Reviews
Horrified — The Best Family Cooperative Game Since Pandemic
When I was a child I loved watching the old Universal Studios monster movies. They would come on some Saturday afternoons and I was allowed to watch them on rainy days. The best among them were the ones with Abbott and Costello. It was funny and scary all at once. I have not thought about these movies in years, but a board game published in 2019 brought back all those memories.
Horrified is a game published by Ravensburger and designed by Prospero Hall. Prospero Hall is responsible for games based on Disney villains and the movie Jaws. With Horrified they created a cooperative adventure for 1–5 players based on the old Universal monster movies. This review will not cover the solo game as I do not play games in this manner.
Players take on the role of one of the seven archetypal characters one would find in one of Universal’s films. Each character has a special skill or trait that can help the player during the course of the game. For example, the Archaeologist can pick up items from spaces next to the one he is on in addition to his own space.
After you select your character and set-up the board, it is time to pick your villain for this game. There are six monsters to choose from for each game. For an easy game select two monsters, and for a really challenging game pick four monsters to fight at once. The game comes with Wolf Man, Dracula, the Invisible Man, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein & the Bride, and the Mummy. Each monster has its own plastic figure and information card that tells players how to defeat it. Prospero Hall designed each monster to feel unique and each one has different requirements to defeat it. With 6 monsters (using 2–4 per game) and 7 characters there is a great deal of replay value within this box.
The game board represents a distant village with shops, churches and graveyards to explore. Each player’s character has a certain number of action points. During a turn they can pick from six different actions to take (so you can do the same action several times or different actions each turn). The actions include moving, picking up resource items, defeating monsters, and guiding villagers.
Villagers? Yes, the game includes ten villagers that will, at various points during the game, decide to go for a walk in the village. Why would they do that with monsters rampaging across the board? Because these villagers are stupid and you will spend the game cursing their decisions to leave their houses at just the wrong time.
One way that the monsters win is to move the horror token to the end of the track, and this happens most often when a monster kills a villager. Each villager is safe once they reach their destination, so you will be moving around the board guiding villagers and grabbing items. These items come in one of three colors and they help defeat the monsters. The game is over when the horror track reaches the end or the players defeat all the monsters.
How are the monsters defeated? That really depends on the creature. The Mummy has a mini-puzzle where you have to move each of six numbered tiles into the proper place. The Frankenstein monster and Bride need to be “taught” to be peaceful. The Creature from the Black Lagoon’s lair needs to be found. All of these monster puzzles require items that are collected around the board and turned in at specific locations to impact the monsters. Some of the monsters are easier than others, but when dealing with multiple monsters at once the game can become quite challenging.
Is this the greatest cooperative game ever? No. Pandemic and Spirit Island are both better designs. However, Horrified is one of the better family friendly games you can buy at Target, Amazon or any number of online gaming stores. If you have never played a cooperative game before this is a good place to start. Then you can buy Pandemic when…well maybe wait on that until after the Covid crisis. It is also a nice experience to play a cooperative game with your family and bond as you battle the game! Don’t be surprised if you lose the first few times.
Good luck and watch out for the Invisible Man. You never know when he will make an appearance.
