With the app randomizing the scenario layouts, monsters, and tokens there is massive replay value for this game. With 4 scenarios in the core game (22 scenarios total with the expansions) you will have plenty of content to choose from. The best part about Mansions of Madness is the story. If you love dungeon crawling filled with puzzles and heavy on narrative then Mansions of Madness 2nd edition is for you. There are plenty of rooms to explore and monsters to fight. Upon completion of the scenario, the narrator returns to give you a debrief of the mission. By the time this happens the game board is usually filled with enemies and has grown exponentially, pushing the investigators’ resources to their limits. Upon losing sanity or health a second time an investigator is eliminated giving the remaining players one turn to win the game or become defeated.Įventually, it will become clear what is needed for the players to win. It may even be helping to sabotage the other players making sure the monsters win. Sometimes these may be setting all the spaces on fire or making sure every token is removed from the board. The difference being is that the insanity cards have alternate win conditions for that specific player. If your sanity becomes zero you gain an insanity condition. When your health reaches zero you gain an injury card. The end of the Mythos phase culminates in horror checks for those close enough to enemies that their sanity must be checked. Once that is complete it will possibly spawn monsters and cultists, who will move and attack. It will start with an event, generally focused on a certain room or investigator. The Mythos phase is where the game makes your life terrible. Each character will have unique powers and can find lots of different equipment. Once all players have completed their chosen two actions the game moves to the Mythos phase. By exploring and interacting with the map, investigators will find more clues, items, and evidence to help complete the scenario. Each test you make while exploring will require you to roll a certain number of successes with some tests being cumulative over each action towards it. While exploring and interacting, investigators will make checks with the special 8-sided dice provided with the game. All interactions and explorations are through the app, whether you are clicking on interact tokens or exploring new rooms, the app will tell you what you’re investigating or direct you what tiles and tokens to place in the gaming area. Most of your time will be spent moving, searching, and interacting with points of interest, which will allow you to further the story and eventually find a path to victory. Each investigator will have two actions from the list of move, explore, search, interact, attack, or component actions. Fans of Fantasy Flight’s Arkham Files games will be seeing plenty of familiar faces.Ī normal round starts with the investigator phase. The custom dice will be used for skill checks.Įach investigator specializes in different stats and abilities and will start the game with a set number of equipment, spells, and clue tokens. One of the downsides to this game is that using a phone will force one or more players to narrate and direct token and miniature placement during the game. One essential part of this game is the Mansions of Madness application (the app) for your phone, smart device, or computer. In the beginning, you will not have the means to win, but upon furthering the story and finding relevant clues the path to victory will become clear.
At the start of the game, you will be given a brief overview by the digital companion app about your mission and enter your chosen scenario. In Mansions of Madness 2nd edition, you take the role of investigators entering different locations situated throughout the Cthulhu Mythos. This is a unique dungeon crawling, horror-mystery experience that focuses on clue acquisition, puzzle completion, and sometimes combat against the monsters of the mythos. Mansions of Madness 2nd edition is an app-assisted board game for one to five players that takes two to three hours to complete. Mansions of Madness 2nd edition is the game that checkmarks all of those boxes. If you love stories dealing with the Cthulhu Mythos, puzzles, mystery, and a good old fashioned dungeon crawling experience, then look no further.
This is a guest post from George Botelho.