Post originally by Nick at 2004-10-31 20:22:23
Converted from Phorums BB System

Just to add some perspective for SteveD's benefit, we have played the game about 5-6 times so far (4 players) and have had a blast each time. My wife and I bought the game for a couple we know who games as well and there were no regrets.

The traitor won the first few games (mainly because the other explorers did not manage to sort themselves out fast enough), but there was never a time when we were bored (although the first time we played it was in a rented cabin in the woods - how's that for atmosphere!)

The horror theme runs very strongly throughout the game, from the cards, the flavor text and the graphics, to the scenarios. The theme of each game changes depending on the haunt rolled, however, and a game could turn out to be a board game version of Poltergeist or the Little Shop of Horrors, depending on the haunt. That is to say, you could get a really spooky session, a gritty one with lots of combat, or even a really campy silly one out of a B-grade late night flick.

In our first game, the traitor (the Kid character) turned out to be some psycho determined to bring Hell to earth. As a result of his conjuration, an Abyss which destroyed the House tile by tile ripped through the gameboard cutting the rest of the characters from each other and locking them into dead ends while he traipsed around drawing items and resources that we needed. We managed to succeed in stopping him finally, but not the entire party made it out alive. Pretty dark and grim stuff.

Yet, not all the scenarios require the party and the traitor to be on opposite sides. There was one where the party was actually trying to save the traitor even while he was doing his darndest to off them, so the revelation of the party's goal at the end (after they had succeeded) was quite a surprise and made for quite an enjoyable game because of the "twist". Uplifting game, and pretty funny at some junctures (my crocodile was stuck in the Mystic Elevator for the longest time - get the game to know what I mean) while his jungle brothers were bumped off after making the worst attack rolls ever.

I'd say that yes, the game can be random, but because it draws on such a rich theme and takes from many sources - monster movies, horror, weird science fiction, etc etc, the game does a pretty fantastic job of simulating a horror movie.

It also helps when the players get "into character" and start acting out their roles. It really spooked the other players out when I started to talk in a little Kid voice to be in-character and when I turned out to be traitor, shifted my voice to sound more sinister

All in all, I'd say that it is very fun at about 4 players, and there is a high replayability level to the game. Best enjoyed on a rainy night...

Highly recommended.