this is my first AH game and I am really enjoying I really like that I can finish a game in about 2 hours. It crams a lot of mechanics in that two hours but I like the strategy of knowing certain places will give you certain buffs. it makes sense thematically too, like your going to get health back at a diner, etc.
I prefer 3rd to 2nd. 3rd is like cross between LCG and 2nd ed. Monsters damage is tracked in 3rd ed, which i really prefer over 2nd ed. Also, 2ed travelling around felt very constrained by mobs. 3rd ed’s way of getting clues is better than 2nd ed. 2nd ed you,just pick them up. Here each clue encounter is different as it’s tied to each location, so much more varied and thematic. I play 3rd solo with 3 characters and have a blast each time.
Think I'll skip this. I had the opportunity to pick up a complete set of 2nd a while ago and regret not doing so. I've got the Arkham Horror LCG and a lot of what I've seen of 3e of Arkham Horror appears to have a lot of crossover. I've also got Eldritch Horror which is excellent. I may have a look at Mansions of Madness 2e but my concern with that is replayability, although I've noticed it has what appears to be an Innsmouth expansion.
Nice review, thanks for sharing. I have to say, why in the world did they use white for the map boundaries? I really think using a muted gray would have improved the look of the map tremendously.
odd criticism of the number of encounter cards, Arkham Horror 2nd edition only came with one encounter more card per area (9vs8) plus once you add in the clue encounter cards for areas, this game actually has more encounter cards than 2nd edition base game.
I played 2e many years ago, basically the card game for 3 years in a row and was now looking into eldritch or 3rd. I was also looking at 2e expansions. We did play 2e in our group had some concerns and saw that Eldritch ahs fixed many of them so I bought a cheap collection. We were looking at 3e but many reviews were as yours mixed. So we decided we try it out before buying. We stuck to the first scenario like a demo and played it 6 times and the 6th time was still amazing. So now I bought it and cant wait to dig into the next 3 scenarios The card game is the better game, but after 3 years the card game is 0 challenge for us anymore. We know basically every scenario and campaign in and out and a3e comes as a fresh experience. We just enjoy going around getting tons of stuff, dying, stopping anomalies.
I still love Arkham Horror 2nd Ed. It’s surprisingly moody and darkly mysterious. The King in Yellow expansion still creeps me out. And the decisions in the game feel thematic, like returning from an Other World encounter with an (alien) glow preventing (confusing them) monsters from attacking you when you return…until it wears off the next day you pull a mythos card. Good stuff!! With all the many rules you have to keep in your head AH 2nd Ed gets chaotic horror 💯 right!!
This is my first Fantasy Flight game, and I have to say I love the atmosphere buildup and story. I played some of the scenarios more than once, and the replay value is good for me. You can always optimize your turns and character, and thats a ton of fun! Reading through reviews and comments though, many recommend Eldritch horror over this game. Now I'm on the fence, should I invest or is this the ultimate Lovecraft experience?
Well in my opinion Arkham Horror the card game is by far the best of these games. Colin just finished a full campaign playthrough if you want to see it in action. But between the two you mentioned, I’d give the nod to Eldritch personally.
I still think the gameplay makes it’s worthwhile. I’ve played this game a ton and still enjoy it, but I agree that they will need to add something more to the expansions if they want the game to have longevity. It can’t just be more of the same.
I enjoy the gameplay sometimes too. It’s why this was such a tough review. I’m not getting rid of the game, in the hopes expansions breathe some life in.
@@OneStopCoopShop The gameplay is rather boring and gets repetitive very fast. Great podcast about it btw. Your almost overly mixed aspects are more negative for me. Huge disappointment and I will stick with the 2nd edition.
Loving it so far but I do agree that the encounters are probably not as interesting or horrific as those in 2e. As far as value in base box, same could be said about almost all FF games, especially the AH file games. Eldritch Horror had same problem with few location encounters in base box, AH LCG only had 3 scenarios and MoM had 4 but that game cost 100 retail. All FF games depend on expansions to expand and flesh out the game. The set up time alone makes it likely I’ll be playing AH 3rd much more often than 2e anyway.
Mostly agree, though the variety of mystery cards in Eldritch and the order they came out gave varying objectives on multiple plays against the same GOO. I don’t think Arkham 3rd achieves that level of replay, and it’ll be tougher to expand overall.
True , but if you compare this to AH 2 e, base game also had same issue of really only one way to win which was get rid of all gates before GOO awakens OR defeat GOO once he did awaken. I do agree that they will need to figure out a way to differentiate scenarios so it’s not just about controlling Doom as that will make scenarios feel the same and get old fast. I have faith it will improve with expansions and creative solutions to make things different in future scenarios, but only time will tell. Still a hell of a lot more fun than the disaster that was FF take on Fallout!
Hey, love to see you videos! I have a question, maybe the answer is easy to you(i hope so) When you are blessed an 4 count as a succes in test, does 4 also count as an succes when you do an attack action?? Please help med with an answer😀😀
Great and quick review as always. I have been playing Mansions of Madness 2nd edition lately and enjoying it, and was thinking about getting Arkham Horror 3rd edition once we finished. I'm curious how you think the two games compare to each other.
Arkham is less cinematic than Mansions, but has better replayability (though not by much for a given scenario), and certainly far more tactics. But mansions makes you feel like you’re living a movie, and gets the horror theme better, which is a lot of fun. I also think Arkham differentiates characters much more. The powers and starting equipment are a lot of fun. My character never felt like it mattered as much for me in Mansions.
Point is both Eldritch and Arkham Horror 2nd edition are pretty dry without any expansion so i expected 3rd edition to be the same. What you should do is take both 2nd and 3rd edition without expansions and play and compare them.
I don’t agree. I think eldritch and 2nd edition were dripping theme and random wackiness compared to this one: I never got more than the card expansion for Eldritch, and even without it felt more excitement there than here.
Why would you? I really like this 3ed and sold my 2ed. as soon as I've played this. I really love the theme and the mechanics of this one. Sure setup il still loooong and gameplay too, but it's really totally different from 2ed. Never played EH, but i'm a huge player of LCG.
Solid review, been on the fence with this one. Guess we'll see what expansions will do to this game. I feel like if the theme was more dungeon crawler/fantasy this game might have been shined a bit better. Replace this theme with say Heroes of Terrinoth, that would have been very cool. Decent 3.0/lite. Replace city tiles with village/dungeon tiles. The hero cards with the cleric/mage etc cards....
I agree that expansions could totally alter the game experience. I remember how the first Eldritch Horror turned a repetitive experience into one with tons of variety. Though, like I said in the review, they made it a lot tougher on themselves to expand this one with the locked in scenarios...
Agreed. AH2 is my absolute favourite game and I was so looking forward to this, but having watched four or five playthroughs I passed on it for much the same reasons as you.
@@OneStopCoopShop Why if I can ask? I had 2ed but I've never played EH. I own this 3ed and I love it. huge player of the LCG too. But still I don't know if buying EH is worth.
@@alessandromassi3659 AH3 had very limited replayability, and a bit too much predictability in the gameplay (which some people will enjoy, but I felt lost the soul of the series a bit). EH, for me, has some of the tactics and predictability of AH3 (with more consistent location abilities, items to buy, etc.), while still maintaining the greater variety and exciting events of AH2. Hope that helps!
@@OneStopCoopShop I was looking forward to the the Arkham card game so much, but it just never clicked with me when I played it. Another disappointment. :(
@@OneStopCoopShop Gotcha man thanks! At first I kinda went into it, but later I understood that it's just... meh... And we have no time for that meh stuff brotha.
@@OneStopCoopShop :D I will get introduced to them then :). I think that even board game experts don't need like a top 100, rather around top 30-20 of the MOST solid amazing games they'd play anyday etc. I mean keeping, counting, prioritizing board games is not easy labor man lol.
Holy crap! I'll take it as a compliment for sure! Whether you mean young college-age Bruce Campbell in the original Evil Dead, or older Bruce Campbell in Bubba Ho Tep, I'm completely flattered!
@@OneStopCoopShop Well something there, also maybe a bit when he played in the series like the Jack Of All Trades or the Hercules. I LOVE THIS GUY! :D.
How can somebody be "too" biased towards it if he played both the 2nd and 3rd? It's called preference, not bias. After experiencing both games, I much prefer the 2nd edition by far.
Which ones? The location ones you link together? I like that they can be modified for scenarios, but yeah, I miss the big beautiful boards of Arkham 2nd and Eldritch
this is my first AH game and I am really enjoying I really like that I can finish a game in about 2 hours. It crams a lot of mechanics in that two hours but I like the strategy of knowing certain places will give you certain buffs. it makes sense thematically too, like your going to get health back at a diner, etc.
Agree with all of that. In some ways the streamlining is really great (though my son and I played a game two days ago that took almost 3 hours!)
Thanks
I prefer 3rd to 2nd. 3rd is like cross between LCG and 2nd ed.
Monsters damage is tracked in 3rd ed, which i really prefer over 2nd ed. Also, 2ed travelling around felt very constrained by mobs.
3rd ed’s way of getting clues is better than 2nd ed. 2nd ed you,just pick them up. Here each clue encounter is different as it’s tied to each location, so much more varied and thematic.
I play 3rd solo with 3 characters and have a blast each time.
Think I'll skip this. I had the opportunity to pick up a complete set of 2nd a while ago and regret not doing so. I've got the Arkham Horror LCG and a lot of what I've seen of 3e of Arkham Horror appears to have a lot of crossover. I've also got Eldritch Horror which is excellent. I may have a look at Mansions of Madness 2e but my concern with that is replayability, although I've noticed it has what appears to be an Innsmouth expansion.
I'd agree that Arkham 3rd brings a lot of the "DNA" of the LCG into the board game, and I'd also rather just play the LCG ;)
Nice review, thanks for sharing. I have to say, why in the world did they use white for the map boundaries? I really think using a muted gray would have improved the look of the map tremendously.
I can’t disagree, though it hasn’t occurred to me before!
Mine is muted but this is three years later lol. Every time I see the white it's jarring, cuz mines not like that
odd criticism of the number of encounter cards, Arkham Horror 2nd edition only came with one encounter more card per area (9vs8) plus once you add in the clue encounter cards for areas, this game actually has more encounter cards than 2nd edition base game.
I played 2e many years ago, basically the card game for 3 years in a row and was now looking into eldritch or 3rd. I was also looking at 2e expansions. We did play 2e in our group had some concerns and saw that Eldritch ahs fixed many of them so I bought a cheap collection. We were looking at 3e but many reviews were as yours mixed. So we decided we try it out before buying. We stuck to the first scenario like a demo and played it 6 times and the 6th time was still amazing. So now I bought it and cant wait to dig into the next 3 scenarios
The card game is the better game, but after 3 years the card game is 0 challenge for us anymore. We know basically every scenario and campaign in and out and a3e comes as a fresh experience. We just enjoy going around getting tons of stuff, dying, stopping anomalies.
That’s awesome! It sounds like you are truly an Arkham master across multiple games :)
I still love Arkham Horror 2nd Ed. It’s surprisingly moody and darkly mysterious. The King in Yellow expansion still creeps me out. And the decisions in the game feel thematic, like returning from an Other World encounter with an (alien) glow preventing (confusing them) monsters from attacking you when you return…until it wears off the next day you pull a mythos card. Good stuff!! With all the many rules you have to keep in your head AH 2nd Ed gets chaotic horror 💯 right!!
I prefer 2nd over 3rd as well. Though LCG will always be first for me :)
Board is wicked ugly tho
This is my first Fantasy Flight game, and I have to say I love the atmosphere buildup and story.
I played some of the scenarios more than once, and the replay value is good for me.
You can always optimize your turns and character, and thats a ton of fun!
Reading through reviews and comments though, many recommend Eldritch horror over this game.
Now I'm on the fence, should I invest or is this the ultimate Lovecraft experience?
Well in my opinion Arkham Horror the card game is by far the best of these games. Colin just finished a full campaign playthrough if you want to see it in action.
But between the two you mentioned, I’d give the nod to Eldritch personally.
@@OneStopCoopShop I heard that often enough, so this game seems to be really good.
Thanks for your recommendation! :)
I still think the gameplay makes it’s worthwhile. I’ve played this game a ton and still enjoy it, but I agree that they will need to add something more to the expansions if they want the game to have longevity. It can’t just be more of the same.
I enjoy the gameplay sometimes too. It’s why this was such a tough review. I’m not getting rid of the game, in the hopes expansions breathe some life in.
@@OneStopCoopShop The gameplay is rather boring and gets repetitive very fast. Great podcast about it btw. Your almost overly mixed aspects are more negative for me. Huge disappointment and I will stick with the 2nd edition.
Loving it so far but I do agree that the encounters are probably not as interesting or horrific as those in 2e. As far as value in base box, same could be said about almost all FF games, especially the AH file games. Eldritch Horror had same problem with few location encounters in base box, AH LCG only had 3 scenarios and MoM had 4 but that game cost 100 retail. All FF games depend on expansions to expand and flesh out the game. The set up time alone makes it likely I’ll be playing AH 3rd much more often than 2e anyway.
Mostly agree, though the variety of mystery cards in Eldritch and the order they came out gave varying objectives on multiple plays against the same GOO. I don’t think Arkham 3rd achieves that level of replay, and it’ll be tougher to expand overall.
True , but if you compare this to AH 2 e, base game also had same issue of really only one way to win which was get rid of all gates before GOO awakens OR defeat GOO once he did awaken. I do agree that they will need to figure out a way to differentiate scenarios so it’s not just about controlling Doom as that will make scenarios feel the same and get old fast. I have faith it will improve with expansions and creative solutions to make things different in future scenarios, but only time will tell. Still a hell of a lot more fun than the disaster that was FF take on Fallout!
Ha, no argument on that final point! Though Steve from the podcast says the coop scenario works really well...
Hi, thanks for the great content - do you feel any different about this game now it has some expansions?
Cheers.
I’ve only played one of them, and not really. The core structure still makes it feel like each expansion has limited variety in play.
Yea, I agree with your observations. It is just a mishmash of the LCG and Arkham. It undermines replay, drastically. Big thumbs up.
I was excited when I heard Arkham Card game mechanics were sneaking in. Didn’t work out super well 😁
Hey, love to see you videos! I have a question, maybe the answer is easy to you(i hope so)
When you are blessed an 4 count as a succes in test, does 4 also count as an succes when you do an attack action??
Please help med with an answer😀😀
Oh definitely. It applies to ANY test the character takes.
@@OneStopCoopShop thanks for the answer💪💪
Great and quick review as always. I have been playing Mansions of Madness 2nd edition lately and enjoying it, and was thinking about getting Arkham Horror 3rd edition once we finished. I'm curious how you think the two games compare to each other.
Arkham is less cinematic than Mansions, but has better replayability (though not by much for a given scenario), and certainly far more tactics. But mansions makes you feel like you’re living a movie, and gets the horror theme better, which is a lot of fun.
I also think Arkham differentiates characters much more. The powers and starting equipment are a lot of fun. My character never felt like it mattered as much for me in Mansions.
Eldritch Horror is much better than Arkham 3rd.
I love it. So much. I've never had the chance for 2nd, but I'm glad I tried 3rd!
Glad you enjoy it!
Man, you are a damn good reviewer!
Aw, that's really nice! Thanks so much :)
Point is both Eldritch and Arkham Horror 2nd edition are pretty dry without any expansion so i expected 3rd edition to be the same. What you should do is take both 2nd and 3rd edition without expansions and play and compare them.
I don’t agree. I think eldritch and 2nd edition were dripping theme and random wackiness compared to this one:
I never got more than the card expansion for Eldritch, and even without it felt more excitement there than here.
So keep playing Arkham Horror (2nd edition) and Mansions of Madness (2nd Edition)
Sounds like a reasonable response to me!
Now just add the Arkham Horror card game in the mix ;)
Why would you? I really like this 3ed and sold my 2ed. as soon as I've played this. I really love the theme and the mechanics of this one. Sure setup il still loooong and gameplay too, but it's really totally different from 2ed. Never played EH, but i'm a huge player of LCG.
Solid review, been on the fence with this one. Guess we'll see what expansions will do to this game. I feel like if the theme was more dungeon crawler/fantasy this game might have been shined a bit better. Replace this theme with say Heroes of Terrinoth, that would have been very cool. Decent 3.0/lite. Replace city tiles with village/dungeon tiles. The hero cards with the cleric/mage etc cards....
I agree that expansions could totally alter the game experience. I remember how the first Eldritch Horror turned a repetitive experience into one with tons of variety.
Though, like I said in the review, they made it a lot tougher on themselves to expand this one with the locked in scenarios...
Nah. The 1920s horror theme is what Arkham IS
Agreed. AH2 is my absolute favourite game and I was so looking forward to this, but having watched four or five playthroughs I passed on it for much the same reasons as you.
I preferred Eldritch over AH 2, and I also prefer Eldritch over this one I think :)
@@OneStopCoopShop purely on base games I'd agree with you. However, now both have loads of expansions, I think AH2 is miles better than EH.
@@FEBear1 Absolutely. :)
@@OneStopCoopShop Why if I can ask? I had 2ed but I've never played EH. I own this 3ed and I love it. huge player of the LCG too. But still I don't know if buying EH is worth.
@@alessandromassi3659 AH3 had very limited replayability, and a bit too much predictability in the gameplay (which some people will enjoy, but I felt lost the soul of the series a bit).
EH, for me, has some of the tactics and predictability of AH3 (with more consistent location abilities, items to buy, etc.), while still maintaining the greater variety and exciting events of AH2.
Hope that helps!
Definitely wasn't impressed with this one either myself. Sticking with Eldritch for my Arkham fix.
Support that choice, though I’m an Arkham card game fan myself :)
@@OneStopCoopShop I was looking forward to the the Arkham card game so much, but it just never clicked with me when I played it. Another disappointment. :(
So, stick with Arkham Horror: TCG then?
That’s for sure :)
That said I won't buy this game thank you so much! This game is not interesting for real. And I thank you so much! Subbed!
Oh, and yeah, the game is just kind of meh for me. Not a strong recommend. I didn't keep my copy long after this.
@@OneStopCoopShop Gotcha man thanks! At first I kinda went into it, but later I understood that it's just... meh... And we have no time for that meh stuff brotha.
You got that right. If you’ve seen my shelf life episodes, you know how quickly I can cull something :)
@@OneStopCoopShop :D I will get introduced to them then :). I think that even board game experts don't need like a top 100, rather around top 30-20 of the MOST solid amazing games they'd play anyday etc. I mean keeping, counting, prioritizing board games is not easy labor man lol.
I like you man and you remind me of Bruce Cambell and I mean that as a compliment! :)!
Holy crap! I'll take it as a compliment for sure! Whether you mean young college-age Bruce Campbell in the original Evil Dead, or older Bruce Campbell in Bubba Ho Tep, I'm completely flattered!
@@OneStopCoopShop Well something there, also maybe a bit when he played in the series like the Jack Of All Trades or the Hercules. I LOVE THIS GUY! :D.
Yes! Autolycus the thief was great!
@@OneStopCoopShop Absolutely and that Jack Of All Trades intro is still one of my favorite intros of all time! The music, the fun, holy shit!! :)
Can't agree. I think you're too biased for 2nd edition.
Which points do you disagree with exactly?
How can somebody be "too" biased towards it if he played both the 2nd and 3rd? It's called preference, not bias. After experiencing both games, I much prefer the 2nd edition by far.
Those tiles are horrible
Which ones? The location ones you link together?
I like that they can be modified for scenarios, but yeah, I miss the big beautiful boards of Arkham 2nd and Eldritch
This game is so boring and bad, it's sickening.
Androandroandrica Len I didn’t love it, but sounds like your reaction was a bit more negative ;)