September 28, 2023

Living card games (almost) never die.

Instead, they continue to expand, adding new characters, new missions, and new cards to the game. In the Arkham Horror Living Card Game, you and your friends can dive take up those characters, and investigate the mysteries of the elder gods.

 The game's scenarios are structured like chapters in a novel, with each one revealing more about the overarching story. As players progress, they make choices that affect the outcome, leading to branching narratives and multiple possible endings. This dynamic storytelling aspect is one of the game's standout features, keeping players engaged as they discover new secrets and face ever-escalating challenges.

The game's deck-building aspect allows players to customize their investigator decks between scenarios, tailoring their strategies to face specific challenges. Characters are broken up into one of five investigator types, each specializing in a different aspect of the game.

  • Guardians are well-trained soldiers or private detectives, equipped to fight anything that comes their way.

  • Seekers are scientists and archeologists looking for answers to the mysteries beyond.

  • Mystics are witches and sorcerors attempting to harness the power of the elder gods without destroying everyone in the process.

  • Rogues are thieves and daredevils looking to explore what ancient artifacts they can sell or what thrills they can achieve.

  • Lastly, there are Survivors, who are just trying to make it through this investigation alive.

 

 

 

These “classes” give you access to particular cards, allowing you to craft a deck fit to your role. As you progress through the chapters of your campaign, allowing you to make you stronger in your role.

This aspect provides a satisfying sense of progression as players accumulate experience points and refine their decks over time.

One of the game's defining mechanics is the Chaos Bag, which replaces traditional dice rolling for skill tests. This bag contains tokens representing varying degrees of success, failure, and other unexpected outcomes. The unpredictable nature of the Chaos Bag adds an extra layer of tension and excitement to each encounter, making every decision feel consequential.

 The boasts a plethora of expansions, adding new investigators, class cards, and campaigns to go through. Each campaign is a self-contained story, with nearly every mission forcing you to make a choice that will affect you in the future.

Each mission can be played as a solo pick-up mission, not requiring you to play the campaign, but when you are six missions deep into a campaign and you finally see the effects of your choice from mission two, the thrill of the campaign story is one you won’t want to miss.

If you are looking to pick this game up, the base if comes with everything you need to play and with decklists to make and play immediately. There are also intro investigator decks, sold separately, that come with their upgrade cards for easy campaign play.

If you are looking for a spooky card game for this Halloween, this is the game for you.