Hot damn!

In the very first month of the game it came down to a single card!  The tension is intense right from the get-go.  How freakin’ immersive is this game?  Holy crap what a fantastic boardgaming experience.

Non-spoiler background info:

Pandemic Legacy is a cooperative boardgame where you work together to solve the problems the game deals out to you.  Depending on your decisions in the game, you make permanent changes to the board: tearing up cards, writing on the game board, adding stickers, opening sealed boxes and envelopes.  These changes persist through a 12 month campaign, snowballing into bigger and bigger problems as new storylines are revealed, new events occur, and new challenges arise.  New rules get added to the game, new abilities, new characters, players take wounds or scars and suffer emotional trauma, characters may even die along the way.

The story begins like so: (this is written on the box, so it’s not a spoiler) —

The world almost ended seventy-one years ago. A virulent plague came out of nowhere and ravaged the world. For three generations, small groups of survivors have struggled to keep the world alive. Operating from floating stations known as “havens,” they have maintained a loose network of the largest cities by delivering supplies to the mainland. But their efforts are no longer enough. Cities are falling off the grid and supplies are running low. The world needs a group of heroes to emerge and lead it through this crisis. In Pandemic Legacy: Season 2, this task has fallen to you. You must reestablish supply lines and get the world back on its feet. Along the way, the decisions you make affect future games. As you play, you will unlock new components, make new discoveries about your world, and stumble upon secrets that could change the course of history. No matter what happens, though, the world is counting on you. You are humanity’s last chance.

And away we go!

We played the intro / prologue game, no big deal.  Got a feel for the new mechanics.  Makes sense.  Let’s do it!

January attempt #1: We lose.  “Hmm.  Alright, let’s focus on our priorities and try that again.”

January attempt #2: “Uhh, guys?  If we don’t solve this in 3 turns it’s game over.”  Some quick odds calculations and a clutch event card at just the right moment and we snuck through just in the nick of time.

Entertainment Value

$40 divided 4 ways spread across 12-22 games @ 1.5 hour per play = $0.30 – $0.56 per hour of play per person.

Verdict

10/10 so far.  Highly Recommended!