Played a couple of games of Arkham Horror during the summer, and became even more convinced of two things: it’s a good game, and the tons of fiddly bits in the box are a nightmare to keep in order.
Indeed, the co-operative boardgame to rid the eponymous new england town of Cthulhu’s kin remains as entertaining as it was on the very first date.
Arkham Horror offers a nice mix of a story-telling adventure game mixed with pure dice mechanics that has been spiced up with hundreds of cards and other components.
While the selection of characters and enemies is pleasantly random, the encounters in the city are recycled rather too fast. Soon, the potential occurrences in the most commonly visited locations become predictable and a source of amusement.
Variety is not the sole reason why Fantasy Flight Games has supplied the basic set with no less than ten supplements, but sadly it’s a rare gamer who can summon up a table large enough to support the entire Lovecraft Country.
Arkham Horror is the game that takes up the most shelfspace in the collection. But despite the volume and the fact that I haven’t yet explored all of the expansions, I keep on buying them. That’s either a sign of a good game or obsessive collecting. My bet’s on both.