Matthew Bailey“Hideous Abominations” is a tile-laying, monster-making game, now in its second edition. I’ve played it online a few times, and I thought it would be worth trying with the kids to see what they thought. You start the game by laying out the prizes you’re trying to achieve for extra points, setting up all the spare parts in a tableau of three with a draw pile, and giving each player a torso to get started, along with a selection of body parts to form their starting hand. You also place the bolt tokens around the table, which can be used to help secure your body when something is stolen from you.
Essentially, you’re trying to complete your own abomination before your competitors while scoring the most points. You earn points for things like finishing first, using the most colours, or meeting the conditions of the revealed awards. As the game progresses, more awards are revealed, such as having the most teeth, the most wings, or the most sections of a specific type.
On your turn, you roll the extremely cool, unusually shaped dice, which adds a lot to the Frankenstein-like monster-making theme. The dice roll determines your action:
- Draw: Take two tiles into your hand, either from the top of one of the three face-up spare part piles or blindly from the top of the deck.
- Dig: Choose one of the spare part piles and search through it for a specific part.
- Award: Draw a new award from the pile and then draw as normal.
- Steal: Take a body part from another player. When this happens, that player gains two bolt tokens, which can be used to secure future parts from being stolen. This mechanic works well as it prevents one player from being repeatedly targeted.
- Go Mad: Choose any of the above actions.
On your turn, you can also play a tile onto any abomination, including those of other players. This allows you to block an area or extend someone’s monster if they’re close to completing it. At the end of your turn, you discard down to a maximum hand size of three.
The game ends when one player finishes their abomination, provided at least three awards have been drawn from the award pile.
The gameplay works well and is good fun, especially when you see all the weird and hilarious monsters that everyone creates. The boys particularly enjoyed this part. The rules aren’t overly complex, even for the older ones, but what’s really nice is the inclusion of a simplified rule set for younger players. For ages 6–7, the winner is simply the first person to complete their abomination, and for ages 4–5, players cannot play on each other’s monsters, making the game a bit friendlier. This is a lovely touch, and I wish more games included modified rule sets for different age groups.
Visually, the game is excellent. The dice is a joy to roll, the cards are printed on good-quality cardstock, and everything feels like it’s made to a high standard. The second edition also includes the “Robots Rock” expansion, which adds even more parts to use.
One thing I will say is that my boys weren’t overly keen on how the monsters don’t always line up properly. If you’ve read those books where you flip sections to mix and match (like a fireman wearing a ballerina skirt and policeman shoes), you’ll know how jarring it is when things don’t align. This could have been easily fixed. In our first game, Jack got confused and thought everything had to line up, and he avoided placing certain tiles, thinking it was against the rules. I can see this being particularly frustrating for a neurodivergent child.
Overall, though, “Hideous Abominations” is a simple, fun game that comes in a nicely sized box that doesn’t take up too much shelf space. While it’s probably not the best game I’ve ever played, it has a certain charm and will definitely stay in our permanent collection.
