Betrayal at House on the Hill board game review

I played a fantastic board game for Halloween back at GameALot and that game is Betrayal at House on the Hill. When I saw it was on the schedule I knew I had to sign up because I had been itching to try it after the TableTop episodes.

Betrayal at House on the Hill is a horror themed board game. Players work together  to explore a spooky mansion discovering items, traps, new rooms and omens until the haunt phase is triggered. At this point a haunt story begins and the players have new objectives in order to survive the haunt.

I fell in love with the game for so many reasons. The biggest aspect of the game I love is how the cooperative to betrayer rules work out. The players are all working together at the start of the game working to gain items and explore, however when the haunt triggers there is often a betrayer character. BUT the betrayer is only discovered when the haunt is triggered. It’s completely random. Because of this random aspect players tend to be wary during the initial phase of the game; anyone who gathers a large number of items, or is in close proximity, could be an opponent after the haunt is triggered. This creates an atmosphere of tension and wariness that fits with the horror theme.

Another reason I enjoy Betrayal at House on the Hill is everything is random. There are multiple levels of the board, main floor, upper floor, and basement. Only the entrances to these floors exist at the beginning. The board is randomly laid out each game. As players move around the board they reveal rooms by moving through doors and drawing a random room card. Once the room card is laid the player checks for any event, item or omen card icons and draws these cards. Event cards usually require a roll according to a character skill level in order to avoid damage or gain benefits. Item cards are equipment that the player can use, drop or trade with other players. Omen cards usually provide items but as their name suggest they are omens for the haunt. After drawing an Omen card the player rolls six dice, if that roll is below the number of omen cards drawn during the game the haunt is triggered.

When a haunt is triggered players consult the rulebook and use the room and omen combination to determine which haunt to use. The rulebook will state who the traitor is, often the one who triggered the haunt but it could be another player based on a certain character ability. There will be two books, one for the betrayer and another for the remaining players. The betrayer leaves the room to review their goals and rules while the remaining players do the same for their version of goals and rules. There are 50 scenarios in the books that cover a wide range of horror archetypes: Frankenstein’s monster, zombies, Dracula, or even the house itself. Some scenarios allow for the traitor to recruit new traitors such as werewolves.

The game ends when either the player goals or the betrayer goals are met.

Betrayal at House on the Hill isn’t a typical game. The fun is more in the building of a story with the other players. The goal really isn’t to collect the most items or be the first to a finish line, it’s more about working together to achieve and objective. It’s also more about telling a story and discovering who survives the horror story of the night. I love the creativity of it.

There are some drawbacks to the game. First off in order to be fun players really need to enjoy the horror genre. Then there is the elimination aspect. Characters can be killed off after the haunt begins by having a player stat drop to the lowest position. This can be disappointing however the game does move forward quickly after the haunt begins limiting this. Also players can be killed by simply entering a room, as an example at GameALot our betrayer entered a room and because of a card effect he died. This made for an easy escape for the remaining players. He also just so happened to reveal the exact room the players needed in order to escape and win the game. This leads me to the problem of the variable difficulty level. Some games scenarios are too easy to beat while others become impossible. Some players may become upset if the difficult level didn’t match their expectations. Also some players may not like being randomly selected as the betrayer.

To sum up while Betrayal at House on the Hill does have shortcomings due to random difficulty level and sometimes arbitrary deaths of characters it is still an amazing horror game. The randomness of the game ensures a high replayability factor. The story telling element really sells the game for me as it feels like more of an experience rather than just a game. It’s a game I could go back to time and again just like a favourite horror movie or book. I would recommend Betrayal at House on the Hill to any horror fan looking for game that is more about weaving story than about reaching a finish line.