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A Game of Myths and Legends…
Horrified: Greek Monsters has you tasked by the Greek Gods, working together as a team of up to 5 Heroes to defeat the escapees from Pandoras box, restoring peace to the isle of Elysium, all before the terror level goes too high and it’s the end of your saga. This epic tale takes place over several turns where your group will play cards, roll dice, save Greek Legends, and collect items to contribute to the Monster’s various defeat conditions.
A far from Herculean task to play…
Like its forebears Horrified: Greek Monsters is incredibly simple to get set up with the versatility to ramp up in difficulty based on your group’s appetite for a challenge. Difficulty goes up or down simply by choosing the number and combination of Monsters you wish to face during your playthrough with certain combinations being trickier than others. As with other board games in the series, the rulebook recommends two Monsters to start with: the three-headed beast from Hades, Cerberus, and the dreaded reptilian Basilisk. Each Monster you choose has a different method involved to defeat them and some even have a lair you need to uncover on the map which is randomised each game to help add some longevity and challenge.
In each game, a player turn plays out in two phases, the Hero phase, where you will use action points and special actions unique to your chosen character to move around Elysium, collecting items, guiding Greek Legends out of harm’s way, or contributing collected items towards uncovering a lair or the defeat conditions of the Monsters. Then comes the Monster’s phase, where you draw a card from the Monster deck, now seemingly more chaotic than ever, and set the Monster’s loose upon the isle, attacking Legend or Hero alike. Both outcomes you’ll want to avoid as with each defeated Legend or Hero, the terror tracker moves closer to game over.
The Monster deck also acts as a timer for the game, once you have drawn your last Monster card, you have one final player turn to save the day before the Isle is doomed. This creates tense encounters especially as some Monsters will try and burn through the deck quicker when their special power activates during an attack dice roll, leading you to collaborate to try and manage the Monsters who pose the greater risk, whilst keeping an eye on the others looking to snack on your Heroes and the Legends inhabiting Elysium.
Swings and Monster bouts…
It’s no surprise to learn that Horrified: Greek Monsters plays much like its predecessors, containing within a strong blend of luck and strategy that comes into play during each game.
The randomness of drawing tokens from a bag (Nicely upgraded with a new design in this version), chucking dice, and taking cards from a revamped and suitably themed perk and Monster deck can radically alter your game for better or worse. This time around, the new Monster deck ups the ante in terms of randomness, more than previous versions, which can create wonderfully dynamic narratives in your game, but on the other hand, they can wildly swing the game from victory to a crushing defeat. Monster activation also works slightly differently this time around, as each Monster has multiple icons which match the Monster deck cards (versus the singular icon per Monster in Horrified Universal Monsters) This can lead to Monsters activating up to 3 times from the drawing of one card which makes them much more formidable but can swing the game substantially versus previous iterations.
Luck does impact the balance of certain Monsters more than others, Cerberus for example requires players to role dice at his lair and match the outcomes to unlock five locks on the gates of hell. A fun mechanic initially, but it can become a little frustrating if the dice rolls don’t work out for you. As before some people may not enjoy the high luck element of a few Monsters but it is a small price to pay for what is overall a very enjoyable package.
Theming of Legendary proportions…
The theming for Horrified: Greek Monsters is again incredibly vibrant with a board that has a commanding table presence. Although this time around, some locations can be a little hard to decipher whether they are attached or not when the board is full of activity, which can take the shine away from the fantastic location illustrations and art style at points. Like other games in the series, there is a host of epically detailed neon-coloured miniatures depicting the Monsters you’ll be trying to defeat, and each piece of character art or component feels thematically consistent. The overall quality of components in the box have been further improved from previous games, with a colourful token bag for items and interestingly marbled dice for your monster attacks. Despite the slightly over busy board at times, the artwork and component quality are again top notch and really does look appealing when setup on your table.
Final thoughts…
Horrified: Greek Monsters has a lot to offer to many players. To put it simply, if you love the original Horrified: Universal Monsters (shameless plug for my review here) you’ll enjoy this game immensely with how it adds a variety of new Monsters to defeat, Heroes to play as, alongside a new wrinkle in the Lair mechanic. If you enjoy Greek mythos, then Greek Monsters has you covered as you’ll do battle with the likes of Cerberus and Medusa whilst rescuing Greek Legends such as Jason and Midas. Like its predecessors, there are slight issues with game balance and a few Monsters requiring more luck than others, but you’ll still have a blast carving your own Greek odyssey whilst trying to save the isle of Elysium.
