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Tag: Richard Launius

** Arkham Horror (2005) – Richard Launius & Kevin Wilson

Arkham Horror doesn’t want you to play it.  It wants to happen to you.  At almost no point in the game do your decisions have any bearing on what’s happening.  It is a frustrating and pointless title that has been improved upon several times over and there’s no reason to return to.  In fact, a third edition of the game dropped just last year which I’ve not yet played (I’m too scared).  And back in 2013, the ever-popular Eldritch Horror released, which essentially functioned as a massive bug fix to Arkham Horror‘s myriad core issues.  There have also been expansions, card games, spin-offs, you name it.  So Arkham Horror is a bit of a franchise at this point, and certainly one of Fantasy Flight Games’ flagship products.  The original version came out way back in 1987, which is the only reason I can think of for the game’s legendary status, because it is horrible.  It probably has the worst ratio of rules complexity to strategic complexity of any game I’ve ever played.  It is also interminable, obnoxious, dull, and lifeless. I hope you’re not expecting an exhaustive rules refresher on a terrible game from 15 years ago, because I’m not going to give one to you.  What I will say is Arkham Horror is a co-operative game about defending the city of Arkham from a variety of Lovecraftian monsters, including the likes of Cthulhu himself.  Players choose investigators, deck themselves out with a variety of items, weapons, and spells, and go traipsing about the city looking for clues…