Pandemic is a 2 to 4 player cooperative strategy game about doctors fighting diseases. All around, it’s a downright amazing game whether you’re a casual board gamer or a hard core one. Anyone who believes that the life of a doctor is boring or mundane might find a brand you appreciation for them when they play this game for the first time, but I think Pandemic’s biggest contribution to gaming is the standard it set for the many other cooperative games that came after it.
In Pandemic every player is given a special role-card with a nameless character on it who has a special power that will be vital to winning the game. The game board itself is a map of the world with 48 of the most important cities connected to one another by white lines to indicate paths for movement. The four diseases you are struggling to cure are represented by tiny different colored cubes that will inhabit these cities, slowly making the population sicker and sicker.
The players have two objectives that are vital to winning. If the entire supply of any one disease has been distributed across the board, the players loose. So part of the gameplay involves traveling to the world’s many cities to treat the inhabitants and removing disease cubes from those spaces. However, to overcome the diseases and win the game, players have a hand of different colored cards with the names of different cities on them. Players can travel greater distances by surrendering some of these cards, but the real goal is to visit one of the research centers on the board and surrender five cards of the same color to find a cure for one particular disease. Once the cures for all four diseases have been discovered, the players win the game.
Much of the game’s intrigue comes from your hand of cards because in almost every game players will be unsure if they want to use those cards for transportation or save them instead for finding a cure. The majority of player to player interaction involves passing and exchanging these cards around to create optimal hands, but even that will prove a challenge. One of the hardest rules for the players to follow is probably the one that won’t let you exchange a card unless the city printed on that card matches the one you’re currently in. Having one person playing as the Researcher can be the greatest benefit to your team, since they get to ignore that rule.
So on top of the player’s gameplay being very intriguing, the diseases also have an interesting gameplay style. The game’s difficulty is determined by how many Epidemic cards that you have shuffled into the Player Deck. The diseases themselves get a separate pile of cards called the Infection Deck. Each card from the Infection Deck has the name of a city where you will place one more disease cube at the end of each and every turn. Epidemic cards from the Player Deck are downright diabolical, because they will force you to take the discarded Infection cards and then put them back on top of the deck they came from. That means diseases will start targeting the same cities multiple times and players will be running back and forth trying to keep the diseases under control. Outbreaks are even worse, when there are already too many disease cubes on one city and the game will force you to put a cube on each connecting city instead. The mass mayhem and panic that starts to circulate around the game table is one of the most enjoyable things about Pandemic.
The gameplay is a truly flawless experience, in my opinion. Turns tend to happen very quickly and each player’s unique power will strongly encourage coordination between everyone. Pandemic also balances dumb luck with careful strategic planning, because it’s possible you’ll already have the cure for a disease within the first turn of the game. However, if players don’t coordination their efforts and manage their resources wisely that is the path to certain doom. But it’s not only the balance and the coordination that makes the gameplay perfect but also the right theme.
Playing as doctors and trying to do something as noble as fighting diseases is something that everybody in the world can truly admire. When the world is suffering from a pandemic it doesn’t matter what creed or nationality you are since everyone will pool their efforts to save humanity itself, hence the cooperative play. The art direction is also very complimentary of the theme. The game and the cards kind of remind me of a computer monitor that’s tracking the progress of each person and disease. It’s all very family friendly too, since there is no artwork portraying any gruesome pain or agony.
Now, to nitpick on some of the game’s very few shortcomings, there are probably a few people who won’t be convinced a tiny colored cube represents a disease very well. Personally, this has never distracted me from an enjoyable game. Also, the spaces that represent each city can also be very small when trying to fit disease cubes, a research station and player pawns all together into a circle half an inch across. But once again, this has never been a problem to me if the game board isn’t shaken too much.
So altogether, Pandemic is probably the single best cooperative board game that was ever created. It’s fresh and exciting every time I play it, and I always enjoy upping the difficulty to see how much better I can do against the diseases. Winning and loosing are both very fun if you work well together as a team. But even to this day, Pandemic is an example to other game designers trying to make cooperative board games, and it’s not very hard to see why when you pick it up and play it.
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Work together to save humanity in the 2008 bestselling cooperative board game! Four diseases threaten the world, and your elite team of specialists must find a cure for each of them before it’s too late. |
Travel around the world, treat local populations, and collect sets of City cards to complete research. Make sure to contain the spread—if there are too many outbreaks, you’ll lose the game. |
As you cure each disease, they become easier to treat and remove from the board. When you’ve cured all four diseases, your team wins the game! |
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Each player can take advantage of their role’s special abilities. Use your strengths to support your team’s strategy as you work to discover cures. |
All players start in Atlanta at the Center for Disease Control. Build research stations in other parts of the globe to travel and discover cures more efficiently! |
Use Event cards for their special one-time effects to help your team get ahead. And when you’re ready for a new challenge, adjust the game’s difficulty by adding more Epidemic cards to the deck. |
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| Pandemic | Pandemic - Legacy Season 0 | Pandemic - Hot Zone - North America | Pandemic - The Cure | Pandemic - Reign of Cthulu | Pandemic - Fall of Rome | |
| Customer Reviews |
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| Price | $24.90 | $69.90 | $11.84 | $38.38 | $39.99 | $28.99 |
| Number of Players | 2-4 | 2-4 | 2-4 | 2-5 | 2-4 | 1-5 |
| Average Playtime | 45 minutes | 60 minutes | 30 minutes | 30 minutes | 40 minutes | 45 minutes |
| Recommended Player Age | 8 and up | 14 and up | 8 and up | 8 and up | 14 and up | 8 and up |
| Game Objectives | Fight diseases | Fight diseases | Fight diseases | Fight diseases | Fight against the Darkness | Fight against Invading Hordes |
| Cooperative Game | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Strategy Game | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Adventure Game | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Expansion Option | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| Play over the course of 1 year | ✓ |
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Our Point of View on the Pandemic Board Game
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Reviews with images
Diseases, Infections & Outbreaks...Oh My!!!
If anyone has read my reviews and/or answers on questions you will see that in the past year my family has gotten really into the Ticket To Ride (TTR) games. Well, while purchasing one of my latest TTR expansions I stumbled upon the Pandemic games; which are similar to the TTR ones in that you start with a base game, get the foundation for rules and game play and then you start moving on to expansions with additional features. I purchased Pandemic and with Amazon Prime it was delivered in less than 24 hours, no kidding! As is my usual custom I read the instruction manual and then because I am a visual learner I went to You Tube to watch some videos. ZManGamesOfficial does a 9.5 minute brief tutorial. WatchItPlayed does a wonderful job walking you through the game prep for a 2-player game including where all pieces, cards, etc. go. This was very helpful as there are specific instructions on how to shuffle and stack the Player Cards. My niece and I had this video up while setting up the first game. Finally, I watched Geek & Sundry do their TableTop version of the game where you actually get to see the players play. They have an abbreviated video and then a 1.5 hour extended game play. So, these are just tips that helped us get an understanding of the game play and we had a blast!Pandemic allows you to travel from the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta and you travel throughout the world trying to cure and eradicate 4 diseases. The instructions make it sound so easy but oh boy; it is not. Game play can be learned in about 15-30 minutes. The difficult part and it is not the actual game-play; is trying to come up with enough strategies fast enough to cure and eradicate the diseases before you and your team die! Yes, team...unlike TTR this is not a game 1 player wins. It's a collaborative game in which all players work together...you discuss how you can unite forces, share your special roles, your cards, etc. But be careful of an alpha player who may start bossing people around, telling them what to do and takes charge of the game. If you get an alpha player just let them have the game board, pawns, etc. and tell them to play the game by them self but as if they were many players. In the end if it's your turn you can listen to others, even the alpha player, but what you do is totally up to you. If you don't have a good strategy everyone loses...my niece and I call it dying because we have succumbed to the disease.So, why is it a race against the clock? Well, no matter how well your strategy, your team can "die" IF you: Have 8 outbreaks before curing/eradicating all 4 diseases, you run out of Disease Cubes or Player Cards. Note: You don't have to eradicate all 4 diseases to win; you just have to cure all 4. First game we cured all 4 diseases and eradicated the yellow ("Crazy Banana Disease") but we got 8 outbreaks...we saved the world! 2nd game; yes, we played another because we were feeling lucky! We cured all 4 diseases, didn't eradicate any and once again we saved the world. We named our diseases the Black Zombie Plague, Purple People Eater (Blue cubes), Angry Bird Virus (red) and of course the Crazy Banana Disease (yellow) because my niece named it while infecting Miami.During your turn you can play up to 4 actions, draw 2 Player Cards but you cannot be holding more than 7 at any given time and then you MUST infect cities! The Infection Rate starts at 2 cities per player, per turn. But every time a player draws an Epidemic Card they have to move the Infection Rate marker and it slowly increases the Infection Rate from 2 cities up to 4 cities. The Epidemic card also requires you to draw 1 city from the bottom of the Infection cards and you must infect that city with 3 disease cubes; 1 more cube of the same color and you have an outbreak, oh my! Finally, the Epidemic Card requires you to "intensify" the Infection Cards. That means you must shuffle all the Infection Cards (cities) that have been played since the last epidemic, including the city card you just drew from the Infection Card pile and then put them back on top of the Infection Card pile so they now go back into play. See the intensity? With just my niece and me playing we didn't have as many cards to reshuffle so we kept infecting the same cities; which in essence was then producing outbreaks faster. I "think" you may have a longer game play with more people because then the other players will also be contributing cards.An outbreak occurs if/when a city accumulates 4 of the same color disease cubes. When this happens you must put a disease cube of that same color in every city that is directly attached to the city that the outbreak occurred in, thus, the epidemic. Note: It's possible that you have infected a city with more than 1 disease so IF you have 4 or more disease cubes but they are different colors you do NOT have an outbreak. The outbreak is only when you get 4 of the same color in the same city but the 4th cube (same color) will not be placed on the city. So watch those disease cubes and treat and cure so you can prevent the outbreaks.Now when you play up to 4 actions during each turn you have an option to treat a disease. You treat by removing 1 or more disease cubes from the city you are in (each cube being an action) that you have used your actions and/or role to get to. I was the Medic during first game and one of my roles allowed me to remove ALL disease cubes from the city I was in or traveled to! The Dispatcher can move players from city to city with their permission so once again...If you have a Dispatcher in the same game with a Medic you can move the Medic to the city that needs to be treated and get rid of all the disease cubes. IF the disease has been cured (see above pic...the disease markers are solid colors and moved above the disease logos) then you get to remove ALL the disease cubes in that city EVEN IF you aren't the Medic. To eradicate the disease you must remove ALL disease cubes of the same color from every city on the board. When you have eradicated the disease you flip the disease marker over to reveal the little log for eradicated. Note: Cities can still be infected if the disease has been cured but NOT if it has been eradicated.Back to the outbreaks. There's also an outbreak chart with marker and each time an outbreak occurs you have to move the marker. If you have 8 outbreaks the game is over and there is no winner because everyone has died. You also have Research Stations and these are nice because there is one action that allows you to shuttle from station to station and that can get you closer to an infested area to have a chance to treat, cure and/or eradicate several or all cities. There are also Role Cards and pawns to match the color of your role. Each role has special duties that only that player can perform (see above with Medic and Dispatcher). You don't get to choose your color/role. Pandemic is for 2-4 players and there are 6 Role Cards so you won't have all 6 roles in game play at the same time. There is another extension that adds a 5th player.I know there is a lot more that can be said and I or someone else can try to answer your questions. I just played for the first time last night (4/13/19) and while playing the 2nd game I came to Amazon and we read descriptions for some the expansions. I immediately ordered Pandemic: The Cure--Experimental Meds and then about 2 hours later I ordered Pandemic: State Of Emergency (this introduces diseases/infections from animals). So as you can see this is how pleased I was with Pandemic and yes, we are still playing TTR...I will be posting some more reviews on those as well because I currently have 9 versions.I think I got infected with a board game virus but hey, what can I say; my family/friends still love games the old-fashioned way...totally unplugged, board games and card games around the table. On a side note I must share what happened during our game. My daddy called and my sister held the phone out so he could hear my niece and me playing. We had one part of the map covered and ready to explode with black Disease Cubes. My niece was trying to tell me how I could (as the Medic) take care of all the blacks. She said, "Auntie, if you just get rid of all the blacks we won't die! Can you just take care of all the blacks over there?" and she pointed to the area that was well infected AND we were trying to treat/cure some the disease so that we could remove some the black Disease Cubes off the board and continue game play. Later I dropped a Dorito on the map and I told my sister, "Shay-Bo, I think I just killed everyone in Moscow because a large UFO has landed on them." We are a Christian family that doesn't drink, smoke, etc. We just like to have good clean fun but I told my family if anyone was a fly on the wall during our game play they would have been questioning our integrity. We have already planned our next family game day for Good Friday and yes, it will be good!!
