Wednesday, August 29, 2007

What is it exactly?


Well, I finally poured through the rules and tried out a solo game of Arkham Horror. I played three investigators and played enough to have a vague idea of how the game flowed, though I didn't seal any gates. So, the $10,000,000 questions is - wha'd ya think? Well, I can see why the AZ group mostly hated it (I say mostly, because there were some who would play it). What did I see? Its not a game, its more like an activity - an interactive story. Yes, you do some stuff and your choices make some sort of difference. Sort of. As a solo game, this is probably ok, so I'll keep it. I'm not likely to pull it out otherwise - there are just too many other games I'd rather play. The game is very thematic, and has lots of flavor, but didn't feel like it'd be that great with more players. So, solo it is - no harm in that.

1 comment:

Red October said...

i guess you could say any dice-rolling boardgame is merely an activity. i can see what you're saying though. the upsides for me: a) corrie enjoys this game...that goes far for me; b) one of few solo games; c) i love theme...it doesn't make a game for me, but a poor theme can break a game for me. d) not much downtime - the turns go by fairly quickly; e) i think it actually plays better with more people - since you're playing as a team, the highs are celebrated collectively and the lows and the bum dice rolls deflate everyone at once.

it's a story - an adventure - albeit one of luck and randomness, but it works well for me and corrie.

it's cooperative - sometimes awesome, sometimes annoying. it has a decent replay value with the different combos of investigators and the different Ancient Ones...

you should play a game the whole way through - get to the Ancient One or seal off the gates. corrie and i just played this the other night with the Dark Pharaoh expansion...added a bit more flavor.

one final note - this is a gamer's party game...i would agree that there are many other games i'd pull out to play before this one, but i certainly wouldn't turn this one down!!