Board Game Review: Eldritch Horror

                 The image above belongs to its respective owner, not me
Hello Enthusiasts,

Today's review will be of the board game Eldritch Horror.

To start out, this is not a game for anyone who is new to tabletop gaming. There are a lot of components involved, with a lot of different stats and items to keep track of. The game is drenched in a mix of its own lore and the lore of others, with what seems to be a heavy influence from H.P. Lovecraft. This game does also have several expansion packs that, while fun, aren't mandatory to the game play and don't change much. Therefore, their influence won't be included here.

The game itself is about preventing the end of the world at the hand of ancient beasts. There are a variety of ancient beasts, all of which have their own particularities to them, but none of them are good for the world. The player can prevent the ancient ones from being summoned by completing quests, which generally involve killing smaller monsters, collecting clues, and closing dimensional portals. If the ancient monster is summoned, it's an all new, more difficult game (though there are instances where just having the ancient monster summoned means that the players instantly lose).While there are a few ways to win, there are plenty more ways to lose. The characters' health is two-fold; they have their physical health and their mental health, and running out of either means the end for that character. If the game ends up taking too long you will run out of turns, the players lose. There will be different win/lose conditions for each game as well. It can be unforgiving.

As one can gather from above, this game does not often work in the player's favor. Your character will frequently be haunted, infected, stalked, and in debt. While some of the smaller monsters that get randomly spawned will be easy enough, other ones will be nearly impossible to take down. There are difficult decisions to make when there are so many problems and monsters to address at once, and the wrong move can come back to bite you immediately.

Despite all of the difficulty, this game is inexplicably fun. You have an insane amount of choices when choosing a character, all with their own advantages, disadvantages, and equipment. Plus, the player is not limited to just one character, as you can have backup characters in case your first one dies (though there will be a task to go through to get all of the equipment that the dead character had). Also, due to the difficulty, any kind of victory can easily be celebrated, especially an overall victory over the game.

Considering that the only real fault to the game is its difficulty to manage for those new to tabletop gaming, I consider this game to be pretty fantastic. I have had hours of fun with friends with this one, and I look forward to hours more.

I give Eldritch Horror a 8.5 out of 10.

Sincerely,

The Bored Enthusiast