Dicebreaker Recommends: Horrified, a charming ode to the monster stories of old

Dicebreaker is our new sister site (launching soon) and YouTube channel devoted to tabletop gaming. Every week, the Dicebreaker team will bring Eurogamer readers a recommendation from the world of the physical.

When it comes to balancing a cooperative board game, designers have to pull their fingers out to enable enough memorable clutch moments without seeming unfair. Horror board games can afford to come across a little more aggressively in this regard, as the prospect of near-impossible odds can only serve to heighten the existing fear-factor (Eldritch Horror is a good example of this).

But this was far from the case in my first game of Horrified, an officially licensed Universal Pictures board game, possibly intended to tie in with the Universal Monsters Universe (now nothing more than a dessicated husk after 2017's The Mummy promptly took a nosedive into its own sarcophagus). In Horrified, players become a group of unlikely heroes living in the most monster-ridden town this side of the nine hells. These monsters include beloved Hammer Horror classics such as Dracula, The Mummy, The Invisible Man and more, all decked out in their pulpiest incarnations. Our heroes must cast out these monsters by successfully fulfilling the requirements listed on each of their cards; for example, Dracula is defeated by smashing his coffins and destroying his mortal form once and for all.

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