Customer Reviews

Pandemic On The Brink

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Pandemic is one of those games that defies logic. First, it's one of the few purely co-operative games out there, with no one even designated as a traitor later on. Second, it actually gets harder the more people you play with, not easier. After several breezy sessions with just my girlfriend and I, we proceeded to get spanked when we tried it four-player. It was a blast to try and beat this game, as it's always a challenge, and winning is usually done by the skin of one's teeth. With the release of the expansion, you have a variety of new smaller scenarios you can add individually, or you can group them together in interesting combos to make the challenge even more difficult. I have still never even tried this game on heroic because it's so difficult, and now there are even harder challenges to face with a disease that acts completely unpredictably, a fourth deadly disease thrown into the mix, and possibly even a bio-terrorist on the loose (which adds a little competitiveness into the game). On top of that, the makers includes some petri dishes for storage containers, which is a wonderful idea for storing containers, and it really makes the game look sharp! Also, even though it was never a huge problem, they included a set of smaller player pieces to allow for boards often crowded with disease. Z-Man games really cares about making quality games with excellently-made components. I highly recommend this to anyone who has the base game, and if you don't have the base game, stop your life right now and order it!

Pandemic is not an easy game. My wife and I beat it maybe, 50% of the time when it's just the two of us, less when there's more people (and that's when never more than 5 epidemics). On the Brink takes a hard game and then lights it on fire, gives it steroids and grants it evil super powers. Seriously, the extra challenges in On the Brink will blow your mind and make you love the game even more. All the new (and updated) roll cards in this will enhance even vanilla play of the game. This expansion pack is well thought out, well crafted and, as a final bonus, includes petri dishes for storage of game pieces. Seriously, it's classy.

If you liked Pandemic, you'll love On the Brink

The origonal game had kind of lost the challenge, it was easy to beat and even with max epidemics we were trouncing it a good 80% of the time.

The expansion gives you new tools, and challenges, the virulent strain, along with the ability to have random effects on the epidemics changes the game considerable. Mutations and Bio Terrorist also add fun twists.

If you've already "solved" the origonal game buy the expansion and see if you can keep up with the new challenges.

On The Brink is a fantastic expansion. My friends and I have been playing Pandemic for a year now, and, while it had its day in the sun, we had grown tired of it. Although the cooperative play was fun at first, it was so simple that any of us could basically play it singleplayer. Needless to say, I was a bit skeptical about forking over some dough to buy an expansion.

On The Brink adds some well-thought-out and natural new mechanics to the game. The new disease (purple cubes) is interesting, the new "government intervention" mechanic feels great (and is rife with political satire in our group), the new roles really mix things up, and the (completely optional) bio-terrorist mechanic adds an entire new method of play to Pandemic. Best of all, because these new mechanics are logical and actually quite modular (you can use each of them independently), they don't ramp up the complexity of the game significantly.

Presentation-wise, On The Brink also includes a set of petri dishes and labels for storing your disease cubes, which definitely improves the game's tactile experience. However, neither box seems to be big enough to store all of the components for the complete game, so you'll find yourself lugging around two boxes (most board game expansions fit into the original box or come with a big enough box that you can fit everything in it).

The result is definitely one of the best buys we've made as a gaming group in a long time. If you played Pandemic and liked it (or even if you thought it was too simple, like me), you definitely owe it to yourself to give this expansion a try. You won't regret it.

This really enhanced Pandemic's playability. Once you feel like you've mastered the core game, and can win most of the time, you can start "plugging in" the various rules additions to ramp up the difficulty. Each one (a new purple virus, rules for changing the behavior of the existing virii, and a new role, Bioterrorist, that plays against the other players) significantly increases the difficulty of the game alone- combined, they definitely have a synergistic effect.

Also really welcome was the addition of more player tokens, all the same size (including resized versions of the originals), a bunch more fun Roles, and containers for the many playing pieces, including those from the original.

if Pandemic has become one of your mainstay games, this expansion is definitely worth it. If you haven't decided whether you love it or not, though, sit on the core game a while longer- this expansion makes the game much, much harder even when you've already got the fundamentals down.

After playing Pandemic for the first time, I was instantly hooked. I immediately read more about it and found this expansion. Once you play the expansion, you realize that the only way to play is with the expansion. The new roles are great. Also, there are a couple 'create-your-own' role cards. I made a detective: he can see the terrorist if the terrorist is in any adjacent country, and he can capture the terrorist from one country away. Anyways, the new special events and the three added scenarios are nonstop fun. The terrorist scenario adds a competitive aspect to the game that the original Pandemic does not have. If you buy Pandemic, buy the expansion. It is well worth it.

Having played the original Pandemic with friends for awhile I was interested to see how this expansion would affect the game. I was happily surprised at the new roles and the addition of various scenarios. Just for fun we shuffeled in all the new 'Epidemic' cards and 'Mutation' cards and were properly whipped. :) The game itself can be difficult to beat and as others have said it actually gets more difficult the more people you have playing. However this has been an appealing part of the game as some of the co-op games seem to be a bit too easy for my taste (such as Castle Panic). This is a worthy addition and will give you a different game each and every time.

This is an expansion for the original board game Pandemic (which has nothing to do with the flash-based computer game). If you do not like cooperative board games or did not like the original Pandemic, this will not change your mind. I loved the original game because of its cooperative nature and extreme difficulty. The expansion introduces new mechanics to make the game harder and more interesting. The expansion adds 3 variations, which actually scale very nicely in terms of they deviate from the original gameplay. One of the modes tweaks Epidemic cards slightly so that you can introduce the new mechanics and adjust to the new roles (Virulent strain). The next mode introduces a fifth disease that behaves differently, but in line with the tweaks introduced in the previous mode (Mutation). The last mode introduces a third party (Bioterrorist) that plays against the other players and the game. It does allow for someone who hates cooperative board games to try this game out, but ultimately, if you don't like Pandemic, this third mode won't change your mind.

For the star ratings:
Durability: It's a board game with little pieces not meant for really young kids. Ultimately gave it one star because the little pieces are easy to lose.
Educational: It's a board game that teaches interactions with people, but that's it. It's nice in that it can demonstrate team mechanics, but no scientific or academic learning value beyond that and the normal strategy that board games can teach.

Very fun for board game night with family and/or friends. Parents, this is a game to learn about teamwork and working together. Children can learn a geography lesson.

Okay, first thing I LOVED about this expansion, it comes with container viles where you can set your virus strains in. No longer do I have to worry about onebeing knocked off the table from a pile. The container has it all.
Second is the newly added virulent strain. This creates a harder gameplay and is jsut amazing to have vs playing with the original.
I enjoy there being a bad player too, this is optional, but it can add a level of strategy to outwit the other player. I personally enjoy it, but find that I can play that gameplay rarely.
The other addition is the "Legendary" difficulty.
I have yet to win on this one. My brother in law and I play this, and we are good at the original, We can beat it hands down and not worry about it.
This however creates a level of play that keepsus on our toes and always guessing what to do.
This is a great addition to the origial pandemic and I would advise players to pick it up.
I know I have not regretted buying it yet.