Pandemic Board Game (Base Game) | Family Board Game | Board Game for Adults and Family | Cooperative Board Game | Ages 8+ | 2 to 4 players | Average Playtime 45 minutes | Made by Z-Man Games

I was looking for a game that would be fun to play with just my husband, and was so intrigued by the idea of two players working together! This has been great for date nights. It takes you a while to get the gist of it but once you do it is SO fun and really engrossing. I appreciate that there are different difficulty levels and different specialist roles, so each game is different. We have beat it a few times at the lowest difficulty and are now working our way up. :) Its also worth noting that the quality of the board/cards is superb. I highly recommend this game if you are looking for something new, something to play with just two people, or something cooperative.

We all love this game, my one complaint is not enough cards for a 4 player game. 2 and 3 player games we win most of the time, but the couple 4 player games we tried all were loses because we ran out of cards (you do not reshuffle discards). That means theres only enough cards for 7 turns each. Just 6 turns for a 5 player game as the expansion doesnt give more cards either. Other than that minor complaint, this is an excellent game. I really love the cooperative aspect. Everyone wins or everyone loses. Another reviewer mentioned Forbidden Island so I bought that too. Its created by the same guy who created Pandemic so gameplay is nearly identical, though its a tad simpler. Weve never lost a game with FI. That one is great fun too but for me, Id pick Pandemic over Forbidden Island.

I bought this game for a family member and we got a chance to play it last night. It was a fun game, though different than what we usually play. Its different to be working together rather than against each other. Its a complicated game to learn, but it doesnt take too long to play so we were able to try it more than once. By the third go-round, we were starting to feel like we had a handle on the rules and what sort of strategies work the best. So overall, I recommend this game, but you should be prepared to spend some time learning how to play.

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My family spent an entire day playing this game while we were quarantining with COVID! It was super fun to work together as a family, instead of play against each other like most games. My 9 year old daughter particularly enjoyed this game & it was particularly enjoyable as a parent watching her use a higher level of thinking to help strategize ways & moves we can all make to beat the game. I will say that the instructions are basically a small book (not really but like 8-10 pgs long) & can be overwhelming when you read. We played 5 games the first day we opened it & every time we played, we found more instructions or rules that we didn’t know or understand the last round. This was due to multiple reasons, 1. The instructions were long & we overlooked something accidentally 2. The instructions weren’t very clear in some instances 3. The instructions didn’t address everything 4. Instructions seemed to jump around & refer you to another page. The biggest point of confusion was curing the virus VS. eradicating the virus, how you achieved curing/eradicating, what the benefits are of curing/eradicating & what the game actually intends for you to do to win the game. It got a little frustrating towards the last couple games. At one point, we even googled to clarify. I think we FINALLY understand how the game is intended to be played & I’m not going to lie, I think I liked the way we had initially played it best. All that being said, we still really enjoyed playing the game as a family & working together! I enjoyed the strategizing & higher level processing that is needed to plan for the win, along with the semi-relevance to todays climate in regards to COVID. It added a little bit of learning & deeper understanding to our fun. My daughter is still begging to play again!

This game is a great cooperative game. After awhile of playing Catan, it was a nice contrast to play something less cut throat. And I think this is why my friends always ask to play it. What is really great about this game is that it is a great game to introduce to new players. Experienced players can help out new players because everyone is working together. I find that the game gets more intense the last two rounds of the game. We have literally spent 20 minutes discussing our moves for three turns in order to win before the cards run out. I guess that is where the fun is being able to strategize with friends and feel the intensity of running out of time. Update: After playing it many times, I have come to realize that this game scales well from two players to four players. I have played it solo as well and with more than 4 players just to be able to accommodate more players. I think It works well either way, although the game does tend to get harder with more players because the cards run out fast, so we sometimes adjust the rules for easiness when we have more than 4. months later after purchasing the game, I went on to buy On the Brink expansion, after the game started to get sort of repetitive in the roles. Definitely recommend On the Brink

My boyfriend and I just started doing game nights and this has been a game changer (pun intended). He actually cant wait for no netflix night and usually suggests we play this game. - Its a great cooperative style game. This is awesome for really competitive people who might want to play it a little safer and not risk tensions running too high. - It takes a while to learn. Some of the rules are not as readily apparent from the rule book, and your first game might take a while understanding all of it. For instance, our first game we thought the objective was to eradicate, but its just to cure (multiple beers may have been involved tbh). Be patient and itll seem second-nature after 1-2 games. - Fun balance of strategy and luck. Im not a big fan of pure luck games, mainly because I have none. Some people might like that thrill. But I do like strategizing and coming up with (diabolical) game plans. This is a nice bit of both. - Its not easy to win. Thats part of what makes it so fun. Its addicting because you might get so close, but come up short. Took us 5 games on the easy level to finally win. - Great for 2 or more people. We like games we can have fun with just the two of us (i.e. if you have no friends), or if you invite others. Its also nice because the pace of game-play does allow outside conversation, so you can interact with your friends on a game night, not just immerse in the game and not talk for hours.

We’ve played this game three nights in a row. All adults. Christmas gift for my 21 year old son. Collaborative strategy between players is a huge plus. Game says it’s for 8+ however it appeals to all ages. Game directions are a little complicated so most 8 year olds would probably need guidance. Its a lot of fun - uses critical thinking, strategy and teamwork.

This is the first cooperative game that weve tried, and we love the change of pace from your typical competitive options. My husband bought it after he soundly trounced me several times in a row while playing Ticket to Ride (also a great game), saying (jokingly) that he was hoping to save our marriage. Its a great choice for those uber-competitive types who want to play games without devolving into negativity. I wont go into game play here - there are plenty of reviews that do that - but I will state this: read the instructions carefully the first time you play. We got ahead of ourselves the first time around and ended up confusing ourselves (and shooting ourselves in the foot) by merely trying to eliminate plague pieces from the board instead of actually curing disease. Weve played it most often with two players, and it works well. It holds up to multiple playings, or has so far - after two months of playing it a few times a week, were still enjoying it. That said, it would be interesting to see how well it would work to play with people at various levels of experience. We havent tried this, but because of the collaborative nature of the game, I would think those with more experience would have to consciously choose to be quiet and let the less experienced players lead in order for them to have a more enjoyable time.

This game is great. Its a cooperative board game so you work with the other players, as opposed to against them so you all either win or lose together. There enough variables to it that each game is different and exciting. Ive played it a couple times with my 7 year old daughter and we have a lot of fun with it. Shes really into classic strategy games (like Settlers, Carcassonne, Alhambra, Ticket to Ride, etc) so she picked this one up pretty easily. Kids (or adults for that matter) that arent into those types of games might not like this either since it requires a lot of upfront explaining and setup—but if you have the patience its totally worth it.