Arkham Horror LCG is a living cards game with multiple campaign and a plethora of characters to play.
I have always loved the Eldritch Horror vibe. An existence beyond comprehension being summoned by cultists? Yes, please. There are quite a few iterations on the Arkham Horror game, all of which have a special place in my heart. I was playing second edition when I was in high school.
The Arkham Horror LCG is one of the newest iterations and my absolute favorite. The game continues to improve and is allowed to grow and change. I really love the different campaigns and the different stories being told. And being a cooperative game allows for some fun teamwork moments.
Also, there are many investigator characters which allows you to play in a style you prefer. Although all the styles of play are fun to me (we’ll get more into that later). Arkham Horror LCG really allows a player to customize their experience through their choice but it’s not afraid of giving you a challenge
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What Is an LCG?
An LCG is a living card game. These are games that mainly use cards with new cards being published every year. The new cards can integrate with the old cards but offer new possibilities. The classic example of a living card game is Magic: the Gathering.
Gameplay Overview
This is a general overview to provide context for the review, not an in-depth how to play. Some rules may be glossed over or missing.
I have played hundreds and hundreds of hours of Arkham Horror LCG and I still have not seen all the content. And that is a good thing. Watching this game grow over the years has really been a treat. I have seen cards with good intentions that didn’t work out quite well enough and cards that were too strong too actually use.
Choosing a Character
Before the game begins, everyone will choose a character. There a quite a few to choose from and each have their own special ability, signature, and specialized weakness. Arkham Horror LCG is customizable because each character has a deck where the player gets to choose which cards to use. There are some deck building restrictions but there is a still a lot of room to play.
I feel that characters can really be built in one of three ways: a cluever, a fighter, or a flex. Cluevers are all about finding and getting clues, fighters fight, and flexes do a little bit of both. While the characters tend to land in there archetypes, there are many ways to get to these roles.
While each characters has a value for willpower (to counter treacheries), intellect (for finding clues), combat (for fighting), and agility (for escaping), they don’t always use their skills for their designed purpose. There are ways to fight with willpower or investigate with agility. There is always a way to break a rule.
Setup
Once everyone has a character it’s time to set up the scenario. Arkham Horror LCG is fluid because all the locations are also cards. The maps can be preset or be built during a scenario as the game changes or unlocks. This lack of connection makes it easier to play in ways that make sense for your space.
Each scenario will also call for a mythos deck, act deck, and agenda deck and will tell you how to set those up as they can change from scenario to scenario (especially the mythos deck). Each player will draw their opening hand and then you’re ready to begin play.
Player Turns
During a turn, a player can take three actions. There are ways to increase the number of actions but that does spend on the type of character you play. These actions typically include activate, engage, parley, investigate, fight, evade, move, play, gain a resource, or draw a card.
Activate will be specialty actions on certain cards that are led with the action arrow. Engage is engaging with an enemy that you are no engages with (it might be aloof or attached to another player). Parley is a talking action and is typically specialized to the scenario unless your character has cards with it.
Investigate, fight, and evade are all basic actions testing your intellect, combat, and agility respectively. They have flat rewards of discover a clue at your current location, deal one damage, or exhaust and disengage an enemy. The remaining actions are straight forward: move from one location to a connection location, play a card from your hand, gain 1 resource, or draw 1 card.
Games Rounds
After everyone has taken a turn, it’s the games turn to mess with the players. The doom (which is really your time clock) increases by one and every player draws a mythos card. And yes, these are bad. They range between a negative effect for the player or the whole game, a test with consequences for failing, or a monster coming out of the shadows. Either way, it’s going to be something to struggle against.
End Game
Arkham Horror LCG end in one of two ways. You succeed at an objective, or everyone gets defeated. I have seen both and you can increase the difficult to fail more (or decrease it to succeed). One thing that I love about Arkham Horror LCG is there are multiple objectives, and you must pick one. And, depending on the ending you picked, that could impact what happens later in the game.
I always enjoy the discussion of – should we kill the monster or solve the puzzle? Or just resign and to say to hell with it so we’re not all defeated (probably). And then, when there are scenarios without the resign action, what do you do? Are you reckless or conservative? It’s a game of exploring and options.
Who Will Like it?
This is a great game for anyone who likes card games, co-operative games, and is will to be a little silly in the face of horrid evils. It’s not necessarily a scary game but it can be. I know that some co-operative games have a reputation for being easy and trust me, this one won’t be if you don’t want it to. With just a little bit of storytelling, and a lot of cards, Arkham Horror LCG brings a world to life.
What I Think
What did I like?
It’s obvious that I like this game. There is just such a large world to explore and so many stories to tell. And the system can really fit into any world – there are fan content that do crossovers into other IPs and the system works. It’s just fun.
What didn’t I like?
One thing I think could improved is the difficulty intensified. Right now, I feel like the game is made hard by increasing test difficulty or making a bad thing happen regardless of if you pass or fail. Having just random negatives happen doesn’t feel like the right way to go. I want it to be difficult, but I also want it to be my fault that I failed and not just because of bad luck.
My Take
Yes. That’s it, just yes. Arkham Horror LCG is great, and I recommend it to anyone who like any type of story telling adventure. Is it better with more cards? Unfortunately, yes, having access to everything is going to make the game experience richer. Do you need to have all the cards? Nope! Even with a limited number of cards and scenarios, you can still have a great time. In a way, limiting the cards you have is a challenge all to itself.
Breakdown
Rulebook/Learning the Game
Arkham Horror LCG is easy to learn but I would argue it’s difficult to comprehend. I know how the game works, but I am not always the best at keeping track of the exact timing of cards and effects. There are parts that resolve in step four and others that resolve in step six. Kind of like the stack in Magic (which I also don’t understand). Instinctually, I know what to do but I would not always be able to describe it.
The game has a lot more rulebooks than others because it is a story driven game with multiple scenarios. Every scenario has a rulebook and something unique to the campaign that might need to be explained. While I find that the game is generally good at doing this, I do not think that everything is always as polished as it could be. Or I am being influenced by the fan-campaigns we have found ourselves doing lately.
First Play
The very first play of this game was what feels like a long time ago. Scratch that, it was a long time ago. I do not like how time works, can it slow down please? When I started, I played with only the base cards and the opening scenario, and I was hooked. I loved how cards could chain into each other, albeit more simply than they do now. The story and lore and setup of the game was easy to jump into. And, even if we messed up some of the rules, it was still a great time.
Subsequent Plays
As I continued to play, and the game grew larger and larger, I found how to make other combos of decks. How to leverage people’s special abilities. Who was good based on their stat lines, who’s abilities were great, and who was underestimated. While some characters are stronger, and some are more interesting, than others that doesn’t make the characters unplayable.
Finding how to play them in a way you enjoy is half the fun. And not everyone has fun the same way, but Arkham lets you play together while each player is playing a deck, they find fun (hopefully). Some people like to make technically good decks while other want to try out wild ideas that have a chance of failing. Perspective is everything.
Rating
10/10
This is a game I actively look forward to and will advocate for any day of the week. A difficult aspect about Arkham is that campaigns can range from 4 to 10 scenarios, and each can take the length of your average board game (about 2 -3 hours). This game can be a time commitment if you want to experience a full campaign and watch one character grow. You can do stand-alone campaigns as well if a full campaign feels like too much of a commitment.
*See my rating scale Here
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