Pandemic Board Game

    $54.99

    You are specialists at the CDC/Atlanta where you watch several virulent diseases break out simultaneously all over the world. The team mission is to prevent a worldwide pandemic outbreak, treating hot-spots while researching cures for each of the four plagues before they get out of hand. Players must plan their strategy to mesh their specialists’ strengths before the diseases overwhelm the world. But the diseases are breaking out fast and time is running out: the team must try to stem the tide of infection in diseased areas while developing cures. Pandemic is a truly cooperative game: if diseases spread uncontrolled, the players all lose together._x000D_
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    Pandemic Board Game contains: 1 game board, 7 role cards with matching pawns, 6 research stations, 6 wooden markers, 48 infection cards, 59 player cards, reference cards, and rulebook. This new edition of Pandemic has been entirely redesigned and includes two new roles: the Contingency Planner and the Quarantine Specialist._x000D_
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    Pandemic Board Game is recommended for 2-4 players ages 8 and up, and takes approximately 45 minutes to play.

    (66 customer reviews)

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    Pandemic Board Game $54.99
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    66 reviews for Pandemic Board Game

    1. A. M.

      A little bit of work to get started- but super fun!

      I am NOT into board games, especially super complicated ones, so when my husband’s friend pulled this one out during the holidays –I was dreading it. BUT to my surprise, it was really really fun! It DOES take a little bit of time to read all the instructions and learn how to play- but once you do, its totally worth it! I LOVE that the game is designed for everyone to play as a team against the pandemic; if you win-you all win, if you lose-you all lose. It was so much fun–We had to buy one for ourselves!

      One person found this helpful

    2. E. Bentley

      Fun game!

      This has been a really fun game for the family! It’s nice to have a game where you work together instead of competing, it makes it easier to play with the younger kids. Because we’re all helping each other, they don’t feel like they’re singled out as not being able to play on their own.It wasn’t the easiest game to learn, but it’s not super hard. There’s a lot of variation, so it’s a challenge, but still very fun.I’d highly recommend it!

      One person found this helpful

    3. True Viking Wisdom

      Great Co-op Board Game

      This is a great cooperative board game to play with your friends or gaming group.I’ve played this with many different groups of people now and every experience was positive and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves very much while playing. Having a great cooperative game in your rotation is a good way to get people who don’t like the competition aspect of games to be able to enjoy themselves too.The game itself is fairly easy to get the hang of after a few turns and allows for great strategy sessions where you work together to eradicate the various diseases on the board to trigger the win condition. Playing at maximum difficulty will generally be pretty challenging and will require good planning and communication with the other players in order to succeed.This is one of those games that is tough to win, but tends to make people want to play “just one more time, I know we’ll get it this time”. It’s that enjoyable. This one tends to be a favorite in our board gaming group, and we keep bringing it out time and again.The only issue that I have with the game set is that the instructions aren’t the easiest to read if you want a quick summary of win conditions and such. I had to read them a couple times to figure out some of the more nuanced game rules and situations that tended to come up quite a bit more than expected.No other issues to this really fun game.Highest Recommendation.

      19 people found this helpful

    4. Eric W

      Didn’t think I would enjoy a cooperative game until playing Pandemic!

      I love Euro-Style board games and I have been introducing my kids (6 and 8) to them over the past couple of years; however, there is always bickering and even tears as one child eventually gloats when he/she does something to hinder the other. So, after watching Wil Wheaton play Pandemic on an episode of Table Top, I thought this might be a good way to go, despite some trepidation I had about a cooperative game. When I saw it for a good price at Amazon, I figured I had nothing to lose, and gave it a shot.Some key benefits about this game (especially when playing with kids) are as follows: The game is really easy to learn, it’s really fast to set up, and plays in less than an hour. The game mechanics are very interesting, too (for example, when the dreaded Epidemic card is drawn). Plus, since it is cooperative, I don’t have to “dummy down” my strategy when playing with my kids. Instead, we are all working together to devise the best strategy to use our limited resources on each turn. This is also a huge benefit when introducing someone new to Euro-Style games. Another benefit (if you want to call it that), is that this game is terribly difficult to win. The board beats us much more often than we win, but since we are all losing together, we oddly have lots of fun doing so.My opinion of cooperative games has definitely changed. I’m not sure if any other ones would bring the same excitement as Pandemic, but I think a have many more hours of Pandemic to play through before I’m bored with this game. Also, even though I mentioned this game with regard to my kids, I play it often with other adults, and it’s always fun.

      5 people found this helpful

    5. KennyKavanaugh

      A simply brilliant board game experience

      Pandemic hardly needs more positive reviews, but I feel kind of obligated to add my two cents to the mix.This is a game that’s really taken a preeminent position in the realm of modern cooperative board games, and with good reason. I think the biggest compliment that I can pay it is that it is pretty simple in terms of game-play but thoroughly addictive, the latter made all the more impressive by the fact that you lose the game about 75% of the time! It’s no small feat to create a game that makes players want to keep coming back to it even AFTER they get their butts kicked again…and again….and again.Another thing I really like personally is that there’s just enough luck and randomness to the game (in both the setup and during the game) that each game feels somewhat unique, which also helps the replay value. Put more simply: though you will start to develop a bit of a strategy after a few plays through, there’s no “solving” the game in a way that reduces the challenge to the point of it becoming too easy or boring. If there’s one thing Pandemics are not, it’s predictable!If I have one criticism of the game it is that the aforementioned “luck/randomness” can be quite cruel; sometimes you seem to have everything under control (well, as much as you CAN when facing multiple, terrifying world-wide epidemics!) and then BOOM, a particularly unfortunate card-draw suddenly dooms your efforts. Actually, no that’s not really accurate. It’s more a case of simply not having the resources to deal with everything that needs dealt with at any given moment, which eventually leads to said un-dealt-with thing coming back and biting you in the a**. But it’s never a case where you feel the game is inherently unfair, but more “AAAGGGHH I NEW WE SHOULD HAVE DONE ______ INSTEAD OF _______ WHEN WE HAD THE CHANCE!”. Anyway, put simply, it’s a very satisfying experience—win, lose or…..lose 😉 (there’s no draw in Pandemic; either you save the world or you don’t!).One last note: you won’t really see any mention of Pandemic being a single-player game, but it is very much playable solo. The only thing lost is the interaction between players (which granted, is the main appeal of cooperative games). Pandemic plays just fine solo though (you simply play two or more “characters” yourself)…so much so that I’m surprised the designer didn’t just go ahead and say “1-5 players” instead of “2-5”.

      One person found this helpful

    6. Alexander saenz

      Facil de aprender y para muchas partidas.

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       El transporte, el envio, el cuidado y la entrega solo hay que decir que amazon es excelente, lo compre junto con Heldritch horror y todo llego perfecto, en una caja que los protegia bien, creo que falto un par de pequeñas bolsas de aire o papel burbuja para protegerlos mas, afortunadamente toda la logistica escogida para este envio en el exterior y la local realizaron un trabajo excelente e impecable, por ello muchas gracias.Es un buen juego, es muy facil de aprender y por ello perfecto para regalar.La caja y todo su contenido es muy bueno cada componente, cada de carta esta muy bien hecho, en general todo esta bien, las cartas son muy bonitas el tablero es 4 veces el tamaño de la caja, algo para cambiar o mejorar es que deberia incluir figuras de los investigadores en figuras 3D (son fichas plasticas como las del juego “sorry”).La tematica y el modo de juego es buena, da para muchas, muchas partidas (no como los otros y mas recientes pandemic en donde se juega una unica vez y hay que tirar el juego a la basura).Algunas de las cartas estan en ingles, pero es muy facil entenderlo tiene una dependencia media – baja del idioma, igualnse puede obtemer el manual en varios idiomas, existe y se puede coseguir la version en español (spanish) pero amazon no ayuda para nada.Es un buen juego, lo puede jugar alguien avanzado y tambien principiantes, puede para ser un primer juego, de igual forma en la web y en youtube hay demasiado material en varios idiomas que dejaran listo en unos minutos a cualquiera.

      One person found this helpful

    7. Shantel

      Fantastic game, even in solo play

      This game was a bit overwhelming to figure out how to play and stratergize for the first time, but now I’m addicted. There are instructions online for solo play and honestly I prefer that to trying to work with others, not sure that is the games fault ha ha. Anyways, very addictive and with the number of different roles and choices no one game is the same so replay doesn’t get boring. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

    8. BrianBrian

      LOVE Pandemic

      I love Pandemic. I originally picked it up because I got Pandemic Legacy for a very, very good price, and in the directions they tell you to play a few games of the original first to get your feet wet, so I bought it. This is probably one of my favorite games. I play anywhere from 1 to 4 players, while playing alone I’ll play 2 rolls.Be warned, you won’t win. Out of 17 games, I have a 29% win ratio on it. The game normally wins, but that is part of the fun of the game, when you win as a team it feels more of a victory.This is a co-op game, all players are on the same team and work together, and because of that, you can get the Alpha-Gamer in the group that tells you how things should be done, so just be aware of that. I’ve never had that occur, we all gives our onions and if needed vote.It is highly recommended that you also pick up the 

      Pandemic on The Brink Expansion Board Game (2nd Edition)

       with this copy. It adds nice storage, better rolls, smaller tokens, along with more ways to play. Even if you don’t play the expansion what it does add to the main game is nice.

      116 people found this helpful

    9. K Maffei

      seriously addictive

      We spend several hours at a shot playing games, probably an average of once a week. Some of our favorites: Settlers of Catan, Fluxx, Munchkin, Phase 10, Parcheesi, Sushi Go!, some of the Cheap-Ass games, just to give you an idea.We like having a variety of types of play to switch things up & keep us interested, but once in a while a game is simply addictive & we can play it over & over for hours. Settlers is like that for us (even after many years). And now Pandemic is, too. We just can’t stop playing!It’s definitely challenging. One of the great features is that you can increase the difficulty level once you start feeling like the game has become easy. But don’t judge that too fast, either. There are so many factors that add variety to the game from play to play. For example, the random assignment of a Role for each player means that your characters’ combination of special abilities are different each game, so you need to adjust your strategy to take the best advantage of them.One reason I chose this is because feedback about playing with two players was positive. Most of our games require at least the 3 of us to be any fun. And pretty soon my son will be moving out, so we’ll need some good two player games. This weekend we got to test it with 2 people, and it was absolutely just as fun as with 3. In fact, it surprised us because it required such a different strategy than with the 3 of us. And once we adjusted and began winning at the lowest difficulty, we tried the next level and found we had to shift gears again. (And wow that level is tough)This is the first cooperative game we’ve owned, and we love that about it. None of us is particularly competitive, so we find this a really nice change from the usual. Maybe if we can stop playing this incessantly, we’ll simply use it as a nice break between other games in a sitting.

      69 people found this helpful

    10. Lindsay

      seriously love this

      SO my husband and I really like playing games together. We try to find a lot of games that work for only 2 people playing. Since we started having babies, our social life just is not a thing. So we just have each other and if it requires more than 2 we can’t play. We really had enjoyed the game forbidden dessert! Seriously loved it. And then because we were so into that we stumbled upon this one and its the same line of game. Just different moving parts and more parts so it takes the game play up a level!We have decided that over the years it is better for my husband and I to not do competitive games! We can’t to heated and neither are very good at losing. (We are working on this though so the kids learn its ok to lose) So BONUS! This is a cooperative game. Not going against each other but the board. So it is a house full of harmony then! lol… as for all other games we just stopped taking score haha

      One person found this helpful

    11. Laura B

      Very fun game once you get it

      Now. The rules and set up almost gave me a stroke. I have to say I almost gave up on this game. Thankfully my friend has more patience than I do and found out how to play. After figuring that out, I found this game to be so fun! It’s kind of like Risk if you need a comparison but it’s a team game, so you don’t win as an individual but as a team. Don’t think it’s easier because of that because I guarantee it definitely is not. If you want to play, and if you want to buy it, I recommend watching an instructional video, trust me. Do love it though!

      2 people found this helpful

    12. Kindle Customer

      Cooperative Board Game for Teens and Adults

      Everyone cooperates and everyone wins – or loses! This game involves lots of talking and strategizing, helping all players to achieve success. It can also be played alone, with one person taking all the turns, since each position has strengths to bring to the table. As you work toward a cure – a vaccine – or complete eradication of one pandemic, another pandemic might spring up in another part of the world. Keeping ahead of them requires working together, utilizing every player’s strengths. The game just gets more interesting the more you play.

    13. Tim

      Addictive fun

      This game easy to learn and has tons of replay value. The game is challenging and is enjoyable even if you loose. You can play with 2-4 players and change the difficulty by having between 4-6 epidemic cards. As a cooperative game, you will need to work as a team to win. You will randomly draw 1 character at the beginning of each game to play. Each character has different benefits and will demand a different style of gameplay to be able to take advantage of those benefits. You will want to keep playing this game long into the future.The materials are high quality and sturdy enough for years of use.

    14. J. Schmidt

      One of the best co-op games to start with

      I am a HUGE fan of co-op games. When I was first introduced to the genre of co-op it was with Pandemic and I was hooked. Pandemic was really the first game that kicked off my board game buying craze. I love the idea that everyone wins and loses together and you are all trying to solve the same problem and some people have a much different way of doing it.One issue that can occur with co-op games is the Alpha dog persona. If there is one person in the group that tends to tell everyone what to do and doesn’t allow for others to have some say then it just ends up being that one person playing and others just doing what she/he tells them to do. This can be the case when you are teaching others the game and they expect you to tell them what to do. This is when the game gets more fun for me because I like to watch how new players will try to solve the problem. I tend only to provide some guidance and inform them of what could occur the next round.Replayability​ is very high and we like to play it on a regular basis and it gets faster the more you understand the game.

      One person found this helpful

    15. Amazon Customer

      Awesome Intro to Game Night

      My boyfriend and I just started doing game nights and this has been a game changer (pun intended). He actually can’t wait for “no netflix night” and usually suggests we play this game.- It’s a great cooperative style game. This is awesome for really competitive people who might want to play it a little safer and not risk tensions running too high.- It takes a while to learn. Some of the rules are not as readily apparent from the rule book, and your first game might take a while understanding all of it. For instance, our first game we thought the objective was to eradicate, but it’s just to cure (multiple beers may have been involved tbh). Be patient and it’ll seem second-nature after 1-2 games.- Fun balance of strategy and luck. I’m not a big fan of pure luck games, mainly because I have none. Some people might like that thrill. But I do like strategizing and coming up with (diabolical) game plans. This is a nice bit of both.- It’s not easy to win. That’s part of what makes it so fun. It’s addicting because you might get so close, but come up short. Took us 5 games on the “easy” level to finally win.- Great for 2 or more people. We like games we can have fun with just the two of us (i.e. if you have no friends), or if you invite others. It’s also nice because the pace of game-play does allow outside conversation, so you can interact with your friends on a game night, not just immerse in the game and not talk for hours.

    16. DrWaky

      Very fun and easy to learn co-op board game.

      This board game is great, easy to learn, and fast to play. is a cooperative game, all the players win or lose, you play against the game. 4 diseases are spreading around the world, and stating in CDC Facility in Atlanta, you and your team of experts have to fight against them traveling the world to keep then in control at the same time you research the cure for all of them. There are several characters, each of them with different skills. You can eradicate a disease from the world once you find the cure, but it is not needed to win. You as a team will win getting the 4 cures. You as a team will lose: if the draw deck runs out of cards (it takes too much time for the team to research the cures), if you need to infect one city with a disease cube and there are no more for that disease available in the pool (one disease has spread too much and becomes out of control), or if there are 8 outbreaks (a lot of population get sick, too much contagious, the global pandemic runs out of control).You should pay attention to the Leader Effect, when you play this game, let the team interact, talk and take decisions, try not to concentrate the decision-making in one person.A good game for the COVID situation we are dealing with.

    17. Monique S. (The Ginger Librarian)Monique S. (The Ginger Librarian)

      Easily one of my favorite games of all time!

      There is a bit of a learning curve with this game, but don’t let that deter you. My 9-year-old niece got the hang of it in one playthrough with my teaching her, and my family of widely varying ages really enjoys this game. Pandemic is suitable for both casual and serious gamers, ages 8+.I absolutely love this game! I love the cop-op/team work aspect of it, as well as its overall theme/story (the CDC vs. infectious disease outbreaks). I love the rules of this game, how it plays out, and that it can be played in less than an hour. Also, the board, cards, disease cubes, and box are gorgeous! This game looks great on the table and on a shelf. Pandemic is quite easily one of my favorite games of all time!

      One person found this helpful

    18. Teresa

      Favorite board game!!

      My husband and I LOVE this game. Highly recommend, especially for people who are competitive. This is the first cooperative board game we have ever played and we love it– we win together or lose together. We work together to come up with the best move for each person and brainstorm/debate which move is best. We are super nerdy and started playing at the highest difficulty after playing ~2 games at a normal difficulty. So far, we win about 50% of the time, but we always seem to get close to winning so it’s always fun!Playing this game always leaves people in a good mood, even if we lose. With other board games, you have to choose whether you want to win at all costs and upset friends/family being ruthless, or be nice/casual and pretend like you don’t care about winning (but you do…) LOL. Pandemic is just fun and everyone can put in the amount of effort that they want.

    19. SauceSauce

      Simple

      Read some reviews and laughed at the ones who said it’s complicated. You have 4 moves on your turn and after that you draw 2 cards from the deck and hope it’s not an epidemic card . Then after that you draw 2 infection cards and place the color cube to the city that you drew that players turn is over and the next person goes and so on. Outbreaks occur when a city with 3 cubes on it gets another cube on it but since cities have a limit of 3 cubes you infect the cities connected to it. You can have cities with different color cubes if that’s where the outbreak occurred. Also move the outbreak meter once if an outbreak occurs. That’s just the basics but you can just youtube Watch it played and he explains how outbreaks and advanced movements work in detail.

    20. Alix McKee

      So much fun

      We took this in our camper for a week long vacation off the grid. The first game took us two hours of reading and stumbling through looking everything up in the directions. The second game took about 45 minutes. After a steep learning curve, we now have the hang of it and only occasionally have to stop and refer to the directions. Perfect for a mom, dad and teenager to play together. It says that you can play with two people, but that seems like it would be tough. We love that this game is cooperative and all players collaborate and win or lose together. Lots of opportunities for talking and reasoning.

      2 people found this helpful

    21. Johnny Two Shoes

      great game, now I understand the hype WAY after the fact

      I got this for my family to play during the pandemic, and it’s been a real gem. Even though it took awhile for us to grasp all the rules and the nuances, the kids figured it out quickly, and after maybe 10 games, I think we started playing it correctly. We love this game, and especially love how it’s cooperative. My youngest loves playing this of all our games because she doesnt have to compete with anyone else, so this really is the perfect game for families with young children.Having said that, I have a real gripe with the instructions. I think the instructions are really poorly laid out, and cramped. When situations with nuance arise, it’s not at all clear how to take action. Cue the gamers who say “read the manual.” I did many times, and after maybe the third time, and after playing a few games incorrectly, you begin to internalize the rules, and start to pick out the nuances. Dont think it should be like this- there should be an area in the instructions that specifically calls out edge cases so that nothing should be inferred. It feels like the game creators did their absolutely best to cram what they thought were the minimum viable instructions into as few pages as possible. Cant say I understand or admire the effort.All in all though, I and my entire family absolutely love this game- we’ve played it for months on end with no drop in interest. Highly recommend it, even despite the inadequately laid out instructions. You can always go online to forums to see how others interpret the rules (ridiculous that you should even have to, but lemonade and all)highly recommend this game, and looking forward to getting the expansions. I’m particularly interested in pandemic legacy, which I’ve heard even more praise for.

      2 people found this helpful

    22. AmyW

      Great family game!

      This seemed like an appropriate game for us to get in 2020! My husband, son (10), daughter (9) and myself played it. It took a little to understand the instructions, but once we got it, this game was super fun! I suggest watching a tutorial of how to play on youtube, as opposed to reading the instructions in the booklet. We love this game, and have played it 3 times in two days! I love that we win or lose together!

      3 people found this helpful

    23. Juan

      Pandemic Fun, but can be Hard if player

      This seems to be a great game to play with friends;So far we just play me and my wife, so it can get really hard some times (played only 2 characters).If you feel it is difficult to win, just take more characters out of the box and use 2 of them for each player.It is really good game, really fun and the “Skills” from each Character is really fun to play, they can give you a nice advantage to win.It can snow ball you really hard, so just go with it and have fun.

      One person found this helpful

    24. Brian Roskuszka

      Great Fast Paced Team Strategy Game

      The premise of the game is really cool (and relevant). You and your team of experts need to research the cure to four different colored viruses. Can you do it before it takes over the world? Can you save the world? You’ll have to play to find out.Pros:1. I like the specialties of the different characters. It gives the game a high replay value. I’ve had friends over 4 or 5 times now and the game feels fresh each time.2. I like that the game becomes more intense as time goes on. By the time you’re trying to cure the last disease or two, things are likely spiraling out of control and it’s a great bonding experience to work together even if you can’t beat the disease.3. I like that you can put the game at varying difficulty levels. You can vary the difficulty by choosing how many epidemic cards you put in the deck. Epidemic cards start an outbreak in a new city and concentrate the spread in places where it’s already spread most. They’re like gasoline on the fire.4. The game board looks nice and is made of good quality materials. The disease cubes and the pawns look really cool when they’re spread out on the board. It’s pretty cool to sit around a world map alive with activity with your friends or family.5. The game is only 30 minutes(up to an hour) depending on how fast you like to play. It’s quick enough to get in multiple games if you want to but long enough to build suspense and intensity each time.Potential Cons1. Sometimes you can just get screwed with bad luck and have almost no chance of winning if you’re playing on the hardest difficulty. That could be frustrating, it could also be fun.2. Some combinations of players are a bit OP (overpowered) and could almost make a game no fun if you really know what you’re doing. I like to mix it up and force people to take on a random role so that there’s more spontaneity and on the fly strategy involved.3. You will realize how little you know about the world when you fail to pronounce half of the cities right for the first time.Overall Pandemic is a great game. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in trying out a collaborative style of game.

    25. Logan

      Extremely fun but challenging game!!!

      It seemed like we’d just started the game and the yellow strain had not only been cured but eradicated! We were on the cusp of a cure for the second strain. This one was in the bag. We had weathered two epidemics so far without any egregious problems. Sure there was a pair of cities in Eastern Europe that was in danger, but what were the odds that was going to be a problem? One of us was already there. Then another epidemic hit, the infection rate increased, three cities were drawn and it seemed the cascading outbreaks knew no bounds. I think nearly everyone in Europe died that day, and we – a group of specialized scientists- were served a plate of bitter defeat. Again! Again and again, always defeat. Oh, the humanity!It’s true, I haven’t ever beat this rotten game and yet I keep coming back. Because one day I’ll win; in spite of all the wounds to my pride I’ve had to nurse, one day I’ll – I mean- we’ll win. I say we’ll because this is a co-operative game where you all work together against those nasty strains of no-doubt-human engineered beasties. Now, I know there are those of you who beat this every time you play, like I beat Shadows over Camelot every time I play, but I’ve invited those sorts to come play with me and they can barely stand the shame of losing with me.To make it even worse, we only play with 4 epidemics. I feel like I’m at an AA meeting: “Hi my name is Kyle.”“Hi Kyle” echoes the crowd.“I… I suck at Pandemic.”This is the part where you put your arm on my shoulder and tell me it’s going to be alright.Game PlayThis board is a handsome map of the world; only instead of country boards you see in Risk there is a red web of interconnected cities. Everyone starts in Atlanta were a research station is and you go from there. Each player plays a scientist that has a special ability: one can move others on their turn, one can give cards to another without the restrictions other players have and so on. The game also begins with 9 random cities around the world with varying degrees of infection (one to three stacked blocks). If a city would have a fourth block put on it (called an outbreak), it actually stays at three and the cities connected by the red web get a block. Isn’t that nice? It’s called a cascading outbreak. Such a pretty name. If you get 9 outbreaks in a game you lose. If you run out of blocks for a certain strain you lose, and if you haven’t cured all the strains before your white deck of cards runs out, you lose. I hate to be a negative Nancy, but there’s a lot of ways to lose this game. If, on the other hand, you are able to find cures for each strain, you win!How do you do that? Well you get someone who has got 5 cards of the same color in their hand to a research station, that’s how. One of the players only needs four.Every turn each player gets to do four actions. Picking up a cube off a city counts as one, so does moving between cities. You can charter flights with your cards, rather than use them for cures. You can build research stations and fly between those without expending a card, and a few other things. Then you draw cards that you think will help you, but can instead turn out to be epidemics. And you also draw cards for cities that get infected: usually this amounts to adding on square to the city’s pile. As the game progresses, more cards are drawn at a time to be infected. Oh, and when an epidemic happens, the cards for the cities that were infected get put back on the top of the draw pile. Oh dear.I hate to tell you what to do because what do I know anyway?Those of you who beat this all the time should tell me what to do. I understand that finding the cures is everything- lest you run out of time. Others say, make sure that you never have three on on e city at a time, as to avoid outbreaks.Make sure that the medic is only clearing off stacks of infections, the dispatcher should be moving people so that don’t have to move themselves.Again, I never win, so what do I know?ThemeIf it hasn’t been obvious, I am completely sucked in by the theme. There are similarities to other co-operative games especially Forbidden Island: Each character has special powers, you make moves for the team and then the board pushed you closer to defeat, that sort of thing. Forbidden Island also shares the shuffle the cards and put them back on top of the draw deck mechanic. I tell you this so that you won’t be surprised if you decide to add them both to your game closet, this is why I haven’t added Forbidden Island to mine, though I’ve played the game. While this adds to the evidence that the theme could be stripped out of the game, I don’t recall cascading flooding going on in Forbidden Island, or feeling like humanity is hanging in the balance, or being glad I don’t live anywhere in Eastern Europe. That is to say, I think the theme sticks.BalanceI read about people who win all the time and needed the expansion to rouse any concern in them. But who can believe everything they read on the internet, I ask you? Just because I’ve never won though doesn’t mean that it’s not an enjoyable experience, mind you. Because I keep coming back.InteractionInteraction is very high. There’s all sort of collaborative discussion that goes on through this game.Learning CurveLow. It takes all of ten minutes to explain and there are directions on the board and the turn cards.DowntimeNill. You are all in it together! And you even get to move a guy in your turn.What’s not to Like?I actually know where some of these cities are on the map are but they all have these lines that go from the pin-pointed location to the circle where you actually place the blocks. That remains a bit annoying even after playing the game 10 times.Collateral EndorsementMy four year old likes “The one where they get sick” We run around curing cities till the infection deck runs out. He feels a lot better about himself than the rage I feel playing by the real rules.Actually, as I think about it, the first time I played this game I was at the home of some friends and I think we won. But I’m certain I have not won with my copy of the game. I’d say mine is jinxed, but we’ve played on another friends copy and lost there too. Also, I should say that a brother of mine lost two in a row and saw the writing on the wall in the third game and left the table, swearing off the game forever. You might consider your own resiliency before buying this game.

    26. rainmakr

      Great cooperative game for 8yrs and up.

      I picked this up in 2016 as a Christmas gift for my 13 year-old daughter. I was trying to introduce my family to some new board games in an effort to get the kids to spend less time on video games. Pandemic was a hit with my daughter, my 9 year-old son, and myself (unfortunately, my wife refuses to play those “weird games”).I can’t add much more than others have already said. However, since my family was new to cooperative games and this style of game expected that we might have problems understanding the rules which might cause short-attention-span kids to quickly lose interest. To alleviate that I purchased the iPad version and played a few times myself prior to gifting Pandemic to my daughter. It ended up being a great decision on my part and we were able to start paling relatively quickly. I mentioned, we all enjoyed it and my daughter prefers it to “Forbidden Island” and “Ticket to Ride.” I enjoy all three, and my 10 year-old son prefers cooperative games such as this.The only downside is that the “cooperative” component sometimes turns into an “argumentative” component when there’s more than one strong-willed player who thinks their strategy is the best.

      4 people found this helpful

    27. S. Howard

      Best game EVER!

      Okay, to start out, I love love LOVE Pandemic! I admit it, I’m a bit competitive. I hate losing games. I’m generally fine with competitive games where the best strategist (or luckiest) wins, but I really dislike games (like Settlers of Catan) where some players can gang up on others. You pretty much don’t have a chance when every other player is specifically playing against YOU. Pandemic is fantastic because you cooperative with the other players and you all win or lose together. I just absolutely love sitting at the table talking about all our options and strategizing together.My son introduced me to Pandemic several months ago, and I was hooked. We’ve spent several afternoons/evenings playing again–and again–and again. On many occasions when I am home alone, I play all by myself (playing two roles), and we’ve also played four players on several occasions.With two players and four epidemics, we win every time. With five epidemics, we win about 70% of the time. We’ve tried six epidemics a couple times, but have not been able to beat that game yet. Still trying! Ugh! As you increase the number of players, the game gets more difficult. With four players we’ve only played with four epidemics, and we win probably a little over half the time. I honestly think it would be impossible with four players and six epidemics, but someone has probably proven me wrong.We’ve even discovered another way to lose the game, which is not listed in the rule book! It says you can lose by having too many outbreaks, running out of disease cubes, or running out of player cards. We’ve lost in all those lovely ways. However, a couple of times, we’ve had only a few outbreaks, had plenty of cubes of each color left, and plenty of player cards. Three diseases cured, with only one to go. One of those times, we’d even gotten through all the epidemics, so there were none left in the infection deck! We’ve got it made, right? Uh, no. Turns out we discarded too many of the same color city cards, and there were only four left total, including in our hands and in the player deck. Neither of us was the Scientist, so that was an automatic loss. This is a danger when you get dealt a nice hand at the beginning, say two or even three of the same color. You decide to collect those, so when you discard, you are discarding the other colors. If you happen to keep drawing you “discard” color and it takes too long to collect the color(s) you want, you’ve now discarded too many of the other color and you don’t have enough left at the end to cure the disease. Beware.We have also managed to lose the game on the very first turn. We were very unlucky drawing the infection cards when setting up the game: three on Karachi and Delhi, and two on Kolkata. Our first player did not have any way to get to that location to do even a little treating, and the first card drawn from the player deck was an epidemic. After resolving the epidemic, the first card drawn was Delhi, which caused a double outbreak (Delhi/Karachi) and put the third cube on Kolkata. The second card drawn was Kolkata, which was a triple outbreak (Kolkata/Delhi/Karachi) and lost us the game as there weren’t enough disease cubes. Yep, lost on the very first player card drawn and there was not a single thing we could do about it.One slight change we sometimes make in the game is to draw 10 cards at the beginning instead of 9. The first nine infect the cities, and the tenth is where we place our player pawns and the first research station. It adds a level of difficulty to the game to not always start in Atlanta. We were noticing before that we always seemed to get in trouble with black and red, and we believe it was because all our players started so close to blue and yellow so those cities were easy to get to and treat. Now that we can start anywhere on the board, blue and yellow have become equal opportunity killers.There are a few things it is easy to get wrong. When the infection rate moves up, it’s easy to forget to start drawing three cards (or four) since you’re so accustomed to the lower number. It’s also easy to forget to discard, not noticing that you have more than 7 cards in your hand. One scenario we’ve encountered a few times involves having 8 cards for literally a second. You meet another player on top of a research station, and share knowledge by pulling that city card from her. You now have 8 cards in your hand, but 5 of one color. Your very next action is going to be curing a disease, which will leave you with only 3 cards. But, before you cure that disease, you have 8 cards, so we think you have to discard one even though literally on your next action you will be discarding 5 cards. This is a little frustrating, but the rules specifically say that if you EVER (my emphasis) have more than 7 cards in your hand, you must discard (or play an event card).We were also a little confused by the role of the Researcher the first time we played. To be clear, when the Researcher shares knowledge, she and the other player must be on the same city, and the card can only go FROM the Researcher TO the other player (on either player’s turn, as an action). She cannot take a card from the other player (and they cannot give one to her), unless it matches the city they are sitting on.It is also extremely easy to forget to infect cities after resolving an epidemic. You’ve spent a bunch of time resolving, then strategizing based on where the board stands now, and you completely forget that you still have to infect before going to the next player.Lastly, you are not supposed to choose your roles. We played with one person who had played before, and he said they always choose which roles they want. I suppose you can play that way if you want, but the game would be far less interesting because people would probably tend to choose the same roles every time. The instructions say to shuffle the role cards and deal them to each player — that means they’re supposed to be random. It’s far more interesting and challenging when the roles change every time. A good part of the strategy is figuring out how to maximize the advantages that each role gives you in any given game.Pandemic is basically figuring out exactly how much effort you have to spend in each game sharing knowledge in order to cure diseases versus preventing outbreaks, all while maximizing the strategic use of whatever role you are playing. Spend too much time on one, and the other will get you. Sometimes you just have to say “oh well” and let an outbreak happen, even when you could have prevented it. It may just be more important to get to that one city in order to share knowledge than to get to the city where the outbreak is about to happen in order to prevent it. However we do try hard to prevent double outbreaks because things can get very bad very quickly when that happens.Okay I’ve rambled enough. If you’re on the edge, buy this game! It’s awesome. Every game is different and it never gets boring. It is equally fun with two or more players, although the more players, the more challenging it is. You can control the difficulty level by player with fewer or more epidemic cards. A+

      One person found this helpful

    28. Amazon Customer

      So great!

      My boyfriend and I enjoy playing games together, so we were looking to expand beyond card games and dominoes. This game is very fun and we get to practice working together to solve problems. We’ve played probably about 10 times now and have realized after each game that we accidentally cheated somehow. It is very important to read the rules thoroughly and take them at their face value. Don’t read into them too much or you’ll just confuse the intentions of the game. I’ve googled many rules when we were confused and found many online arguments over the rules that just led me back to taking the rules literally and just accepting that it means it literally. I think this last time we played we finally didn’t accidentally cheat. We’ll be upping the difficulty for next time! I love that it has different difficulty levels, too, because it allows you to continue to enjoy playing it after you’ve mastered the premise. Having new characters and combinations of characters also keeps things interesting!

    29. SweetLife

      Helped kids with their fears about the current pandemic!

      This is a very smart, very well thought out cooperative game that can be adjusted in difficult level. I highly recommend it, despite the current circumstances, or perhaps especially in the current circumstances. My kids conquered their fears about our pandemic when we played this game, and learned that many different professionals work together in cooperation to combat a virus. They wanted to play it again and again, each time gaining confidence from beating the pandemic. As an added plus, kids also learn the location and population density of many cities around the world. Highly recommend!

      2 people found this helpful

    30. Matt Baker

      Great Game! I Have Enjoyed Playing the LARP Version for 2020.

      It is fun playing the horrors of 2020 in real time. After bits of nervous crying and screaming into a pillow, I fill a dollar store pint glass with boxed wine, start to invite friends over to play, but remember Covid is still devouring our populations, so I put my phone down, and then stare aimlessly at the game’s box until the wine kicks in. Then I sob over the sink, eating cold mac and cheese and after the fifth pint glass of boxed wine, I fall asleep on the living room rug, cradling a pillow. Not even the dogs can be bothered to show kindness. 10/10. Loved this game!!

      One person found this helpful

    31. Poppies

      Fantastically fun cooperative board game.

      This game is an absolute blast. And it is reasonably easy to learn (now this is not Sorry or Chutes and Ladders, but for someone that plays role-playing games like D&D, Munchkin, Pathfinder, etc., this is fairly easy), and yet definitely takes some time to master strategy which leads to good replay value. It is a great game for a 10 year old. She learned about geography and maybe a bit about disease, certainly good for problem-solving skills. We love that it is cooperative and we don’t have to worry about hurt feelings (we can be a bit competitive with competitive games). The quality of the board, cards and pieces is high. There are a lot of small pieces (the disease cubes, about 7 x 7 x 7 mm) so be warned if you have a baby/toddler around (or a cat like ours that likes to jump on the board while we play), that this could be a definite choking/scattering/getting lost hazard. I would highly recommend this to anyone who thinks an intelligent, cooperative board game would be fun. And again, probably 10 years old plus and it is for 2-4 players. It does seem a bit harder with 2 than 4 players to be honest. Games take about 30-45 minutes and player number does not seem to affect that. You do lose or fail to save the world sometimes, but difficulty seems very appropriate after playing 5 or 6 times. You can adjust difficulty by putting in less epidemic cards (per rule book) or even tweakin rules a bit (allowing cards to be exchanged just by being in same city instead of same city and having card of the city) at first while you learn or with younger players. We tried this game with a 7 and 8 year old and, at least for those two, I do think this game was a bit too advanced.

      4 people found this helpful

    32. B.P.

      Challenging, fun, cooperative game!

      This is a great game due to the fact that it is cooperative! Everyone is on the same team and trying to reach the same goal. There is a lot going on and it seems pretty complicated at first, but after a couple games your really get the hang of it. It is very easy to pick up if playing with someone who already knows how since there’s quite a bit of instructions and asking them questions is much easier than finding the answer in the multi-page manual. Every time you play is different due to how the cards fall and the individual role cards involved. There are 3 difficulty settings and to be warned, it can be quite challenging to win (especially on the hardest setting). By that just makes winning so much sweeter! I highly recommend this game as it’s a great one for fun, planning, teamwork, and communication.

      One person found this helpful

    33. MAtkinson

      T.p.

      Omg I went to Costco today for t.p. and couldn’t get any because they were all out because people are getting crazy about the Coronavirus… buying up t.p., bottled water, flour, hand sanitizer, etc. like crazy. It was bonkers like first episode of your favorite apocalypse tv show where they set up the disaster. I came home and looked at this game sitting on the floor from Xmas, still unopened. I realized we might be playing it soon when we’re all stuck at home because the plague arrives, and thought that was pretty ironic. Maybe if it gets real bad there’s paper pieces we can use for t.p.

      42 people found this helpful

    34. Norman Mjadwesch

      I love my wife so why do I always want to …

      When I first saw this game I had never actually heard of cooperative games. I read a bit about the concept and I thought to myself that it all seemed a bit pointless – playing games is about winning and how do you win if you don’t have someone to beat? I know that solo games such as solitaire are geared towards beating the system, but to me that’s because you don’t have a human to go up against (and ideally mash). I’m sure I’m not the only one whose family background was board games when it rains, with a win at all costs attitude instilled at an early age – it’s just what you did!But then I thought about it. I love my wife so why do I always want to pulp her when we bring out the old favourites? I thought to myself that it might be a better idea if we face things together, a kind of extension on how couples are supposed to be. So I bought Pandemic as a Christmas present for her (me!), not knowing very much about it at all or if we would enjoy it. But hey, need to shop for present: box ticked!We took our time learning the rules, but they aren’t too hard to grasp and we played a few easier levels and then dived into the toughest one. When we lost there was no finger pointing and when (if!) we won it was a very affirming experience for us as a team. I really have to recommend this game; it’s given me a taste for an unexpected evolution in game development and now I’m looking at other things out there too.But we still play the old stuff like Ludo and Risk, and she still hammers me in chess…

      5 people found this helpful

    35. AH

      Too fun!!

      We bought this for our 19 year old daughter for her birthday at the suggestion of our son-in-law. It is really fun – and this is from someone who detests playing games! What makes Pandemic different is that all of the players work together to try and “beat the germ” – I really like this aspect of the game. It is challenging, but yet possible to win. We have played it every time our daughter and son-in-law come over – it has become our “family game”! We even ended up buying our son-in-law his own Pandemic, and bought it for some friends who enjoy playing games as well. There are also extensions you can add to it to make it more challenging and fun. This game is well worth the purchase if you enjoy group games – again, you work together instead of against each other which is what we all liked about it! Enjoy!

    36. GigiGirlGigiGirl

      Diseases, Infections & Outbreaks…Oh My!!!

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       If anyone has read my reviews and/or answers on questions you will see that in the past year my family has gotten really into the Ticket To Ride (TTR) games. Well, while purchasing one of my latest TTR expansions I stumbled upon the Pandemic games; which are similar to the TTR ones in that you start with a base game, get the foundation for rules and game play and then you start moving on to expansions with additional features. I purchased Pandemic and with Amazon Prime it was delivered in less than 24 hours, no kidding! As is my usual custom I read the instruction manual and then because I am a visual learner I went to You Tube to watch some videos. ZManGamesOfficial does a 9.5 minute brief tutorial. WatchItPlayed does a wonderful job walking you through the game prep for a 2-player game including where all pieces, cards, etc. go. This was very helpful as there are specific instructions on how to shuffle and stack the Player Cards. My niece and I had this video up while setting up the first game. Finally, I watched Geek & Sundry do their TableTop version of the game where you actually get to see the players play. They have an abbreviated video and then a 1.5 hour extended game play. So, these are just tips that helped us get an understanding of the game play and we had a blast!Pandemic allows you to travel from the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta and you travel throughout the world trying to cure and eradicate 4 diseases. The instructions make it sound so easy but oh boy; it is not. Game play can be learned in about 15-30 minutes. The difficult part and it is not the actual game-play; is trying to come up with enough strategies fast enough to cure and eradicate the diseases before you and your team die! Yes, team…unlike TTR this is not a game 1 player wins. It’s a collaborative game in which all players work together…you discuss how you can unite forces, share your special roles, your cards, etc. But be careful of an alpha player who may start bossing people around, telling them what to do and takes charge of the game. If you get an alpha player just let them have the game board, pawns, etc. and tell them to play the game by them self but as if they were many players. In the end if it’s your turn you can listen to others, even the alpha player, but what you do is totally up to you. If you don’t have a good strategy everyone loses…my niece and I call it dying because we have succumbed to the disease.So, why is it a race against the clock? Well, no matter how well your strategy, your team can “die” IF you: Have 8 outbreaks before curing/eradicating all 4 diseases, you run out of Disease Cubes or Player Cards. Note: You don’t have to eradicate all 4 diseases to win; you just have to cure all 4. First game we cured all 4 diseases and eradicated the yellow (“Crazy Banana Disease”) but we got 8 outbreaks…we saved the world! 2nd game; yes, we played another because we were feeling lucky! We cured all 4 diseases, didn’t eradicate any and once again we saved the world. We named our diseases the Black Zombie Plague, Purple People Eater (Blue cubes), Angry Bird Virus (red) and of course the Crazy Banana Disease (yellow) because my niece named it while infecting Miami.During your turn you can play up to 4 actions, draw 2 Player Cards but you cannot be holding more than 7 at any given time and then you MUST infect cities! The Infection Rate starts at 2 cities per player, per turn. But every time a player draws an Epidemic Card they have to move the Infection Rate marker and it slowly increases the Infection Rate from 2 cities up to 4 cities. The Epidemic card also requires you to draw 1 city from the bottom of the Infection cards and you must infect that city with 3 disease cubes; 1 more cube of the same color and you have an outbreak, oh my! Finally, the Epidemic Card requires you to “intensify” the Infection Cards. That means you must shuffle all the Infection Cards (cities) that have been played since the last epidemic, including the city card you just drew from the Infection Card pile and then put them back on top of the Infection Card pile so they now go back into play. See the intensity? With just my niece and me playing we didn’t have as many cards to reshuffle so we kept infecting the same cities; which in essence was then producing outbreaks faster. I “think” you may have a longer game play with more people because then the other players will also be contributing cards.An outbreak occurs if/when a city accumulates 4 of the same color disease cubes. When this happens you must put a disease cube of that same color in every city that is directly attached to the city that the outbreak occurred in, thus, the epidemic. Note: It’s possible that you have infected a city with more than 1 disease so IF you have 4 or more disease cubes but they are different colors you do NOT have an outbreak. The outbreak is only when you get 4 of the same color in the same city but the 4th cube (same color) will not be placed on the city. So watch those disease cubes and treat and cure so you can prevent the outbreaks.Now when you play up to 4 actions during each turn you have an option to treat a disease. You treat by removing 1 or more disease cubes from the city you are in (each cube being an action) that you have used your actions and/or role to get to. I was the Medic during first game and one of my roles allowed me to remove ALL disease cubes from the city I was in or traveled to! The Dispatcher can move players from city to city with their permission so once again…If you have a Dispatcher in the same game with a Medic you can move the Medic to the city that needs to be treated and get rid of all the disease cubes. IF the disease has been cured (see above pic…the disease markers are solid colors and moved above the disease logos) then you get to remove ALL the disease cubes in that city EVEN IF you aren’t the Medic. To eradicate the disease you must remove ALL disease cubes of the same color from every city on the board. When you have eradicated the disease you flip the disease marker over to reveal the little log for eradicated. Note: Cities can still be infected if the disease has been cured but NOT if it has been eradicated.Back to the outbreaks. There’s also an outbreak chart with marker and each time an outbreak occurs you have to move the marker. If you have 8 outbreaks the game is over and there is no winner because everyone has died. You also have Research Stations and these are nice because there is one action that allows you to shuttle from station to station and that can get you closer to an infested area to have a chance to treat, cure and/or eradicate several or all cities. There are also Role Cards and pawns to match the color of your role. Each role has special duties that only that player can perform (see above with Medic and Dispatcher). You don’t get to choose your color/role. Pandemic is for 2-4 players and there are 6 Role Cards so you won’t have all 6 roles in game play at the same time. There is another extension that adds a 5th player.I know there is a lot more that can be said and I or someone else can try to answer your questions. I just played for the first time last night (4/13/19) and while playing the 2nd game I came to Amazon and we read descriptions for some the expansions. I immediately ordered Pandemic: The Cure–Experimental Meds and then about 2 hours later I ordered Pandemic: State Of Emergency (this introduces diseases/infections from animals). So as you can see this is how pleased I was with Pandemic and yes, we are still playing TTR…I will be posting some more reviews on those as well because I currently have 9 versions.I think I got infected with a board game virus but hey, what can I say; my family/friends still love games the old-fashioned way…totally unplugged, board games and card games around the table. On a side note I must share what happened during our game. My daddy called and my sister held the phone out so he could hear my niece and me playing. We had one part of the map covered and ready to explode with black Disease Cubes. My niece was trying to tell me how I could (as the Medic) take care of all the blacks. She said, “Auntie, if you just get rid of all the blacks we won’t die! Can you just take care of all the blacks over there?” and she pointed to the area that was well infected AND we were trying to treat/cure some the disease so that we could remove some the black Disease Cubes off the board and continue game play. Later I dropped a Dorito on the map and I told my sister, “Shay-Bo, I think I just killed everyone in Moscow because a large UFO has landed on them.” We are a Christian family that doesn’t drink, smoke, etc. We just like to have good clean fun but I told my family if anyone was a fly on the wall during our game play they would have been questioning our integrity. We have already planned our next family game day for Good Friday and yes, it will be good!!

      2 people found this helpful

    37. Rutko

      very relevant

      This game is fun to play and very difficult to win, especially with only three players, because each play has special abilities that help everyone defeat the diseases. All the players must really coordinate their efforts and strategize the best way to stop disease spread. With only 3 players (two of whom are children) we need to modify play a bit to have a chance at winning. The main thing we do is only put two outbreak cards in the deck, and we don’t end the game if the whole pile is gone.In short, thanks to Pandemic, I now have a faint glimmer of understanding at how difficult it is to combat and contain highly infectious disease outbreaks around the world. Perhaps, in future editions, one of the specialists could be “mask distributer”, whose special ability is to go into different cities and reduce their disease outbreaks by one cube just by being there.

      3 people found this helpful

    38. Dominik

      Amazing Game!

      I was very concerned about this game given its price compared to most classics (Double the price than the average nice monopoly!) but this game certainly is very fun and intuitive to play with friends once you get the hang of it. This game sort of reminds me of Plague Inc. where your objective is actually quite the opposite (save the world not kill it!) but what amazes me even more is how this game was made about 10 years before this 2020 pandemic began and it makes it really interesting to play now and making decisions on what to do to reduce spread and seeing how hard it is to reduce spread once several connected hotspots have been created.

    39. LS

      Easy to Learn

      Fine game and play it often; everyone wins or all lose. Each person we introduce it to buys their own box. The game play is different and a new group will initially seem confused, but if you dive in and start to play, you’ll catch on quickly. You may have a few rule checks and “Oh, yeah, got it” moments, but you’ll quickly get there. As you play more you’ll discover minor strategy nuances brought about by the cooperative nature and the different powers of the various characters. One down side is that it is easy for an experienced player, playing with some newbies, to be dominating such that it really amounts to a solo game with several enablers kind of participating; recognize that and deal with it; remember it is just a game and is supposed to be fun for all.

    40. Rexie

      Great mid-level game!

      This game is a great introduction into mid-difficulty cooperative games. The board, cards, and pieces are high quality and seems like they will last over time. Honestly, as a teacher, I think this game should be used to teach everyone about infectious diseases. It gave me a realistic sense of how things spread, how we have to work together to contain outbreaks, etc. It’s a really great game!

      2 people found this helpful

    41. J. P. Race

      An excellent game, but not for everyone.

      READ THIS: This is a cooperative game, where the players have to work together to beat the game ITSELF. This is a VERY different game experience than most, and some players might not like it at all. Competitive children might have a hard time understanding the idea. The theme obviously is dark, but the fact you are playing on map of the Earth, and that outbreaks occur in places that really exist, drives that home even more. Definitely a serious game, better suited to teens-adults than (most) children.The game is basically a race between the players, as a group, and the pandemics. The pandemics are trying spread over the whole world. If the players cannot develop a cure in time, the human race will have been wiped out (you lose). The players each have a different character they play, they all have certain shared actions, but each has a unique ability all their own. Coordinating those abilities is a big part of the challenge of the game: it is almost impossible to win if each player is doing their own thing. Teamwork is paramount. There may be passionate debate as to the best course of action. This is normal. If no one is talking to each other, you are almost certainly losing. In this respect it is STARTLINGLY analogous to actual pandemics. There are myriad ways to make the game more or less challenging, but if you want more variety there are a HOST of expansions for the base game.NOT FOR CASUAL PLAY; it is challenging. In my experience, the players will lose at least half of the time for the first dozen or so games. Even when the players have a handle on the probabilities and mechanics, strategies which worked well in one game may not work out in the next. You cannot fall into mechanical thinking.

      2 people found this helpful

    42. ArthuRhetorical

      The cooperative aspect of this game is great if you’re not in the mood to play against …

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      Pandemic Board Game

      OverviewPandemic is a cooperative game where you’re working together to cure diseases and prevent a worldwide pandemic. If disease spreads too far, you lose. If you find cures for all of the diseases and eradicate them you win. There are multiple roles you and your team mates can play, each with unique powers that allow you to work around the rules in a specific way.Pros:There is a high sense of urgency and tension in the game. Working against the game to win in time really draws you into the theme.The cooperative aspect of this game is great if you’re not in the mood to play against your friends and family. Playing as a team can create a great bond with the other players, especially when you get down to that last nail-biting turn.High level of difficulty and replay-ability, with rules to make the game harder once you’ve mastered the basic game.This game really makes you work together to win. If everyone just does their own thing, you will lose for sure. The rules even encourage discussion before making any actions.It really does an excellent job of making the game a challenging opponent. The game’s “AI”, that is, the way you draw cards and spread the diseases through “outbreaks” means that the game is very difficult without requiring a player to make decisions.Cons:The game can be very hard, even on the easiest setting. I have yet to actually win the game, even with six plays under my belt.Be prepared to lose the first few plays.Mood: Thinky, Cooperative, Strategic

      58 people found this helpful

    43. Scott M in SC

      Steep learning curve but great game. Watch the online tutorial videos!

      KEY TIP: Watch the tutorials on YouTube. The manufacturer has one (ZManGamesOfficial) and there’s another one by a guy who does nothing but review games (Watch It Played). I watched a couple of others and these were the best, by far. The directions are good as an in-game reference, but not to teach you how to play. The goal is really this – have one player get 5 card of the same color so you can then cure a disease. Everything else plays in to that. Get 5 of the same color, cure the disease, and you’re on your way. Use the player abilities. They’re really helpful. Collaborate. That’s the fun of the game and what makes it unique. I’ve played it 3-player and 4-player, with my kids (14 & 16) and with adults, and it’s a lot of fun and a very unique premise for a board game – both in concept and that it’s collaborative.Get the game, watch the videos, play the game with the directions/reference handy, and you’ll be on your way in no time!

    44. Amazon Customer

      Is there a doctor in the house?

      I was originally introduced to this game by a student of mine, who had been working with me on disease modeling. After reading some of the great reviews of the game, my wife and I decided to purchase it last year. We can’t say enough how much we enjoy playing this game; it makes you think, and, more importantly, you have to work together!My wife and I love playing board games, but some of our board games can get fairly competitive and, in some cases, can leave bad feelings afterward (we don’t play trivia games anymore because of this!). If you’ve had these feelings, then Pandemic is the game for you: You don’t compete against each other, but against the game board. This means, you can talk, you can share information, and you can strategize together openly. And, if you win, it’s a strong sense of accomplishment; if you lose, you can always try again!To the game itself: We love the quality of the pieces (sturdy plastic for the disease cubes and game pawns, well-made cards that have withstood numerous plays and shuffles, and a very sleek game board and box!), but we especially love that it’s a different game every time. Each of you randomly selects your role, giving each of you a special ability that can help your team. You then randomly place disease cubes on the board, and then start trying to find cures. Sometimes, you get lucky, and you can discover cures quickly, but, other times, epidemic cards come up so quickly that you don’t know what hit your team! Admittedly, the first few plays are slow, because there are a lot of rules to keep track of. But, after a few plays, you really get the hang of it, and, since you are working together, you can help each other learn the game. We’ve found that a typical game takes around 30-45 minutes, which is a good length of time.Finally, I’ll say that one other thing we really like about this game is you can adjust the difficulty: make it easier by putting in less epidemic cards or laying your hands on the table so everyone can see, or make it harder by adding in more epidemic cards and/or playing with expansion packs. Some other rule changes to make the game more challenging are included in the main rules.The few complaints we have had about the game are that the game is only for 2-4 players (more requires an expansion pack), so, if your family or board game group is large, keep this in mind. Also, although the game is cooperative, it is hard! We’re currently on a streak where we haven’t won a game in weeks, but I’m hoping we’ll save humanity soon enough!Anyway, if you’ve been growing sick (he he he) of the “standard” board games, give this one a try. It was our first venture outside of “standard” board games, and Pandemic is why we now own Ticket to Ride and Forbidden Island, and are looking at Settlers of Catan. This coming from people who started out with Monopoly, Clue, and Life!

      52 people found this helpful

    45. Melody

      Great 2 person game or group game!

      We learned this game over Christmas break with the family and my husband surprised me with it for Valentines day! It is super fun, challenging with a group – I like that its a group game where everyone works together and either wins together or (sadly) loses together. I think we needed to tweak rules a bit to win with 4 players (max) because it was extremely difficult otherwise but with 2 people it is challenging yet enjoyable and with experience, you will get the hang of it in no time! It may take a while to remember all the rules and nuances, but there are helpful cards that remind you of various rules, etc. so its easy to visually remember. Very happy with purchase. Came in great packaging and condition.

    46. Fenix8452

      Fantastic co-operative fun

      My friends and I play tabletop games and other, more advanced head-to-head board games like Risk and Axis & Allies, so we are generally familiar with rule sets and games in general. This had been recommended to me by Amazon for literal years, but I had always hesitated.It went on a good black friday sale price, and I pulled the trigger because so many people in public forums have compared other games back to this. I wish I would have done it sooner.Our first game was our longest, as we followed the included rule book carefully and in a procedural manner. I’m told this is an improved version of the original, but I will say I wish the rulebook was more explicit to what causes an “outbreak” but we were able to figure it out by playing. A simple line I wish was stated specifically:Outbreaks: These occur if any city that already has 3 infection markers on it gets another infection marker. Follow the outbreak rules section when this happens.Once we had a grasp of the rules, my group (all adults in our 30’s) VERY quickly got into the strategy of the game, and the discussions of what to do next was exciting and rapid. We loved being on the same side for once, working against the deck. Our first game we won almost easily, the second we made harder with 5 epidemic cards instead of 4, and despite some solid effort, we lost! I like this that way, if we could easily win every time we would get bored quickly. The loss left us wanting to go again, but we were out of time.First game took us about an hour and 15, but our second game was much much faster. Probably closer to 40 minutes.The overall rules are simple enough that I would say kids can definitely grasp it after a few play thru’s. This game has been very addicting for us, we may clear our schedules of other games for a while. It’s also expandable from official sources, which I’ll be looking into, and if you are good at game design you could add a few things yourself without breaking it.

      2 people found this helpful

    47. Star

      This game is FUN, Cooperative, and CHALLENGING

      We really love this game. What’s unique about it is that you’re NOT against other players, you’re trying to HELP each other solve the pandemic, as a team. And it is SUPRISINGLY challenging, particularly when you can’t have more than 7 cards in your hand at one time. My husband and I play this every other weekend in our free time and we have BARELY won each time. 10/10 very unique game play and experience. This will be traveling with us when we see family.

      One person found this helpful

    48. TangerineSea

      Fun, Addictive Game Without Competition

      It’s a co-op game – you fight the board, not each other, and I love that, especially in a family that is full of competitive people. The more people you have playing it can be a really long game. Although it’s co-op you don’t have to share your cards with everybody and let them know what you have. Before you start the game, you may want to make it clear to everybody else that the game consists of teamwork, but nobody is leader. I know there can be some forceful personalities; it sucks the fun out of the game when people are telling you what to do, and you feel like it’s not even really your turn, but their turn nonstop with your character.There’s three ways to die, so that makes it fun! You’re in a hurry to figure out how to survive. Some rules are unclear and confusing. Look online, and there’s a lot of people there to clarify the rules. The first time I played it was with two friends. We misunderstood a lot of the rules and went all over the place, and even changed rules in the middle of turns, to try to sort it out better. It wasn’t a proper game at all, but it was loads of fun, and we won right before there were no cards left to draw. My friends also have this obsession with the asian character guy, so they always hope and pray they get him when we mystery pull character roles. And no, they’ve never pulled him. I did once. They hated me. 🙂

      4 people found this helpful

    49. Phil H.

      A Great Gateway Game

      Pandemic is legendary. It’s tense, but it’s a lot of fun. This is a great game for 2 to 4 players, but you can also play it solo by controlling more than one of the character roles.Your mission is to cure epidemic breakouts of four different types of disease before they spread out of control. You work together with other types of medical professionals to travel the world learning how to treat and ultimately cure the diseases.Pandemic is one of my favorite “gateway” games. A gateway game moves a non-gamer toward becoming a gamer. Or introduces someone who has only played mass market games like Monopoly or Clue to the world of games that are actually good. Pandemic is also a good introduction to cooperative gaming, where all the players work together as a team to beat the game rather than competitively trying to beat each other.This has become my wife’s favorite game. She loves it because it is challenging but not impossible to beat, it is quick and easy to set up and put away, and 2-player games last anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes. Whenever we pull it out (which is frequently) we normally play it two or three times.Pandemic has inspired many other similar games, but it remains a classic. Highly recommended.

      2 people found this helpful

    50. Peter Sipes

      Finally a cooperative game

      This game has been good to play with my kids. Instead of your typical one winner game, all players win or lose together. It makes them cooperate. The mechanics are pretty simple (though it did take a couple of play throughs to really master them). I’ve been a board gamer for what feels like forever (Risk in the 80s was my introduction), and this is a really fun game. Easily the best multiplayer game I’ve played for the first time in several years.

    51. Cosmic

      Fun for Many

      After playing this with a friend for a few years, I finally bought my own for a family trip to Idaho. There is definitely a learning curve but after a game or two we had it all figured out! Challenging, but extremely fun in bigger groups. Even more challenging the fewer people you have! We all wanted to stay up all night playing. We did find that it wasn’t difficult to tailor to the group, even play on “easy mode” for the newbies.

    52. Griswel

      Great, co-operaive fun

      My kids played this after we got it for the family for Christmas, and they had a fun time, though I hadn’t played. My middle daughter and her boyfriend played a second game with my wife and I for New Years, and so I tried it for the first time. Like any board game, it takes a little getting used to before play moves quickly. The 45-minute estimate was low even with only two brand new players, but it was less than ninety minutes even though we played a full game (i.e. we won).The co-operative mechanics are great for anyone looking to avoid a zero-sum game where every player’s success comes at the expense of someone else. Those can be fun, but most games and groups quickly develop tiers, and who wins is decided often as soon as you pick what game you will play. Even when the winner isn’t clear from the start, the loser(s) typically are. So co-op has real advantages unless you have a very balanced group.Also, the nature of game play lets you ease new players into the system. Each player’s turn involves discussions with all players, so advice is entirely appropriate. Novices might feel left out, my wife’s turns were often decided when she was away, but if you are careful, any player can be eased into the game and still be very useful. The limit of four players is affected as well. You can’t have more than four players on the board, but that doesn’t stop having one or more extra people offering advice and being a valuable part of the team as anyone with a token on the board.Despite the subject matter, the game isn’t overly dark. This isn’t Plague Inc, you’re saving mankind, not wiping it out (Greenland and Madagascar, regrettably, are not represented). Little blocks, like Risk only clear plastic, are used to represent diseases. No need to worry about having too few blocks, either. If you run out, you’ve lost. So don’t lose any pieces. Mankind may become extinct due to your carelessness! There is also a geography lesson involved, as many distant and exotic places will become important to you. However, compact areas of the world are handled by moving the name and having a line point to the real location to spread out the major metropolitan areas you try to save,While you can ramp up the difficulty level with pre-game choices, I doubt you’ll be playing this every week for months at a time. The same is true of most games, of course, but I can see Pandemic becoming samey after a dozen games. In the meantime, however, it’s a lot of fun, and an enjoyable group effort in the bargain.

      One person found this helpful

    53. Rachel Burger

      One of those rare fun 2-player coop games that doesn’t get boring

      My boyfriend and I just can’t play competitive games against each other. They always end with one of us gloating and the other glowering, muttering profanities under their breath. So, we decided that we’d try to find a good cooperative game. Unfortunately, good two-player coop games are tough to come by.That’s why we’re so happy to have found Pandemic. It’s you against the board WITH your partner (up to four people). The game is really easy to catch on to; after playing through the first few moves, we both got the hang of it. You definitely don’t need to be a hugely experienced boardgame player to enjoy it.There are tons of small parts and nuances to each game, so I do recommend limiting the game to 10 years old and up. Expect your first game to last 90 minutes with the learning curve, but that time will quickly reduce to an hour or so after you understand how to play the game. Set up takes five minutes.Overall, the game is replayable and thoroughly enjoyable. My boyfriend and I are both not super great at it (yet), but I would much rather be conquering this game WITH him than tearfully conceding another game TO him. At least, now, I have a chance.

      3 people found this helpful

    54. Jennifer G.

      Super impressed. The board quality itself is really nice

      I just received this the other day. I want to say I am impressed with the quality.Starting with the box itself, I am very impressed. I’ve never got a board game before that was such heavyweight chipboard box. Then the photo paper covering the box is very detailed, and rich full of color. Lovely texture and coating on the box. Super impressed.The board quality itself is really nice, looks, great!I like the clear plastic disease cubes, they are pretty crystal clear and to me it’s more exciting and not as monotonous as the wooden ones that came with the first edition. I wouldn’t of minded wooden pawns but I am not complaining.. they are fairly heavy plastic and polished a bit — same with the research center tokens.Card quality is very nice. Air cushioned and seems like they’d hold up. I’ve already sleeved the player deck. I might not sleeve the infection deck. If it ever becomes a problem (I can always sleeve them later).

      3 people found this helpful

    55. Judy

      Super fun!

      Super fun game! This is the only toy that we are still playing from time to time now among all Xmas gifts. It needs some strategy and is not easy to win—- which makes it fun. The cons are: rules are a bit complicated (younger one does not enjoy as much as the older one who is 10). And you have to have 4 person to play the game. But overall, a great game to get the kids off from screen.

    56. Nathan D. Green

      A cooperative board game with 9000 reviews and 5 stars? Yes please.

      Catan. Carcassone. Ticket to Ride. Betrayal at House on the Hill. Azul. And more. There are quite a few standout games out there with 5000+ plus reviews and 5 stars. The “big” games, award winning, sometimes with multiple printings, decades in print, expansions, you know, the superstars. Pandemic stands alone as one (if not the only) cooperative one. All the players win or lose together as a team of researchers fighting to cure 4 worldwide pandemics.I cannot praise this game enough. If you like those superstar games, this one fits the bill.Some points to consider:Setup can be tricky. It’s not just shuffle cards and put them in piles. You have to shuffle, deal out, reshuffle, add in, and so forth for 2 different decks. Read the setup rules carefully so you get it right. After that, it’s pretty standard except for the Pandemic cards.You can select beginner, normal, or expert difficulty level by the number of Pandemic cards in the player deck. After a handful of games, my kids and I still only have a 50% win rate on beginner. You can and will lose this game.You MUST be a team. Communication and cooperation are key. In fact, discussion of each player’s moves should be a team effort. Your contribution to strategy may be more effective in a round than your pawn’s actions are; sometimes leaving your pawn in place and doing *nothing* is your best personal strategy while the decisions agreed on for another player may be key.There are only 3 outstanding rules to understand: Roles (every player chooses a role at random and each role has special “powers”. There are 7 roles for the up to 4 players making each game’s strategy different. Knowing how each player’s role works is essential to good strategy), Pandemics (the cards you add to set the difficulty make the game harder each time one turns up), and Outbreaks. Outbreaks are bad because it’s one of the losing conditions of the game. Get 8 of them and the game is over. And Outbreaks can cause more Outbreaks in a chain reaction if you aren’t careful or get unlucky.Anyway, those 3 rules are the hard parts. Your actions, card draws, and the rules regarding them are straightforward and mostly fit on the supplied info cards. There are 2 pages of setup, and about 5 pages of rules or thereabouts plus a page of examples.To cure a disease, you acquire 5 city cards of the same color, move to a research center, and use an action to cure it. Do that 4 time and the game is won.For as short a rulebook as it has, the strategy and teamwork it requires are huge.This is a must have game, one of that stratospheric list I mentioned earlier of what my son calls the “big” games like Catan. And as a cooperative game, it stands alone in that heady company.

    57. Aldrich Root

      Lots of fun for friends or family

      I bought this game after playing it once at a friend’s house. Although I am a very competitive person, I had fun playing a cooperative game with my friends. I’ve only played this game with 4 players so far but the fact that you can play with two is appealing.The point of the game is to act as a team to treat and cure diseases that are spreading around the world. You can perform a limited number of actions per turn before a mandatory phase where the infections spread.The rule book is very long. You should read it cover to cover at least once before trying to play. I’m guilty of not re-reading the rules after not playing for 6+ months and forgot there were different difficulty levels to the game. Needless to say, my family lost our first few games playing with all 6 epidemic cards and 3/4 of the players having never played before. Plus there are a lot of rules in total and you’ll want to have it handy while playing to reference them. It is intimidating; when I introduced the game to my family they almost didn’t give it a chance because of the rule book.In the end everyone ended up enjoying the game. Despite initial concerns that a game should not be cooperative, you can still be competitive by trying to convince the other players that your decision is better than another’s.Thanks for reading and please click the button below if you found this helpful.

      One person found this helpful

    58. xerxes

      Fun little cooperative game!

      This is a really neat game. Probably one of the best cooperative I’ve played so far. Everything is pretty standard quality for a board game and the cards have a cool plastic finish on the back. I’m guessing they will last a long time. It took us about half of the first game to really get comfortable with the gameplay and we finished in about 45 mins.This is a win or lose game and it seems like if you’re winning, it becomes easier and easier to keep winning. Likewise, if you start going in the other direction it gets harder and harder.

    59. K. Garfield

      Spite

      It seemed like we’d just started the game and the yellow strain had not only been cured but eradicated! We were on the cusp of a cure for the second strain. This one was in the bag. We had weathered two epidemics so far without any egregious problems. Sure there was a pair of cities in Eastern Europe that was in danger, but what were the odds that was going to be a problem? One of us was already there. Then another epidemic hit, the infection rate increased, three cities were drawn and it seemed the cascading outbreaks knew no bounds. I think nearly everyone in Europe died that day, and we – a group of specialized scientists- were served a plate of bitter defeat. Again! Again and again, always defeat. Oh, the humanity!It’s true, I haven’t ever beat this rotten game and yet I keep coming back. Because one day I’ll win; in spite of all the wounds to my pride I’ve had to nurse, one day I’ll – I mean- we’ll win. I say we’ll because this is a co-operative game where you all work together against those nasty strains of no-doubt-human engineered beasties. Now, I know there are those of you who beat this every time you play, like I beat Shadows over Camelot every time I play, but I’ve invited those sorts to come play with me and they can barely stand the shame of losing with me.To make it even worse, we only play with 4 epidemics. I feel like I’m at an AA meeting: “Hi my name is Kyle.”“Hi Kyle” echoes the crowd.“I… I suck at Pandemic.”This is the part where you put your arm on my shoulder and tell me it’s going to be alright.Game PlayThis board is a handsome map of the world; only instead of country boards you see in Risk there is a red web of interconnected cities. Everyone starts in Atlanta were a research station is and you go from there. Each player plays a scientist that has a special ability: one can move others on their turn, one can give cards to another without the restrictions other players have and so on. The game also begins with 9 random cities around the world with varying degrees of infection (one to three stacked blocks). If a city would have a fourth block put on it (called an outbreak), it actually stays at three and the cities connected by the red web get a block. Isn’t that nice? It’s called a cascading outbreak. Such a pretty name. If you get 9 outbreaks in a game you lose. If you run out of blocks for a certain strain you lose, and if you haven’t cured all the strains before your white deck of cards runs out, you lose. I hate to be a negative Nancy, but there’s a lot of ways to lose this game. If, on the other hand, you are able to find cures for each strain, you win!How do you do that? Well you get someone who has got 5 cards of the same color in their hand to a research station, that’s how. One of the players only needs four.Every turn each player gets to do four actions. Picking up a cube off a city counts as one, so does moving between cities. You can charter flights with your cards, rather than use them for cures. You can build research stations and fly between those without expending a card, and a few other things. Then you draw cards that you think will help you, but can instead turn out to be epidemics. And you also draw cards for cities that get infected: usually this amounts to adding on square to the city’s pile. As the game progresses, more cards are drawn at a time to be infected. Oh, and when an epidemic happens, the cards for the cities that were infected get put back on the top of the draw pile. Oh dear.I hate to tell you what to do because what do I know anyway?Those of you who beat this all the time should tell me what to do. I understand that finding the cures is everything- lest you run out of time. Others say, make sure that you never have three on on e city at a time, as to avoid outbreaks.Make sure that the medic is only clearing off stacks of infections, the dispatcher should be moving people so that don’t have to move themselves.Again, I never win, so what do I know?ThemeIf it hasn’t been obvious, I am completely sucked in by the theme. There are similarities to other co-operative games especially Forbidden Island: Each character has special powers, you make moves for the team and then the board pushed you closer to defeat, that sort of thing. Forbidden Island also shares the shuffle the cards and put them back on top of the draw deck mechanic. I tell you this so that you won’t be surprised if you decide to add them both to your game closet, this is why I haven’t added Forbidden Island to mine, though I’ve played the game. While this adds to the evidence that the theme could be stripped out of the game, I don’t recall cascading flooding going on in Forbidden Island, or feeling like humanity is hanging in the balance, or being glad I don’t live anywhere in Eastern Europe. That is to say, I think the theme sticks.BalanceI read about people who win all the time and needed the expansion to rouse any concern in them. But who can believe everything they read on the internet, I ask you? Just because I’ve never won though doesn’t mean that it’s not an enjoyable experience, mind you. Because I keep coming back.InteractionInteraction is very high. There’s all sort of collaborative discussion that goes on through this game.Learning CurveLow. It takes all of ten minutes to explain and there are directions on the board and the turn cards.DowntimeNill. You are all in it together! And you even get to move a guy in your turn.What’s not to Like?I actually know where some of these cities are on the map are but they all have these lines that go from the pin-pointed location to the circle where you actually place the blocks. That remains a bit annoying even after playing the game 10 times.Collateral EndorsementMy four year old likes “The one where they get sick” We run around curing cities till the infection deck runs out. He feels a lot better about himself than the rage I feel playing by the real rules.Actually, as I think about it, the first time I played this game I was at the home of some friends and I think we won. But I’m certain I have not won with my copy of the game. I’d say mine is jinxed, but we’ve played on another friends copy and lost there too. Also, I should say that a brother of mine lost two in a row and saw the writing on the wall in the third game and left the table, swearing off the game forever. You might consider your own resiliency before buying this game.

      797 people found this helpful

    60. Linda

      What’s not to like? A pandemic in a box!!

      My adult children have had this game for years. I just had to buy one for ourselves during an ACTUAL pandemic. Yes, I have a sick sense of humor. It is a great game that players work together instead of competing against each other. It’s not hard to learn. (I did and I’m not good with all those complicated strategic games that the rest of my family love. On those, my goal is to die quickly and get out of the game! Oh, darn the luck!! haha) This is not a lengthy game but I haven’t timed it. Maybe takes an hour plus or minus 30 min? Fun game even given the subject. I’ve bought 3 of them. You must work together and stop the pandemic from spreading across the world by containing the virus growth in each city so it doesn’t spread. So weird that this game came out YEARS ago before Covid version 19 came to visit!

    61. Chr1st0pher J0nes^

      Excellent, well rounded, cooperative game.

      The wife and I have been taking turns picking new board games each month. February was my turn, so I chose pandemic.I based my selection on other reviews, and must say that the game is extraordinarily fun! This is the first time I’ve ever worked together with friends towards a common goal. This is the perfect board game for those who grew up with “sore winner” friends and are hesitant to try again.10/10 would definitely recommend.

      One person found this helpful

    62. goodnplenty

      The Fastest Way to Make Friends or Enemies

      This is one of the best board games I’ve ever played that features a team dynamic. Unlike Settlers of Catan, which will ruin any and every relationship you ever had, this co-op will reveal the true colors of anyone daring to pick up a colored pawn. Play this game with a stranger to get to know them. I promise that by the end of the game that you will know whether they will become your beast of a best friend forever or labeled a selfish, uncooperative squat head to be despised forever. Try it on a first date. It will foretell whether or not you and your interest will successfully spawn offspring together.After opening this box for the first time, my roommates and I spent countless nights trying to save the world. As frustrating as it is to lose to a piece of cardboard, it is equally, if not more, gratifying to conquer your imaginary microscopic adversaries. There are so many occasions where you end the game in despair wishing you had just one more turn. But when you win, you come away feeling like the hero of an apocalyptic movie, saving the world in the very nick of time! Needless to say, we are currently best friends changing the world via healthcare, the arts and non-profits.

      467 people found this helpful

    63. Lauren MLauren M

      Fun Critical Thinking Game

      My family spent an entire day playing this game while we were quarantining with COVID! It was super fun to work together as a family, instead of play against each other like most games. My 9 year old daughter particularly enjoyed this game & it was particularly enjoyable as a parent watching her use a higher level of thinking to help strategize ways & moves we can all make to beat the game.I will say that the instructions are basically a small book (not really but like 8-10 pgs long) & can be overwhelming when you read. We played 5 games the first day we opened it & every time we played, we found more instructions or rules that we didn’t know or understand the last round. This was due to multiple reasons, 1. The instructions were long & we overlooked something accidentally 2. The instructions weren’t very clear in some instances 3. The instructions didn’t address everything 4. Instructions seemed to jump around & refer you to another page. The biggest point of confusion was curing the virus VS. eradicating the virus, how you achieved curing/eradicating, what the benefits are of curing/eradicating & what the game actually intends for you to do to win the game. It got a little frustrating towards the last couple games. At one point, we even googled to clarify. I think we FINALLY understand how the game is intended to be played & I’m not going to lie, I think I liked the way we had initially played it best.All that being said, we still really enjoyed playing the game as a family & working together! I enjoyed the strategizing & higher level processing that is needed to plan for the win, along with the semi-relevance to todays climate in regards to COVID. It added a little bit of learning & deeper understanding to our fun. My daughter is still begging to play again!

    64. Patrick

      So This is How Child Endangerment Starts

      My wife and I have gradually gotten more into board games, because we’re old and lame and that’s ok. She’s a bit … competitive, however, so even playing a game like Settlers can put me on the edge of the seat a little bit if I’m winning. Some of you know what I’m talking about. Board games kept popping up in my Amazon recommendations, and I kept seeing this one (nice work, Amazon ad algorythms). Cooperative? Sounds good!There went that Sunday. I even stopped watching football, BECAUSE CHILDREN ARE DYING IN ISTANBUL OR CONSTANTINOPLE. We played several games. We lost our first few, then kept winning. Our kids were annoying us with petty stuff like, “Daddy, I’m hungry” and “Mommy, my toe fell off” but sometimes you just have to tell your kids that now isn’t a good time, because Daddy is building a research center and then has to fly to meet Mommy in Milan, and there is leftover ham in the refrigerator.I do question whether the game will keep its challenge. We’ve won our only two games on the hardest difficulty, but it felt suspenseful and like we could have lost, so I think it’ll still be fun to play. Regardless, we’ve already gotten our money’s worth out of this game. I think my daughter (six) will be able to learn it now or shortly as well, which will be cool and we can monitor her toe situation better.

      4,061 people found this helpful

    65. JSmith

      Told the Kids it was Government Issued During COVID-19

      The game is a bit sophisticated and difficult to remember all the rules, but it’s a great game and for anyone who is accustomed to board games it’s bound to be a favorite. It’s a strategy game, which means you have to be on top of it, and my guess is it’s one of those games that you’ll get better at if you play it several times or even on the regular. I don’t do anything regularly (except maybe work and exercise and cook) so it’s hard to get good at something/anything if you only do it every few weeks. But here we are in an actual pandemic and so I thought it might be fun and relevant to play a board game called pandemic. And funny thing, amazon was only delivering essentials and this came right along with my bulk lentils and rice and well in advance of my TP & PT. So we decided to tell the kids that it was government issued by trump and that moving onto the next grade depended on whether they beat it, and they didn’t beat it and then the kids stressed out and I am a tiny bit concerned that could be considered psychological abuse given the circumstances. I think they’re over it, or maybe not, since according to their Dad one of them was obsessing over an assignment on his iPad outside in the rain during a nature walk. Homeschooling is strange. So are daytime pajamas & Zoom dress codes. My honey and I are about 2 for 3 in our winning of this game, so maybe we will get one of those $1.2M stimulus checks that some folks are getting if they had an AGI over $1M last year. It does kick us up a notch in some way I’d think, but I’ll have to call Fauci to know for sure.

      73 people found this helpful

    66. Dorothy B.

      Hours of Entertainment

      We ended up liking the game so much we bought the expansion games too – with the exception of the one with the dice. We like some of the expansions better than the others. Each offers a new take on the original game. It starts there. It’s very fun and we play at least a couple of times a week. Each time is different! It’s nice to have a collaborative game instead of competing against each other. I would recommend it for families.

      2 people found this helpful

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