Board Game Break Time: House of Danger

Board Game Break Time is a new feature we're bringing in, where we play board games and review them. 

Title: House of Danger
Manufacturer:  Z-Man Games

Release Date: 2018
Designer: Prospero Hall

Game Mechanism: Hand management, Co-op play, story telling

# of Players 1+   Best: 1

Ages: 10+

Play Time: 60 Minutes

  

Average Rating: 6.8

Average Rating: 4.8

Found on amazon:

Discover a thrilling adventure investigating criminal activity and a dark history in your town. Haunted by the mystery of the missing owner of the Marsden Mansion, you decide to take the case on yourself.

With your psychic senses and skills as a detective, you're confident you can solve the mystery.

Explore the mansion and unravel its secrets. Cross paths with ghostly figures, navigate a secrets rooms, and conquer challenges.

Think carefully as you choose which paths to investigate.

What will you choose?

Venturing into a mysterious mansion can be a dangerous endeavor, requiring a little help. Starting with a bottle of water and a trusty pocket knife, players discover clues and new items to help the investigation and overcome obstacles.

These obstacles can challenge perception, strength, dexterity, and more traits. Clues and items found along the way can be used to boost chances of winning the challenge.

Make risky choices, collect items as you explore, and face off against dire challenges.

A cooperative narrative adventure game for the whole family!

I love the choose your own adventure books! The fact that it's brought to you in a game is amazing.

My favorite part about this is that it's almost like role playing, But you only have a couple choices. But you still get to make choices, and you roll a die to see if you win against challenges. 

The artwork is awesome, it really does look like an old choose your own adventure book from the 80's. Or whenever they came out. It looks old and worn. 

It's also super creepy at parts. Dolls without eyes, and being buried alive. I'm just waiting for when there's going to be a clown. Whole bunch of nope nopes from me! 

I enjoy reading the cards and the interaction it has between us. And the best part is that you can play this multiple times through, even the same chapters, because you can choose different things each time.

I really like how it can be however long you want it to be too. You get to the end and you have the option of going back to other paths you missed. Or you can just end it there. 

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There is so much great about this game. I wasn't sure I would like this game when I was first approached by my hubby. He thought, hey this sounds like a great game. I remember thinking... it's not really a game though... it's a book. Which I love books and I loved reading the choose your own adventure books... but because I was looking for a game I didn't think about it again... until I watched some reviews. It had glowing reviews. So we grabbed and have played it twice. It is exciting. We all get involved in reading the story and making the decisions. We have died a couple of times. 

There are 5 chapters in the game and each chapter takes about an hour to play. The story is interesting and so is the game play. You really do have to think but it isn't rocket science type thinking. Its a great family weight game. 

One of the things I adore about this game besides that its a book that is a game and that it's fun... the look, the feel, the tone of the game... total flashback to my childhood. So much fun and great to look at. There is a new one coming out this year and guess what...I will grab this one up too. I love this game.

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What Michael Thought: 

Choose your own adventure books were my favorite growing up. I read many of the books in 4th-6th grade. I liked choosing all the different paths and trying to find all the different outcomes. 

So when I heard they were making a board game version of one of the books, I knew I had to have it! The gameplay is pretty simple. Read cards and choose which direction you want to go. You can choose optional challenges to get clues, gain more physic power, or gain items that can help you in the future.

You can play a chapter at a time which last approximately 30-60 minutes depending on your path and whether you back track or not. There are 6 chapters and so far we have played the first 2. Each chapter comes with an objective you must complete before moving on to the next chapter. 

I really like that they chose one of the books from series (#6) and looks like the same art style I grew up with. So nostalgia may play a hand in my ratings. I recommend this game to book lovers and choose your own adventure fans. This is good for board game newbies since you don't have to read a large instruction book and is pretty easy to pick up and play. Plus you can play this as a family game and they can interact as well.

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What John Thought:

Honestly I thought it was fun. It was nostalgic, it brought me back to my younger days of doing choose your own adventure books, that I would check out from the library. 
I like that this one gets more challenging by adding how high of a roll you have to get, to beat the challenges, and how if you're higher on your psychic level then you get extra clues to help you out. 
I honestly like all of the game. I like looking for the clues, getting everyone's input on which path to take. 
Don't trust the chimpanzee. 

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