Arkham Horror is not for the timid gamer. I am not a timid gamer. Here is my hands-on review. Warning: This is an Arkham Horror board game review for serious game geeks.

TLDR: When you’re ready to test yourself against the full depth and horror of true boardgame madness, try this game.

There are more challenging games than Arkham Horror ($45), but not many. I know, because I have played them all. This is the only “very challenging” game I have played many times, and am willing to play again.

Ready for my Arkham Horror board game review?

The fiction of H. P. Lovecraft is full of underpowered regular people facing cosmic horrors beyond comprehension. Those stories inspired this cooperative board game, where players desperately band together to confront monsters in the game. The game itself is one of those monsters.

As in Lovecraft’s stories, destroying monsters is out of the question. The best possible outcome is to close the gaping gates of hell before anyone else gets hurt. Survival is unlikely. Sanity is right out. After all, only crazy people believe in monsters and magic, right?

That’s pretty much how I feel after six grueling hours pulling my hair out, reading this game’s rulebook over and over. It is an indecipherable ancient tome. I made five color copies of the rulebook so that when I play Arkham Horror there are enough copies of the rules for everyone at the table.

This amazing game will test your sanity & patience

This game is amazing, but it will test your sanity and patience. It’s beautiful, horrific, engrossing, and incredibly well made.

My friends and I love Betrayal at House on the Hill. But we wanted to try something much harder, something that took longer to play out. I’m not normal, I get that. And I should be careful what I wish for. Because Arkham Horror delivers.

Oh, one more thing: you’re probably going to need a bigger game table. <insert haunting maniacal laughter>

1–6 players.
2–3 hours. (Sometimes much longer. I once played for 9 hours.)
Age: 14+
Exhausting, but rewarding.
Horrifies your whole brain.

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