The Horrified series of games have become my favourite board games since the original Horrified launched back in 2019. The games are wonderfully cooperative and intriguingly different in each version — or even each gaming session. They’re also beautifully designed and a pleasure to interact with. I’m not the only one who thinks so — almost everyone I’ve introduced the game to has ended up buying one of the versions of it. I’ve become an evangelist of horror!

The premise is simple: work together to defeat the monsters before the monsters defeat you. In the original game you are defending a town against classic movie monsters: Dracula, Wolfman, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein’s creature and his Bride. The monsters move around the board and cause mayhem according to monster cards, which are full of surprises sure to derail player plans.

Each character chooses a different hero character with special abilities to help in the fight against the monsters: the mayor, the archaeologist, the explorer, the courier, the professor, the scientist and the inspector. The trick for players is using these special abilities well to complement each other. Collaborate and plan and you will have a chance to save the town. Play as a lone wolf and the monsters will surely prevail. As a former academic, I have a soft spot for the professor but they all have their advantages.

Different items are scattered around the beautifully designed board for players to use, either in defending themselves against the monsters or satisfying certain requirements to defeat the monsters. For instance, to defeat Dracula players must find his four coffins in the town and destroy each with items they have collected, then track down Dracula and destroy him with a different set of items. Haven’t been collecting enough items? Enjoy watching Dracula feast on townsfolk.

Each of the monsters must be destroyed in different ways, which means the players can’t simply use the same strategy for each. To make it even more challenging, there’s a time limit of sorts. A terror marker gets moved each time a player or one of the townsfolk gets killed by a monster. Reach the end of the terror track and the players lose. So the players feel the pressure rising as the game goes on and they get more desperate.

The townsfolk are mostly helpless victims that can’t defend themselves, but they do provide help to the players in forms of perk cards if the players escort them to their desired safe locations. The perk cards can be used to prevent monsters from moving, giving the players extra actions, and so on. You can win without the cards but it’s that much more difficult.

Each game session is remarkably different thanks to the randomness of the cards that determine the monster actions and townsfolk appearances. There are also different levels of difficulty, where you can play against more challenging monsters or greater numbers of monsters. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve played Horrified, but it’s almost always the first pick for my gaming crew.

So check out Horrified today and get ready to have a horrifyingly good time!