{"id":6748,"date":"2018-06-11T15:49:02","date_gmt":"2018-06-11T20:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/?p=6748"},"modified":"2018-06-11T15:49:02","modified_gmt":"2018-06-11T20:49:02","slug":"pandemic-board-game-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/?p=6748","title":{"rendered":"Pandemic – Board Game Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overview:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"The world is in crisis. Four diseases are spreading around the world and it\u2019s up to you and your friends to stop the pandemic in this game that bears the same name.<\/p>\n

The four diseases are represented by four different colored cubes \u2013 red, yellow, blue, and black. Each city can have anywhere from one to three cubes of a particular disease. If a city would get a fourth cube of one color, instead it causes an outbreak which means you add one of that color to every connected city. If you\u2019re in a really bad spot, one outbreak can even chain to cause others.<\/p>\n

\"\"But you\u2019re not totally defenseless in the face of rampant disease. Each turn a player gets four actions with which they can turn back the tide. Those actions can be used to move from city to city, remove disease cubes from a city, cure a disease, build research centers, exchange player cards, or activate a player\u2019s special ability. At the end of each turn, players draw two player cards for their hand and infect more cities.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a few ways you can lose in Pandemic. If you run out of any one color cube, you lose. If you get eight outbreaks, you lose. If the player deck gets down to zero, you lose. However, there\u2019s only one way to win \u2013 you have to cure all four diseases. A disease is cured by playing five player cards of one color at a research center. If you\u2019re able to cure all four, regardless of how many cubes remain on the board, you\u2019ve stopped the pandemic.<\/p>\n

The Good:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. This is a great collaborative game<\/strong>. Most games are competitive, pitting you against your friends. This one pits you and your friends against the game and it makes for a fun change of pace.<\/li>\n
  2. Pandemic comes with a scalable difficulty<\/strong>. Even at its most basic, this game is tough but you can adjust just how tough it is so that you aren\u2019t discouraged or bored.<\/li>\n
  3. Pandemic does a great job with theme<\/strong>. It really feels like you\u2019re dealing with a crisis and the roles all fit into how the world might respond to an international health crisis.<\/li>\n
  4. The game has great replay value<\/strong>. You never get all the roles on your team at once and the combination of roles changes your strategy. The infection plays out at random, so your focus moves from game to game. Pandemic is good at mixing things up to keep you coming back.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The Bad:<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. If you\u2019re not careful, it\u2019s easy for one player to dominate the game<\/strong>. Quieter people may get bulldozed by louder people in the collaborative process. Players that don\u2019t press in as much may just get dragged along for the ride and that won\u2019t make for a pleasant play experience.<\/li>\n
    2. Bad luck can be fatal<\/strong>. Pandemic isn\u2019t a very forgiving game and there are many ways to lose. Sometimes you\u2019ll pay for your mistakes. Other times, you\u2019ll pay for things you couldn\u2019t do anything about. It can be impossible to overcome bad luck sometimes – and if you fail the whole world gets wiped out by disease. No big deal, right?<\/li>\n
    3. Pandemicdoesn\u2019t play well with two players<\/strong>. The game is set for two to four, but I wouldn\u2019t play it with two. Less players will give you more time, but it gives you less roles to work with and I think roles are more important. Pandemic really needs three or four players to get the best experience.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Final Thoughts:<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \"\"Pandemic is one of my favorites. The collaborative design offers a different kind of challenge, pressing you and your friends to work together to find a solution. Some collaborative games can be too easy if you work together well. Pandemic, on the other hand, will give you a workout no matter what and that\u2019s part of what makes it so fun. Pandemic is waiting for you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Overview: The world is in crisis. Four diseases are spreading around the world and it\u2019s up to you and your friends to stop the pandemic in this game that bears the same name. The four diseases are represented by four … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7902,"featured_media":6749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,117,402],"tags":[119,445,444,443,120,234],"class_list":["post-6748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-board-games","category-review","tag-board-game","tag-collaborative","tag-cooperative","tag-pandemic","tag-review","tag-tom","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7902"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6748"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6760,"href":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6748\/revisions\/6760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theendgamesblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}