Pandemic Legacy

Pandemic Legacy has been the center of a lot of debate and controversy in the last month and a half since its release. But here is one thing undeniable. Within only 50 days of its release, it has already jumped into the official Board Game Geek all-time Top Ten Games. Currently at number 6 with a number 1 in the Thematic category and a number 1 in the all-time Strategic category. I just finished the campaign with my girlfriend and I'm here to give you my thoughts.

Because of the nature of the game I will not be going into spoiler territory. I may make another write up at a later date with all the spoilers if I am asked to or if I remember.

I've been struggling how to put all I want to say to the page for a few weeks now. There is so much I want to discuss but feel unable to convey my thoughts in an intelligent or dignified way. So I'm going to skip that and say that Pandemic Legacy is simply fucking amazing from start to end.

For those of you who have somehow not heard of Pandemic Legacy let me begin by saying that this is a co-op game. You will be playing as professionals in the medical industry who are at the beginning of the campaign trying to cure 4 diseases off the board. The game when you open it up will have a lot of components that are sealed away, they are not to be opened nor looked at before instructed to. You as players will play the game in a campaign that can take anywhere between 12 plays (if you're somehow masters of statistics, math, puzzle solving, enough to have been able to solve our real world’s economic problems) or 24 games. Each game you play
you will be changing the game. You and your fellow players will be making choices and each choice will have consequences. The game throws you into this narrative that feels unlike anything board gaming has done before.

And Once more, all this is YOUR choice. You are going to add new rules to the game, You are going to add new locations to the board, You are going to kill characters, you will destroy your own cities, you are going to create your own twist and turns in the story. All based on your decisions. This of course means that your copy will be 100% unique to anyone else copy as they will have gone down a different path.

This also means that once you play, there is no turning back. You cannot re-set the game in any way. I've had customers ask me if they think the game is playable by using post it notes and other things to not damage the board and my honest reply is no. It's impossible. To say more would be a spoiler.

So I honestly implore you to just let go, dig in to the idea. Because you won't regret it. The new mechanics added to the games basically the game will grow with you, you will never be one step ahead and always given an interesting challenge and meta game. By mid-way into the campaign you are playing a very, very different game from where you started.

My only complaint honestly with the game is that I played it 2 player and not 4. I want to play it again with a 4 player group and relive dome of those events from a whole different perspective.

If any of this doesn't sound appealing to you, than turn away. There are plenty of safe games like Power Grid to play. But if you want something special. If you want something unique. if you want something simply genius. Play Pandemic Legacy right now.

Andres