I played the game “Mansion of Madness” with Wenyi and Kimberly. It basically combines the form of both board game and video game, featuring Lovecraftian’s horror monsters and puzzle-solving mindset. That is to say, we not only have to set up the cards and roll the dice on the table but also have to download its app to trigger the plot.
When Wenyi and I first started setting up the game, we were confused when going through the wordy rule book, because there are a lot of rules that make sense only at the particular situation. Thanks to Kimberly, who has previously played this game with her friends, we get to understand the rules and set up the game successfully. We chose one of the base game that is supposed to be about 90 to 120 min. However, we still couldn’t finish it in 3 hours. According to Kimberly’s previous gaming experience, she said, it is because we tended to explore the map more after Wenyi got a Claustrophobia Horror Effect with accumulative Horror cards that could lead her to Insane when in a small map. At first few rounds, we played slowly, checking the rule book frequently. Also, we forgot that each character has their own strength. For example, William Yorick, my character, can gain an extra clue whenever a monster is defeated, but we did not realize it until halfway through the game.
The game is more comprehensive and playable than I thought it would be. It is an interesting combination of video game and board game that I believe it preserves the most enjoyable part of each game formats. For example, the gaming process, like dice rolling, could just be a random number generator in the video game, which makes the players feel like they have less control during the game. However, there are drawbacks as well. If the game is entirely data-based, the mistakes like forgetting the characters’ strengths will not happen.
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