Betrayal at House on the Hill

 


  Welcome! Today's game review: Betrayal at House on the Hill, 2nd Edition. 

  I came across this game while watching Tabletop, hosted by Wil Wheaton. You can view their game day here: Part One and Part Two. After playing it THREE TIMES in ONE DAY, I can attest to its appeal.
  It starts off by 3-6 players deciding to enter the Haunted House on a dare. I mean how else does one enter a Haunted House? Once there, you start looking around, going through the house's three levels: Basement, Ground Level and Second story. You collectively look to collect items and as luck would have it, strange things or events happen, sometimes summoning omens, testing your physicality and mental stability. As in real life, some characters can handle creepy paranormal activity better than others.
  Invariably, you get split up (right?!) and eventually, the house turns one of you on the rest. The goal is to survive the night, killing the monster's and/or ghosts and hopefully snap your friend who turned on you out of the trance he/she has been put under. However, sometimes, the possessed cannot be saved and you need to kill them and what possessed them before they kill you.


  Gameplay: You all start out in the Entrance Hall of the mammoth mansion. Each person has traits: Sanity, Knowledge, (which are known as mental traits) Might and Speed (which are known in the game as physical traits.) You use the traits to move, attack and defend yourself on your journey throughout the house. Your speed trait dictates how many spaces your allowed to move about the house. When you come to a room with a door and wish to move in a certain direction, you lay down another room card chosen from a pile (designated by the floor you are on.) These cards, have symbols on them which depict three possibilities: Events (describing something that is happening like howling wind, and the sound of broken glass, or that the floor collapsed beneath you sending you plummeting to the basement) to help visualize being in a haunted house. Depending on your agility and quick wits, (physical and mental traits) you can avoid some of these pitfalls. Another symbol could be Items: Things you may be able to use to aide you in fighting the evils in the night. The Third symbol could be a Raven which aptly depicts an Omen that provide items as well but comes at a price, challenging your physical and mental well being. The Omens also prompt you to roll dice depicting whether the Haunt will begin or you safely can continue exploring the house. The Haunt is a creative twist where the traitor reads from one set of rules (trying to defeat the other players known as the Heroes now) whereas the Heroes read from another book on how they can successfully attack and hopefully eliminate the evil and sometimes the traitor as well. Unfortunately, to rid the world of evil means sacrificing a friend to do so. If the Heroes defeat the traitor then they win, if the traitor defeats the heroes, well, then they become victorious.

  There are a number of neat things about this game to allow for repetitive play. First, the room cards are laid out depending on how you move about the house and are randomly placed creating a different layout every time which could lead to be advantageous or not so much, depending on the Haunt you go on. There are 50 different haunts, so the chance of  landing on the same haunt are unlikely until after a number of game plays and if you played once a week, that could mean a different haunt each week for a year, give or take a week.

  So, are you ready to go with some friends and check out the Haunted House at the Hill? Be careful, it may betray you.

  I would rate this game 4 out 5 stars.