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Seal the Gates Before the Old Ones Awaken in ‘Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu’, Now 20% Off

3 Minute Read
Mar 25 2024
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In Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu, work with your fellow investigators to battle against 12 different Old Ones and save humanity once again.

The Pandemic system may have the most humble of beginnings of any game system. It started as just a single game, but has since spawned a ton of spin-offs, like Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Pandemic: Hot Zone, Pandemic: Rapid Response, and plenty of others.

But for all the diseases and ailments that Z-Man Games has had humanity face, they’ve never faced a terror quite like Cthulhu.

Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu is Simply Better Than the Base Game

You may have played Pandemic before and enjoyed it. But find yourself resisting playing again since it feels like something of a solved game. Once you know the tips and tricks, the game becomes too routine. However, Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu addresses a lot of these issues. Plus, considering how this decade started, the theme is much more palatable.

While the core gameplay hasn’t changed much from the original Pandemic, new mechanics have been added, and some have been removed. This is all to make Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu a more fluid gameplay experience.

One of the biggest changes is how the players deal with the Old Ones. Each game will use six random Old Ones, which can awaken as the game progresses. Each Old One has a different effect, and the game comes with 12. This adds a nice spice of life to a game, which could sometimes feel a little samey.

On top of that, the map is much smaller and more maneuverable. Players can walk, take the train, or hop in any open portal for a quick trip to the other side of the board. This helps alleviate the frustrations of being so close and yet so far from the locations that you need to be in on your turn. But, the smaller map is balanced out by the addition of Shoggoths. Shoggoths will spawn throughout the game and will push the players towards insanity, another new mechanic.

Throughout the game, players will lose sanity, as you might expect in any Cthulhu mythos game. But, rather than being eliminated, players can keep trucking in their mad state. Albeit at a much-reduced capacity. But if all players are ever insane at the same time, it’s game over.

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Author: Matt Sall
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