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A Horrifyingly good time…
Let me start this review by getting some alliterative puns out of my system. Horrified: Universal Monsters is a frightfully fun, ghoulishly good board game for 1-5 players, with terrifyingly tight gameplay and monstrous miniatures that pay a haunting homage to Universals Monsters and the chilling cinematic World they come from.
You’ll work together as a ragtag team of up to 5 Heroes trying to prevent the titular Universal Monsters from causing chaos in the appropriately themed town before the terror level goes too high and the residents become truly Horrified. This plays out over several turns where your group will play cards, save villagers, and collect items to contribute to the Monster’s defeat conditions, or spend them to defend yourself from a vicious attack.
Scarily simple to learn, monstrous to master…
Horrified: Universal Monsters is extremely easy to get set up and running 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. The rulebook recommends two Monsters to start with; the fanged menace Dracula paired with the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and both have a different mechanic involved to defeat them. This provides a lot of replay value, as with 7 Monsters to pick from, you can have many different combinations making each playthrough feel unique.
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 roam around the vibrant village, collecting items, shepherding wayward villagers out of harms way, or contributing collected items towards the defeat of your chosen Monsters. However, then comes the Monster’s phase, where you draw a card from the Monster deck potentially causing them to move with malicious intent towards your innocent villagers to sink their fangs and/or claws into them or your characters, which if undefended, ends with a trip to the hospital or an ex-villager. Both outcomes you’ll want to avoid as with each perished village or incapacitated Hero, the terror tracker inches ever closer to game over.
This makes for exhilarating turn by turn play and encourages collaboration as dynamics shift each time the Monsters act, as a card drawn from the deck could add more villagers to save or change how a Monster behaves. The Monster deck also acts as a timer for the game, as once you have drawn your last Monster card, you have one last ditch attempt to save the day before the town is doomed.
Deathly delightful theming…
The aesthetics and overall theming for Horrified is wonderfully vibrant, with a bright and varied town to explore and neon-coloured miniatures depicting the Monsters you’ll be trying to defeat. The art style feels consistent throughout all the components and has a playful vibe which truly pays homage to the cinematic inspirations it draws from. Each piece of character art or component feels thematically consistent and the overall quality of the parts in the box is to a high standard. It just looks gorgeous when all set up and ready to play and has a fun table presence with the vibrancy and high-quality print on all the pieces adding to the cohesive package on offer.
Fearfully few downsides…
Horrified: Universal Monsters is very much an equal blend of luck and strategy as whilst you can calculate and collaborate the best course of action during your turns, the randomness of drawing tokens from a bag, rolling dice to determine attacks, and taking cards from a perk and Monster deck can radically alter your game for better or worse. Some people may not enjoy the elements of randomness the game provides, but it goes a long way towards increasing the replay value and creating some fun story moments in your gameplay. The Monster deck can feel criminally small at times, contributing to a few games ending just before we could put the final nail in the coffin, or stake in the vampire in this case.
There is also a minor issue with the balancing of some Monsters (I’m looking at you Mummy and Invisible Man) that can sometimes create a perfect storm of frustration when the cards and luck aren’t in your favour, but this is a very small nit-pick considering how well everything else works together.
Fatal Final thoughts…
If you are a fan of the classic Monsters like Dracula, the Invisible Man, Frankenstein’s Monster and their cohorts, all wrapped in a fantastic theme with easy to learn, cooperative gameplay, then Horrified: Universal Monsters is a must have for your collection. It’s not without its flaws but they are greatly outweighed by the overall presentation and experience on offer. Horrified offers a fantastic experience that is fun for all and has become a regular spooky staple in our gaming repertoire. Even if you are just looking for an appropriately themed game for the Halloween season, Horrified will more than meet the requirements. However, like the Mummy, don’t be too surprised if it slowly shambles its way into your regularly played games.
