Pandemic: The Board Game Review
PROS
- An engaging race against time.
- Works as a solo experience, or with friends.
- A fantastic tutorial guides you the learning process.
CONS
- An option to turn off the info guide in the middle of a game would be nice.
VERDICT
Pandemic is a great port of a co-operative board game port that works fine when played solo, but better when played with friends.
- Full Review
- App Store Info
A viral epidemic is, I'm sure you'll agree, a pretty sizeable catastrophe. In Pandemic: The Board Game, no lees than four deadly viruses are spreading their way across the globe. It's up to four specialists to find the cures before these infections become uncontainable and wipe out humanity.
One player can control all four specialists, or four players can work together around a single iPad. The game's rules are pretty simple and easy to understand. Each turn consists of four possible actions. You may travel to a connecting country on the map, treat an infected area, swap cards, or use your character specific power. These range from transporting any character to anyone else's location, to the ability to cure a disease using only four cards instead of five.
Each turn you receive cards from the deck. They consist of four different colours, representing the four outbreaks. You can use cards as a quick method to hop around the globe, or you can trade with other players, provided you're in the same country.
You'd best be quick with your containment, however, because each turn the pandemic intensifies. Random countries will receive additional infected markers, and if any location becomes too infected, it will trigger an epidemic which will automatically cause addition infections to spread to any connected country. The same happens if you draw an epidemic card. If you're not careful, this can start off a chain reaction that is hard to recover from.
Pandemic certainly puts you under pressure. The large number of epidemic cards combined with the time-sensentive infections create a lot of tension, and encourages frantic strategising at all stages of play. Thankfully, the tutorial does a great job of explaining the mechanics, and the rules are always just a tap away. While you can play solo, the real fun lies grabbing three friends, crowding around the iPad, and arguing over viable strategies. It can be tough going, and it's not for the squemish, but Pandemic is ultimately a solid board game port - especially with company.
Screenshots
$4.99
