[Old Scratch]

It is an exceedingly poorly produced and designed game, like the vast majority of Avalon Hill's games.

It's important when reviewing a product to also step outside the dynamics of one's group and examine the product from a more objective angle (as much as objectivity is possible).

The scenarios are wildly unbalanced. The number of tokens (and their application) is unnecessary. The atmospheric text on the cards is boring and uninteresting. The little plastic clips ruin the cards.

Re: Randomness. This game pretty much just plays itself without any input from the players. You could sit there, go round robin and place rooms and draw cards until the Haunt begins. Open the book, look up the monster, and then declares who wins without actually having to make much in the way of choices or actually playing the game. This game can actually be played with almost no input from the players - this game plays itself, driven by the randomness of the room selection and the room's card selection.

This game has little or no choices in it for the players. It's terrible. Game play is guided by the draw of the card (and room). As a player, I want to make critical decisions, not have that potential taken away from me and completely mediated by the random elements of the game.

There have been many exciting game design developments over the last fifteen years and this game takes advantage of none of them. Here we are in the midst of a board game revolution, and Avalon Hill puts out the most egregious examples of board game design, including the atrocious Monsters Menace America.