Pandemic Game Review

Pandemic Description


The world is in disarray. Epidemics have begun to explode out of all corners of the globe. Luckily, you and your friends are members of an elite special task force from the CDC on route to handle this accelerating crisis. With dwindling international support, how will you and your comrades manage to cure all of the newly arising diseases in time?

Pandemic is a cooperative game where you and your friends take control of CDC operatives seeking to cure the rapidly growing diseases before they break out of control. Treat the symptoms, distribute resources, and lead the world through this crisis before all hope is lost.

The Review


Have you wanted to feel the board game equivalent of using governmental authority to advise and aid people to wash their hands and use vaccines? Save the world from a series of malevolent plagues that wish to ravage the peace and lives of the world? Welcome to Pandemic, a game that seemingly grows in relevant in proportion to the exponential growth of disease cases that surround the globe.

Pandemic is a cooperative game where the goal is not to beat one another, but to beat the system itself. Four diseases are going to spread faster than you can keep up. Your goal? Cure and or Eradicate all four diseases before one of the following losing conditions spring out of nowhere:

  • Players attempt to draw cards from an empty Player Deck.

  • There are not enough disease cubes of certain type to place.

  • Too many “outbreaks” in which disease flood outward to all adjacent cities from a single one after accumulating too much.

Each player takes control of a certain “Character” with special abilities to help in the effort. Then, play goes in turn order as each player performs up to four actions in trying to get the players the right cards to succeed.

Pandemic might seem like a reverse Plague Inc. simulation, but in actuality it’s a puzzle. All through the game, players will be sweating as they desperately coordinate their movements in the hopes of trading cards (unless you have a “Dispatcher”), pulling each card with fear and dread for the next “Epidemic” to cause havoc.

Pandemic is predictable environment. You wholly understand the hazards that await you and the problems that may arise. But where in the world will it happen? That’s left up to chance, and tends to be a major factor in whether your party will succeed or not. Controlling your difficulty is a wonderful feature in this game, allowing your table to agree on how much suffering you wish to endure during your game night experience.

Usually Pandemic is a calm, methodical, and communicative exercise. Of course, play at higher difficulties, and this neat little CDC field trip quickly escalates into an apocalyptic situation on the bring of total collapse if that next card is an Epidemic. Everyone needs to be everywhere at once. If you don’t have a Dispatcher to move everyone? Good luck. You’re going to quickly develop a LOT of unnecessary geographical knowledge and complaints (I’m looking at you Santiago).

Play one moderate to high-level game of Pandemic, and you’ll be barely scraping by as your sight is flooded in an endless whirlpool of color-coded cubes and cacophonous groans with the Epidemic revelation. Play a second time, and you’ll be relaxed by the notion that this a constant state of being and that you simply have to deal with the cruelty of random chance at some moments if you want to survive to the last turn of the game.

Now I’ve mentioned “Epidemic” a lot. Let me explain. As there is only one card that corresponds to the infection of a city, there has to be a way to re-shuffle these cards on top. This is the purpose of an Epidemic. At different vague sections of the game, players will have to endure an accelerating infection rate, the same regions becoming infected repeatedly, and a bonus flood of infection for a new city that could outbreak immediately, and there’s nothing to stop it. Fun, no?

But of course, these more anxiety-provoking aspects are only experienced in the higher difficulties. Suffering is optional in Pandemic, and for that I am extremely grateful.

The amount of teamwork building, communication, and puzzle-solving elements this game provides for a group is an enticing and wonderful challenge to overcome. I give it my highest score of five doses of Vaccine out of a Public Mask Mandate. I’m always happy to return to Pandemic, even if it feels a little on-the-nose nowadays.

Game Raiders Rating Scale


Pandemic Rating
Patsy Evans
Author: Patsy Evans