Disclaimer: I was sent a review copy of the game, the opinions expressed in the review are completely my own.
Overview: From BGG
One night, a superstitious teen named Bert Hudson ventured a bit too far into Brightview's dark past. As he stumbled across strange markings in the forest, Bert inadvertently broke a seal from an ancient Elder Tree that would awaken a demon known as the Whisperer.
The Brightview Haunting is a one versus many cooperative horror game. Play as either Exorcists, working together to save Bert and banish the Whisperer, or as the Whisperer, tracking them down to spread corruption and attempting to possess them all.
Experience asymmetric gameplay as each Exorcist utilizes different passive actions, and the Whisperer uses a set of unique abilities that get upgraded as the game progresses. As Exorcists, trigger random Events through key actions like invoking ritual items, or using corrupted artifacts. Determine when to use special items, manage your corruption, and strategically move around the map to outwit the Whisperer. As the Whisperer, possessing Exorcists turn them against their allies. When this happens, the game becomes team based, and a possessed Exorcist coordinates with the Whisperer. Any Exorcist who gets possessed during the game is able to be saved in different ways, in which they'd switch back to their original team.
Will you become vessels for the demon or banish the Whisperer back into the Elder Tree for good?
Rules & Setup:
The rulebook has been well laid out, with plenty of diagrams and examples of gameplay, and extensive explanations of the actions for both sets of players. There are also 4 additional set up options for the token layouts, and some optional rules you can employ / change to alter the game experience and how things could pan out. For a game of this size the rulebook is certainly better than a lot I have seen, and does need to be kept close at hand during gameplay, especially the first 2 or 3 plays just so you get used to the different options available to players and what they fully mean for both sides.
Set up does take around 10 -1 5 minutes as there are a number of tokens to place on the board, and you sometimes have to do a little bit of line drawing / chess moves in your head to place tokens, i.e. 4 in from the edge and 3 up from the bottom. There are also different card decks to sort out and boards for these as well as the Elder Tree board and the track which shows Berts token.
Theme:
As above the games theme is horror based, and does make you think you are playing a ‘movie’ somewhat in that there is a monster roaming around trying to catch the other players, whilst they try to release their friend from the monster’s clutches.
Gameplay:
The game plays quite quickly once you get the hang of the different actions you can do, either as an Exorcist or as the Whisperer, and once an Exorcist has become possessed they then join the Whisperers team until such time that their corruption is reduced below 5, whereupon they revert back fully under the control of the player, and again try to assist in freeing Bert from the Elder Tree.
The Exorcists each get to perform up to 2 actions per turn, and once they have all done this the Whisperer then also gets to perform their actions, and the game continues until either Bert Is freed from his Elder Tree prison, or the Whisperer possesses all the Exorcists.
Rituals and items are uncovered during the game by the Exorcists performing searches, which will help them find useful things to aid them in their quest, but invoking discovered rituals also causes events to happen, which are mostly a hindrance to them.
The Whisperer meanwhile is trying uncover teleportation gateways to help their movement around the board, and control tokens which make them stronger as they move up the control track.
The board is divided into squares and each square takes a point of movement to traverse.
Each Exorcist also has their own special ability they can use to help them / the team achieve their goal.
The cat and mouse element of the game has been done very well on the most part.
Artwork and Components:
Both the artwork and components are of a very nice standard, and the game really does look good on the table, although I think one or two squares on the board could be a little bit clearer on if they are blocked by things like woodland trees / hedges or if there is a gap that means movement is possible through it without penalty.
The background of the board could have been a little brighter in places, and this may have helped with the blocking issue mentioned above. I am colour blind on some colours so again this would have made things easier to help plan moves one or two turns in advance
The card stock was of a nice thickness, as were all the tokens and standees.
The Good:
As a group we like these types of one v many games, with a favourite being Letters From Whitechapel, and The Brightview Haunting is a nice addition to this type of game system.
The components are good, and the rulebook is easy to follow.
The Other:
The main thing I’d improve on are the player boards and player aid sheets, and the addition of one or two lines of text on the player board would assist in remembering things like you can only invoke rituals if you are on one of the 4 specific squares of a ritual site, of which there are 3 on the board.
Similarly, this should be added to the player aid, as invoking rituals is a key element of the game and this really does seem like a critical omission in terms of gameplay text.
A slightly clearer board in areas would also be helpful, especially in the few that were slightly ambiguous for me to see if they were fully or only partially blocked off.
Final Thoughts:
As a one v many game The Brightview Haunting works well, but for me it just needs a few gentle tweaks in some areas, like the fact if the Whisperer moves through a wall or blocked forest space then they lose all their remaining moves, and in a game where it is already going to be a race against time, then these losses of movement can be crucial and fatal for the Whisperer player. And as they can only move through this type of barrier once they have reached a certain level of control it does seem slightly unfair on the movement front.
The teleportation gateways can help in the Whisperer movement but these have to be ‘found’ in the hidden tokens and as these are laid blind at the game start the gateways could end up being too close together.
If I had to give a rating out of 10 I’d say that The Brightview Haunting is a 6.5, with my favourite, Letters From Whitechapel, being a 9.
The rating doesn’t mean to say it isn’t worth buying, because for the cost and the experience I think a lot of people will thoroughly enjoy it. I think we’ll certainly play it again, and maybe house rule one or two things, or add in one of the several suggested options at the back of the rulebook regarding set up and starting positions etc.
