The Bottom Line
Pros
- A highly addictive, intense and adrenaline-fueled game for teens and grown-ups.
- It's a brainy, cooperative game with a cool, scientific hook.
- An expansion pack adds more plagues, roles and variations, for endless replay fun.
- And did I mention, highly highly addictive?
Cons
- The game is a bit complicated, so it takes at least one run=through to figure out.
- The game says you need two to four players, but it's best played with at least three.
- The expansion pack pieces won't fit in the original box, and vice versa...
Description
- Pandemic, a game by Matt Leacock, for 3-4 players, ages 14 and up
- Published by Z-Man Games/Distribution Solutions
- Pandemic: On the Brink Expansion Pack adds more plagues, roles and variations.
Guide Review - Great Dorm & Grown-Up Party Games: Pandemic
Players race to save the world from a global pandemic - or rather a whole bunch of them - in this highly addictive, cooperative game. It's a game best played by 3 or 4 individuals or teams, who take on the roles of CDC scientists battling multiple plagues. Each role has different strengths and superpowers - forget faster than a speeding bullet capabilities, what you really want here is the ability to build a research station anywhere in the world! Sounds nerdy, doesn't it? But it's a fast-paced, adrenaline-filled game where every epidemic card causes players to shriek and leap backward in horror. My family played it so much the first week, we were literally dreaming about game scenarios - like when you play too much Tetris and you start seeing little shapes floating before your eyes.
Of course, that heart-pumping action doesn't happen the first time you play. You're too busy consulting the instruction manual and trying to figure out how to set up the game board. You draw role cards, then a series of city cards. The first cards put three plague cubes - we promptly dubbed the blue cubes the Bluebonic plague, of course - in each of three cities, the second round adds two devastating diseases to another three cities, and the final round adds a single plague to a final trio. Then, the race is on to quell breakouts before pandemics erupt on a global scale. Don't worry, it's only the entire fate of the human race in your hands.
Halfway through that first game, understanding dawns and strategies begin to emerge, so that the first word out of anyone's mouth the moment the game ends is "Again!"
It's not a game for a wild, raucous party - there's too much discussion involved and you have to keep your wits about you - but it's perfect for smaller gatherings. And it makes a great gift for med students too. There's an expansion pack that adds more roles, plagues (packaged in petri dishes) and variations - including a bioterrorist version - to game play.
