Customer Reviews

Betrayal at House on the Hill Board Game

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a fantastic game that, as advertised, doesn't play the same way twice. Each game starts the same--you play the part of an explorer in a spooky old house. Each unexplored door reveals a new room (a tile that you turn over from the stack), many of which have items or events to discover. The twist comes once enough "Omens" (special items) have been collected--at that point one of the game's 50 scenarios comes into play, determined by which Omen was the last uncovered, what characters are playing, etc. One of the players now becomes the Traitor, and reads from a special book, while the rest, now called Heroes, read from their own book. The Traitor tries to bring some event to pass, while the Heroes try to stop him or her. It's fun being Traitor or Hero, and the way the game is set up it's usually someone different every time, adding even more replay value.

The game's complexity and violent content make it unsuitable for little kids, but it's a blast for adults! There are a few rule inconsistencies, which keep this game from getting 5 stars--however, there's now an errata you can download from the publisher's site that helps fix most of these errors. The pros definitely outweigh the cons on this one--pick it up and give it a try!

Betrayal at House on the Hill is great fun for fans of classic horror stories. You'll battle Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, carnivorous plants, cannibals, werewolves, zombies, mummies and even people you thought were your friends!

Fun - Five Stars

Betrayal is more strategy than role-playing, but it includes elements of both. Each player chooses a character with different traits needed to survive: might, speed, sanity, and knowledge. Based on what the characters encounter and how they deal with it, these traits can improve or degrade.

The most fun part is exploring. As in a good horror story, this is when the tension builds and the real fun happens. The room tiles are eerily detailed, and each has something different in it. Some are helpful, and some are very, very harmful.

The haunt is revealed when a player makes a hount roll and the result is less than the number of Omen Cards in play. This can sometimes happen way too soon, so my friends and I decided not to attempt haunt rolls until ten rooms have been explored.

When the haunt begins, one player turns traitor and leaves the room to read "The Traitor's Tome," which explain how the traitor wins, e.g. "when all of the heroes are dead," "you blow up the house," "you open the gate to hell." The heroes then read "Secrets of Survival" and discuss their strategy.

The cooperative element is interesting, but can be difficult for highly competitive players to grasp. These do better as the traitor who, with his monstrous minions, is alone against the rest.

Close battles are a lot of fun, but sometimes the variables weight a game in favor of one side. Once as the Zombie Lord, I killed all players but one, who picked up all the dropped items and became almost invincible. The battle was epic, but the undead didn't stand a chance. Also, if Frankenstein's monster goes after a physically weak character such as Professor Longfellow, it's a no-brainer.

Educational Value - Four Stars

While no substitute for reading Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley, the game can generate interest in the classic stroies. It also has a strong cooperative element and requires critical thinking and self sacrifice.

Durability - Three Stars

Due to the incredible amount of tokens, some are bound to get lost. Also, the paint rubs off of the character cards from sliding the plastic trait markers up and down.

Overall - Five Stars

This game is very engaging and fun. Observe the recommended age of ten or above (the cannibal scenario is particularly disturbing), but ignore the 1 hour play time. Close games can take several hours, while some are over in half an hour.

Every time you play this game, your appreciation for it will grow. It really is fascinating to see how the game shapes up as different rooms and events are combined: many times an event won't seem that bad in the room you draw it in, but in a later game, it will show up elsewhere and you realize how devastating it can be! I feel like everytime I play this game, I'm actually just playing a single round of a larger metagame, getting one more clue as to what the grand picture looks like. Even the components of the game have secrets that unfold as you play: it took me awhile to notice that all the monster tokens were color coded: orange for natural monsters like wolves and spiders, red for human monsters like cultists and freaks, green for undead such as zombies and vampires and blue for otherworldly creatures such as aliens and demons.

Besides the fact that the game can still surprise you after dozens of sessions, it has two other major strengths:

1) Great flavor. Between the events, items, omens and haunts, just about every horror genre/idea/villain is covered (and some from fantasy and science fiction as well). Yet, though it has something for everyone, the game still feels coherent. The overall tone is that of a classic haunted house movie, so its creepy, but not, for the most part, so gruesome as to detract from the fun of the game for people with delicate sensibilities (of course, gore fiends will still find walls running with blood, cannibal freaks and killers that just won't stay down). I've always been a fan of everything-and-the-kitchen-sink style games, that take all the icons of a genre and mix them together, but most games like that tend to be medieval fantasy oriented (Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons, Heroes of Might and Magic, etc., etc., etc.). It's great to finally have an excellent catch-all horror game like this.

2) A good mix of strategy and chance. I've never felt like my brain could go to sleep while I play, yet its not so intensely competitive that the average player will get their ego wrapped up in winning. Again, the more you play, the more strategy you see.

MILD SPOILERS THIS PARAGRAPH: A word on the fifty different haunt scenarios: some of them are fairly straight forward, but some of them do really crazy things to the house, like flooding it, or having it slowly collapse into Hell, or have very unique foes, such as a blob that grows as it eats the house, leaving pieces of itself in each room it passes through.

The first time I played this game, I thought it was decent. The fifth time I played it, I realized it was my new favorite game. The fiftieth time I played it, I could hardly wait for the fifty-first. I've long been a fan of open-ended games, like Magic, that always feel fresh. I can honestly say that I think more experiences await me in this one little box than in the thousands of magic cards I have gathering dust in a closet.

(...and if the references to Magic and D&D are turning you off, let me assure you that my non-"gamer" friends love this game as well.)

What a fun game! I bought it not sure if they could pull it off or not, but it's exactly what it says it is. It's like the designers locked themselves in a room and watched every haunted house movie they could find. Then they went and made a game that simulates them all.

What's most cool about the game is just like in a movie, the players don't know what's going on when they first arrive at the house. As they explore, weird stuff starts happening. Ghosts, strange voices, odd visions, etc. Startling, but not too dangerous. Then, inevitably, the Haunt begins.

Exactly what form the Haunt takes varies. There's fifty scenarios, and having only played four, I can still tell you they're amazingly diverse. I've had to battle my own evil twin, fight Dracula and his bride, keep my shadow (and soul) from being consumed in a magic pentagram, and even had to struggle against a "living" house. FYI: The house won and munched me.

The layout of the house changes every time. The chances of survival vary with the scenario and the characters involved. Being strongest or smartest isn't always the most important. Though it never hurts to run fast! Unfortunately, you don't get to find that out what's most helpful until after the Haunt starts.

The rules are simple. The scenarios are easy to understand without being overwritten. It's fun and different and you'll never know what to expect or who will survive. In other words, it's just like a great haunted house movie.

The only small complaint I have with it is that because it is so diverse and unpredictable, the game's aren't always balanced. Often, the heroes or the traitor seems to have an unfair advantage. But it's hard to fault the game for that, since its main strength is its unpredictability. There's also a lot of errata (check the Avalon Hill website) and some general sloppiness. But the game is so unique, I'm willing to overlook these flaws.

PS: The rules says 3 or more players, but I've found two players work fine if each player controls two or more characters at first. Once the Haunt starts, the player who controls the traitor just hands control of his heroes over to his opponent.

If you like horror films, this game is for you! Easy to learn, although some of the rules and haunts are a bit confusing, but thanks to Avalon Hill's web site these are easily taken care of through their FAQ and updated Errata. This game is awesome! Guiding your character with up to five of your friends through an old mansion, finding traps, items, and things that bump in the night you can almost swear you've seen this before on the big screen. But as in all great horror films, things inevitably go bad and deadly. Once the haunt begins, that's when the real fun begins!! We have had only one "cheesy" haunt so far, but still had a great time. One of the best parts of this game is that IT'S A DIFFERENT GAME EVERY TIME YOU PLAY! and with 50 haunts it's going to be some time before you get repeat haunts and even if you do...the board is totally in a new configuration. This game has everything it needs to be a classic. I only hope that Avalon Hill makes an expansion pack with more haunts!!

This game has a lot of pieces, but it means that no two plays through the game are the same. You explore this ghoul filled manor by laying out each room card one at a time, allowing for literally endless creepy possibilities for this fun, creepy, strategy game. My favorite part is always when the Haunt begins and one of the players is suddenly not on the other player's team, but now the enemy! I've found it to be the most fun with at least 4 players, and it does have a lot of pieces to keep up with, but it's definatly many many nights of fun.

This game has a lot of fun, spooky ideas in it, but unfortunately, it lacks any real strategy or decision-making. Gameplay boils down to moving somewhat randomly through a maze, drawing cards, and rolling dice. There aren't really any meaningful decisions to be made. Until the "scenario" part of the game begins, players are literally wandering around the build-as-you-go board hoping to draw useful cards.

Once the "scenario" kicks in, specific victory conditions are revealed, but the path to achieving them is obvious -- players still don't get to choose from among different potential strategies, they simply have to make the obvious moves and hope that the dice and cards are helpful.

There is also an issue with the game's components, many of which are actually very nice. Bizarrely, in a game that relies entirely on its flavor, there are loads of tokens that simply have a name -- no graphics. This makes little sense, especially considering that this is a high-end Hasbro production that features a lot of cool artwork. Fighting a round black token with the word "Vampire" on it doesn't do much for the atmosphere.

If you are a fan of games like Talisman, where the interest comes from the flavor text and artwork rather than the insipid game mechanics, then you will very likely enjoy this game (if you don't mind collecting the huge amount of errata required to fix many of the scenarios). If you are looking for a game that will challenge your skills and give you tough decisions to make, then don't bother with Betrayal At House On The Hill.

This game is a great way to kick off an evening of gaming, since it's so simple to teach and the play starts off cooperatively. Then, once people have gotten the hang of it, the haunt begins and it's a race to beat the traitor. The atmosphere of the game is great, too.

One warning: download the errata. I'm not sure if it remains true for newer editions of the game, but the first printing contained some errors. In general, creative players could work around them, but the errata are very helpful.

I had so much fun playing this with some friends back in the day. Though each game started out the same, there's so many possible endings and outcomes. We'd play eerie music in the background, narrate with gusto and we'd have a blast! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! (though it was a lot less expensive back when I got it, but I think there is a newer version out)

I got this for a Christmas present two years ago. At first I thought it was boring and confusing, until my friends and I started playing it. WHAT A GAME!! This is unlike any other board game I've played. It's literally never the same game twice. I've had games last as short as 20 minutes and as long as 2 hours. I would highly recommend this game!