I know all of these monsters very well. Not personally. It’s not like I drop by for a cuppa and a natter, or I’ve got their birthdays (deathdays, haha) scribbled on my calendar so I can forgot to buy them a card every year (no written note has ever helped me to remember anything), or they’ve asked me to buy them something online because I’ve got Prime and they haven’t and they want to save a few quid on postage (monsters are notorious cheapskates). No, I mean I’m very aware of them. I’ve studied them enthusiastically in documentaries (horror movies) and reference books (I’ve lurked so long in the horror section of Waterstones that I’ve left my shadow there. If you want to survive, pay attention to me.
Rule number one and only: stay away from all of them.
Simple, isn’t it? With Yetis, don’t go searching for them in the deep, dark woods with a camcorder and an intention to make a documentary. How about the Sphinx? Well, I personally wouldn’t go disturbing sarcophagi or burial chambers or making off with shiny things that might have curses on them. The hopping corpse-vampire of the Jiangshi is likely to cause you problems if you accept crazy assignments from strange businessmen (see the movie Mr. Vampire for further evidence), so just stick to your own affairs and you’ll be fine. To avoid Cthulhu, I’d steer clear of reading passages out loud from weird books, or investigating cultists – leave it to the professionals. Basically, don’t get involved, mate.
In Horrified, leaving these creatures alone to their murderous ways isn’t an option: this is the time to be heroic, so you need to figure out how best to solve the puzzle that will defeat each enemy. The biggest mystery of all, however, is what are these four monsters doing together in the first place? In a very real and fairly important way, it doesn’t make sense…
First impressions
Right. This is going to be a real mish-mash of thoughts and feelings. I love the eyeball that’s illustrating on the back of one quarter of the board that stares out at you upon first opening the box. This is something that Horrified has done going back to the first game – wherein a warning greeted the unwary – and it’s these kinds of touches that add up to a whole lot of atmosphere.
There’s a definite improvement in the miniatures themselves, at least in comparison with Universal Monsters. The detail is fantastic, and I mean the tiny details on each model. They’ve got bags of character and I love ’em. Here’s the thing: there’s only four of them. Previous games in the series have been released with six monsters mix and match. There are some mitigating circumstances to explain this. Firstly, Chthulhu is Horrified’s first ever two-stage monster. There’s a lot more to do when it comes to defeating Lovecraft’s greatest creation, and he even has his own little secondary board for the latter half of the puzzle. Secondly, take note of the title: World of Monsters. The design intention here is for this to be a hub game. In another franchise first, this game and its monsters are interchangeable with previous iteration Greek Monsters, but not with earlier games.
Before WoM arrived at my door, I’d seen some negative chatter online regarding the token bag, and upon initially opening the box I disagreed. Then I compared it to the token bag in Horrified: Universal Monsters, and yeah, it’s a definite downgrade. The original is a lovely velvet bag. This one feels cheap.
What I notice straight away, however, is that despite the fantastic art and the evocative (as always) game board, we’ve lost some of the series’ previous strength in theming. There’s some backstory in the rulebook, something about portals opening and monsters coming through (I think), which is essentially another way of saying ‘we’ve mashed a handful of monsters together that would never spend time together in any other format’. It’s as if these creatures were picked out of a hat, and someone said yep, that’ll do. It doesn’t feel curated. It doesn’t feel thoughtful or careful, just a pick ‘n’ mix. Whatever you may feel about Horrified: American Monsters and Horrified: Greek Monsters, at least they were thematic and at least there was a clear link between the monster choices. The second you take away a strong theme, you’re left with a random feeling to the enemies you’ll face. A portal is a weak plot device as well. It’s kids tv level. I mean, why on earth would you be up against this specific combination of monsters?
In case you can’t tell, I’m not keen on the end result of whatever thought processes the designers had for this game.
How to Play
Set the Terror Track to 0. Fair warning, it won’t stay there for long…
Select the monsters you dare to face (I wouldn’t stick Cthulhu into your first go if I were you). Choose your character – there’s some decent inclusivity options here. All minis and standees have specific starting points. You will be given one Perk – others are earned by saving NPCs (who have a ‘charming’ habit of turning up exactly when and where you don’t need them to). The terror track is set to zero – this goes up 1 every time either a hero is successfully attacked and cannot spend an item to deflect, or an NPC is killed (two reasons to save these buggers then).
You have a set number of actions you can take per turn, indicated on your character sheet. Move speaks for itself. Lead allows you to take any number of NPCs with you – you save them by leading them to their intended destination. Pick up allows you to take the items at a location. Those items will prove useful too – you’ll use them to solve the puzzles that defeat the monsters in play (which is another possible action). You can also share items with other players if you’re on the same space – handy if they’re going to head off towards a monster’s challenge space on their turn. The Advance option allows you to use an item to solve part of a monster’s challenge (and remember that you can use all of your actions on Advance if you’ve got enough relevant items – you can take actions in any combination that suits you).
The monsters you’re trying to defeat are controlled by AI – in this instance, a deck of cards. Every player turn will see the top card from this deck played, and there will be instructions to follow. There will be an event to resolve, and then a symbol or two at the bottom. These symbols represent the monsters. If a monster’s symbol is shown, that monster moves the amount of spaces shown, and rolls X amount of attack dice should it land on a space occupied by a hero or NPC. A defeated villager is removed from the game and the Terror Track advances one space. A defeated hero also costs one move along the Terror Track, but they aren’t dead: they’ll return to the board via the Reviving Throne at the start of their next turn.
Cthulhu is unusual in the Horrified-verse (I’m guessing that’s what they’ll call it) for two reasons. Firstly, we’ve never had a two-stage monster before, making Cthulhu doubly hard to beat. Secondly, the last stage takes place on its own little board off from the main one (yeah, you’ll need a little bit extra table space).
Destroy the monsters before that Terror Track maxes out. Hold your nerve, be brave…
How well does it play?
The basics remain unchanged, so if you enjoyed any of the previous iterations, then you’ll have fun with this. This style of solo/co-op game continues to appeal to me, and it can be lots of fun trying (and regularly failing) to get other players on the same monster-busting page when they suddenly find themselves overwhelmed and focused in the short-term on their own survival. It can be surprising how quickly things fall apart, and can be a great surge of adrenalin when the first monster is soundly defeated and the tide turns in your favour. I personally find it retains the same issue as the other members of this series: all of the tension resides in the first half of the game. Once the first monster is felled, you can train all of your efforts and resources on those that remain, which obviously makes those monsters easier to defeat. There will be occasions when the players are overwhelmed early – for example, you get a run of villagers popping up directly in the path of the monsters and the Terror Track bumps up rapidly – but I’ve found this a rare occurrence. More players can actually make this harder: in a four player game, you’ve got four monster cards turning over before your next turn, so you might have to rely on your fellow players to use powers to move you out of harm’s way.
I’m very curious to see where the Horrified series heads to next. We’ve already seen a special edition release of Krampus as a monster who can be added in. Does Ravensburger intend to release another full blown board game which can be swapped with World of Monsters and Greek Monsters? Or will they switch to releasing monster packs and one-offs that can be mixed and matched to the player’s whims?
There’s some concern on my part for how all of this will work. The rulebook for World of Monsters already has a page dedicated to addressing the issues that come from bringing Greek monsters in and vice versa. These addenda could become more numerous and more complex as the releases mount up. Also, I refer back to the loss of theme. I agree, Unmatched has gone down the pick ‘n’ mix route and done so successfully. Heck, Unmatched even went so far as to release a co-op version called Tales To Amaze, which to me plays like a Horrified homage. But this is Unmatched’s raison d’etre.
Look, I’m well aware that there have been fan-created additions and expansions for Horrified since the first release. And the notion of mixing and matching monsters from one game to the other is great fun. However, there is little arguing that the strong theming of the original is the reason why the game functions so well. If you want to alter and change your games, great, go for it, I’d be up for popping a Greek monster into an American setting as a fun one-off, but when I’m paying money for a game in a series I love, I need that game to be well thought out and entertaining, and when it’s in the Horrified series, I expect the theme to shine through. There’s a feeling of shovelware here, and I’m simply not as compelled to bring World Of Monsters to the table.
I’m pretty certain that someone somewhere will find a way to integrate Universal Monsters and American Monsters into this new iteration – if they haven’t done so already. I’m not sure I’m interested in playing that, though. I feel like those monsters belong in their respective box. Each one is a unique experience.
Conclusion
I’ll do the end part of my conclusion first. Why start with the ending? Because I’ve got a few caveats and I don’t want them to put anybody off buying the game. What I would usually say at the end is this: Horrified: World Of Monsters is a fun game featuring an unpredictable AI that will give you a different game every time you play and that will remain a permanent member of my collection. I don’t have many permanents. I enjoyed Horrified: World Of Monsters because beneath the surface it’s essentially the same game that I’ve played before.. It’s built upon the same foundations, the mechanics work as well as always – although we still have all the tension top-loaded into the first half of the game. The miniatures look fantastic, the artwork is excellent as always, and the mechanics of the game work. If you came round to my house (that might sound like an invite: it isn’t) and pointed to World Of Monsters and said ‘Let’s play that,’ I’d be happy to oblige, knowing that we’ll have a pretty good time.
The uptick in quality on the miniatures is great to see, but other corners have been very slightly cut, and this is a trend I would not want to see continue. There is less variety in the box as well compared to previous releases, and a lack of a coherent link between those monsters present. For these two reasons, this edition doesn’t quite have the magic of the earlier iterations. I found the drop in number of monsters and heroes inside the box a real disappointment. We’ve lost some value for money. I understand the thinking behind the changes: after all, this is called World of Monsters. This is intended as an expandable base game with multiple functions. It can be added to with monsters bought separately (I’m guessing slightly here: the Christmas 2024 release of the Krampus seems to hint at further possible lone monster products, although there have been no further solo monster releases) or it can be blended with other Horrified games, such as Greek Monsters or future games. I picture this becoming overly complicated. There is already a section of the instructions dedicated to how Greek Monsters can visit World of Monsters and vice versa. With more game releases will surely come more specific instructions on how to play monsters here, there and everywhere, and personally I’m unsure of how bothered I can be with all of this. I like the sets. I like the themes. I don’t want to bring out two games just to see how the Yeti plays in Greek Monsters. That could just be me. I’m finicky like that.
The idea presumably is that combining editions means more replayability… but this only becomes true if you either already own Greek Monsters or you’re willing to purchase it. Bought on its own, World Of Monsters offers fewer combinations of monsters to play against and, obviously, only has one set of four for you to face down.
For fans of the series it’s a no-brainer, and if you haven’t got it already then you most likely have it on order. To those who are new to the series and are thinking of buying this, I’d say you’ll have a good time. The essential gameplay is fun and it will bring a table of people together in a desperate race to beat the beasts. Except… I might hesitate with my recommendation, just a little bit. I might recommend you opt for Horrified: Universal Monsters first. Six monsters, seven heroes versus four monsters and five heroes. Pitch-perfect theme versus disparate monsters mashed together in a vague monsterverse. It makes a difference, and it’s why the final score has to take a bit of a hit.
Scores:
Score – 75%
Artwork – 4
Complexity – 4
Replayability – 3
Player interaction – 3
Component Quality – 3
You might like:
Cthulhu is here, and he’s as tough as you’d expect
The AI card deck works as well as ever
Works as a solo game or a cooperative game
You might not like:
Less monsters, less characters
Minis are great, but other components have dipped in quality
Theme is very wishy-washy this time round
About the author:
Steve is currently a freelance board game blogger, but often dreams of life as a pirate, or as a ghost herder in the Lake District, or as an evil estate agent who sells haunted houses for his
own dark pleasure. Instead of figuring out how to do these jobs in real life like a normal lunatic, he tries to write about them instead, and releases the resultant books upon the unsuspecting world via famous digital bookstores. More books are bound to follow. Find this peculiar entity here.
