Board game review : Pandemic

 

Pandemic is another of the new games that we received to review from the Asmodee UK Blogger Game Club, after trying out Days of Wonder from the Ticket To Ride series. (Click through to read our review of that game.)

 

This game has a very dark and unnerving goal : the fight against a deadly, international pandemic. Players all fight together against the illness, which is an unusual type of game play, and also a great way of getting brothers and sisters to forget about arguing with each other and actually work together with a common goal !

The game include lots of small components, but it's quite simple to set up once you understand the basic concept. You have 96 disease cubes (24 each in red, blue, yellow and black), 48 infection cards and 59 player cards (48 city cards, 6 epidemic cards, 5 event cards).

 

As the instructions explain, you and the other players all work together as a disease control team, trying to eradicate a pandemic before it gets out of control. You need to discover cures for four diseases, but you will lose if eight outbreaks occur, resulting in worldwide panic, or if you run out of disease cubes (meaning the disease has spread too much) or player cards (you've run out of time). Aaaaggghhh ! 

 

Each player has a specific role to play. You may be a dispatcher, a quarantine specialist, a contingency planner, a researcher, a scientist or maybe something else. It doesn't really matter as you all play together as a team, helping each other out against the common enemy.

Setting up the game is actually very simple, as you just have to follow the instructions on the box, selecting cards and putting all the elements where shown, for example the disease cubes.

Each player takes their turn, but all players can give help and advice as you're all working together with a common goal. This is a great way of introducing younger players to the game when they first start joining in. You can do up to four actions, including moving around, treating diseases, infecting more people and places or, with a bit of luck, finding a cure.

Adding (or, if you're lucky, removing) infection cubes from around the globe is a great way of revising geography but shhh, don't tell the kids !

Will you manage to stop all four diseases or will the epidemic get out of control? You can choose different levels, so the game will grow with you. It's an interesting game and the fact that you're not guaranteed to win every time keeps you coming back for more !

Suggested age 10+, for 2-4 players. Each game lasts about 45 minutes.

RRP £36.99

Disclosure : We received the product from the Asmodee UK Blogger Board Game Club in order to share our honest review. Keep your eyes open - there will be more reviews coming up over the next few days !