Obsession: Upstairs Downstairs Review

I’ve previously written about my love of Obsession which is a fantastic game in which you are rebuilding your estate as a wealthy 19th Century family, looking to win the hand of one of the Fairchild family and also accumulate the most points (remember those delicious 19th Century points?) to win the game. It’s a brilliant game but thankfully for its designer I’m also a sucker for expansions and so it came as no great surprise to anyone in my household when I picked up the shiny expansion to one of my favourite games promising a treasure trove of new tiles, servants, guests, cards of all types and a new family to play the game with.

There are also a couple of balancing changes for the first game which I would recommend you play with, whether using the expansion or not. The new rules to Obsession involve changing the way the player order rotates, giving you more time to evaluate objective cards and also a tweak to the way servants quarters are used to stop a previously powerful strategy of taking reputation from other players.

Added to these rules, in Upstairs, Downstairs there are some new rules around offering supplementary service and these options relate to the new servants which are a fantastic addition. The Cook is central to the role of the new Howard family and is their starting addition. Then we also have the Head Housemaid who can deputise for any female servant and the Hall Boy or the Useful Man which help to add more depth and decision making. Players are also able to hire servants when passing and this is down to the number of new servants available alongside the limited number of rounds in a standard game and the possibility of playing with a servant draft.

Additionally there are a load of new guest cards which help to freshen up the game and new room tiles to make use of the new servants. These are further supplemented by new objective, victory point, theme and milestone cards, along with new player aids to explain new changes and the new servants. Milestones act like new public objectives which provide additional points to the player who completes them with two being chosen each game. Add to this a whole new family with the Howard family to play with and you can see why I picked it up.

There is a lot here to unpack (literally and metaphorically), I haven’t yet touched on the team variant, solo challenges and 5 or 6 player versions but they are all also included. I feel like Upstairs, Downstairs is a labour of love that adds so much to an already excellent game. Fantastically, all the new components will neatly fit into the base game box which already includes space for the new Howard family as well as enough space to fit all the new components.

The new rules and servants help balance and add more strategic depth to Obsession, where some turns you may previously have had limited options. You probably are reading this if you already own Obsession, and I think I wouldn’t ever play without the expansion going forward as it adds so much to the base game. With the changes, it makes it so much more enjoyable and balances some of the random elements from the base game. I really think if you are as obsessed with Obsession as I am, Upstairs Downstairs is a must have to your collection.