Top 10 Horror Games

0:09 Hey everyone, welcome back to Board Games Unlocked and today I'm going to be doing my top 10 horror games. We are in the middle of spooky season right now. It is actually my favorite time of the year. It's the one holiday that well Halloween obviously later on is actually the one holiday that I can tolerate. It's always a fun time and the board game industry has actually done a really good job with covering horror games. And I've actually done this list in the past and I was contemplating on if I was going to do another one this year and then I looked up the last time I did this list and that was four years ago. So it has been it's been a bit and it's insane that it's already been four years cuz I just I feel like I just did this.

1:03 Um but yeah, so I'm going to be going over obviously my top 10 horror games and this is I think a subjective list as all top 10s are but really in like what is horror and horror in board games I always feel is a little more difficult to grasp because obviously you can have the theme of horror like obviously this is a scary zombie stuff like that. But the feel of a board game is never up to what it is in any other medium. You know, where it's video games horror video games have been popping off movies especially especially lately have been really we've been really eating good with horror movies lately.

1:53 Um and then uh, horror books I'm not so sure about I have I don't think I've actually ever read a horror book, so I don't know. I I imagine a horror book would probably equate to some You might be able to get more immersed in a book than you can a board game just because all you're doing is reading the book versus fiddling around with a bunch of different mechanisms and an actual game. But, there were a lot that I could actually have done. I contemplated doing a top 20, but I just figured I'd keep it small and just do a top 10. So, without further ado, I actually Nope, not not without further ado. I ranked these games obviously on how they they match, I guess, my personal vibe of horror. Um, with Yeah, with not necessarily how good I think the game is, even though, funny enough, I actually think all of these games are fantastic.

2:56 So, but I didn't rank these out of my favorites, you know, so there are some games that are on here that I actually like more than, you know, the next one that would come after it, but I think the I I ranked these basically on how horror they are. So, with that being said, now we can get into an honorable mention, which is a game done by, uh, a relatively small company, but they have, uh, big ambitions. I think they Yeah, they've only done two games. No, no, they haven't. They've done They've done three. Uh, I forgot I don't have that their third game anymore. Uh, but this is the first one that they ever did and kind of put them on the map for me, and that is Deep Madness.

3:41 So, Deep Madness and this company, Dimension Games, uh, I think understands the horror theme, uh, extremely well. So, on the cover, it's a sci-fi horror game, and this would be uh your probably the closest to a Dead Space board game that we could get. Uh unfortunately, the pictures are always difficult to get because their minis are immaculate. But, if you were just thinking of like the Necromorphs from Dead Space, so imagine that but underwater is how I've always described this game. Uh because it is a dungeon crawler at heart. So, you are controlling you know, a group of investigators that are going in, and it's scenario-based like these dungeon crawlers tend to be.

4:31 But, you are being swarmed and riddled with a bunch of terrifying monsters that have all these different types of abilities, and those are going to be based off of what the scenario might entail. But, the really cool thing about this game is that over the course of the game, you see these little like kind of blue tokens. Uh those are water tokens, and this facility is like a mining uh facility that is underground. And you are tasked to go and explore it, and over the course of the game, those tiles will eventually flip to a nightmare side, which will cause uh horrific uh events to happen uh depending on the spot you're in, and you're going to have to deal with oxygen. So, as you're going into these uh flooded areas, each action you do is going to cause your um your oxygen meter to go down.

5:29 And that uh will eventually start having you take damage, and then you're going to have to go into rooms that obviously aren't flooded, so you can regain your oxygen. And for me, it just does an exceptional job at this. Uh one because the idea of having to do anything underwater would just be the worst for me. And I just think it does it extremely well. I love the way that they handle sanity in this game. A lot of these games are going to deal with some type of sanity. Honestly, you could really just put probably do a top 10 Lovecraft like Lovecraftian board games uh, to ma- to make this list. But yeah, I think this one's really really good. Has tons of content for it. Uh, with the amount of expansions that that they made that bring in epic monsters, that bring in a ton of new bosses, and uh, scenarios to make. It's a it's a great one. I like this one a lot. So, that is my honorable mention.

6:37 Then we get into the actual list. And this one has been an oldie but a goodie uh, since I first got it. And this is Subterra. The first one, not the second one. The second one is a lot more like Indiana Jones kind of stuff. And funny enough, ooh, did someone like make this glow in the dark? Are the tiles glow in the dark? I don't I don't think so. But they God. Pictures Pictures Pictures, come on, man. Come on, my dude. Yeah, so this game, funny enough is not a looker. It but it does the the way the game works, I don't know. It just always kind of has captured the atmosphere of what this game is going for, which is belunking.

7:30 The dumbest hobby people can have where yeah, you just go into into a cave and you just hope you don't die. So, again, I can probably attribute these to a lot of movies. This one is going to be closest to uh The Descent. I was going to say It Lurks Below. I don't even I was like, I don't even think that's a movie. Yeah, so imagine The Descent but now as a board game. Uh and you control again these different types of various uh occupants. So, you can be a bodyguard, you can be a medic, you can be a uh exterminator. Whatever it might be. And it's a very simple game. But, the way that this game captures that feeling of going into a dark, decrepit hazardous cavern, and you know, you you descend down, and you have to find the exit uh by having a bunch of random tiles that, you know, as you're as you're flipping them, either whether you want to take it slow, but you only have so much time to do so, uh or you want to just risk it, and you can cut you know, eventually some monsters can spawn, and then you have to run away. Uh but then as you're running away, you might come across a dead end, and then the monsters attack you and just kill you.

8:52 And a lot of the times, it just comes down to one person who just got lucky, and they are on their way. But, the way that this game handles its event deck, not its miniatures, apparently, is one of the coolest ways I've seen kind of an event deck handled. Because a lot of the times, uh you with with these kinds of games, a lot of the times, if the deck runs out, up, you ran out of time, and then you have to theater of the mind, and then game's over. This game doesn't do that. This game has this really cool, simple mechanism where when the event deck runs out, it's thematically tying that your flashlight has run out of batteries. Um But, every time it is your turn, you still get to do an action. Uh whether, you know, you which is most likely at that point going to be just flipping tiles as you are trying to get out.

9:45 And you have to roll a die, and I believe you need a five or a six to succeed. Uh and if you get a five or six, then you're you have just enough light to keep getting out. But then, if you don't roll a five or six, then you just the your your character gets snatched up by one of the monsters, and that's how the game can end. And every player is doing this when the deck runs out. So it does Usually it's one person is surviving, but yeah, if you're playing with a large group, it could be multiple people. You just see them get picked off one by one. And yeah, like I said, this game doesn't have the production value that some other games have in health. I guess someone has a panda as uh you know, as a as the monster. But yeah, I've always loved Subterra. There's a Uh excuse me. It is 4:00 a.m. here.

10:37 But yeah, this game did a really good job with uh its expansions. I don't even think I have this incubation expansion. Yeah, I definitely don't. But that is my number 10. My number nine, I also didn't look at the uh uh like my old list. So I'm very curious as to how much has changed. I remember what my number one was uh back when I did it. Um but God. But yeah, my So my number nine is actually going to be Kingdom Death Monster. And overall, so Kingdom Death Monster is definitely it's definitely a horror game. Um it If Besides not looking at some of the of the pin-ups or some of the models that they sell on their own.

11:37 When you take a deep dive into the lore in this game, which can be found. It's actually weirdly more difficult to find the lore in this than it is the than I like a Dark Souls game. But, the lore of this game is actually horrific. You know, it it starts I mean, just the very beginning of of a campaign, it starts with the survivors awakening you know, basically nude or in loincloths and come across this giant white lion that is devouring prey and it spots them and they have to scramble and survive. And then eventually they will kill the lion, harvest its organs, and its pieces to then try and build this makeshift settlement. Uh while all these other horrific creatures are either descending upon their settlement or they need to go out into the world to be able to actually, you know, fight different various types of creatures. I mean, one of the nemesis that shows up is a literal butcher that has a bunch of like hanging heads off of his body.

12:49 Uh it leans a little bit more into the fantastical, especially with some of the other expansions. But, there's these red witches with the new expansions that uh that can you can come across whenever you're on your hunt phase or uh these bone eaters that are these cannibalized uh cannibals that you know, get stronger as they devour bones. Hell, one of the opening, again, queries you can go fight is a screaming antelope that's entire body is is a mouth that it can pick you up and devour you. So, the game is extremely extremely grim and dark. And I think just the overall atmosphere of King Now, whenever I'm playing King Kingdom Death Monster, it's never more of like um oh man, this is scary.

13:42 But like I said, whenever I was talking about how I rank these, I think whenever we're looking at what the overall vibe of KDM is, I mean, its lore is absolutely insane. And there were a few games that aren't on this list that I mean, I took into consideration you you just based off of you know, other types of medium. So, I mean, I wouldn't necessarily call like Fallout horror, but post-apocalyptic can be horror or you could uh skew it that way. So, Maximum Apocalypse was was on the short list um for this one. And then hell, I even thought about Oathsworn for the same reason, but that and even Tainted Grail, but both of those games kind of leaned a little bit more into dark fantasy.

14:33 Um not so much horror. And I think KDM to uh goes over that with its actual with the lore of its beasts and the actual setting that the game is set in. So, uh yeah, it is not a cheap game by any means. If you're looking to pick this one up, then you look to spend a pretty penny. It ends up being a lifestyle game. But honestly, you know, I've done a complete 180 on this game. I used to absolutely hate it, but then the Gambler's Chest came out and it's basically been completely fixed, in my opinion. So, uh yeah, I mean, this would definitely be one to jump into and make make a huge investment on.

15:20 But you probably I'd say you get your money's worth. So, that is my number nine. My number eight, I honestly expected to be higher just because I do really like this game, even though I rarely get it to the table. But, I think the other games just drip a little bit more with horror. And so, this one is Arkham, funny enough, Arkham Horror the card game. Uh they've just done a complete revision of this one. Uh let's see, the card game. Let's see, is it going to just pull Yeah, revise Well, revised core set. Here we go. The 2026 one.

16:05 So, I mean, obviously, Lovecraft is going to be represented. Um yeah, you know, surprisingly, not that many times actually in this to in this top 10. Uh it could have been but like I said, I didn't want to just do That's a badass Those are badass playmats. Funny enough, I know this is Arkham Horror, but I did consider the Attack on Titan deck-building game uh just because Attack on Titan would be a horrific world to live in. I but it it's not on this list. Uh the gameplay by itself has has not horrific in any way, uh but it's a 10 out of 10 anime and highly recommended. And the the deck-building game is really good, too.

16:52 But, the I mean, Lovecraft, at least at least the stories are absolutely phenomenal. I love the kind of that fear of the unknown that a lot of his his uh lore kind of drips with. And the card game encapsulates Lovecraft and and his works really in a fantastic way. Um there's so much content for this game. And the way that they've managed to keep it, you know, fresh and not samey, you know, this long. I mean, I I think this is a What is this? A 10 Yeah, I think this is a 10-year-old game at this point.

17:37 Um I want to say it came originally came out in 2016. The card game. Yeah, 2016. So, this is a 10-year-old game, and there have been tons of uh scenario packs and expansions for it that cover a wide range of of the the lore, while also making it extremely versatile. Because what's cool about this one is Well, this is just showing up the uh Oh, yeah, here we go. So, I mean, this might be spoilers. I mean, I can't read any of this, but the really cool thing about this is whenever you're picking a campaign to play, whether it's the new the brand new content, uh or the old stuff, what I always loved about this was the fact that every scenario was uh had multiple different paths and different like win-loss conditions, or uh hey, if you did this, then you get this ending, but then if you did this, you still won, but it's going to be a little bit different. And those decisions carry over from scenario to scenario. Not expansion to expansion.

18:43 Don't do what I did and try and carry over investigators from one full scenario to to the other cuz they're going to be way too [ __ ] up. Um but yeah, like the game again just oozes horror with the way that the monsters are chasing after you. Uh the uh like the cards that you are visiting do a really good job of just having flavor text, and the art is really is done really well. So, you are able to with just a simple card game, you know, simple card game, you're able to really get into the theme of it, especially with the way that your scenarios or scenarios, your investigators are being developed because of various cards that you're going to add to your deck, who you were, you could be a police officer, you could be a chef, you could be a whatever, you know, the well-known staples of Lovecraft, especially Lovecraft board games.

19:44 You're able to mold them to match what the scenario might be asking for as you're gaining experience points to level up and put new cards in. But, that's also not, you know, you're also getting cards from the the actual game that you're playing, you know, they might be followers, they might be a weapon you were able to acquire, an item that'll carry you over. And that is such a really cool element of this one. So, every time that you're playing this, it just, of course, I don't know, it like Lovecraft for me is always difficult because whenever you're trying to describe the indescribable, it's very interesting the take that certain like artists will make, especially whenever it's coming to, you know, games like this.

20:32 Um and like not every, I mean, it just really covers like a wide range. I mean, there's some where you are being ripped into a like you're going into the the Paris catacombs to deal with a situation. There's some where you're just at a university dealing [snorts] with a cult trying to bring back a fire monster. There's some where, you know, you're on a train being sucked into a portal. You know, there's just so many different scenarios that you are in that I think that it just does a fantastic job of encapsulating the horror feel. Um more so than a lot of them. Like [clears throat] I Eldritch Horror might have been on my list last time. It is not on the list here.

21:26 I and that's mainly because while I think I think Eldritch Horror and Arkham Horror are like the best examples of Lovecraft uh board games um at their core. But I think with the storytelling that the Arkham Horror games have because of the the scenario books and stuff uh it just has a little bit more gripping which is why I chose to put Arkham Horror in this than Eldritch Horror. So, that is my number eight. Arkham Horror: The Card Game. And if you're watching this for the first time and you're like man, yeah, that does sound like a lot of fun. I would jump in on it now because or you can search for the old stuff and probably spend a good amount of money, but as of right now they have restarted this and you should probably just hop in uh so cuz I don't know how long they're going to keep this one going for.

22:27 All right, my number seven is another Lovecraft themed game, but weirdly enough it does it in a very unique way and this is Cthulhu: Death May Die which is actually you can't see it uh which is actually a game that I I literally just played at the time of this recording yesterday. And cuz I was showing uh my girlfriend this. We were playing cuz we've been doing obviously it's October so we've been doing a bunch of spooky stuff uh with, you know, movies or video games or board games. And this was one that I had not gotten to the table in a very long time. It's been high in my top 100. This game, as I had remembered, was fantastic.

23:22 And but I just hadn't touched it in so long. I keep buying the [ __ ] expansions and then I'm like, cool. And then I pay for you know, the files for a storage solution and all that. And then I'm like, all right, that's all organized. It's all It's all nice and tidy and go on the shelf and collect dust. But I was like, okay. I'm going to cuz some of these [ __ ] storage solutions. I'll talk about this cuz I'm going to re-review Cthulhu: Death May Die cuz it's been a while since I've talked about it. But sometimes the storage, the 3D solutions that some companies make, it's like, yeah, you did condense it, but it's all over the place and it's like instead of 20 boxes where I know where expansions are, it's now four boxes, but it's mixed up. I but I was like, you know what? It's been forever.

24:14 I want to show this game. So I finally got it to the table and it's so good. We just did the first scenario. Um But man, again, the way I was talking about how Arkham Horror: The Card Game does it, this game um does it just as well. I obviously it's it's scenario It's not scenario based. It's I guess it's episode based, which is kind of the same, but where Arkham Horror: The Card Game is a campaign, albeit it's a small campaign. Um or a shorter campaign. This is not that. You pick a You pick an episode, depending on which season you have. There are four out right now, including the Lost Episodes you can get, and then there's more coming. Um But then you pick an ancient one, and this is one of the coolest aspects of this game is the fact that you can pick the same scenario and just choose a different god, or you sorry, you can pick an episode episode one which is all about just destroying some labs.

25:15 Uh and then pick a different god for that scenario and it's going to change up the way it's played. The different the way that the different creatures are because the monsters have their own different creatures. Uh the scenarios will have their own, you know, unique actions that you can do and your overall goal Well, sorry, your overall goal is to kill uh the god, but you have to disrupt the ritual so he gets summoned so you so you can then kill him. But I think this one, the reason why it's slightly above Arkham Horror is I think it's more of a tactile feel. More so than what a card game can provide because yes, in Arkham Horror the card game, there are monster cards and they will move to locations so there are locations that you will physically move to.

26:09 The fact that this game has miniatures, and this could just be my personal preference. Um these both these games are absolutely fantastic. Um but the fact that this game has miniatures and uh uh tiles that you are moving around and you can actually have spaces that you can move from one section to the next and then you have range if you have mar you know, skills to shoot just allows for me to get more into the the head space of the characters I'm playing um and the situation that they might find themselves in I think and then the fact that this game kind of focuses a lot more on the insanity portion which is a huge thing in all of Lovecraft games is you have to manage both health and sanity. Hell, even Deep Madness I talked about manages health and sanity, albeit it does it a little bit differently.

27:04 Um this one goes a little bit further in that every time that you roll these dice and you roll a technical, your your sanity meter goes down, but that kind of makes you stronger, but at the same time everyone has a disorder that they have that will pop off. You might be a kleptomaniac, you might have codependency, you might have OCD, and that will change uh the way that you'll handle certain situations. So, like for example, um OCD, I think it's OCD, has a really good one where over the course of the game you are going to be finding items and companions and stuff. And most of the cards will have a left and right side for you to pick. But, uh with OCD, if you don't have a equal uh selection of the left and right on your character, like in whenever that pops off, you have to discard until you do. So, you might have to just get rid of stuff that you [snorts] think is incredibly valuable, or you might have to pick stuff just so you don't lose something else.

28:12 There's tons tons tons of different characters in this one that are just absolutely fantastic. Um that I mean, the characters that we played with yesterday, I don't think I've ever played with before. I know Agent Friday I've never touched, and then she played oh, she played the gypsy, but just the way that the game went, it it worked out extremely well for us. Uh but yeah, I I just really love how this game again caps captures the Lovecraft element but also isn't just this as this isn't like Eldertor but oh you're not on the world map it's tiles, you know.

28:59 All the different characters that they have, the way that the episodes and gods are mixed up together. It it really is awesome and it's a shame I don't get it to the table more but I was happy that I did and surprisingly whenever I finally was playing the game after opening the insert it really wasn't that bad to um to gather all the stuff. A lot better than baggies for sure. So that is my number seven Cthulhu Death May Die. My number six is new to this list definitely for sure because it just came out um and this one was an absolute shock for me on a how much I liked it and that is Grim Covenant.

29:48 So Grim Covenant I had to burp sorry. Is a lot more for the horror element. To me this feels more like um like Bloodborne it it kind of which again is kind of very Lovecraft adjacent uh which God Bloodborne is so good. And Bloodborne the board game is not on here because I actually I I could have put it on here if I was actually following my own rules but the game isn't actually that good. So I think it does a bad job of capturing the Bloodborne feel which is unfortunate. Just go play the video game. There's actually a PC port. I think it's a seamless PC port that you just get now. Uh so do that. If you have a computer just just play it just play Bloodborne.

30:40 Anyway, this board game kind of has that same vibe. This very dark Victorian Gothic era. Um almost kind of steampunk-y, depending on some of the characters. I mean, there's like a clockwork giant and stuff. Um But the overall vibe that I think this game gives is, of course, that it's a boss battler and you are picking one of various horrifying bosses, an undead general, a chimera, um a oh, like there's like a convergence, which is like this amalgamation of this kind of like ghost or not ghost, a skull creature. Um [snorts] there's a graveyard dragon.

31:27 All these different types of creatures that you're going to be going off and facing facing off, while also having to battle a bunch of different minions um and these elites that are running around. So the the natural vibe that I think this game game gives with cuz it's not just that, it's not just the fact that you're going in and you're rolling you're not even really you're rolling dice, but that's to do your actions. You're not just trying to whittle down the boss and kill him. Um there are all these different terrain types that are on here that you can go to and there it actually drips a little bit of of lore with the world, which is obviously incredibly terrible.

32:17 Now, I don't think anyone would willingly live in a world like this. But yeah, I just love the aesthetic of this game. It is right up my alley with it and I love whenever you do get those drips, which is not all the time, which I I actually kind of appreciate. I like the fact that you aren't [snorts] going into it it's not a campaign. It's not picking and you're not sitting there and reading a bunch of stuff and then going to fight the boss. It's you set up and then you're in and you're out and that is just for me what I've kind of started to prefer with a lot of boss battlers is just hey, let's pick a boss, let's fight it and let's experiment. Funny enough, I just on that note I just bought Primal again just to not have to [ __ ] with the campaign and see if I see if I like it by just doing the scenarios and Grim Covenant is absolutely that. Um and if you want a little bit more lore into the characters, I think there's either an expansion or something that uh the personal stories that while the writing isn't awesome, um it's good. Like it's good enough.

33:30 So, yeah, and these characters are absolutely badass with the and they all play so radically different from from each other. Like whenever I'm talking about asymmetry between characters, they are truly truly like one of a kind from one another and it's amazing. Cuz not only do they have different types of armor and different types of weapons, there is a massive evolution deck that you will be um drawing from that will just build out your character differently every single time. So, like the gunslinger for example, has these bullets that he can forge and prepare and whenever he makes an attack, he can actually spend all the bullets to make it this really powerful shot. Oh, it bypasses armor, it can hit multiple enemies, it does extra damage, stuff like that and he's actually my favorite character to play.

34:27 And then there's another character that builds up this kind of this cursed weapon over the course and that allows him to either do actions for free or enhance actions. It is it's just so cool and I love the way that the boss works in this one. Um again, the bosses feeling completely different from one another but the fact that you can see, this is something I've I've really started to enjoy with a lot of these kinds of games is you getting to see what the boss gets to do. And you know, knowing what its health is, knowing whether or not you're able to cancel out like in this one. This game has like this focused keyword where it's going to do that but if you can't do in this case, let's just say seven damage. If you [snorts] can't do seven damage to destroy this card, you need to do at least the number of damage equal to the number of players to remove the focused. So and you can see that it's like, okay, do we want to try and get like are we able to do seven damage or can we do at least four between us, whatever it might be and to not have the focused happen.

35:45 So, that's just a really cool element and then but sometimes cuz there's an opportunity where there should be an opportunity underneath here uh that once you do remove the card, you get to see the opportunity and that may be really good for you because sometimes it might not have you move this card over but most of the time it will. So then okay, he's like, oh good, we dealt with the curse shot and now he's doing his throwing spear which is actually way worse for us. So, can we try and remove both? I just absolutely love this game and like I said with the way that it basically just has the vibe of Bloodborne. Bloodborne's my number two game of all time. Right under Expedition 33.

36:31 And I actually just replayed Bloodborne on the PC um a few months ago and uh it's so good. It's so good. But yeah, that is my number six. My number five. I thought, you know, surprisingly, I think originally, if I was to take this game and think horror, I'm like, okay, yeah, this should be it should be around number one. But I'm looking at the games above it and I actually think five is a really good spot for it, especially after the um most recent games of this uh I had had played. I'm like, okay, I'm I'm definitely glad it's on here. And that is Terrascape.

37:20 Uh Terrascape one, I don't have Terrascape two yet. Um this game is an asymmetric game. Uh not asymmetric, sorry. It's a one versus many game where the one is actually the one that is visible. And uh the many are the ones that are hidden. So it takes that uh hidden movement element game and completely flips it around, which is incredibly unique. But the overall theme of this is various people uh are trying to escape a storm, I think. And they run into someone's house and get locked inside with a murderer. So there you go. That's it. And they're trying to run around and find these keys or fix the radio to call the police and then escape without one of them dying.

38:10 Now, that in and of itself just kind of lands it on this list because I mean, just even from looking at this game. You have this massive spooky mansion. This is I think from the Yeah, this is from the This is actually from the killer's point of view. Um No, it's not. It's right the other side. It's from the uh the survivor's point of view cuz they're going to be drawing these cards. I don't know what I was thinking. Um but what's cool is this side looks all nice and fresh and then you flip over you look over on the other side on the killer's side and the board the windows are all boarded up. There's like cobwebs everywhere. I think the lights are off. Um so they really just kind of nail the theme here. And [snorts] the actual gameplay of this one allows you to also get into the headspace. Like there was a moment whenever [snorts] I was playing the killer last time and I had this uh bard uh you know, barricaded.

39:18 And then I knew someone was in this room and so I I was only able to move into the kitchen. And I think they made noise in in here. And yet and you know, I had a decision to make. It was either I think I searched in like B3. I was able to move and search and didn't see anyone. And then something happened where it's like, "Okay, they got to go." And then it was my turn and I knew they made noise here, but then it's like, "Well, they could have stayed in there." And or they could have moved. And I elected to move into the storage room and search and he wasn't in there. He was in my spot. So that kind of stuff happens all the time in these kinds of games, but if you're thinking of it thematically, it's you know, this character is running this way, sees that the door is barred and he says like, "Oh shit." And then you know, he's like hiding behind, you know, this barrel or something and then the you know, this big hulking guy with a chainsaw is like looking around, doesn't quite see him.

40:18 Or he sees him hulking in the kitchen, and then he kind of like sneaks around. This is how like a video game would feel uh with a lot of these. And then he you're sneaking around this way, and then he's going around, and then you toss a bottle into here or a brick uh to make noise, and he's like "Uh!" And then he like runs in there, and he's looking, and then you're he's able to make his escape. This game oozes with that that type of theme. The reason why this unfortunately, I know I said, I mean, horror Uh the game is horrific, but at the same time um I do think the game ends up being kind of pretty unbalanced between the way that the killers are and the way that the survivors' abilities are. Um so your experience with this one, this is actually why it's perfect for being in the five, is going to be I I think hit or miss.

41:15 Most of the games of this that I've actually played uh have been hits. Uh it has been a lot of fun, but then I've had some really low lows. In my latest review of this one, I talked about a scenario where it, for all intents and purposes, it's like, "Okay, we've evaded the killer the entire time." Um you know, for an hour and a half, uh but just weren't getting the right draws. All the keys were at the bottom of these decks, so we weren't finding them. And then as we finally got there, it came down to a roll of the dice, um and one person ended up dying. Now, fun fact, one thing that we ended up finding out months later was that whenever in that scenario, whenever we uh actually died, the we what happened was we had two people who were in the same room getting to an encounter. The first person rolled enough to survive. What we didn't do or didn't know was that if someone survives an encounter that ends the encounter.

42:23 What we did was, oh good, you survived. Now we'll move on to the next one. And it was whenever I rolled and got blanks and that person died. Um and so we it was like, okay, well we lost. That's very frustrating. But then we found out, oh wait, no, if one person in an encounter survives it ends the encounter. And I think at point we would have been able to escape. All that to be said, my frustration with the game, it still was eye-opening with there are some characters who just have broken abilities and some killers that just aren't that good. But then some killers that are just overpowered. Uh yeah, so the game is is a lot of fun and you do have to go into it just kind of with that example that I was talking about here.

43:15 With the storage and you know, sneaking around and he's looking for you. You have to have that kind of mindset in this one. Don't go in into this one thinking it's going to be this highly strategic hidden movement one verse many kind of game. Um it does have those elements but there's just so many random factors in it that you just kind of have to almost treat this as a bare and pretzels survival element with a bunch of people, you know, Scooby-Doo gang being locked into a mansion with a crazy maniac. But the game has tons of different ways for you to get into that headspace. So, Terror Escape, a lot of fun, really unique twist on the hidden movement element and Terror Escape 2 should actually be right around the corner.

44:04 That does actually add a really cool element. I know this one I actually read the rules um off their Kickstarter where the survivors can do actions to study the killer and learn like weaknesses and they can get like buffs or uh modifications to an attack roll and they can actually try to uh Is 3D printed. Huh. I wonder if that's a file. I can actually print. Anyway, and they can actually try to kill the killer. That's a new way that they can win, but it's an all or nothing. If they do not get it, then they will lose. I think that could be a lot of fun. Um and it's all interchangeable between Terrorscape 1 and Terrorscape 2. So, that just adds for a lot of different combinations because what's cool about Terrorscape is is kind of one of the best pictures I'm going to get is these maps. This is the basic map. And this is what I show anyone I'm showing this game to. Here's the basic map. Here's the basic killer, which is going to be um Chainsaw Man. I don't I actually don't think I don't know I can't think of what his name is. The Butcher. Isn't it the Butcher?

45:20 Anyway, uh he's the one that they recommend you start with, but with all the expansions that Terrorscape 1 and Terrorscape 2 has, the maps change and they all have different rules and stuff. So, this also adds to an element of uh board games that I really like is variability. The fact that you can take the same killer and put them on a completely different map. You can put them in the laboratory. You can put them in the caverns. You can put them in the whatever other map you feel is is appropriate or fun or thematic and you know, the way he's going to react and the way he you know, this killer works will change you know, the way uh based off the map that he's on. Um and your combination of survivors is going to change based off the map that they're on and what those map rules are cuz this this map had like no rules to it at all.

46:09 It has, okay, you can use these stairwells if you have a secret passage to go back and forth, um, and that's that's it. That's pretty much it, but yeah, so it's it's just a really really cool game. I would just highly implore you to, um, definitely go in with a more bare-bones mindset. Number four. Might have been higher last time. It's It's been a little bit since I've played this one. Luckily, I've played it enough back in the day to, really really remember. You actually might not have been that long since I've played it. Unfortunately, I've not played the sequels after that, but that is Nemesis. So, from 1998. No, this I mean, again, as what everyone always says whenever they talk about this game, it's Aliens: The Board Game, uh, but they It's It's legally distinct Aliens: The Board Game.

47:14 Uh, like literally this is 100% It It's like a combination of a Xenomorph and a Predator with the way that their mouth opens like that. Or the dogs from Blade Trinity. But they just absolutely nailed the vibe of of this game. So, it is a lot like like I said, this is Sorry, not Aliens: The Board Game. I'm mistaken. Alien: The Board Game. It is a lot more going throughout the ship, checking on the engines, and seeing if they're if they're functioning, checking on the destination, trying to make as little noise as possible, and then [snorts] whenever you inevitably do make noise, these intruders, or you can have the carnomorphs, or you can have the void seekers, or whatever alien you choose to pick, when they pop up, all hell breaks loose, and you're either trying to do trying your best to survive, or have someone else die. Because what Nemesis ends up being, which is again indicative of the movie, it is a semi-cooperative game.

48:29 And what I love about that is most of the time semi-cooperative games, I think, never work. Uh they're either it it it it's either okay, there's no real reason for us to actually work together, or people are just kind of like forcing that cooperative nature, but at the end of the day, typically the semi-cooperative games usually just still have one winner. So, it's either make it make it cooperative or make it competitive. The way this [clears throat] game does it is one of my favorite to have seen done. And you're given at the start of the game, you're given two objectives. You're given a corporate objective, which is the be a piece of [ __ ] and [ __ ] over everyone objective,

49:11 [snorts]

49:11 or a personal objective, which is work with everyone to try and win. And you see those at the beginning of the game, and you don't have to pick one of those until the first alien shows up. And the reason why I like that is because the game you'll be you might play a decent amount into the game. You might have discovered a good few rooms. You might have seen what destination you're going to. You might you know, you might have just been working, you know, really well together, and then someone goes off to do their own thing. And that causes an alien to show up. And what what would you look at that? It's the queen. I don't think the queen can actually pop up immediately. It's going to be an adult alien. Then, you look at your objective and you see, "Oh, I actually I need player two to die."

50:07 Well, would you look at that? Player two is the one who spawned that alien. All right. Well, I guess I'll pick the And everyone has to do this. Everyone has to pick one of their objectives. And And but what's amazing still is you cannot directly affect other players. It's not, "Oh, I need player two to die. I'm going to go into the room and just use my assault rifle and just kill them." You can't do You can't do anything like that. So, it's very passive-aggressive in how you're doing it. So, for example, you need actions to use action cards to open doors, and you need specific, you know. So, it could just be, "Well, okay. I could run into that that room and or run into the room next to it and I'll shut the door in between uh the pathway between my room and their room. So, so they are kind of trapped.

51:02 I can toss a Molotov cocktail into the room that will damage them, but it's also trying to damage the intruder. And you can play this all off as if, you know, "Dude, I'm just trying to kill the alien. I can heal you. Uh whatever it might be." You might play the medic, and you might heal them just a little bit, or you might just be like, "I don't have the cards to do it right now." So, it does that semi-cooperative nature just extremely well, which again fits the movie. Spoilers uh for the What was it? 1978 movie. I always forget when the first Alien came out. Uh Alien 1979. So, spoilers for the 1979 movie, uh the androids are always just kind of [ __ ] up in some way. That is a running thing in actually Bishop in Alien 2 was not. He was He was a good guy. But, yeah. I just I mean it is horrific whenever you're thinking about it, you know, with the the theming of it of just this very limited space where unlike a lot of the other horror games, I mean Terraforming captures us too where you know you're locked into a house. But, unlike you know, games like Cthulhu: Death May Die or Arkham Horror stuff like that where it's thinking like, "You know, we're in an open field. I could probably just run away."

52:25 Um, you're on a spaceship in Nemesis and you know you well, there's not a whole lot of places I can get to and these things are running around in the air ducts where we can't get to. Nor even if we could would we use them. is absolutely horrifying. Uh, but again it adds that extra element of not only are we scared of these unknown creatures that are attacking us, we now have to be scared of our fellow players like our fellow humans who are around us. Um, I absolutely love it. Now, again I mentioned the expansions. Well, so this is the first one. Now, there was Nemesis: Lockdown which was the one that they made after this one. So, 4 years later. I have never played this one.

53:16 They say it's an expansion. Uh, I It looked to be the same game. And people you can let me know in the comments if Nemesis: Lockdown is pretty much the same game. They call it a stand-alone expansion. So, I'm guessing that Lockdown and Nemesis can be can be mixed together. Um, but I I don't know. I I didn't end up touching it. But, then they had Nemesis retaliation. And this one, from what I had heard, is is this one's more aliens. Where if you know the movies, Alien 1 very slow, very methodical, more horror-centric, and only deals with the one alien.

54:03 Aliens is a lot more squad you know, gunner squad going in, you know, tons of aliens coming at you. They're just mowing them down as they're getting overwhelmed and stuff like that. That's what I've heard retaliation is like. And I think that would be just an absolute blast as well. And this one, as you can see, is more tile-based with the way that the rooms are. I I I really want to give this one give this one a shot. And this one actually can be played fully cooperative, from my understanding. But, now there's also Nemesis Legacy, which I am of course backing.

54:44 [snorts]

54:44 And we we'll see. I mean, this seems like it could be an amazing amazing experience, but only time will tell. So, that is my number four, Nemesis. My number three was my number one four years ago. Um and I don't know if people thought I was being like I don't think I didn't get any comments on on if people actually thought I was just being like you know, cheeky with the horror theme. Um but, this time I decided to cuz I could have put it at number one, and I do I do still believe it is justifiably number one. But, I wanted to kind of lean a little bit more into the campy horror this time around. But, I wanted to still give this game its due, and that is This War of Mine.

55:41 So, I mean, the real question, or not even, the real statement comes down to what is more horrific than than actual war. And I'm not And I'm not going to go on a on a huge, uh, you know, spiel about it because if you know, you know, and if you're not a heartless piece of [ __ ] then you definitely should understand why this game is on this list. But, the way that this game actually captures, uh, the feeling of being a civilian in a a war [ __ ] A in a war-torn, uh, city is is truly outstanding. And I know the second edition is actually gearing up to be delivered very very soon. Um, there's a reason why I think all of the games that are on this list besides this one, there's a reason, you know, people will play. You know, they're not going to look at I mean, maybe it might not be their cup of tea as a game, but they wouldn't side-eye the theme and be like, "I don't know how you can have fun with that. How can you have fun with, you know, Terror Scape?" You know, stuff like that. It's just It's a It's a slasher trying to kill a bunch of kids.

56:51 No one's making that serious argument. I mean, there probably is someone. But, This War of Mine does have that statement. The way that the story the storytelling is written and how the characters look and react to people getting sick or people dying, and they have different types of conditions, like you can see down here at the bottom, um, where if it's in English, I can tell you, where they could be tired, they could be miserable, they could be hungry, they could be wounded, and they're going to be these the entire game. You'll be lucky if it's like, "Oh, man, okay, he's only a little bit hungry. Like, he's only a little bit sad." Um I know people have talked about this game and has have made the comment, "How can you have fun with this kind of game?"

57:40 And I still stand by that you need to separate reality from um from fiction or reality from a game because it is a game uh at the end of the day. But I think what this game captures so well is it brings more light to these kinds of situations. It brings more awareness to it uh without it being insulting. So, there's nothing in this game that is more campy. It's not like I mean there's there's characters. I mean you get very real reactions as a player from this one be with this [ __ ] right here. Uh cuz he provides these are all different conditions that they can have and sometimes they're helpful.

58:28 Um but there are some characters like this guy's a professor of mathematics. None of these are good. They are always if he doesn't have a book, then he's sad. If he doesn't have if he's a little bit hungry, he gets you know, he gets sick. So, there are some characters he has high empathy. So, if someone is to die, he's going to be even more affected. He has no I can't remember what that one is a prowess. I can't remember what that what that number is, but so you don't ever send him on No, cuz there's inventory. This is how much you can carry.

59:02 [clears throat]

59:03 I can't remember what the the red was. But the zero is not good. So, he kind of contributes nothing to to the group. And so you get these very real reactions when something goes bad. It's like look, I need you to pull it together so we can [ __ ] survive. Um I need you go and like clean out the rubble. Just do something. But then it kind of has these elements of Okay, we have so we have so much water or we have a lot of water. But I don't want to give this person any, you know, um which is which is horrific. Uh and you know, this this little house survival, this is a game kind of in and of itself, but you know, there are moments where you have to pick people to send them out to go to these locations down here.

1:00:02 Um because you're running out. You're using wood to make uh you know, you're to make a bed so people aren't sleeping on the [ __ ] ground. You're using, you know, books that you found, you know, Anton's precious books to light a you keep the fire going cuz it's this is during winter. Um so you have to send people out to these uh locations. And they're going to come across some horrifying stuff that you would find. I mean, one that I specifically remember And mind you, it's actually been a bit since I've played this. I've been I've done I think I've done the small series on the channel. Um but I've been I want to redo it since it's been so long. But I've been specifically waiting for the second edition stuff to come in. But I specifically remember there being a story uh that you can come across where I think you're like looking through uh the hole in like a wall and it's I I'm I could be slightly wrong, but I remember it was like a mother bringing her her daughter in to get an abortion.

1:01:12 Um like this back alley, you know, sketchy abortion because they didn't want to have kind of I think I really want to say it was like a it was yeah, like a teenage it was alluded that it was a younger like a teenager getting this procedure done cuz they didn't want to a have a teenage pregnancy and B didn't want to raise a child in a situation like this. So, it's very it's done so so well in my opinion. I will still maintain that you can have fun and you can enjoy this game. You can you know, and you can you can laugh and make joke at least this is how I play but you can still laugh and make jokes. It's all very tongue-in-cheek whenever it's the context of center of the round this game.

1:02:03 But, yeah, it's I I think this is a situation that is incredibly horrific one that again is very real today in 2026 unfortunately.

1:02:14 [snorts]

1:02:14 Um so, I could argue this is kind of a honorable mention as a number one because of the real life elements that this game brings. But, again, I didn't want to go on my soapbox like I just did a little bit but I wanted to lean more into the fun campy horror side of this horror list. So, moving on to not as much of a serious game to my number two which is similar to Terror Escape except you going to play by yourself and now this final girl. Um if there is one company that understood the assignment it is Van Ryder Games with Final Girl.

1:03:01 Uh and they have done tons of content for this one. They have uh they have four full series on this one uh that span a wide variety of of different themes. This is a perfect picture, especially cuz I can zoom in. Again, kind of like Subterra. Not the I mean, this one looks a lot better. But, if you were to look at this one and then look at Deep Madness or Cthulhu: Death May Die, it's like, man, this one doesn't quite It doesn't look as horrifying. Uh but, man, they Like, this is Slasher: The Board Game. Because I mean, this one is literally Freddy Krueger. Uh you know, Nightmare on Elm Street. So, if you are a huge slasher fan, they uh they they cover that in spades. But, then they also cover tons of other elements.

1:04:00 There's a Stranger Things uh box that you can get. There's a Scream box that you can get. There's an Alien box that you can get. There's a uh uh Predator box that you can get. There is a The Thing, The Stranger. So, they really cover all aspects of horror with this one. Um but, just cover the element of a lot of slashers where you have these yellow meeples that are they're they're innocent bystanders uh that you are trying to survive and you're wanting to um you know, get rescue a bunch of them. Cuz typically, the more that die, the stronger the the killer gets. But, then the more you rescue, the more likely you are Oh, I can't go down that far. Every final girl has like um perks that they can get for rescuing uh bystanders. And the if they rescue a certain number, they get to flip to their ultimate ability, which is really neat.

1:04:59 But, I mean, so not only is there I mean, you could literally just get one season. Or you can mix and match, cuz you don't have to buy the big collector's box. You could just It's like, oh, I don't like Nightmare on Elm but I love The Strangers and I love Children of the Corn and I love Predators. Okay, just buy those three. And what's really freaking cool about this game is the fact that uh you can cuz the game is broken up into a location, so Maple Lane and Doctor Fright. And these will come together. But what's so cool and a genius part on this game is that you can mix and match, kind of like what I was talking about with Terrorscape and the fact that you can pick a killer and a a location.

1:05:49 And you can mix those around. It's the It's that, but on a smaller scale. So, you can take Doctor Fright and his whole dream I can't go that far. He has this whole dream mechanism. Um you could take that whole system and put him on the the alien board. You can put him in The Strangers' cabin, stuff like that. And it there's so much And And that would be enough, honestly, uh to get a completely different experience, but the fact is is there's tons of items as well that are thematic to the location. And I mean, this is not an item-heavy game. So, you're not going to be running around with a [ __ ] ton of items. At least I never am. I'm like, oh, found a pitchfork. Okay, let's go kill God. Or let's go kill this dream creature. Um I'm ready. I got my energy drink and my Bible. That should be enough. Uh but they So, I mean, there's going to be tons of different items you can get. There's different setups. So, where you start and where the killer starts and where these yellow maples start. And the [snorts] really cool part is there's also this massive event deck that rarely shows up but it's always cool there's a ton of events that can pop off.

1:07:14 And then each location and each each killer has terror cards and you shuffle all of them together and you pick 10 and there's a stack of ones you haven't used. So you could pick you know cherry pick not cherry pick you could all a cart this game to your personal horror taste. And you are set. I think there's they they have a graph cuz if you have everything for it it's what is it 5 * 5 * 5 * 5 is that how all that works the different combinations that you that you can get 5 * 5 * maybe maybe I think I got 625 when I did that.

1:08:04 I think that's correct it's an astronomical number different combinations that you can get. And they just completely nail it and they also have these gruesome death books that you can choose to read the writing to be fair is not that great but yeah this game is extremely campy. So that's it saying the writing isn't great is like also saying that the Friday the 13th movies aren't also that great. Wow it's not immaculate storytelling no it was never really meant to be but it's serviceable and it's fun and those gruesome death books are just how these people die and you can look at and be like okay who killed him and where did they do it or what card caused it and they covered a decent amount it's really neat.

1:08:52 But then they do another really cool thing that I absolutely love where if you're if you're caught in between two situations and you're in based off the rules, it's not giving you an answer, uh they have basically three ways you can choose on how it should go. One, you can choose the most horrific. You can do what is the most what is the worst uh for you or what is the most funny. Uh and I always go the most funny. I go into these games never really in a horrifying situation. That could be a little bit with a fact that again with meeples and stuff, it's a little harder for me to get into the theme, uh even though I'm still able to.

1:09:38 I've actually played this game. It's solo only, but I have played this game with I had my girlfriend play it. And I kind of D uh DM'd it. So, uh you know, trying to you know, amp up what was happening, what the killer was doing, you know, uh what these people might have been doing in their house whenever he ran in or you know, trying just made it a little bit more uh narrative, but there's no reason why you couldn't just sit down and play this game with another person um and just make decisions together. So, it could just be a two-player game. It's just that you're it you're controlling one person. So, yeah, I think Final Girl is is was easily going to be, at least in the top three.

1:10:27 And I know they said that they're done. They said they're done with this or they they alluded with, "Okay, this is series four is like the it's the last of this kind." Or they something on along those terms. So, I I don't know. I They have done a very nice job of having um two big box sets. I don't even know if you can see them. You can kind of. Let's see. Where is it? Yep. So like right there, those are all the right there. Those are all the uh box sets. So they've done a really good job. You can fit two of these onto a Kallax shelf, but I'm very curious what they meant by that.

1:11:14 If they plan on doing something on a grander scale or if they're just like, "All right, we're doing more." I don't know. I don't know, but there's a [ __ ] ton of content and if they quit making final girl stuff, you're set. And what is my number one? It's a game I just recently played. And by recently, [snorts] I I again mean like a few days ago. And to me, it does the horror genre uh in the best way imaginable. And funny enough, it's the same company that did my honorable mention, and that is Dawn of Madness. I [ __ ] love this game.

1:12:04 The company might not be uh everyone's favorite right now with this one. I I think people are getting their stuff. I actually I got the massive I'm going to do a review over the storage solution for this one. Um but these massive massive storage boxes, I got those in. But then [snorts] I never got my expansion content, and I emailed them and uh they were like, "Hey, we sent those out in May, um but if you never got them, we just have to report it as lost." And what from what they said, they sent me a backer kit and with the order, they're like, "We just have to reorder them." Um and and we'll just So hopefully it they they come soon.

1:12:54 But, yeah, as of right now, I don't have all my expansion content. I still have the content that I did when I covered this game when it came out. But, uh that's still more than enough content just because this these games are so long. Uh and you know, they can have tons of different endings. Um cuz every uh wanderer that you pick has three to four endings. And when I say this game is long, I mean this game was on my table for like 4 days. Uh may might have even been longer. And I do have a save system. They have a save system box, but I was like, "Ah, no, we'll just play it every, you know, after work or every day until we finish it." Um it's a long one, but man, god is it just dripping dripping in theme. This game is soaked. This game squirts theme like no other. And what's fantastic about this cuz I I mean, I love this game whenever I first played it.

1:14:03 So, we did we did the detective one. And what's funny is I have just recently finished Silent Hill: Townfall, which was phenomenal. Absolutely loved it. Um and when playing through the detective story, I was like, "Man, this board game feels so much like Silent Hill." Especially cuz I played Silent Hill 2, the remake. I played Silent Hill F. And then I played Silent Hill: Townfall. And this game feels more like Silent Hill than really anything else. I guess you could put Evil Within also within that. Uh but, I don't like Evil Within. Um so, yeah, it definitely just gives off way more Silent Hill vibes. And this is it almost comes off more as this is a book with a little bit Do you want some Do you want some board game with your book? Is kind of what it goes for. And what's even better is that there is now audio narration, which saves my voice saves my throat a lot of the trouble because like I said, with the amount of reading that you were doing and it is these audio segments are three you know, two to three to four minute long. There's some every now and then that are five minutes of you listening to someone read.

1:15:28 So, imagine and you're doing that a lot. If you are going to a location um and doing investigation action, you're you're reading. If you're going to one of these cards to do an an encounter action, you're reading. Um and that's mainly the whole point of the game is that there are these uh well, these people actually put dice, which isn't um that terrible of an idea. Uh but your overall goal in this game is you have to kill an abomination. So, again, if you've played Silent Hill, um there's usually a big creature that is just kind of hounding you for majority of the game. In Silent Hill 2, it's Pyramid Head and it's not until and not well, I don't want to spoil that for anyone, but um but yeah, you have to kill the abomination, which is not easy to do.

1:16:19 Uh and you have to gather in a normal game 40 total points between these four endings. And to get those points, you have to have encounters at locations. You have to have encounters at these uh at these cards. And a lot of them early on will give you one, two. And so, eventually uh you know, you have to get 40 points, kill the abomination before the end of 10 rounds, typically. Uh, the priest, Linus, I think, his a little bit different. I think he only has seven rounds. Anyway, you can make a short game, which is where you only need 30, or you can make a long game, where you need 50. Um, I don't know what they mean by long game. Does that mean you just never aren't playing this game? Cuz we played a short game, and that felt that that was hours.

1:17:10 Um, but man, so the so the narrative is done so so well. Uh, even with Claude, cuz his story was very mommy issues focused. Think of like in uh, I've been watching American Horror Story. Never seen it before. Um, but I've been watching it again with my girlfriend. It Think of if you've seen that show, the son in Asylum, the one who hires that prostitute so he can so he can suckle. And so, imagine that guy, the one who's who's played by the dad in in Murder House.

1:17:56 That's that's Claude. So, it does imagine that, and that's the story. But, it's done so well that the writing, at least for me, never feels like cringe. Um, cuz the way that they're doing it with the mommy issues, they could have done that in such a this is so cringey kind of edge lord way, the way Linus did it with a lot of his religious aspects within his story. They could have done that in a really cringe way.

1:18:24 [snorts]

1:18:24 But, whenever I was playing this one, I was thinking, "Oh, man, I could really see this story being a central focus in a Silent Hill game." Um, and with So, with all of that, I mean, the the the descriptions of the creature, the way the creatures look is horrendous and disgusting. Um and the game just naturally will pull you in. And then you add in the gameplay, and the gameplay is really it's really good. Like it's really innovative. It's messy, for sure. Um I would never call this game a intuitive game by any means, cuz you have these um domains. [snorts] Sorry. You have these sentience values or sentience values, and you have domains within them. So, the sentience You know, these are mind, eye, hand, sphere, and brain.

1:19:19 Those are your values, and those are going to indicate the color of dice you can roll. Then you get these domains, which are these colored cubes, and depending on which sentience they are in, they can do something different. It It's Again, it's it sounds way It It sounds confusing, and it is confusing, but once you can lock that down, then uh the game does start to flow smoothly. It has this mental capacity marker. This is one of a It's a cool system I've always enjoyed, where various actions that you take uh like if you want to you can move up to three spaces. So, if you move from here to here to here, then that would cost you three mental capacity, and the person at the top of the track is the one that's going next. So, you're trying to maximize your actions, and there are ways to get free actions. In a lower player count game, you can play these cards that give you free actions. So, there are ways where like this character could do like four actions in a row if they have a ton of ways to lower mental capacity cost of actions and stuff, but yeah, there was no There was no world where Dawn of Madness was not going to be number one on this horror list. again I mentioned This War of Mine for realism.

1:20:39 Could have been at number one, again. But I didn't I didn't want to do that another time. So, I had to put Down a Madness in, especially cuz it's fresh in my mind since I just got done playing it.

1:20:53 [snorts]

1:20:53 And the the stories are just so absolutely riveting for this. And then there are some moments, I mean, they do not shy away from a lot of horrific elements, especially because I just did Clods. There are certain scenes that you can go into that are just absolutely disgusting, which are which is good. That's good writing, but it's never done in like a a poor taste kind of way. And what's even better is this game doesn't have you necessary It doesn't have you make choices. You don't come across a situation and it tells you, "Do you want to go left or right?" Um most of them are going to be uh do pass or fail. If you Some of them are, "Okay, if you if you do this and you succeed, you have to make a test. If you succeed, then you gain something. If you fail, you might have to take a condition."

1:21:52 But there are some that will say, "If you succeed, go to this story section. If you fail, go to this story section." Uh so, that's kind of your branching narrative path. But the decisions you do make is you are given a lot of sections to go to. There is a stack with each investigator, a stack [snorts] of these kind of encounter cards, which are these green cards and blue cards. Um and you're not going to be able to go to all of them. Maybe if you actually play the long game where you need 50, then you would. But even then, you're going to only get one ending. Um the ending we got and with Claude's was A, um but something special about him is his C and D are tied together in some way.

1:22:40 But, yeah, it it's truly the best horror game, I think, that I I'd be very surprised if there was ever a horror game that came out that I thought was better than this. In my personal opinion, in my in my the way I like to digest horror. Um and when I do get my expansion stuff, then it's even more content cuz I think that's eight investigators, um each with four different endings, each game lasting about 10 hours. So, it's it's a [ __ ] ton of content. So, that's my number one, Dawn of Madness, and that's it, everyone. That is my top 10 horror games.

1:23:27 So, let me know what uh horror games are your favorite. Let me know what you think of these games in the comments below, and like, comment, share, and subscribe, and have a wonderful whatever time of day it is for you.