decks (when there already ARE a lot of decks). The miniatures were cool, and the inserts were a neat idea, kind of a bump up from the Arkham Horror tiles, though similar. Everything on the Investigators side is done with skill checks, much like Arkham Horror as well, but rather than rolling a d6 per skill point, you roll a d10. On a 1 you auto succeed, on a 10 you auto fail, but you want to roll under whatever your skill rating (plus or minus modifier) is. It's much more streamlined than arkham horror, and a lot less math. For Horror checks you actually gain horror tokens rather than losing sanity, and if your horror tokens equal or exceed your sanity then you go insane and bring in a new investigator.
All the old familiar investigators are back, and the game was just a lot of fun in general. We sadly didn't get to finish our full game as the couple we were playing with had to go, but we were itching to play it again as soon as we left (and actually cancelled our plans for the night so we could have a game night instead) and we plan on getting it very soon (though probably not through Amazon at this point...).
Anyway, if you love the horror theme and Call of Cthulu, don't mind spending 3-4 hours on a strategy game, and like the Gamemaster vs players kind of set up, this game is definitely for you! Heck, even if you've never played a game like this, it may be slightly confusing at first, but it really is easier than it sounds, you just have to be okay with a 3-4 hour game play. :)
Get it going, find four friends and play it! You'll understand why I enjoyed it so much.
35 of 36 found the following review helpful:
Fun, rewarding and slightly complex Mar 14, 2011
By Stephen M. Lerch
As soon as the box arrived from Amazon for Mansions of Madness, I knew it was high quality.
Mansions of Madness is a game set in the same game world as Arkham Horror which is based on HP Lovecraft's Cthulu Mythos.
The first thing you will notice is the weight of the box. I was surprised that the packing slip claimed the package was 5 pounds, which means it has some heft to it.
Upon opening the game you find 1/8 inch thick (roughly) cardboard punch outs for a variety of different game pieces and effects. Also included in these punch outs are the tiles that make up the different locations in the game, double sided for maximum efficiency, as in any of the 5 included scenarios you never need what's on the other side of one of the tiles to complete the map.
There are also 300 cards in 2 sizes included.
More amazing is the fact that you receive plastic figurines of the 8 investigators in the game, plus 24 monster figurines. In terms of build quality, I would say the plastic is of a decent quality, though when setting the Mi-Go on its base, you should be careful as it is the only piece in the system that I felt I could potentially break because of the spindly leg you use to connect it to the base. The cool part is that the base is designed to accept a tile that gives you the pertinent information about the monster (what you'll need for a horror or evade check) clearly visible without needing to keep the cardboard tiles lying around.
I do have one complaint, which is a complaint I share with other Fantasy Flight Games offerings. I love the quality of the packaging and all the pieces. The one thing I can't stand? It isn't really easy to return everything to the box. If you wish to keep the monsters on their bases, every time you stop playing you need to set aside an extra 10 minutes to try and strategically place the monsters with bases. And more often than not, as the monsters aren't really firmly attached to the base (they make them easy to assemble/disassemble), many will fall off just by moving the box around. The other issue is that with all the various tokens and cards, there is no simple way to keep everything separate, which really would help in cutting down the setup time it takes to get the game ready to play. I've purchased 2 plastic cases with little compartments in them to keep my Arkham Horror stuff separate and will need to do the same with Mansions of Madness. With a little more planning there may have been a way for Fantasy Flight Games to configure the box for easier setup, though my guess is this would raise the cost of an already higher-than-normal board game price.
So what's the game all about? This is a cooperative game where you have one person being The Keeper, that is, the "bad guys" and the rest of the players being investigators on the side of good. Up to 5 people can play for a total of 4 investigators and 1 Keeper.
The players decide what scenario, or story, to play. There are only 5 scenarios included in the package, though each scenario has The Keeper making 3-6 decisions that alter the way the game is configured, setup, played and even completed for a lot of potential variation.
In terms of setup, in your first couple of games you really need to set aside about 20-40 minutes to sift through tokens, cards and other assorted pieces before you are ready to play. Once you have everything configured, anticipate a full game to run you at least 90 minutes, generally more like 2 full hours. It all depends again on the luck of the draw and roll of the die.
There is a general rule book with a good overview on how to play the game, then also included on the flip side of this book (meaning you flip the book over and upside down) is the information investigators need to setup the different scenarios for themselves. Investigators build the Mansion to the specifications in the scenario they are playing (outlined in the investigator book) while The Keeper, who has a The Keeper specific book, builds the clues in the rooms to the specifications of the scenario. The only thing I don't like about this setup is that if you want to read the general rules you have to keep the book within reach which may impede the investigators from reading their side of the scenario during play since the book is designed to allow easy access to one side or the other. Of course, if you want you can always print the rule book up (available on FFG's website, linked to in the comments attached to my review) to have them available this way if you so choose. Having the rules available as a PDF is awesome as well, as you won't wear out the main rule book this way. Too bad they don't yet offer The Keeper book nor the investigator book as a PDF, as if you play often enough you will wear these books out also.
Investigators receive 2 movement and one action per turn which allows them to explore the Mansion to discover clues. As the investigators progress and they gather the main clues that continue the plot, they must also face off against The Keeper who has a lot of ways to keep them from discovering these clues. They will combat monsters, face horrors and even need to solve puzzles to get one step closer to the objective.
Why do I keep calling it "the objective?" Simply because the terms of winning, for the investigators or The Keeper, vary from game to game depending on the pick of the cards.
How complex is it to play this game? Compared to Arkham Horror, this game is like Candy Land! OK, not really THAT much less complex, but there are far less rules to remember, far less checks to be made and I'd say it's a lot easier for the investigators to win this over Arkham Horror. If you've never played Arkham Horror and generally don't play games outside of say, Risk or similar, this will seem more complex. I would say overall it is a medium/intermediate difficulty level to play and really learn. Age range for someone to REALLY be able to enjoy the game would probably be 13 to 200+ years old. Any child that is 10+ and bright for the age can probably enjoy it too.
Overall this is a really fun game to play, especially with more people.
What's not to like about the game? Five scenarios seems limiting to me. Sure, each scenario has different questions The Keeper can choose, which changes the layout and the way the story unfolds, but in the end it really is only five scenarios. I'm sure, given Fantasy Flight Games' love of expansions, that there will be expansions to come, which I'm perfectly OK with, I just hope they can give those that wish to limit their costs a way to purchase a few more scenarios that use just the pieces in the main box and don't require a person to shell out another $80 (MSRP) for another box of only 5 scenarios. Though I suppose it is also possible they will do standalone expansions as well, which can also work, though I'd prefer to see them maximize the original set as well with less expensive smaller expansions.
This game is quite similar to Betrayal at House on the Hill with a few exceptions. If you've played either of these games and go to play the other, they aren't all that dissimilar but each is fun in its own way. One big difference with Mansions of Madness is that there is no betrayal involved as the antagonist is chosen at the start of the game and is not random. The board setup is also not random as it is in Betrayal. Of course, both vaguely remind me of Mystery Mansion (I grew up in the 80s) from Milton Bradley. And who knows, perhaps there was something prior to Mystery Mansion as well that it was based off of?
If you own Betrayal should you buy Mansions? If you like Betrayal and would like to play with just 2 people instead of the 3 minimum, go for it. And if you're a fan of Lovecraft or Arkham Horror, buying this is a no brainer. If you only like Betrayal, you probably won't love Mansions and could skip it.
I, for one, have thoroughly enjoyed both games. I like little pieces better in one over the other, but neither has anything that tips the scale. If I have less time to play, Betrayal is the game that comes out to play as games are shorter and setup is much, much faster. If I have 2+ hours available to play, Mansions always comes out first.
ALSO BE AWARE, there are some errata corrected since the game was sent to be published (excluding even the small sheet of errata included in the game box that also includes replacement cards for the offending cards). I've included a link in the comments of this review to the most up to date errata sheet available.
Five stars because in the end, I really enjoy playing this game. I'd always pick Arkham Horror over this if given the option, but sometimes you aren't looking for something THAT complex to play.
21 of 22 found the following review helpful:
Mansions of Madness: Arkham Horror's new frontier Mar 22, 2011
By The-Big-Bad
It took me something like four hours last night, but I went through all three of the rule books for Mansions of Madness and set up the board properly. Set-up is key. If you botch the set-up, the whole game can go awry (and there are rules to punish you in-game for messing up the placement of the cards in each room on the board).
There are five scenarios you can play, so far, but each one has three or more decisions within it that can make the scenario play very differently. Corey Konieczka (who designed my favorite board game, Battlestar Galactica) may have struck gold again. Mansions of Madness is comparably complicated to its sibling game, Arkham Horror, without being as dense and arcane for newcomers.
The plot of Mansions of Madness is this: you and your team of Investigators have to find clues by searching rooms in a spooky old house (said house created from a collection of different room/area tiles) in order to learn and then stop the "Keeper's" objective and save your own skins in the process.
The "Keeper" is one player who is responsible for all the evils on the board. The Keeper is supposed to be the most experienced player and they act as the de facto Game Master for the game. The Keeper is the one gets punished if they accidentally set the various cards up incorrectly on the board, as that can make the game unwinnable for the Investigators. But the Keeper also keeps track of the passage of time in the game and bedevils the Investigators whenever possible with Mythos cards and Trauma cards, as well as powers from the set of Keeper Action Cards available for each scenario (including summoning monsters, moving monsters, and making them attack). The Keeper gains Threat tokens each turn based on how many Investigators are in the game. The Keeper then spends Threat on most of the cards played to harm the Investigators.
There is an event based time limit to the game...each turn adds a Clock token to the event deck. When a certain number of Clock tokens are placed on the back of an event card, the event is revealed. Usually, the event deck does something nasty to the Investigators to get them to hurry up. There are tokens aplenty in Mansions of Madness. Tokens for all occasions...Clock tokens, Stun tokens, Fire tokens, Darkness tokens, Threat tokens, Damage tokens, Skill tokens, Horror tokens, and so on.
The Investigators are hindered by different puzzles and locks that they have to solve, environmental hazards, various evil cards thrown at them each turn by the Keeper, and, of course, all the monsters that the Keeper can summon. In the scenario I have just put together (#1, the easiest one), I don't think the monsters are too terrible (Zombies and Maniacs and a possible Shoggoth...okay, the Shoggoth is terrible). The scope of the game is much smaller than Arkham Horror and the combat more difficult (you get only one ten sided die as opposed to a possible plethora of six sided dice in Arkham Horror), but the stakes are just as high.
The basics are similar to Arkham Horror...Horror checks (damage to sanity from beholding monsters or eldritch secrets)...Evade checks (escaping monsters)...Fight checks (killing monsters, or vice versa)...the same Investigators (but not as many of them)...the same Monsters (but not as many of them)...you get the idea.
There are a LOT of cards in this game, just fair warning. I chose to sleeve them all, which makes stacking them a lot more difficult. But if you play Arkham Horror (or many other Euro style board games), you should be used to all that by now.
The game pieces for the Investigators are unpainted versions of those same (excellent!) Investigators that are available for Arkham Horror. The monster pieces for Mansions of Madness are unpainted as well, yet very detailed. The fact that if you want all the monsters to fit back into the box, then you have to detach them from their bases, makes for a long set-up and take-down procedure. In fact, some of the monsters don't like to be separated from their bases once they're fitted into them. And a few of the monsters won't stay attached to their bases (in my set, it's the Maniacs who are always coming loose...there's a joke in there somewhere). But with all the cards and tiles needing to be meticulously arranged before play can begin, there was never going to be a "quick" set-up procedure.
The randomized puzzles are what the game boasts as a unique feature. You have to rotate or swap or exchange randomized puzzle pieces to open locks (both magic and regular) or complete wiring puzzles or unscramble pictures. But sometimes if you have the axe, the proper key or the magic password, you can just smash (or abracadabra) your way through.
Two new wrinkles I found to be entertaining were the ability for Investigators to hide inside trunk tokens placed on the board at the beginning of the game and for the Investigators to be able to block doors with barrier tokens placed on the board at the beginning of the game. Being able to use the environment to your advantage is something I don't see very often in this type of game. Both situations--hiding and barrier--are addressed fully in the combat cards available, which is also nice.
Combat is handled by overturning cards from one of three combat decks, based on the type of monster (Human, Beast or Eldritch) the Investigator is facing. Once you get to the proper card...which can mean a lot of flipping over...the top half of the card speaks to the Investigator, depending on what weapon they have (or no weapon at all). The bottom half of the card speaks to the monster and their situation--is it a normal attack or are they smashing a barrier or trying to find a hiding Investigator? Almost all combat ends in a die roll for the Investigators. What's nice is that various abilities are tested in this regard, sometimes Marksmanship, sometimes Strength or Dexterity, and so on.
You always want to roll LOW in Mansions of Madness. It's a bit counterintuitive, I admit. Unlike most games, 1 is an automatic success and 10 is an auto-fail.
Fast forward a few days...I've now played Mansions of Madness with my friends twice. It is, indeed, a fun game. I felt that the Keeper's position was much weaker when playing against only one Investigator. But one Investigator is not likely to win the game unless they can do so by stalling until the end. Playing against three Investigators provided much more Threat for me to spend as Keeper, yet made it a lot easier for the Investigators to collaborate and succeed.
Fast forward a few more weeks...I changed my rating of the game from five stars to four based on how lame some of the more complicated scenarios are. "Classroom Curses" is kind of dull overall and has very few monsters to throw at the Investigators. And "Green Eyed Boy" is so full of errata and errors that I've had to write to FFG more than once about misprints and wrong cards. Plus, the Investigators can lose the entire scenario by blundering into the wrong room early in the game. When that happened in my game, the Investigators were quite upset. Alienating one's board gaming group is not always the best idea.
There is indeed quite a bit of errata for Mansions of Madness, even more than what is addressed in the game box itself. Accessing the Mansions of Madness web site at Fantasy Flight Games should clear up any lingering questions. I know when I played my first game that I did things wrong that the first FAQ/errata has now cleared up. And if you have questions the errata or FAQ can't solve, FFG is VERY good about answering rules questions.
I would also say that the game is MUCH better with at least two Investigators. The Keeper gets more Threat to spend and the Investiagators can team up against the inevitable monsters.
I still think Arkham Horror has the edge as being a better game than Mansions of Madness...despite Arkham Horror being one of the most complex (and sometimes frustrating and depressing) board games out there. That being said, there is a LOT of potential to Mansions of Madness. Because Arkham Horror has only grown to be what it is because of so many good expansions. I assume that Mansions of Madness will also become very much expanded (and possibly "fixed") in the future. Having played the new crop of Dungeons and Dragons board games, I will give both Mansions of Madness and Arkham Horror a clear and definitive edge over the D&D games (unless you're playing with kids...the Cthulhu Mythos universe is not for the young ones). If you enjoy being driven slowly (or not so slowly) insane and the possibility of being snacked on by a Shoggoth, you will definitely enjoy Mansions of Madness!
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
It's a Madhouse with a Few Squeaky Floorboards May 06, 2011
By Critical Gamers
Designed by Corey Konieczka (Battlestar Galactica, Runewars, Middle-earth Quest), Mansions of Madness, the latest blockbuster hit from Fantasy Flight Games, takes H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos into a living, creepy, haunted mansion located in Arkham, Massachusetts. Filled with macabre, Mansions attempts to engross the player in mystery, terror, insanity, and pain as they endeavor to unlock the secrets of the house. Will the walls run red with blood or crumble under the pressure?
The Game
Mansions of Madness is a very thematic driven, one versus many game where one player takes the role of the Keeper and the remaining players make up the investigators. The investigator's main responsibility is to transverse and explore the mansion for clues leading to the hidden objective of the Keeper, all while the Keeper is attempting to thwart the progress of the investigators with whatever means are available. In addition to thwarting the investigators, the Keeper is working to achieve his/her hidden objective that is determined by the scenario in play. Mansions is meant for 2-5 players and takes about 2 hours to play with about 30-45 minutes of setup time, which should be done by the Keeper in advance of the investigators participation to mitigate exposing the clues and objectives.
Game Pieces
Fantasy Flight Games is known for high quality production values in their titles and Mansions of Madness is no exception. As usual, the art is absolutely fantastic, from the modular mansion tiles to the details of the miniatures. The miniatures can be painted and there are some excellent examples and how-to's out there on Board Game Geek and on the Games Paradise Blog.
However, there are a few nagging problems with the game. First, the mansion tiles tend to warp after opening the package. This has happened to my copy and many others, but seems to decrease or disappear with time. The warping is most likely attributed to the pieces getting used to the humidity levels in the air, but it is annoying when setting up the mansion and the pieces are bowed and don't line up. Also, the warped tiles will be prone to spinning on the table during player interactions, which leads me to my next issue.
Because the game board is modular, the pieces tend to shift and rotate (especially on a smooth surface) during play. This can be distracting and take away from the overall game experience. There are ways around this, however, such as placing a rough textured textile on the table before playing. While it's not a deal breaker in any way, it can be a nuisance.
Another minor issue with the game pieces are the miniatures. They tend to fall off their bases as some of the pegs are not tight enough in the slot to hold it together. So half of the time I would grab a mini to place it on the board, the base would fall off. A solution would be to glue the figures to their bases, but that would increase the chances of the figures bending or snapping at a weak point if too much pressures occurs. Again, while a minor issue, it can be one of those little annoying things that constantly appear during play.
My final gripe with Mansions of Madness pieces is the box (well the divider more specifically). It seems like the only purpose of the divider is to get in the way when trying to pack the game up. One thing that I seem to notice in most of the games that I get is how do the pieces fit back into the box when the night of gaming is over? Mansions of Madness cannot be put back into the box without some effort required if you wish to keep the divider inside the box. I had managed to put the game back together twice with the divider, but had to detach all the figures to accomplish it. On the third attempt, I got frustrated with it and threw it away. Some gamers like to use Plano fishing tackle boxes to organize their game pieces, but for gamers like me who cannot afford that luxury, it would be nice if the publishers included dividers that were created for their game pieces in mind. Many publishers do this, but this is not the case with Mansions.
Game Play
The Keeper chooses one of the five scenarios and sets up the board according to the sub-options that help drive the story and theme for that particular setup. This is what determines how the clues and items are placed throughout the board, thus giving many different options to the story and experience. Unfortunately for me, I have not been able to take the role of the investigators in my plays, so my review from this point on will be mostly focused on the game play aspects from the Keepers point of view, but I will do my best to cover both sides of the game.
From my experience thus far, the Keeper is the most important part of the game as they can make or break the experience for the other players. If you have a Keeper who enjoys toying with the investigators and does their best to immerse the players in the mysteries of the house, then most everyone will enjoy the game. However, if the Keeper wants only to prove their power and try to destroy the investigators, then it can ruin their experience. There are some checks and balances to help prevent the Keeper from having too much power, but it is possible to have a bad game from poor Keeper play. That said, if the investigators get into the suspense, horror and feel of the game, then the experience will also be heightened. It only takes one investigator to ruin the game for everyone too.
I think the Trauma and Mythos cards are a great way to mess with the investigators; I only wish there were more of them. Most of the Trauma cards I could only play on the investigators if they were at extremely low Sanity levels, which I found to be cumbersome to get them to. I would love to see some Trauma cards that the Keeper could play at higher Sanity levels that had a weaker detriment to the player, such as a -2 to the next attribute roll or something similar. I think this would help keep the investigators on their toes and add to the suspense of the game.
Another mechanic that Mansions does well are the Event cards. These really help drive the story along and occasionally require the investigators to change up their strategies. The flavor text also adds additional immersion into the theme and in conjunction with the clue cards, the story will be steadily revealed throughout the game. I find it important to make sure that the investigators read off the clue text to the other players to keep everyone involved.
Then there are the Obstacle Cards. While not a bad idea, they are just too easy and slow down the game. The puzzles don't seem to be challenging enough to provide the deterrence that they should have. I would like to see these either expanded to be a challenge to justify the time or simplified to be an attribute check to help keep a quick game flow.
Finally, there is the meat of the game: exploration. It is frequent and plentiful (too plentiful if you ask me). Having Exploration cards in every room of the house can be a bit much after playing a few times. I would like to see the purpose of some scenarios to hinder more on the different major mechanics and less on exploration. For example, make a scenario that isn't run by clues; the objective could be revealed from the start, like a group of cultists are gathered around an altar summoning a Shoggoth and the investigators need to interrupt them but have to fight through the mansion. Adding another mission type that doesn't require constant exploring would give Mansions of Madness another layer of depth which would really help make this game stand out.
Final Thoughts
Mansions of Madness is a great game with high quality production that is typical of Fantasy Flight Games. There are a few nagging issues with the game pieces which can be solved with a little bit of extra work and love. If the board warping eventually fixes itself, then this is just a temporary issue, but if they warping stays, then this is a big problem.
I have the same sentiment for the game mechanics. They are solid and make for a fun experience, but there are a few issues that could be cleared up to provide a deeper and more immersive experience. Adding more Trauma cards that can be on higher sanity levels and expanding the narrative text would be a few ways to do this. Also adding scenarios that require something more than just exploring for clue cards would help add depth to the title.
With Mansions of Madness, Fantasy Flight has produced yet another quality title and there is plenty of opportunity to expand and refine the mechanics through expansions. If you enjoy the H.P. Lovecraft Cthulhu Mythos or enjoy a highly thematic style game, then Mansions of Madness would be a worthwhile purchase. If you are still on the fence about purchasing it, then I would suggest that you find a way to try it out with some friends. I am enjoying playing it with new friends as the initial intrigue makes for a great play experience. I give Mansions of Madness a 4 out of 5 and with a little bit of expanding, this game could be a favorite for me.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
The best horror game on the market Mar 28, 2011
By F. glick
"Sirfuzzy"
I will keep this short. If you want a detailed review check out boardgamegeek.com
This is a horror themed board game based heavily on the works of HP Lovecraft. It is a story based thematic game which uses map tiles, tokens, cards, and miniatures. There is even a single 10 sided dice. The miniatures are of amazing quality. The artwork on the tiles is incredible.
Set-up is difficult the first time or 2 that you play the game. Making sure the cards are seeded in the rooms correctly can take quite awhile. Once everyone understands the game it goes quite smoothly with both sides helping set-up the game.
Game play is simple. One person plays the Keeper and the others play the investigators. There are different win conditions for every scenario for each side. The investigators must uncover all the clues before they know what their win condition is. The Keeper knows right off the bat and spends the game maneuvering his/her way to victory while wittling away at the investigators sanity and health. The rulebook is easy to grasp.
The Keeper has to work a little harder than everyone else. Every card has flavor text to be read which really adds to the feel of the game. It is highly recommended the Keeper add his/her own descriptions to actions in the game as well. The Keeper is trying to defeat the investigators, but also immerse them in the horror theme of the game at the same time. The game is much less enjoyable with a poor Keeper.
There are many interesting elements in the game. There is an event deck which gets one time token at the end of every Keeper turn. When it gets enough tokens a card is flipped over and an event occurs. When the deck runs out the game is over, with one side or the other achieving victory OR both sides losing. A "draw" is possible with the event deck.
The Keeper can play "trauma" cards on investigators as they lose health and sanity, giving them psychological disorders, phobias, horrible wounds, and whatnot. When the investigators achieve victory they are often frothing at the mouth and dragging broken limbs.. simply grateful to be alive.. at least for now.
The pros: It's an awesome game. High quality construction. Excellent, easy to understand mechanics. Each scenario provides a new and unique experience (the first time).
Cons: Once unpackaged the materials don't go back in the box very well. Limited replayability as there are only 15 different adventures included in the box.
I highly reccomend the game for any fans of the genre or HP Lovecraft. It may not be a perfect game, but it is certainly the best horror themed board game on the market today. Expect many expansions in the near future.
See all 30 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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