Last post I was talking about Tabletop, the now-established online video series about playing various board games (nothing like hot off the press with information). One of the titles that has been played on the series with great interest to me is Pandemic. Wil Wheaton explains it far better than me.
So one of the Christmas gifts that I got this year was the Pandemic board game, and we played a lot of it over the Christmas period. It’s an incredibly elegant and well put together title, the core mechanics of player co-operation and the way that the different infections spread around the world works beautifully well. It’s one of the few games where we even managed to get the grandparents involved (who are, to be fair, elderly, easily confused and French). Everyone who’s played it has genuinely enjoyed the co-operation mechanic, with discussions and strategising breaking out across the gameboard. It’s one of those titles that you should play at least once in your life (and once you play, you’ll probably want to keep playing again and again).
It is a game you will lose again and again. But losing this game is hugely fun, especially with the whole “everyone’s in it together” co-op play. With a new version just released (which I can’t comment on directly as my copy is the older version – however, adding in two new roles for the players to take on will hardly have thrown the game dynamic off too much), now is a great time to go fighting disease in a global save-the-world kind of way.
It’s is a fantastic game – grab yourself a copy!
Also a great giggle is the gag reel for the Pandemic show (everyone loves a gag reel – and no one swears like Wil Wheaton when he makes a mistake).
sketchseven 