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| Photo by Z-Man Games |
Okay...Pandemic may not actually be a real eurogame. But it was the first boardgame that I ever played which went beyond the general “American Boardgame Style” (which includes boardgames such as Monopoly and Risk).
Pandemic is one of the, if not the, best-selling cooperative boardgame (a boardgame where the players work together), and has won multiple international awards. Here are the details:
Designer: Matt Leacock
Publishers: Z-Man Games (US), Káiooa (Greece), Hobby Japan (Japan), Filosofia (France)
Players: 2-4
Setup Time: 14 Minutes
Playing Time: 50 Minutes
My Rating: 71/100
Overview
In Pandemic, each player has a role (such as the medic and the researcher, each with special abilities) on a disease fighting team working to discover cures for diseases and prevent a worldwide pandemic. What’s unique about this game though, is that all of the players are on the same team. This means that all of the players have to work together to achieve victory, and that either everyone wins, or everyone loses...
The board consists of a map of the world, with the world’s major cities on it, connected by lines. Each city can get diseases (represented by various colored cubes). The player's job is to keep those diseases as well as their outbreaks at bay, while surviving epidemics and infections.
The players take turns traveling from city to city, treating diseases, finding cures, and more. New cites also get infected each turn, and when chain outbreaks occur, they can be devastating. There are also 3 ways to lose the game (!), which are:
1.) The players take too long to cure the diseases and run out of drawable cards.
2.) A disease spreads too much and the players run out of that disease’s cubes.
3.) Worldwide panic happens (8 outbreaks occur).
The goal of the game is to find cures for all four of the diseases. This is done by collecting cards at the end of each turn, and by later on spending those cards at research stations to discover cures.
For more information on how to play, read the instructions here.
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| Photo by Mattimus Primed |
My Review
Pros:
Pandemic is a decent boardgame, and although it is not one of my favorites, it is still fun to play.
The rules of the game are simple, and the game isn't too complicated. This makes it a good game to play for people who haven't ever played eurogames before.
Keep in mind though that this game is INCREDIBLY hard to win, and that when playing it you will often lose. But this also makes you feel very good, when you do win.
In addition, because everyone works together in the boardgame, it is a good social game and can be used for teamwork skills. It can also give you a break from very competitive board games.
Furthermore, unlike nearly all other board games, this game doesn't have dice. In fact, I know of only one other boardgame that also doesn't (7 Wonders). As a result, the game is a little less based on luck, although it also gets rid of any moments where all the players are staring at a spinning die, desperate to see what the outcome is; which make games interesting.
Cons:
One major con of Pandemic, is that it gets REALLY repetitive (at least to me). There isn't much variation between each game (which is probably caused by the game being simple and by the fact that all the players work together). The repetitive nature of the game makes it boring to play after a while, which is why I gave it a low rating. Furthermore, there being no "interesting moments" during the game (as discussed above), also contributes to this.
Another con is that there isn't much strategy in Pandemic, as in each of the games that I have played, I have used nearly the exact same strategy. On top of that, its simpleness can lead you to want a more in-depth game.
Expansions and Spin-offs:
Pandemic has 3 Expansions: In the Lab, On the Brink, and State of Emergency. These add various features, ranging from a more complex and in-depth way of curing diseases, to a bio-terrorist, and even quarantines. There are also two free-to-download scenarios for the base game. Finally, there is an online version of Pandemic on Steam (an online video game platform).
There are also multiple spin-offs of Pandemic, which include:
- a dice version (Pandemic: The Cure)
- a card-based version where YOU are the virus ( Pandemic: Contagion)
- a version where you have to stop the summoning of the monster Cthulhu (Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu)
- a series of individual scenarios which occur in local areas, instead of on the entire globe (Pandemic Survival)
- two "legacy" ( a type of boardgame that can only be played once, where game components may be written on or ripped up) versions of the game (Pandemic Legacy: Seasons 1 & 2)
Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 is incredibly well rated. It has been described as "the best board game ever created", and was the number one rated boardgame on BoardGameGeek, a well-known website which rates boardgames, for some time. It, like Pandemic, is also quite hard to win.
Final Thoughts
I would recommend Pandemic to you if you haven't played any eurogames before. It is simple, fun to play, and has some strategy, which makes it a good introduction to the genre. But, if you have already played some eurogames, and you are looking for a complex, strategy-filled boardgame that can be played many times over, then you won't want to buy this game.
Thanks for reading this post and please comment about any questions that you have about Pandemic below.
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