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- Verified Buyer
Betrayal At House On The Hill is one of my favorite games to pull out and play with friends or to introduce them to this type of exploration board game. I've gifted it several times and taken it to several friend's homes that have all loved the game play.~~It is very easy to learn and teach~~What makes this game so fun is that it is different every time. In addition to that, it has an unknown traitor once the haunt begins. With that said, even if you play the same haunt, it can be very different each time because each traitor and hero has a different play style and strategy.◘ Exploration: The game begins with the adventurers standing in the entryway of the house. Like and good horror movie the group splits up to explore on their own, discovering omens, items, and events along the way. Some players may want to expand the house as large as possible before the haunt begins, and some may want to keep the house smaller. It depends on the group. For every omen discovered, a haunt roll must take place, the player rolls six dice and must roll higher than the number of omen cards on the table. With normal dice, this would be no problem. However, the dice for Betrayal at House on the Hill are not normal. Some sides are blank and it only goes up to 2. Once someone rolls less than the number of omen cards on the table, the haunt begins.◘ The Haunt: The haunt is the meat of the game, the real objective of the game. Depending on who failed the haunt roll, where they were at in the house, and the last omen cared drawn, the traitor is revealed in the rule book that says "DO NOT READ." The traitor then removes themselves from the room to read about their new powers and objectives, while the heroes remain in the room to discuss their strategy to beat the traitor.•• Why does the game appeal? ••This game is so appealing I think because every time you sit down, it's a little different. Every character differs even from game to game. You might discover the same rooms over and over, but theyre never in the same order and they always have different rooms attached to them sometimes even false doors. It seems like a lot at first, but it doesn't take long to set up and the game can go on as long or as short as you want it to.On top of that, the traitor is different every time and it creates a fun dynamic for the group playing because sometimes its the most innocent person that turns into the traitor and you end up learning about their traitorous side.•• Rules, arguments, and complexity ••The rules are simple, but occasionally, there's room for interpretation, which can make it fun because then it turns into the house rules.The rules really aren't complex and I think the room they leave for interpretation allows each person that buys and plays the game to really make it their own. Some things aren't specifically said, like can this ghost use the elevator, well then the owner or the players can decide the likelihood of a ghost using an elevator or requiring the stairs.•• Who is this game for? ••The game really is for anyone that enjoys that sense of adventure. I've played it with die hard board game fans and they loved it and I've played it with people that are new to board games and usually only played games like Cards Against Humanity. It can be fun for everyone.•• How many players do I need? ••It really depends, I've played with 4, 5, and 6 players. I think the 6 player mark was my favorite. but 4 is a really good sweet spot. When there are 6 players, it begins to feel like there's a lot to keep track of, but it is fun nonetheless because there is so much going on and you uncover the board a lot faster!•• Do I need the expansion? ••Eventually, you could buy it. However, that being said, play the original as much as possibly before you start to get bored of it. In my opinion, that will take ages.•• Conclusion ••At the end of the day, this is usually the game I reach for when friends come over to play games. It has been my favorite for a while and I will always recommend it to people looking for new games.My rats were almost invincible. Twice the heroes had tangled with them and run away, nearly dead and unable to brave the swarm again. More and more rats were pouring in to stand guard over the door to my pentagram chamber. My ritual was nearly complete; I was seconds from destroying my enemies and raising an unstoppable army of rodents that would swarm the world, all at my control.Then my son drew the Dynamite card. I rolled and rolled, but every rat necessary to my ritual perished in the fiery explosion and the eldritch power I was calling devoured me as their link severed. My almost certain win was destroyed with the drawing of a single card.Betrayal at House on the Hill has: 2-6 explorers, a house that builds slowly with tiles, a set of omen cards that draw the players ever closer to a haunting, and 50 scenarios in which the haunting reveals a traitor, his minions, and the winning and losing conditions for each side.In the first part, you all explore the house, drawing room tiles, encountering event cards that test you, the occasional item, and even more infrequently, an Omen. During this part of the game, no one can die, there are no monsters, and no need to attack other players. Nobody is the enemy yet. However, Omen cards add up; each time you find one, you roll dice to see if the second part of the game happens: the Haunting. The Haunting is when one character either openly or in secret (depending on the scenario) becomes the traitor, controlling the monsters and scenario that challenges the heroes (all the other players) while pursuing goals known only to him. The heroes, to win, have a set of tasks to perform. Sometimes the goal it simply to make it out alive. Sometimes to find a room and complete a ritual. The task is *almost never* as simple as killing the traitor. Sometimes the traitor character is removed and the traitor only controls monster tokens to achieve his goals. Sometimes, the traitor attacks simply to interfere with the heroes as they attempt to flee a ticking countdown. Sometime his goal is to flee the heroes, get to a certain place, perform a ritual of his own, or other nefarious things. In one scenario, sometimes he has only to move a counter and watch the heroes die on their own (my daughter and I actually won that one even with my son's attempted interference, although I died alone on my own without the possibility of escape she was able to complete the goals and so our side won.In any case, we've only played a handful of scenarios, and each one is unique. Sometimes sheer luck makes an easy win. Sometimes winning for one side or the other will be impossible. But all in all, the sheer variety of options, rooms, cards and scenarios makes it enjoyable and balanced, and the ratcheting tension of omen cards leading to a haunting roll succeeding and one of us becoming the bad guy is a fun mechanic.There are rules for playing alternate scenarios if you come up with the same one twice in a row or one everybody has played and want to switch, which is nice.Unlike some of the reviews here, the pieces in my game are sturdy, well made, and in no cases thin and flimsy. And those 1 star reviews pearl clutching at finding ghosts, demonic rituals, the undead, Satanic and/or Chthulic influences, and (gasp) a pentagram room in the game, what were you expecting from a game about hauntings, monsters, and betrayal? Did you not read the back of the box? Go back to playing Clue.Two caveats: lots of pieces so get some baggies to separate them and it requires at least a folding table to play on. A small kitchen or coffee table isn't going to do it.Betrayal at House on the Hill is a great game, with a brilliant twist every time you play. The game has two phases, in the first phase each player picks a character and begins to explore a haunted house as a team. The characters are the usual unlikely mix of people who always seem to band together in 80s horror films to go an explore the creepy house. The house is built up by drawing tiles, so is never the same twice, and as players explore they also have events happen to them that can either negatively impact on their chances of survival or can benefit them by awarding them with useful weapons. After a certain point, however, the game changes completely, when a player falls victim to an Omen (and this again happens at a different point each time you play), then one of the players will be revealed as a traitor. Who is chosen and what scenario plays out as a result is determined almost randomly. After this point, the betrayer will usually be trying to hunt down their former team members, with the rest of the team having to work together to either stop the betrayer or just escape the house!Lots of fun to play, especially as you're never quite sure as to when the game will change completely or who will suddenly turn on the rest of the group. Lots of replayability with a book full of different betrayer scenarios to play through. The game is dead easy to learn and quickly becomes involved and challenging! Always fun to play!Is a game of two halves - discovering rooms, drawing items/events/omens and then the haunt when the traitor is revealed. The first half of the game is fun and build up an atmosphere. When the haunt begins, that’s when the rules become harder to follow with no real logic and ultimately boring as no-one properly understands what they are meant to be doing and so just make it up as they go along. The traitor/haunt rules can be vague and random and often need revering to which takes away the fun of the game to the point of not caring who wins. Some haunts are boring and seem added in for the sake of it.Mysterium, although a different type of horror game, is much easier to play and is much better fun.I'm not a games fan, but I can put up with this one. (which is high praise, believe me, I'm forced into family games ). Initially the one person being a 'traitor' was a problem,(panic and shyness ensued) but despite the amount of reading involved (probably not best played when drunk!) soon we were enjoying it and everyone wanted to be the 'traitor'.It was useful to have someone who knew the game to help us get used to it. The nice thing is the way that the game can have so much variety due to the way you pick the 'traitor' and all the different characters. so do persist with it. It's not as complicated as it first seems.I bought this as a present and was a little disappointed as the bottom of the box had been significantly dented. If I had bought it 'in a store' I would have picked another one, or asked for a discount. If this is the reason it was a good price (reduced compared to most sellers) then they should have said. It didn't look like it was due to the delivery, as it was like the bottom had been pushed in (bent upwards in a curve) then the cellophane tight wrapping put on afterwards, as the cellophane wasn't dented and was unbroken! ie it had somehow happened during manufacture.Luckily it hadn't damaged the contents and as it was for the family we kept it. This was one of those things that annoy me about online purchases, I was intending to buy this in a store, but they didn't have it in stock.If you love the horror genre then you’ll probably love this game. It’s a very atmospheric game, you need to read all the cards and soak up the concept. This is a semi co operative game. You all need to work together to beat the game but ultimately someone will become the traitor and that’s when the game dynamic changes. The first part of the game is all about exploring,you place board tiles, pick up cards, roll dice, collect better weapons etc. Along the way you pick up omen cards when certain rooms are revealed, once so many are in play, the haunt starts whereby the traitor is revealed and the haunt starts. The omen cards often cause unbalance in the game, if omen cards are revealed too soon, players haven’t had time to explore, are often injured and lack decent relics, so the enemy is too powerful. Or the omen cards are revealed slowly and all rooms have been revealed making the enemy too easy. It’s a fantastic game when you get the right balance but its not very often.I've only played this once, we got scenerio 43. If you google Betrayal at House on the hill scenerios, 43 is the only one mentioned. Its borked by the definition of the way the survivors can run and really needs someone to review the scenerio. Rest assured I wont be playing that scenerio again. Damn it caused arguments. Now one of the people I played with had a different scenerio in another play and said that it was amazing fun. However when the first play through sucks as bad as that one did, finding motivation to play again is low.On the whole, the game is easy enough to learn. Although the manual is pretty hefty, if you play it through and read the rules as you go its less tricky. Probably not going to want to play it with juniors.Lovely quality board pieces (you lay down the house one tile at a time) and overall tokens and everything else are what you would expect from today's modern board games.So overall, not without fault but generally worthwhile.
