Horrified Review – Horrified vs. Pandemic: The Battle of the Gateways

Weeks ago, I wrote a review calling Pandemic the best gateway game ever. I may have spoken too soon. There’s a new kid on the block: average build, colourful board, kind of scary looking. Goes by the name Horrified.

How do they compare? And who’s going to come out on top of this battle of old vs new?

Let’s find out.

From the moment you open the box, the amount of love and care poured into Horrified is obvious. Instead of finding cardboard tokens to pop, and cards to unpackage, you’re greeted with a warning.

You are about to unfold one of the STRANGEST tales EVER TOLD.

This immediately sets the tone for what to expect from Horrified. A game that captures the fun of those old black-and-white horror movies. Where monsters were endearing because they were clearly men in suits.

Deliver them to the laboratory

In Horrified, you’ll face off against the Wolfman, or one of his counterparts like The Mummy, The Invisible Man, Dracula, and several others. They’ll chase, capture, and send you to the hospital if they get too close. Or if they’re unable to get you, then any dumb villagers left in the town will do – they’re not fussy.

And these villagers man, you know the type, they’re the kind of villagers that spend 10 years researching ancient Egyptian curses but still lock themselves in a Pharoah exhibit for the night.

They do you know favours.

If they capture too many people then the town is ruined, so to beat them you must banish them from the town forever. Or at least until the sequel gets made.

Each creature has its unique abilities and is defeated uniquely. Some of these are puzzles, but most usually boil down to going to one place, picking an item up and delivering it somewhere else.

For example, to beat the Wolfman, you need to create and administer the antidote. To do this, you need to collect scientific (blue) items around the map and then deliver them to the laboratory to develop the cure. Then you need to overpower the Wolfman with six power (red) strength items, administering the antidote and freeing him from a life of swamp butt.

Simple right?

Well, the thing is, you’re never fighting just one monster. You’re fighting many. In the standard mode, you’re versing three creatures, but you can increase or decrease the amount depending on the difficulty you want to set.

Your role to play

For your part, you’ll start with a character with a special ability. Then take several actions each turn depending on the character. These actions include; picking or delivering up items, moving, and pushing or pulling villagers.

After you’ve taken all your actions, you’ll draw one card from the monster deck. You should recognise this familiar flow from Pandemic. However, there’s a key difference. While Pandemic has faceless diseases ravaging the world, each monster in Horrified has its own personality and moveset which changes how it moves and attacks.

Horrified is at its best when it’s all going to hell. The monsters are closing in at every turn. The villagers are popping up in the most inconvenient places. While the players are dividing their time between defeating a monster, and deciding if a deranged villager is worth saving.

It’s incredibly fun, and you feel immersed in this world being presented before you.

However, as soon as you defeat one of the monsters. The excitement begins to fade. You’ll start drawing monster cards where nothing happens because the monster who’s meant to move no longer exists. This removes the stress, tension, and excitement that makes this game so good.

In this way, Horrified is in direct contrast with Pandemic. While in the latter the puzzle gets increasingly challenging as time passes leading up to a climactic finish. Horrified starts challenging, and then becomes easier. Until you notice that it isn’t a terrifying monster chasing you with every turn, but in fact, a man in a suit, struggling to move without assistance.

Horrified vs Pandemic

In the battle for the best gateway game, for me, Pandemic has the better puzzle, and because of that, I believe it to be the better game. However, it also takes itself more seriously, dealing with a no-nonsense theme, and deliberate gameplay.

Horrified, on the other hand, leans into its campy theme and allows it to shine. There’s a lot of randomness within the game, but there’s enough leeway that the randomness doesn’t feel unfair. Instead, it feels fitting to the theme, and you find yourself enjoying the crazy antics the town comes up with.

Because of this, I found I had more fun with the Horrified.

When it comes down to answering the question about who comes out on top, you need to ask yourself: do you want a puzzle, and want to use your brain, or do you just want to have a gay old time stomping on some monsters’ hopes and dreams?

Even though I enjoyed Horrified, I could see my interest wane after time beating the same monsters over and over. Whereas Pandemic, because of its puzzle, is still a game I find interesting after 30 or so plays.