Boardom is the regular blog feature in which Mary geeks out on table top games.
Image courtesy of Z-Man Games
Pandemic is a cooperative game in which you and your fellow players team up to eradicate the threat of four deadly global diseases. Each teammate plays one of 5 randomly chosen characters, each with their own unique abilities: Dispatcher, Scientist, Medic, Researcher, and Operations Expert. Every round more disease spreads, as you race to discover cures by traveling the world, using a simple system of cards and tokens A lot of luck is involved, but it’s up to you to come up with the best strategy using your team’s given abilities and situation. The game is fun, but HARD. I’m sorry world, but we regularly succumbed to pandemic while playing leisurely over the Thanksgiving holiday last year. Fortunately the game is fast enough that a loss isn’t too discouraging. Instead it would embolden us to try again, until we were victorious. I sometimes dislike co-op games because they don’t feed my competitive hunger, but the ease and quickness of this game make up for that.
Play Time: 60 minutes
Number of Players: 2-4. BGG users recommend 4, and I agree, though 3 and even 2 is fun too!
Suggested age: 10 and up.
Designer: Matt Leacock
Artist: Joshua Cappel (graphics and illustration), Régis Moulun (cover painting)
Published: 2008, by Z-Man Games, among others.
Buy: I found it on Amazon for $27.
Fun game! Very well designed in my opinion. Was just playing it last week actually. Highly recommended =)
I played this the other week at my new gaming group and I loved it, it went to the top of my bgg list. Not often you find a game that can be played 1 or 2 player with this kind of depth.
Is this where the Pandemic flash game comes from?
A flashgame
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/360724
Sequel
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/448950
Ooh, didn’t know about that. Thanks for the links!
Ooooh, something co-operative to play! Thanks Mary. And also flash games!
At first, I thought they made a board game about the flash game. I haven’t played that in forever.
I must go play it now and destroy everything with some crazily named virus.
Uhhh, in the flash game Madagascar is like some sort of impenetrable fortress.