Horrified Review

Embark on a frightful adventure to rid your quaint village of the terrors plaguing its residents. You’ve heard strangely conflicting reports; some say they’ve witnessed a creature emerging from the river at night, others claim to have seen a large wolf stalking the darkened alleys.  Yet another swears they have encountered a darkly dangerous nobleman, with teeth like daggers and a unslakable thirst for blood. All you know for certain is, the townsfolk are, Horrified!

1-5 Players 60 Mins Age 10+

Designers: Prospero Hall, Peter Lee

Artist: Prospero Hall

Publisher: Ravensburger

The World Seems Full Of Good Men, Even If There Are Monsters In It

Horrified is a 1-5 player co-operative adventure game designed by Prospero Hall and Peter Lee and published by Ravensburger.  Players are investigators tasked with hunting down and stopping a menagerie of sinister creatures taken from the pages and silver screens of classic Hammer horrors such as Dracula, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Wolf-man, The Mummy, the Invisible Man and Frankenstein’s Monster and his Bride. Each creature has a specific method by which they can be brought down, but doing so will require co-operation, careful planning and a degree of cunning.

The game takes place on the village board depicting locations around the formerly peaceful hamlet.  Notable ares like the museum, the church, the hospital to name a few represent place the investigators can obtain the items needed to overcome their foes. Most puzzles require a combination of red, yellow ow blue items sometimes with varying levels of each for example, once you’ve successfully smashed all of Dracula’s coffins around the town by using 6 points worth of red items on each coffin, you move on to defeat the vampire lord once and for by expending a 6 points worth of yellow items while occupying the same space as Dracula.  Items are usually numbered from 1-5 so most often you’ll need at least 2-3 to carry out your task.

Another aspect of the game is escorting and rescuing the villagers.  From time to time, a villager will stumble one the streets and the players who’ve the option to guide this hapless victim to their safe location somewhere in the town. These escort tasks are options, but allowing a villager to perish will result in the game’s terror track increasing.  Once the terror track reaches the end, its all over and the monsters win, so taking any steps necessary to prevent this is in the investigators’ best interests. If you require an additional incentive to safe the villagers, each one you get to safety will reward their rescuer with a perk card, which can be used at any time, including another player’s turn, to reap a powerful, one-off reward.

After each player takes a turn, they draw a monster card which determines what the villains do on their turn. Icons on the card represent the different monsters and only those represented on the drawn cards can act, so occasionally players will catch a lucky break when a particular creature is unable to do anything that round, giving the players a brief reprieve.

Play continues this way until either the players have defeated all the monsters present in the game, the monsters deck is depleted or the terror track has reached the end.  A simple, but compelling system that keep the action moving forward and provides a ticking clock to motivate the investigators to take risks.

I Am All In A Sea Of Wonders, I Doubt, I Fear; I Think Strange Things Which I Dare Not Confess To My Own Soul

Horrified has a lot going for it, and the most noticeable of these is apparent the moment you begin to read the rulebook.  the rules are simple, concise and turns are easy to understand and adjudicate.  This makes for an accessible game for newcomers while maintaining the interest and engagement of more experienced players.

The puzzles for each of the monsters are fun to solve and make for some interesting decision making during the game.  Oftentimes, the players will have worked out a plan only to have this change mid-round as the game state dictates, resulting in a scramble of conversation and planning as they attempt to recover and adapt to the situation.

If you’re looking for a more brutal experience, you can add more monsters which greatly increases the difficulty level allowing players to tailor the game to their liking. Horrified and its brethren is also readily available through standard retail channels so finding a copy shouldn’t be difficult.  Its also priced well and as mentioned earlier, is an easy teach, so getting it from the store to the table should prove no problem.

Despair Has Its Own Calms

While Horrified does a lot of things right, it has a few minor flaws that are worth mentioning.  The first is the overall simplicity.  Both of the components and the game experience itself.  If you’re looking for Nemesis, this isn’t it.  Nor dos it feel the need to be.  Horrified is a light-medium weight game that provides a certain experience.  However, if you’re into deeper gameplay, then this might not be the one for you.

The character choices are also a bit limited, so most of their abilities fall into a couple of familiar categories, for instance, this character gets an extra action, or this character can move to such-and-such a space for free.  A few extra characters with some more game changing abilities would expand the options for some.  At the end of the day, its not a big deal and the designers’ restraint means there were no characters that felt particularly unbalanced.

There’s A Reason Why All Things Are As They Are

As for the art and components, the cards, game board and player boards all feature beautiful hand-drawn art which feels thematic, familiar and sets the scene well.  The classic monsters each get a mini and the art work representing them is instantly recognisable. Investigators and villagers are represented by standees, so nothing too much to write home about there.  Though the colourful depictions of each character are nice.

Other components are pretty standard, with nothing that necessarily stands out, but each piece is functional, easy to identify and works well in the context of the game. Overall, Horrified is a pleasant return to basics in a hobby obsessed with deluxe components and pricey exclusivity. A nice, simple, but bordering on barebones production.

But We Are Strong, Each In Our Purpose, And We Are All More Strong Together

So what are my final thoughts?  For myself, Horrified is a fun, horror-filled romp that, with the right group, can be a highly rewarding and oftentimes, nail-biting experience.  Its become a group favourite that we find ourselves coming back to again and again if we feel like something light, yet challenging. A great, well rounded experience for fans of classic horror and newcomers to the board game genre. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this as a gateway game for newcomers looking to broaden their horizons. Look out for Horrified’s more recent sibling as well, such as American Monsters, Greek Monsters and World of Monsters. The Horrified IP is taking off and branching out, so there should soon be a flavour to suit everyone.

So concludes our Halloween season coverage of some of my favourite horror-themed games.  I’ve previously covered other fan favourites like Septima and Nemesis Lockdown, so be sure to check those out as well.  Have I missed any of your favourites?  If so, let me know in the comments below, or over on our Above Board Facebook group or on Instagram.  In the meantime, stay safe this Halloween, enjoy your sweets and scary movies and above all, take care and join me again for future reviews!  Happy Halloween, and bonus points if you spotted Levi the scaredy cat!