Pandemic Legacy Season One, Game of the Month – November 2022
Once upon a time, a global disease that threatened humanity was blissfully out of the public’s psyche. It was the stuff of Hollywood and conspiracy theorists. It was also the subject of a top selling board game, Pandemic. Then there was COVID-19. It is far from a distant memory but enough time had passed that we got Pandemic Hot Zone North America back to the gaming table at the end of September. Hot Zone packs all the fun and tension of the original into a shorter and more compact game. It is edited to perfection, but perhaps more about that beauty another time. It was during this play I mentioned Pandemic Legacy. Peaking the interest of the group, the very next week we ripped the shrink of Pandemic Legacy Season 1 and got it to the table.

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Played over a virtual year, the game evolves and morphs from the first month onwards. I would never want to spoil a legacy game. However, it is fairly obvious that new components are unlocked, rules revised, characters changed and diseases develop. This adds excitement along every step of the way.

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Throughout November we battled through four months of saving the world with great success. Every month from January to April was tight, but a success on each of our first attempts. Then it was May. Successes had made our attempt trickier and the legacy elements of the game were thwarting us. Our first failure felt almost inevitable, in that regard we weren’t disappointed! Slightly concerning, as we have left the world less safe as a result.


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A large part of the enjoyment is discovering what the game has in store for us. These twists and turns are really exciting and often make you groan as the challenge ramps up another notch! The set up of each game is equally important as we consider what characters we want to use and who will be most effective. This takes as long as the game does to play – but we are thoroughly enjoying it and it isn’t a chore!


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I’m sure this will be close to my game of the month for December too. Although if the crushing defeats keep on coming it may not be! For now though I can safely say it is a fantastic gaming experience!
Reviewer’s Note
For clarity. We don’t get paid for our reviews. We purchased this game with our own money, it would be a bit too cheap to give my son a birthday present that was a review copy! Either way, this has not affected our review!