Matthew BaileyHorrified has appeared on my list to review over Halloween for multiple years now, and for reasons that I literally can’t tell you, we’ve never actually quite got round to it. In fact, I’ll be honest, we’ve never actually got round to playing it, regardless of the fact that I own four out of the six Horrified games you can currently purchase.
So finally, this Halloween, I was determined to explore some of what the Horrified franchise has to offer, and here I finally present to you the original Horrified: Universal Monsters. We will get to some of the other games later on in the season, and luckily, my main thought is that I wish I hadn’t left it this long, as Horrified is a fantastic spooky-themed co-op adventure.
Essentially, Horrified is a cooperative game for 1–5 players (we played it at three, and that seemed to work really well) where you work together to defeat a selection of classic Universal Monsters before they completely terrorise the village.
At the start of the game, you choose which monsters you want to face. For your first game, the rules recommend Dracula and the Creature from the Black Lagoon, but once you know what you are doing, you can mix and match the monsters however you like. Each monster has its own objective that you need to complete before you can defeat it, meaning the game changes depending on which combination you choose.
In the box, there are six monsters, and these can be mixed and matched, which gives some variety when playing multiple times. Some of the later Horrified games are compatible, allowing you to mix and match across sets, but the Universal set is very much just the Universal set. Although I don’t usually mention this kinda thing, I will also say there is a large custom monster scene for the game where, if you want, you can print and play a large variety of other monsters made by fans online to keep the experience fresh.
You each take control of a hero, with different heroes having their own special abilities and a set number of actions they can perform each turn.
On your turn, you can move around the village, collect items, share items with other players, rescue villagers or work towards defeating the monsters. Items come in three different colours (red, blue and yellow) and have different strengths. Certain monsters require particular colours or strengths of items to complete their objectives, so deciding what to collect and where to take it is a big part of the game. It can be particularly difficult if your selection of monsters heavily favours one colour over another.
You can also help villagers who appear around the board. Each villager has a particular location they want to reach, and if you manage to escort them there safely, you are rewarded with a Perk card. These cards give you useful one-off abilities, such as moving heroes around the board or skipping the monster phase entirely. These are strong, but in the games we have played so far, we generally decided it wasn’t worth going out of your way to help villagers too much, and it was best to drag them along with you and drop them off if you happened to end up where they needed to go… at least in this version.
Once you have finished your actions, it is time for the monsters to fight back.
You draw a Monster card, which adds new items to the board, triggers an event and determines which monsters move and attack. Monsters generally head towards the nearest hero or villager, and if they reach someone, they roll dice to see whether they attack successfully or activate their special abilities.
If a monster hits you, you can discard an item to avoid taking the hit. Otherwise, you are defeated, the Terror Level increases and you return to the Hospital on your next turn. Villagers are not quite so lucky, and if they are hit, they are immediately defeated, also increasing the Terror Level. This is an interesting mechanic, and once or twice we actually used this as a way to fast travel across the map to the Hospital.
Each monster has its own way of being defeated, and while the basic gameplay remains the same, the objectives are quite different. I won’t go into too much detail here, but to give you an idea…
Dracula: You need to travel around the village destroying his four coffins using red items before confronting Dracula himself with yellow items. This one is pretty simple.
Creature from the Black Lagoon: You must use different coloured items to guide a boat through the lagoon and discover the Creature’s hidden lair before collecting the items needed to drive him away. This is one of my favourites of this set, as the order of items can make a massive difference to how quickly you can do this.
Frankenstein and the Bride: Rather than killing them, you are trying to teach them what it means to be human. You use yellow items for Frankenstein and blue items for the Bride, gradually increasing their humanity. Once they have both learned enough, you need to bring them together. Be careful, though, as if they meet too early, the Terror Level increases. This is interesting as you have an extra mechanic of avoidance. This massively increases the amount of thought that goes into your moves, so we generally tried to get rid of this one first when playing with it.
The Invisible Man: You need to collect evidence from five specific locations around the village and deliver it to the police station. Once you have proved he exists, you can finally track him down and trap him. This one is simple but can be troublesome if an item for a specific location doesn’t appear out of the bag. This one was usually a ‘collect items as we go and do it as we can’ monster.
The Mummy: You need to solve a sliding puzzle involving six numbered scarabs, moving them into their correct positions and breaking the curse before returning the Mummy to his tomb. This is a fun diversion as it has a distinctive extra mini-game (something that becomes more common with the later versions of Horrified).
The Wolf Man: You must collect six blue items with specific strengths to develop a cure in the laboratory. Once the cure is complete, you need to track down the Wolf Man and administer it using the cure and red items. This is another relatively simple one.
Each monster also has its own special attack abilities, which can make completing these objectives more difficult. An example of this is that if the Creature from the Black Lagoon activates his special power, the boat moves back.
To win the game, you need to complete the objectives and defeat every monster you selected at the start of the game. This is mainly done against a time limit (sorta). If the Terror Level reaches the skull at the end of its track, the village has been overrun and you lose. Alternatively, if you run out of Monster cards and need to draw another, you have taken too long and the game ends. The Monster card soft “enrage” timer is usually the thing we had more issues with.
The difficulty is adjustable depending on how many monsters you choose to face. Two monsters is the recommended starting point, three provides the standard experience, and four makes things considerably more challenging. I really like this aspect, and the boys love doing all the things. One of the main things that you end up doing is trying to work out the order in which you’re going to tackle the monsters, and sometimes that can change on the fly depending on the items you have available and where you end up.
It’s a really decent cooperative experience and actually reminds me a lot of the Alien: Fate of the Nostromo board game that we played last Halloween and really liked (Def worth reading that review). Obviously, it’s got monsters in it, but it’s very family-friendly, and with a little bit of adult help, you can play this with relatively young children.
Components-wise, it’s really good. The miniatures of the monsters are sturdy, all of the artwork is lovely, and everything else works really well. If a game was screaming out for a deluxe version, this definitely is one. I’d love to see a deluxe version with really nice miniatures, everything else looking really cool and maybe even some 3D components to go with the various monster puzzles.
The mix of minis and stands is a bit jarring, so Ravensburger, if you are planning on keeping your partnership with Awaken Realms following Labyrinth Chronicles, this is definitely a property I would love to see them tackle. A Horrified Legacy game is definitely something we need in our lives.
I do have a few criticisms, but they are all pretty minor. At least in the first game, everything is a little bit samey, and outside of The Mummy and, to a certain extent, Frankenstein’s Monster and his Bride, generally what you’re doing is very similar. This is fine, but I think from the off they could have had a little bit more variety in what you do.
Horrified is a really fun spooky-themed cooperative game that definitely deserves to have the number of extra versions that it has, and I can’t believe I have spent so long sitting on them. I’m pleased to finally get to a point where I can start playing through them, talking about them and hopefully eventually telling you which ones are the ones to get.
The price point overall is quite good, and the prices of the various sets do actually vary quite a lot, with the first Dungeons & Dragons set and the World of Monsters set (which acts as a standalone game as well as an expansion for Greek Monsters) being among the options.
Don’t worry, I will get to these later, and by the end of the Halloween period, we will definitely cover Greek Monsters and World of Monsters, and we may even dip our toes into the Dungeons & Dragons sets.
Overall, Horrified is a really cool and relatively approachable cooperative game that manages to be accessible enough for younger players while still offering plenty of interesting decisions for more experienced gamers. I really like the way the different monsters change how you approach each game, and working out which objectives to prioritise, which items to collect and how best to use your limited actions makes for a genuinely enjoyable experience. There is a little bit of repetition between some of the monsters, you can sometimes get stuck because of it,e something you need hasn’t come out of the bag, especially when you only have one monster left, and I would have liked a few more unique mechanics, but these are relatively minor complaints.
What really makes Horrified work is that it manages to create a sense of urgency without ever becoming overly complicated. It’s one of those games where you are constantly discussing what to do next (and you really do need to work together), changing your plans when something unexpected happens and occasionally making a desperate last-minute attempt to save the village. The boys both really like it and its great family time.
Horrified is an easy recommendation, particularly if you enjoy cooperative games or want something spooky to play with the family over Halloween. It looks great, plays well and offers plenty of replayability thanks to the different monster combinations. I genuinely regret leaving it sitting on the shelf for so long, and if the other games in the series are as enjoyable as this one, we have a lot to look forward to.
Needless to say, the future is looking very Horrified!
