"the game doesn't care about you" and "a beautiful shambles" sum up the game so well! Nicely put, thank you. Arkham horror is my favourite game of all time. I own all the expansions and have done since they came out. These days it's such a hard game to get to the table because people seem to like pretty Euros that play in under 90 minutes, or they like social deduction games; few seem to appreciate clunky old-school thematic games that last for 3+ hours and have the most immersive and emergent epic stories to tell, games where it's the experience of playing the game and the stories you tell each other afterwards that matter, not the final outcome of the game. (Don't get me wrong, I love a good Euro - Concordia is my #2 game of all time) Like you, I felt the Eldritch had some lovely mechanical improvements over Arkham (i love the complex encounters system in particular), but ultimately, I felt that the game was much less fun to play when you were being crushed than it was in the same circumstances with Arkham.
Yeah my shelves are overwhelmingly Euros but for a while I forgot how much I enjoy these emergent stories and wish there were more games that could pull it off! To be fair there's enough in the expansions to keep you going forever probably
top 5 game of all time... your exactly right... its a pain the butt but such a good pain that you keep coming back for more.. awesome game with the expansions please play them as soon as you can... you will have a blast..
Oddly enough, AH2e was also the first game that got me into "modern boardgaming", but I do feel that Eldritch Horror has surpassed it in most ways for me, but it's always nice to watch a playthrough of it for some good memories!
Thanks for the review I found a copy of AH this year for cheap. I am very happy with having just the base game. Unlike EH which I also love this feels complete with just the base.
If you can grab up anything else, it should be the Dunwich expansion. It expands thd base game very well. But you’re right - the original AH2E base game alone is a full, complete board game that can be played over and over again.
Got this + Curse of the Dark Pharoh 1st edition for 35€. Everyone in my playgroup is scared of playing this so I've been doing it solo while controlling 3 investigators (2 is too dull if one of them gets delayed, etc.). It gets a bit overwhelming at times to keep track of what all 3 of them have but it's manageable... no regrets, been having a blast. (Just need to buy a gigantic dedicated table to have it assemble at all times)
Excellent review Tom. Watched Paul Darcy playthrough 1st ed few months ago. Game largely the same apart from its production quality. I think I preferred its town map and minion movement to 2ed but I think 2ed is the slightly more difficult version which is obviously what is required for a Cthulhu game, keeping my eye out for both so that I may experience as and when money allows. Should you fancy a play at gridcon (if you be going) I’d be up for it.
I love the Arkham series it's one of my favourites. I would really like to see you play the Warcraft game you mentioned, that's definitely one I'll never get rid of.
Played this back in college. Went and bought a copy not realizing it was 3e and was kind of disappointed because the board layout and cards werent how i remembered. We'll see how 3e holds up to my memories of 2e.
It won’t. It’s a different game. It’s scenario-based with a branching storyline. It’s not a bad game, but you’d probably do better to just play the AH card game. I don’t know why everyone complains about the setup for AH2E so much - EH and AH3E are no better.
AH2e is the best adaptation of HP Lovecrafts work ever. In a nutshell the game tries to kill your character and drive you crazy...have you read Lovecraft? Then it is self-explanatory. My favorite boardgame of all time (and that list includes Dune from Avalon Hill and the original Jack the Ripper from Aulic Council) and the expansions make it a lifetime game...you don't play Arkham Horror you let it live in a room in your house and if you are just crazy enough it will let you visit.
I hope FFG re-release / relaunch / remake Arkham horror second edition. It's the best board game to me. Even today, I keep looking for the Kingsport Horror expansion which is rare and stupid expensive even it is available on 2nd hand market.
Some might be for the Third Edition or the card game, but anything on this page is compatible 🙂 boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/15987/arkham-horror/expansions
EH is my baby, but I still picked up AH2 despite the insane prices it goes for now. It's flawed, it's fiddly, it's a big old unbalanced mess, but despite all of that, it's just a fantastic experience. 😂Even that time it dragged on for an extra hour while the game refused to spawn a gate on a space that wasn't sealed. AH is the game you go for when you want want a batshit crazy but beautifully atmospheric ride that might go on for nine hours. Perhaps best enjoyed solo to avoid other people losing their minds. 😅
this is pretty much the archetypal AH2 review. Yup, it's clunky; yup, it's random; yup, it call all go horribly wrong...but it's fantastic (and still my favourite game, after all these years). Expansions make it what it is, though. Base game's too easy, generally.
this game DEFINITELY has some flaws... it's a shame they didn't do a truly 2.5th edition that just fixed the low-hanging fruit which I really think is what people really wanted... unfortunately FFG is 0-for-2 imo wtih EH and AH 3rd edition... like just fix the quality-of-life stuff and dial back the iconography so that stuff is actually intuitive and you don't have to learn what a thing that means another thing that means another thing means or read cards from bottom left corner to bottom right corner to top... the fact that the game comes with reminder tokens should've been a red flag lol still, it's an epic game that once you bake those frustratingly complicated rules into your muscle memory, it's just so immersive
"the game doesn't care about you" and "a beautiful shambles" sum up the game so well! Nicely put, thank you.
Arkham horror is my favourite game of all time. I own all the expansions and have done since they came out. These days it's such a hard game to get to the table because people seem to like pretty Euros that play in under 90 minutes, or they like social deduction games; few seem to appreciate clunky old-school thematic games that last for 3+ hours and have the most immersive and emergent epic stories to tell, games where it's the experience of playing the game and the stories you tell each other afterwards that matter, not the final outcome of the game. (Don't get me wrong, I love a good Euro - Concordia is my #2 game of all time)
Like you, I felt the Eldritch had some lovely mechanical improvements over Arkham (i love the complex encounters system in particular), but ultimately, I felt that the game was much less fun to play when you were being crushed than it was in the same circumstances with Arkham.
Yeah my shelves are overwhelmingly Euros but for a while I forgot how much I enjoy these emergent stories and wish there were more games that could pull it off! To be fair there's enough in the expansions to keep you going forever probably
top 5 game of all time... your exactly right... its a pain the butt but such a good pain that you keep coming back for more.. awesome game with the expansions please play them as soon as you can... you will have a blast..
I'm slowly introducing them :) I'd like to do another series soon
Impossible to get :(@slickerdrips
Very well rounded up. 👍
Funny thing with the subtitles - at 9:29 it goes "...maybe I could get a membership to the silver toilet lodge ..." 😂
Now why did we never get that expansion? :D
Oddly enough, AH2e was also the first game that got me into "modern boardgaming", but I do feel that Eldritch Horror has surpassed it in most ways for me, but it's always nice to watch a playthrough of it for some good memories!
I think it can take credit for a lot of board gamers today :D
Great review! I've been thinking about getting this and this review helped me solidify my purchase!
Thank you, I hope you enjoy the game!
My favourite boardgame, still missing The King in Yellow but have all the rest, 10/10
Thanks for the review I found a copy of AH this year for cheap. I am very happy with having just the base game. Unlike EH which I also love this feels complete with just the base.
So glad you’re enjoying it! Yeah it’s surprising looking back just how much came in that base box 😀
If you can grab up anything else, it should be the Dunwich expansion. It expands thd base game very well.
But you’re right - the original AH2E base game alone is a full, complete board game that can be played over and over again.
AH2 was my the first game I ever bought as well. Ots definitely coloured my expectations for games moving forward!
Got this + Curse of the Dark Pharoh 1st edition for 35€. Everyone in my playgroup is scared of playing this so I've been doing it solo while controlling 3 investigators (2 is too dull if one of them gets delayed, etc.). It gets a bit overwhelming at times to keep track of what all 3 of them have but it's manageable... no regrets, been having a blast. (Just need to buy a gigantic dedicated table to have it assemble at all times)
Excellent review Tom. Watched Paul Darcy playthrough 1st ed few months ago. Game largely the same apart from its production quality. I think I preferred its town map and minion movement to 2ed but I think 2ed is the slightly more difficult version which is obviously what is required for a Cthulhu game, keeping my eye out for both so that I may experience as and when money allows. Should you fancy a play at gridcon (if you be going) I’d be up for it.
That would be great, I don't mind bringing it down to Gridcon :) would like to give the 1st edition a go but it ends up pricey
I love the Arkham series it's one of my favourites. I would really like to see you play the Warcraft game you mentioned, that's definitely one I'll never get rid of.
Me too, it's still waiting on the shelf! Maybe after Essen stuff calms down this year
Played this back in college. Went and bought a copy not realizing it was 3e and was kind of disappointed because the board layout and cards werent how i remembered. We'll see how 3e holds up to my memories of 2e.
It won’t. It’s a different game. It’s scenario-based with a branching storyline. It’s not a bad game, but you’d probably do better to just play the AH card game.
I don’t know why everyone complains about the setup for AH2E so much - EH and AH3E are no better.
AH2e is the best adaptation of HP Lovecrafts work ever.
In a nutshell the game tries to kill your character and drive you crazy...have you read Lovecraft? Then it is self-explanatory.
My favorite boardgame of all time (and that list includes Dune from Avalon Hill and the original Jack the Ripper from Aulic Council) and the expansions make it a lifetime game...you don't play Arkham Horror you let it live in a room in your house and if you are just crazy enough it will let you visit.
I hope FFG re-release / relaunch / remake Arkham horror second edition.
It's the best board game to me.
Even today, I keep looking for the Kingsport Horror expansion which is rare and stupid expensive even it is available on 2nd hand market.
i am a newbie to this game, are all the expansions playable with the 2nd edition?
Some might be for the Third Edition or the card game, but anything on this page is compatible 🙂 boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/15987/arkham-horror/expansions
EH is my baby, but I still picked up AH2 despite the insane prices it goes for now.
It's flawed, it's fiddly, it's a big old unbalanced mess, but despite all of that, it's just a fantastic experience. 😂Even that time it dragged on for an extra hour while the game refused to spawn a gate on a space that wasn't sealed. AH is the game you go for when you want want a batshit crazy but beautifully atmospheric ride that might go on for nine hours.
Perhaps best enjoyed solo to avoid other people losing their minds. 😅
this is pretty much the archetypal AH2 review. Yup, it's clunky; yup, it's random; yup, it call all go horribly wrong...but it's fantastic (and still my favourite game, after all these years). Expansions make it what it is, though. Base game's too easy, generally.
I do wonder now what we used to find so hard about the base game!
Ah does not care about you. Great perspective. It feels like a machine whose machinations unfold regardless of you
bit confusing that you have Arkham Horror 1st edition in the background. Tom
That’s all from the second edition playthrough
Still the GOAT
this game DEFINITELY has some flaws... it's a shame they didn't do a truly 2.5th edition that just fixed the low-hanging fruit which I really think is what people really wanted... unfortunately FFG is 0-for-2 imo wtih EH and AH 3rd edition... like just fix the quality-of-life stuff and dial back the iconography so that stuff is actually intuitive and you don't have to learn what a thing that means another thing that means another thing means or read cards from bottom left corner to bottom right corner to top... the fact that the game comes with reminder tokens should've been a red flag lol
still, it's an epic game that once you bake those frustratingly complicated rules into your muscle memory, it's just so immersive
very cool game. third edition just a crap compare to Briliant second edtion of AH
I do like 3rd edition now a lot more than when it came out, but not nearly as much as 2nd