Horrified: Universal Monsters

Let me take you back in time.
It won’t take long, I promise.

Late ’80s. There’s a boy of eleven or thereabouts and he always makes sure that he’s in bed by nine, lights out, square portable tv on. What a time to be alive! BBC2 would start the night off with a bang: Blackadder, or a repeat of The Young Ones, or the greatest show to grace the screens, Red Dwarf. Over to Channel 4 afterwards for the latest American sitcom – usually an episode of Roseanne or Cheers – and then as the dead of night approached, a lucky dip. Either stick with Channel 4 for part of a Godzilla or Jackie Chan season (this before both became mainstream in the West), or back to BBC2 for a chilling treat that could send your quilt up over your nose for protection. We’re talking Hammer horror or something from the Universal stable, the kind of movies that shape you, movies with creature designs that live inside you forever. I couldn’t get enough. Long after the movie finished I’d be playing the story over in my head, reliving the terrors, wondering what on earth I would do if faced with the frothing Wolfman or the strangulous Mummy (yes, strangulous is now a word, because I said so).

The make-up designs of these monsters goes beyond iconic: they’ve become part of our cultural DNA. Say ‘Frankenstein’s Monster’ or ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ to someone and you’ll most likely both picture the same creature. This, then, is the instant appeal of Horrified, a strongly-themed cooperative game that leans hard on the appeal of Universal’s golden age IP.

No doubt about it, this is a fabulous work of art. You could set a horror movie at every one of these locations.

From the second I lifted the lid, Horrified’s theme shone through. The entire product oozes atmosphere. On the back of one section of the game board – and facing you as you open the box – there’s a warning message that invokes that tremulous feeling you get as the movie begins. As for the unfolded game board itself? A fabulous piece of art. We’re immediately in a moodily-lit village that’s been cobbled together Frankenstein-style from a greatest hits collection of ’40s horror sets. There’s an elegant mansion, an isolated barn, the ominous laboratory, the grisly graveyard. Plenty of variety for your characters to visit during their frantic quest. The player characters and NPCs are perfectly acceptable standees. However, my first impressions were somewhat dented by the stars of the show themselves.

The monster minifigs are… good. And that’s disappointing.

See, I was drawn to the game by the theme and by the execution of that theme. A shame, then, that I found the miniatures of the monsters to be a bit of a let-down. They’re good, and you can tell which creature is which, and their poses are suitably dynamic: Dracula is a split-second from swooping upon a neck, Frankenstein’s monster has the gait down to a tee. Unfortunately the finer physical detail is lacking and their size is somewhat underwhelming. These guys (and gal) are the headliners, and I can’t help wishing for miniatures that were a level or two up in definition.
It’s a minor niggle, I know. But we’re here for the monsters. It’s like seeing the zipper up the back of the Creature from the Black Lagoon. It might only be for a moment, but it can take you out of the atmosphere.
Right. Let’s get to it.

1st Playthrough

Set up proved to be fairly swift. Even during the first playthrough it seemed straightforward, no big confusions, and by your third or fourth playthrough you’ll get set up in no time. This is aided by the fact that the hero and monster cards have very clear information on which pieces are required for each particular creature and where these pieces go. We opted (wisely, for once) to play the tutorial mode which recommends using Dracula and the Creature from the Black Lagoon on your initial run. These monsters are considered lower complexity (don’t take it personally, dudes) and are therefore ideal for learning the game’s mechanics.

The first surprise for us, and one that’s a direct symptom of ogling the pretty pictures on the box instead of reading those squiggly word-thingies: this game does not involve one player as the monsters while they hunt for heroes to eat. It’s a cooperative game of players versus monsters, and it caused us to pause as we wondered how this could possibly work. I’ll state this loud and proud: we are pure-as-fresh-snow newbies and we have stumbled head-long into a world of boardgames we didn’t know existed. How could a shuffled deck of event cards command the monsters and create an effective game experience?

What do you mean, the game is controlled by an AI? There’s no computer or tablet in sight, how can a deck of cards be considered AI? (I know, so many questions. You should have seen the furrowed brows, they could have dug trenches.) Well, as long as you follow a couple of rules and resist the urge to fudge them – for example, the monsters will always move towards the closest human and will challenge hero characters before they eat villagers – then it actually works as well as you could hope. The dungeon master, or director in this case, comes in the box. All you have to do is survive. Trust the game to do its thing and you’ll have a great time.

We’re in full flow! And probably making loads of mistakes

The second surprise for us clueless newbies to get our heads around was the lack of dice for movement. Nothing to roll, no spinners to flick. There was a moment – honestly – when we suspected the game makers had either forgotten to put the dice in, or they’d been left out to cut costs. No, you fools! Each hero character has a set number of actions they can take per turn, as indicated on their character card, usually four actions. You can move one space for one action, or persuade nearby villagers to follow you, or take one attempt per action to tackle a monster’s puzzle as long as you’re on the correct space. There’s a handy little reference card for each player to remind them of the possible actions, and after about ten minutes of fumbling and bumbling the systems clicked and we transitioned from confused learning to having fun.

Even in this tutorial-style easy mode, some genuine tension cranked up midway through the game. Both monsters were closing in, a couple of villagers were in perilous positions, one of us was cornered, and some serious thought and forward-planning was required. Priorities were challenged: save the villagers, retreat and harvest more items to beat the monsters with later, or smash one of Dracula’s coffins right now and risk a face-off with the toothy old bat himself? This is where the game’s potential shone through. These are classic horror movie set pieces, and they unfold organically as a result of player decisions, the relentless prey-drive of the monsters and the chaotic results of card draws. What a moment it would have been with a storm lashing at the windows!

Soon after, however, Dracula was rapidly dispatched, leaving a lone Creature from the Black Lagoon to tromp around in circles before receiving a severe trouncing. The worry emerged that perhaps the game was too easy once all that lovely tension drained away. A reminder, then, that this was easy mode and designed to introduce the mechanics in preparation for the game proper. The manual recommends three monsters for normal mode, and four if you’ve got a few bolts loose.

2nd Playthrough, and Solo

I hear what you’re asking. How does a standard round play out? Short answer is that it’s a fair bit livelier. In fact, it’s got all that lovely tension and drama in spades. It becomes the Universal monster team up that they never filmed, and you’re in it! (I mean, okay, technically there was a team up, in 1987’s The Monster Squad, but I digress.)

The first thing you notice is that the increased monster count means more likelihood of monster movement. With just two monsters in play there’s always a chance that neither moves. With three or four monsters you could, for example, find that the Mummy moves, then the Invisible Man, and the Mummy again if the frenzied icon is on the card and the Mummy himself is currently in frenzy mode. Or perhaps the drawn card dictates that Dracula, Wolfman and then the Creature from the Black Lagoon should move and you happen to have all three in the game. If you have four enemies in the game then each card drawn means you’re almost definitely going to get two monsters or more on the move.

With additional monsters prowling around, those hapless villagers find themselves in additional trouble, and thus the gameplay becomes frantic. Players will hand off villagers to one another, or pass vital items to another hero so that they can tackle the monster, and this is where the cooperative element of the game gets a boost. Plans and schemes are cobbled together on the fly, in the same manner as desperate characters in the midpoint of a horror film, flimsy plans that are bound to go wrong. Close escapes and tough scrapes ensue. With Horrified, you get exactly what you came for.

Surrounded! Oh, how has it come to this…

Often – too often for my liking – the tension doesn’t last all the way through the game. Playing against three monsters we found that the same issue arose as in easy mode. The front half of the playthrough held all the excitement and close calls. The Professor (my character obviously) ran into trouble immediately, and struggled to get out of it due to the cards drawn, and a couple of villagers popped up at very unfortunate moments, causing the doom track to edge along. However, as soon as Wolf man was defeated, the Mummy fell shortly after and that left the Invisible Man with little to do. It became a simple matter of working together to collect the correct items and absorbing a few hits, and victory was assured.

I’m contemplating the introduction of a homebrew rule in the hope of maintaining tension throughout the game, particularly when left with a solitary monster. This final enemy would be driven to new heights of fury upon seeing it’s gruesome pals defeated, right? A double-frenzy rule would give the final monster two movement and attack actions when the frenzy icon appears on a drawn card. The last act of any horror film should contain a desperate confrontation where all could be lost, and Horrified should feel the same. As the game currently stands, the tipping point during gameplay often arrives too early.

The fact that the monsters are controlled by the deck means that the solo game functions just as well as the multiplayer co-op version, and is equally fun. I haven’t attempted true solo – I can imagine a single hero having a spectacularly tough time as several monsters converge upon them, and I’d be interested to know if anyone has tried this (someone’s hardcore enough, I’m sure). It’s a slick solo experience whichever way you choose to set up (Wolfman and the Mummy perhaps? Throw in the Invisible Man for good measure?) and I found myself swept up by the atmosphere. This is an accessible game that you’ll want to share with friends and the whole family (don’t worry about the monsters: it’s a bloodless affair).

Conclusion

There’s a question mark over the replayability of this game. The easy, standard and hard modes (2, 3 and 4 monsters respectively) provide some challenging variety, and each monster has its own unique mechanics, but it won’t be long before you know them off by heart and the challenge will wane. My own guesstimate is that you’ll enjoy a dozen or so games for about a month, a month and a half, and then Horrified will show its face every Halloween as part of a themed games night. Think of it like an annual curse that must be defeated every October 31st. It’ll be an exciting adventure in which you dust off old tactics and smash those coffins and flee from the Wolfman’s hunt… and as the night rolls to an end the game shall return to its slumber, awaiting the next All Hallow’s Eve to rise again.

Every single game piece works within the theme.

A lack of expansions seems like a missed opportunity here. Perhaps if the game had been constructed so that each monster had its own individual card deck then the complexity and possibilities for adding additional creatures could have opened up. Then again, this would have moved the fundamental design away from Horrified’s positioning as a gateway game to the broader hobby, so what do I know? Horrified: American Monsters and Horrified: Greek Monsters are standalone rethemed games, and purchasing the complete trio is perhaps only for the strongest fans (and if you can get away with bringing that many board games into your home at once, please send your tips and tricks my way).
Is Horrified good value for the RRP of £39.99? That to me seems a touch high. If you can get it for less (you’re on Zatu Games’s website right now, hint hint) then it’s a firm yes, because the theme bleeds through every part of this product and it is ghoulish fun while it lasts.

Heed some parting advice, my boardgaming fiends. Get the garlic salt from the back of the cupboard and sprinkle it across your thresholds (woah, go easy, that’s a couple of quid a pot), never invite anyone in even if they bring pizza, and if you hear a tap-tap-tapping at the bedroom window… check ya neck.