As a fan of horror, fantasy, sci-fi and gaming and having more than a passing interest in the works of HP Lovecraft (I used to play 'The Call of Cthulhu' RPG with friends as a teenager), I was intrigued to see this board game pop up on an advert whilst browsing and even more intrigued when I saw that it catered for 1-8 players (so it could be played solo).



Having just acquired a gift voucher for Amazon, I decided to spend it on a copy of the game and I am so glad that I did because I can honestly say that this is an excellent game. Since I set up my first game I have not packed it away; I have so far played 7 solo games and I have won 3 of these (and I expect this ratio to rise as I become more and more familiar with the strategies).



Of course, if you are going to play solo you will need a degree of honesty and willpower to stick to the rules but as this is a co-operative game, I suppose the same could be said if you play with others (the aim is to beat the game itself - not the other players). I haven't yet been able to play with friends or family but I am greatly looking forward to the opportunity to do so as I am sure that this can only enhance the experience.



This game is obviously very well play-tested and even as a solo player you never really feel that victory is not achievable but it is always challenging (unless you make some really lucky draws as I did in one of my winning games). Some games will be set up to be more challenging than others based on the final boss (or 'Ancient One') that you draw as the ultimate nemesis (some bosses make for an easier challenge than others). But you can even set your own 'difficulty' level if you wish by choosing the final boss and the investigator (or investigators) that you will use (by default these would be chosen randomly).



There are already many expansions available for this game and from what I have read, these tend to raise the difficulty level as well as enhancing and prolonging the experience but I have already decided to start collecting them (unfortunately it seems that most of them are out of stock and may even be out of print at the time of this review).



Of course, there will be downsides to any game and this one is no exception. The most obvious one is that the game does require a very large playing area, even with only one player and no expansions; with more players and expansions you would need even more space. If you are considering buying this, make sure you have a lot of room available to play!



This does mean that the game also takes quite some time to set up; I have minimised this by not packing the game away since I set it up and I suspect that if this is a possibility for them then most players would do the same.



Finally - there are a lot of rules to absorb. The first one or two play throughs can be quite slow as you work your way slowly along but once you have the hang of them, the game flows very well indeed and even after only 7 games I find myself barely checking out the rulebook any longer apart from the occasional check of the reference sheet on the back page. Also - there seems to be a large online fan base, so it's easy to get help and rules clarifications if needed.



So in summary:



Pros: Absorbing, well-presented, well-balanced, well-play tested, loads of fun and ideal for solo gaming

Cons: Lots of playing space required, long set up time, lots of rules to absorb, expansions hard to come by