Board Game Review: Arkham Horror

Photo: Boardgamegeek.com

The game that I constantly try to call Arkham Asylum (an actual location in the game) is a 1-8 player game based on H.P. Lovecraft’s Call of Cthulhu series, with a supposed 240 minutes game play time (more on that later) and is made by Fantasy Flight Games.  The players all take on the role of 1920’s investigators set in the city of Arkham.  The cooperative game requires players to work together to close numerous gates to the otherworld that keep opening all throughout the city, releasing horrible monsters into the streets of Arkham.  If the investigators take too long, or allow too many monsters to invade the city, then the Ancient One will awaken and they will be forced to face the demon head on.

One of the first things you need to know about Arkham Horror is that it is one massive game.  The board is large sure, but there are a metric ton of bits, tokens, counters, card decks, and more.  So you’ll really need to make good use of your table space, especially with multiple players.  The quality of the card stock used for the counters and board is epic.  Everything is this really nice aged looking, textured thick card stock.  It’s really nice.

There are numerous investigators to play and a solid number of Ancient Ones included in the basic game, which all the expansions add to.  Between the options for player and enemy, as well as the extensively random elements in the game, the replay value for Arkham Horror is through the roof as far as I’m concerned.  In addition there are already a number of expansion to add to the flavor and expand still the replay value.  We’ve played it around 5 or 6 times and it has never been the same game twice, but it has been incredibly challenging without fail.  We’ve lost our fair share of games…numerous times.

A second warning about the game that needs to be made is that it is very rules heavy for a board game.  It has been the most challenging for me to get under my belt, as I for some reason am the rules guy that teaches the games to everyone.  Thankfully there is a quick reference chart on the back of the rules to help you keep things organized.  This is important because there are a number of events or conditions that will change based on how many players are involved in the game.  My suggestion for whoever is going to be teaching everyone to play is take some time and run at least two solo games first to get the feel of the game.

Photo: Boardgamegeek.com

On that note, that is one of the many things I love about this game, the solo option.  Playing alone was something that was completely new to me when it comes to board games.  The high player threshold for Arkham is a nice touch as well.  However there seems to be a very drastic ratio of game length to player count.  The more players you have the shorter the game will likely be.  We played our most recent game with six people and the Ancient one awoke after only one round of turns.  It was super fast.  I feel that the ideal headcount for the game is 3-4 players, but it is nice to have the option of playing so many.

The game basically takes place in a few phases.  There is an Upkeep phase where the investigator gets to renew used or “exhausted” abilities, gain any money they have retainers for, adjust skill points, and so on.  Next is the basic move phase.  Your distance to move is dictated by your Move skill points.  Then we move to the option of an Arkham encounter or Otherworld encounter.  This phase depends on where your character currently is.  If you are in an Arkham street or location then you draw from a stack of appropriate cards, likewise if you’re in the Otherworld then you draw from a different stack of cards.  The encounters are a solid mix of good, bad, and “I’m not so sure how I feel about this,” kind of things.  Tactics based on your skills and strategy often plays a big roll in how you resolve these encounters.  Last up we have the Mythos phase, a more often than not punch in the stomach.  This is where most of the bad stuff happens.  Monsters are spawned, gates are opened, negative effects take place, and so on.  This is resolved by drawing yet a different card that outlines what happens and where.

Your investigator plays a huge role in your strategy.  Some investigators are great with combat and have high health, while others excel at the more academic and arcane, and have high sanity.  Sanity can be lost when facing any monster as well as when casting spells.  Health is reduced most often by taking damage in combat.  Now lest you think this is a simple smash and grab, you have the option to sneak past your enemies.

Photo: Boardgamegeek.com, Expansions

One of the biggest challenges in the game is deciding how to balance your skills.  You have six skills that are paired together in opposing directions.  What this means is that when you raise one, you lower another.  For instance Sneak and Speed are paired, so to move farther, you have to weaken your sneak ability.  To raise your Fight, you have to lower your Will, which is vitally important when you first enter combat to prevent you from losing sanity as well as taking immediate damage from the monster as your freeze in horror.

And that’s one final thought about the game I’ll share, Arkham Horror is a heavily narrative driven game.  I found immediately that to really wrap my mind around the extensive and often confusing rules, I had to place myself in the horror narrative behind the game.  Once you consider what’s really going on, suddenly things make much more sense.  The game could not exist apart from the narrative it was designed around; this is much different that other games, such as Dominion, which has been reviewed here before.

What priority do you place on narrative, game mechanism, rule complexity, and setting in a game to you?