Publisher: Z-Man Games
Year: 2008
Players: 2-4 Players
This review is of the 2013 edition!
Have you ever wondered how it would feel like to save the earth from a vile disease that is spreading to all over the world at an alarming rate? In 2008 Z-Man Games released a game where you and your friends all join forces to take down 4 diseases that spread throughout the world. Pandemic is not a game for people easily panicking when the epidemics strike. We here at Board Game Gamers have been playing this quite a lot these last few weeks and here`s what we think.Have you ever wondered how it would feel like to save the earth from a vile disease that is spreading to all over the world?
As mentioned earlier Pandemic is a game where the mission is to stop a worldwide pandemic from breaking out. Each player randomly select a character/role that they will use together with the other players to find a strategy on how to defeat the game. This game is one of the hardest most challenging games out there, there is only one way to win (Cure all diseases) and three ways to lose, and in that case the human race is doomed! When you manage to win the game (In our case 1 out of 15 times or so) the sense of accomplishment between you and your friends will be great!
The game has different difficulty levels this is where the epidemic cards come into play. You shuffle these cards into your player deck, the more epidemic cards in the deck the harder it will be to beat the game. The player deck is where you draw cards to your hand getting three different types of cards: Event cards,resource cards (you need five resource cards of the same color to cure a disease) and epidemic cards. And here`s the first of the three ways to lose the game: Your player deck gets empty.
There are four different diseases represented by 24 colored cubes each (red, yellow, blue and black) these spread on different parts of the map according to their color. The game board is a map of the world. The second way to lose is if one of the disease cube piles gets empty. The third and last way to lose the game is if too many outbreaks occur. Outbreaks happen when you get more than three disease cubes in a city, and that is when all hell breaks loose. Every city connected to the infected city then gets one cube of the disease infecting the area. The diseases spread through an infection deck you draw card
from each player turn. Well, this game must seem quite impossible by now but fear not! Remember, there is a way you can win and that is by curing all four diseases. Throughout the game, you place research stations around the board, these can then be used for travel or curing diseases. To cure a disease you need five resource cards of the color of the disease you want to cure.
The look of the game is clean and simple, yet cool and stylish. The look of the cubes in their transparent colorful plastic complements the game. The dark gradient of the game board and their bright lines make for a professional look, and adds to the “urgency” in the game. The artwork on the cards is well done, and looks great. The rulebook is short, yet well informing, and the game is easy to get into, you only need 30 minutes or so. Although the learning curve of the
A lot of what makes this game entertaining, is how you and your friends use your character/role cards and strategies to complement each other. As mentioned earlier the game offers a great sense of urgency through play style and game is far longer, as you have learn how each character complements each other, and how to compensate and foresee every possible scenario. This is a game of teamwork and cliffhangers as you reach for that next card. However, this game has the habit of being slightly repetitive. There are for instance not that many character-cards. There is an expansion out now, which we will be reviewing later on!
Besides that we recommend this game for everyone interested in board games. Especially if you have a group of friends, that are able to appreciate a team-based game. It is easy to get into, simple to set up, and looks good on the table. It is great for an evening with friends that wants to save the world from your own dining room table!
8/10
Board Game Gamers 