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

My husband and I can play together. We either both win or both lose. It makes for a date night that we work together!

I played this with a few of my close friends one night, and we ended up playing the game until 3am. Im not a huge fan of competitive games, so it was great to finally play a cooperative game where youre working together to cure diseases. Each player gets 4 moves per turn, and those moves can be discussed as a team before moving on to the next person. You need to collect cards to cure diseases, so you need to meet up with someone who has a card that you want, but there are rules around how and where you can meet up. There are different roles for each person, so the Dispatcher could fly another persons pawn to a certain city to help them collect cards, or to get them to a research center before another outbreak occurs. The Medic can cure diseases in cities without using an extra turn, if the cure has been found for that disease. Each role is important, but since there are more roles than there are players, the gameplay is different each time you play. For instance, if you decide your end goal is to cure AND eradicate the diseases, not having a Medic could be the deciding factor in whether you win or lose. This game is heavy on strategy, so if you dont normally like those types of games, you may want to find someone who has the game and see if you like it before you buy it. But so far Ive only found one person who didnt care for the game, and we ended up just deciding her moves for her. As a sidenote, the game will also be available on the iPad in a few days (Oct. 3, 2013), so that could be another option to try it out before buying the board game. However, while I will definitely get it for my iPad, I personally prefer physical game boards for a game night with friends and family.

This is a great game! There is a ton of replay- ability due to the multiple roles. The set up seems daunting at first but you get the hang of it very quickly. My family knows that this is the game I request to play when given the choice. And I’m really excited to try the expansions.

Cooperative games like this are great, the players work together to win which is great when you have someone really competitive in the group (you know the one). Because everyone works together, theres less smack-talk and more fun. If you struggle learning new games, check out some of the instructional videos available online to get up and running much faster!

Its a co-op game - you fight the board, not each other, and I love that, especially in a family that is full of competitive people. The more people you have playing it can be a really long game. Although its co-op you dont have to share your cards with everybody and let them know what you have. Before you start the game, you may want to make it clear to everybody else that the game consists of teamwork, but nobody is leader. I know there can be some forceful personalities; it sucks the fun out of the game when people are telling you what to do, and you feel like its not even really your turn, but their turn nonstop with your character. Theres three ways to die, so that makes it fun! Youre in a hurry to figure out how to survive. Some rules are unclear and confusing. Look online, and theres a lot of people there to clarify the rules. The first time I played it was with two friends. We misunderstood a lot of the rules and went all over the place, and even changed rules in the middle of turns, to try to sort it out better. It wasnt a proper game at all, but it was loads of fun, and we won right before there were no cards left to draw. My friends also have this obsession with the asian character guy, so they always hope and pray they get him when we mystery pull character roles. And no, theyve never pulled him. I did once. They hated me. :)

My family loves board games but it has been awhile since weve had this much fun playing one! You will always have a great time playing this game, win or lose. The fact that it is team based and you all have to work together is the best thing about this game. It is well designed and easy to play/learn. If youre on the fence about it just buy it, you wont regret it at all!

Im a huge fan of pandemic the game so I love everything about it. This particular copy of the game came scuffed on the corners.

This is a very challenging and exciting game. I think there are a lot of rules to keep in mind, especially when you consider the different roles, but once you get the hang of the rules the game provides a great challenge. What really makes it difficult is that there are several ways to lose, you could be doing well working towards curing all the diseases, and get slammed by a chain outbreak, or run out of player cards. Surprisingly, the game seemed easier with 2 players than with 4. I like that this game is cooperative rather than competitive, you really have to work together to beat the game. I highly recommend this for anyone that likes board games. I think this is also good for people whos only idea of board games is Monopoly, Candyland and Sorry.

READ THIS: This is a cooperative game, where the players have to work together to beat the game ITSELF. This is a VERY different game experience than most, and some players might not like it at all. Competitive children might have a hard time understanding the idea. The theme obviously is dark, but the fact you are playing on map of the Earth, and that outbreaks occur in places that really exist, drives that home even more. Definitely a serious game, better suited to teens-adults than (most) children. The game is basically a race between the players, as a group, and the pandemics. The pandemics are trying spread over the whole world. If the players cannot develop a cure in time, the human race will have been wiped out (you lose). The players each have a different character they play, they all have certain shared actions, but each has a unique ability all their own. Coordinating those abilities is a big part of the challenge of the game: it is almost impossible to win if each player is doing their own thing. Teamwork is paramount. There may be passionate debate as to the best course of action. This is normal. If no one is talking to each other, you are almost certainly losing. In this respect it is STARTLINGLY analogous to actual pandemics. There are myriad ways to make the game more or less challenging, but if you want more variety there are a HOST of expansions for the base game. NOT FOR CASUAL PLAY; it is challenging. In my experience, the players will lose at least half of the time for the first dozen or so games. Even when the players have a handle on the probabilities and mechanics, strategies which worked well in one game may not work out in the next. You cannot fall into mechanical thinking.

What a great find! It took time to get the rules as it comes across as rather complicated but after playing one game the possibilities for mayhem and the game play are very clear. It played well as a two-player game and I do not feel that the game lacked anything being played with two people. We enjoyed playing towards a common goal and both winning. The 45 minute game playing time seems a little optimistic but may get shorter as we get more familiar with the game. This is a game to play with those who like strategy and there was a sense of panic when we felt we were not going to beat the game but then ended quickly once we played the write strategy. Loved it and cant wait to play with a bigger crowd although I can see some friction in deciding actions if you have someone very strong willed in the group.