Customer Reviews

Gloom

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Gloom is a big hit with my 11- and 14-year old daughters and myself. It is best played with people who like to embellish the stories of how such bad things can happen to these pathetic characters. If you like creativity, or promoting creative thinking and storytelling, this game might very well be for you. It is not for people who are easily offended, small children, overly competitive or those without a sense of humor.

We were four guys who sat down yesterday and played this game all night, it's tons of fun, and quite creative as well if you emphasize the storytelling part of the game (which you should!). The storytelling has a high educational value as well, as it helps you tie stories together, and be socially creative.

You win the game by having bad things happening in abundance to your family members (each player has got 5), and then killing them when they are worst off. The challenge, however, is that your opponents try to make good things happen to your family members as well, so the story told about each person is a gloomy chronicle with occasional happy events ("Oh look! Ducklings... awww....").

Gloom uses transparent cards, which adds a new dimension to the game, but turns out to be extremely important to give the players an overview of the current condition of a family member. It's very intuitive and easily played.

If you like such games as Munchkin or Fluxx 4.0 this is the game for you, as it contains some of the same brilliant elements, on-the-fly rule changes etc. The only downside seems to be that the amount of cards may be a bit too few for a 4 person game, so I'd recommend buying the Unhappy Homes (Gloom) and Unwelcome Guests Gloom Expansion extensions as well.

The guys and I laughingly agreed that we all had a very depressing experience. :-)

Gloom was recommended to me by a slightly bi-polar friend who knew that I appreciated a good card game, to whit, if I purchased the game, he'd play it with me. Anyway, I looked for it and found it was made by Atlas Games (LUNCH MONEY!) so I quickly purchased it. As for how it is for a child's game, I have no idea (and no kids,) but as for a party game instead of Euchre or Hearts, it is a hit. Pros: It mixes humor and pithy dialog with every card, which are plastic (hence not susceptible to party fouls or getting wiped in the dip,) plus it has a smart system of scoring that doesn't get too big for addled (or young, I guess) minds to grasp. It's a good game to get people engaged and any "gamer" will instantly love it's simplicity combined with more complex strategies once the system is grasped. Cons: I don't have the latest expansion! Plus, I think there needs to be more cards for 4-5 player games.

I liked this game however I was unable to play this game more then a few times because the cards smudge and the ink rubs off too easily especial for the price I paid. You would think that because the cards are plastic they would hold up, I wasn't rough on the cards and only played on clean surfaces...It was a disappointment for durability.

I bought this to play with our extended family for a vacation, and we had a great time with it. All of us are adults and found that adult beverages definitely enhanced the "fun factor," since not everyone really got into the story-telling aspect of the game. The premise is very creative, and gameplay is fun and straightforward without being too simplistic. We've since played with friends and found that while still fun, though, it definitely showed signs of repetitiveness. The funny text on the cards is considerably less funny the fifth or sixth time you play, and it's easy to get lazy with the story-telling if you're so inclined.

For a silly party game, this is a good choice. If you're looking for a game to play more often or with gamers, or you're interested in something with a little more strategy, you'd probably be better off with one of the great euro-games out there like Stone Age, Carcassone, Settlers of Catan, or Lost Cities. I definitely don't recommend this for two players, since most of the fun comes from the large group interaction. For two, better to go with Carcassone The Castle, Balloon Cup, or one of the above (except Settlers).

"Gloom" is one of those card games that people will either immediately love or hate, but fortunately it will be fairly easy to predict into which category most folks will fall. Those that will love this game are the natural story tellers who like interactive games. The folks that will hate it are the more serious players who like quick games with ridged rules and little talking (Like my mother).

Game Play: These very cool cards are mostly transparent and "events" are played on top of each other, with only the visible values and actions counting. Unlike most games, the goal is to make your characters as miserable as possible (and to die in that sad state), while spreading joy and good fortune to your opponents (and perhaps killing them off in that happy state). There are card with negative effects (bad events) that you will want to play on your own character cards, cards with positive effects that you will want to play on your opponents, cards that will kill a character (use strategy to determine if you will use this on your own or an opponent's character), and several different types of special cards that modify the game play. Ultimately, the winner will be player with the characters that lived (and died) with the most misery. However, the best part comes not from the mechanics of the game but rather from the story telling that goes along with the adding of the misfortunate\fortunate events as these are largely left up to the players to embellish using the brief description on the cards. I was amazed at the clever and involved story lines that developed during our games.

This is a very fun and interactive game that does require strategy and some luck to win and also encourages creative storytelling to enhance the experience. There are also expansion packs that add extra event cards and allow for additional players. We used the Gloom: Unfortunate Expeditions as well.

Highly Recommended!

I was so happy when I got my game I waited to play it the next day at school between classes. Thing is when I opened it, the 2 decks that come in the packet were exactly the same. I was unable to play because i'm missing half of my deck. Too bad. I REALLY wanted to play.

Allow me to preface this review by stating that I am not well-versed in the minutia of the creation of this game. I am not terribly familiar with the company which made it nor can I reveal intimate details of the lives of the people who created it. I just know what's in the box.

What first caught my eye about this particular game was the fact that the art style (and, upon actually playing the game, the rest of the game) is a very obvious nod to the legendary Edward Gorey. The only research I did into the game was to find out if Gorey did, in fact, have a hand in its creation. He did not.

The object of the game is simple. Each player (from 2 to 4) picks one of the game's 4 families. The small rules sheet offers up a story for each of the 4 families, each short introduction full of delightfully dark humor. The players then get their hands of five cards and the game begins! The basis of the game is the idea that one's reward in the afterlife is directly proportional to the suffering one endures in life. Meaning: the more you suffer in when you're alive, the better your eternity. Each player must unleash a wave of unbearable torment on their family to decrease each family member's self-worth. Then, when each family member has suffered enough they must die. However, while each player is trying to torture their own family the other players can play cards on them which would help to increase their self-worth. They can even kill members of the other player's families. The game ends when every member of one family is dead. The player whose family has the lowest self-worth total wins. The transparent cards make it easy to quickly calculate the self-worth values on each deceased family member.

The dark humor of this game is the best part. It is evident from the very beginning. According to the rules the player who has had the worst day goes first. This is a nice way to show people what passes as par for the course, when it comes to the humor in this game. Some of the cards you can play to lower a family member's self-worth include "Mocked by Midgets" whose text block says "It's the little things that hurt the most", "disgraced at a dance" with text "Glass shoes? Good thinking!", or "Was beaten by Beggars" with the text "Give 'til it hurts. Then give some more". The rules and execution of the game and the individual actions on some of the cards is pretty straight forward. This game is definitely friendly to those inexperienced with card games.

Now, the real genius and replayability of this game lies not in the game itself but in how you can play it. The rules encourage players to help make up stories about their family members as they endure their hardships and windfalls. This is easily the most enjoyable part of this game, especially if you and your friends are the creative types. It is particularly fun to hear stories when a misfortune is played after a beneficial card.

I recommend this game to any fans of trading card games, as well as anyone who has a weekly game night with friends. I personally can't wait till I have some extra cash to burn again and I can purchase the expansion decks.

Brilliant concept. It didn't work for my wife, though; she just didn't get it and didn't want to. I've tried to bring it out a few times since, but just can't generate interest. My conclusion on the game is this: If you enjoy beauty and brilliance in-and-of-themselves, you'll probably like the game. If you think there should be a purpose to beauty and brilliance, then it may not fly for you.

I play a lot of games, and am always looking for something new. When I saw Gloom a few months ago, it piqued my interest. It looks at first glance like something out of the Lemony Snicket's series; quite a lot like that at second glance, too.

My wife and I, and another couple, played a couple of games last weekend, and had a ball with the family members, cards, and random events. The transparent cards are not only cool to look at, but are an important part of the game mechanics, and double-sided, to boot. The object is simple: make each member of your family as miserable as possible, to enhance their rewards in the hereafter. You may also take pity on other families, by marrying them off into (short-term) wedded bliss, ending their lives before they suffer the next indignity of a cruel world, or playing "Died Without Any Cares", which gives the deceased a decent burial, and absolutely no points.

The game play goes fairly quickly, about an hour a game, once you learn the rules, which are fairly simple, but keep them close by to make sure you're doing things in the right order. One nice touch is that the person with the most miserable day (so far!) gets to start the game. Failing that, the owner starts.

Bottom line: very, very enjoyable. Fans of Lemony Snicket, Wuthering Heights, dark humor, or anyone who thought Schindler's list was a light comedy, will be thoroughly entertained.