Posted in: Games | Tagged: collectibles, games, Pandemic Legacy, Tabletop Gaming

A Sibling Rivalry Emerges: February & March In Pandemic Legacy

Published Sun, 27 Dec 2015 14:04:24 -0600

Last weekend I sat down to a nice glass of wine, and some Pandemic Legacy. Sounds pretty great, right? Well…one needs a glass of wine when they're about to embark on another month of this high stress, exciting game. For those of you who don't know what the game is all about, here's the basic gist. In Pandemic Legacy, your disease fighting team must keep four deadly diseases at bay for a whole year. Each month brings new surprises, and your actions in each game will have repercussions on the next. You can also read my "Initial Reaction" piece.

[WARNING: SPOILERS FOR PANDEMIC LEGACY BELOW!]

My team embarked on two months this time around. We won our first game in February and our first game in March, so it was definitely a successful adventure. However, the complexity of the game revealed itself to us as we were forced to decide between eradicating a certain strain or winning the game. We couldn't do both, although we tried to figure out a way to. We ultimately decided to win the game, but it was a challenge to come to that agreement. I liked that a lot to be honest. While Pandemic Legacy is a co-op game, there are layers of strategy incorporated into the game, and reason to debate with your partners.

The production value of the game continues to skyrocket for me. We were able to open a new box this time, and interact with a few scratch off cards. One of the more intriguing things revealed during this game were the relationship options. As you can see in my picture with the wine glass above, Christine gained a brother and a rival during this game. My relationship with Dr. Bear Bear is a complicated one, but boy did we help each other out despite our rivalry. We were able to recycle event cards in a productive way, aiding in the success of our missions. This aspect of the game is incredibly entertaining for me. It forces you to interact with the other players in a unique way, and in our case, add a bit of sarcastic jeering to the experience.

Another point I want to comment on is the "destroy this card" factor of the game. The creative team really makes you get into it. If anyone asks you to destroy evidence of something, you automatically get a sense that you're working on something important. Little details like that continue to make this game special to me. Here's a video of Dr. Bear Bear making that epic moment happen:

Maybe we should work on making that more eventful next time…perhaps with the use of gasoline and a match?

This was our first game utilizing the "quarantine tokens" which are basically a really great protective defense that guards a city of your choice for one epidemic hit. Meaning if something breaks out, that area is guarded for one hit. Then the token goes away.

You can see the end result of one of our games below. As you can see, we have a few quarantine tokens spread out around the board. It was incredibly interesting to discover the additions of military bases (although we didn't do much with them this time around), and new characters/relationships. Finding that increased the mystery of the game even more because now we know that things can change so easily with new options revealing themselves.

Overall, I'm completely thrilled and addicted to this game. I constantly find myself wanting to play more. If only my team members and I could just blast through them all continuously, but our schedules are allowing for a more spread out experience. Still, it's something I love to look forward to.

Stay tuned for my next review!

Christine Marie is a Staff Writer at Bleeding Cool, Bibliomaniac, Aspiring Poet/Novelist and Dark Side Advocate. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram @AWritersWay or on her blog writerchristinemarie.wordpress.com.

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