Horrified: World of Monsters Board Game Review

Horrified: World of Monsters takes the traditional Horrified systems and turns them a bit on end by making you play as …. Monsters? That’s right, things are just a bit different this time around, although the real pull for many Horrified fans will be the new baddies brought into this edition of the game. This is actually my first Horrified game experience, so I had to go back and try others before putting this review together. And honestly, for better or for worse, this is mostly just more Horrified with a few twists. Let’s take a look!

In Horrified, players will be taking actions, using items, and attempting to remove threats from the small town. We went into depth about all the components in the game (link components review) so we won’t go over all of that here. The production here is pretty strong, and we LOVE the look of the game board. It really helps immerse you into the experience. But immersion and a good looking game can only get you so far – so how does it play?

Horrified is a family-weight cooperative game where players will be using their characters to take actions and defeat monsters. Horrified: World of Monsters brings 4 new villains to the Horrified franchise, highlighted by the Yeti and Cthulhu. Each enemy has a unique mechanism that requires players to do different things. One has you working through a polyomino puzzle, another requires some riddles to be solved, and others are straight boss fights. The wildly different strategies required to take down each monster does make each game of Horrified: World of Monsters feel pretty unique, at least until you’ve played through all four monsters.

Each player will have their own character to play as, and they have unique actions they can take to help solve the game’s various puzzles and fights. Some allow you to peak at monster cards, others let you take more actions, and more. Each is unique and fun to play, and trying each character was another way to add some variance to the game should you plan to play this often in a short time frame. The characters themselves are easy to understand and easy to play, which again lends to this being a family weight title.

I do think that this game might be too light for some players – action options are pretty basic, between moving, getting items, rescuing folks, or interacting with the game’s bosses. Nothing here is overly complicated, and when playing with our more advanced board game group, it wasn’t a game that many of us were clamouring to get back down to the table with so many other, better options available.

That being said, my kids really enjoyed this, and my wife and I really enjoyed playing this with them. Allowing them to make their own decisions put us into bad situations every now and then, but it was rewarding to watch my 10 year old make smart and well thought out decisions. I think the theming here is great, and breaks away from what Horrified has done in the past. There are less monsters in this box than the other ones, although I think Cthulhu will be a huge draw. 

This is a great production, and a fun game. If you have a group who play complicated games regularly, this is one you want to pass on. But if you have a group that wants to play a lighter game, or want a game that might be nice around Halloween, this is a great game to grab!