Betrayal at House on the Hill -Rabid Fox

Betrayal at House on the Hill 

 

Overview:

This is a tile board game where players explore a haunted mansion, uncovering its dark secrets around every corner. Each player (up to six in total) portrays a character with his/her own strengths/weaknesses to help or hinder their odds of survival and sanity.

 

Game play:

Tile board games are interesting because each game is slightly different. Players begin in the common room of the house and roll dice to move between rooms and floors. For each new room or floor entered, new tiles are added to reveal what room the player discovers. Each room has its own unique haunts along with the ability to draw Equipment cards (weapons, cursed items, etc.), Event cards or Omen cards. Event cards involve just the sort of horrors that one would expect to find in a creepy old house and they often require the player to roll a sanity check to see if they continue their exploration or turn into a babbling mess. Omen cards have different effects, typically less harmful overall compared to Event cards. However, once enough Omen cards are uncovered the real fun begins.

 

The Haunt, as it is affectionately known, reveals one of your team members as a Betrayer (it is the name of the game after all) and the other players must race against the clock to stop the betrayer from achieving whatever sinister goal they have in store. Betrayal has 50 different Haunt scenarios and, when one is chosen, the heroes and villain each have their own rule book explaining what they need to do in order to win the game. In general, the heroes have to stop the villain, something slightly easier to do the more players you have.

 

Final thoughts:

I love this game! The tile system and the multiple possible Haunt scenarios give you a different experience each time which definitely adds to the replay value. Plus, most board games have an adversarial “everyone for themselves” game style. How many board game sessions end with all players hating each other or at least one of the players (Monopoly *cough, Risk cough*)? Betrayal, on the other hand, has a cooperative feel at the beginning and the great twist of the Betrayer, which is fun since nobody knows who it’s going to be until they are revealed. Then you have a good old fashioned game of “It” where everyone else gangs up on the other player and tries to stomp on their insane or demon-possessed dreams. The only drawback I’ve found is that if you and your friends enjoy it as much as me and mine did, you may burn through all the Haunt scenarios pretty quickly.

 

Rating:

A fun-filled 4 out of 5!

 

-The Foaming Rabid Fox

Nightmare – The VHS Board Game (1991) -Fox

Nightmare – The VHS Board Game 

Overview: The first of the “Atmosfear” series, this board game features a unique VHS-based narrator known as The Gatekeeper. Players take on the role of one of six characters from horror legend: Khufu the Mummy, Baron Samedi the Zombie, Elizabeth Bathory the Vampire, Gevaudan the Werewolf, Anne de Chantraine the Witch, and Hellen the Ghost. The premise is that The Gatekeeper is attempting to prevent your character from crossing over from “The Other Side” to the real world. Characters must collect six special keys, face their “greatest fear”, and make it through The Gate within 60 minutes in order to win.

Game play and memories: Now it’s been a long time since I’ve opened the box due to lack of VCR, but I started playing this game with a buddy of mine around the time this came out so that would put me at 12 or 13. That’s pretty much the perfect age to play this game before putting it on the shelf for 10 or 15 years and picking it back up with your horror-loving friends. The pacing of the game is set by The Gatekeeper, a character that chimes in at certain intervals to provide game twists and taunt you to try to keep you from achieving your goal. Throughout the video, the Gatekeeper appears more frequently and his appearance is more ghoulish each time he pops up.

There’s a lot of dice rolling and working against the other characters to collect all the keys and make it to the center. If I recall, the music picks up speed near the end too and the Gatekeeper starts popping up more frequently near the 60 minute mark, a feature that I find adds to the fun frustration of trying to get to the end. Also, before the game begins, all the players have to fill out a Fear card that lists your greatest fear. That card gets put in the center of the board and when you finally land on that spot you have to draw that card; if the player draws their own Fear they immediately lose, if they draw another player’s Fear they win!

.

Does it hold up? Well, a VHS-based game is inherently dated but I still think it’s fun if you’re of the right mindset. Again, it’s fun and a little creepy if you’re a kid but there will be a lot of “in between” years where Nightmare would just be lame. I believe the videos are on YouTube so you might want to take a look although I would caution that watching them without actually playing the game takes away from the intended fun. I’ll also say that it’s fun to set the ambiance when you set up the board. Turn out the lights and try playing just by the eerie glow of the TV. You might as well have fun!

Final thoughts: When I was 12 my greatest fear was drowning/suffocating. Looks like some things never change, thanks for the reminder Nightmare time capsule! I remember (and the internet confirmed) that there were also a few expansions for the core game, hosted by some of the other characters. I never got a chance to play those but they can still be found by resellers. It would be great to find these on DVD but I believe only the core set received a legitimate DVD re-release.

Rating 3 scares out of 5

-Rabid Fox