Betrayal Legacy (Board Game, Betrayal at House on The Hill)

Wow, they really knocked it out of the park with this one. The original Betrayal is one of my favorite games of all time - like many others, it was my “gateway drug” that got me into strategy board games. Sure, it had its problems (balance issues mainly) but it was always a fun time, so when I heard there was this legacy version coming out I pre-ordered it as soon as I could. After having played it a few times (the prologue and a couple of chapters) I’m glad to say it lives up to the hype. For those of you that didn’t play the original, the rules are simple. You and your friends explore a house which is made up of several tiles. Since these tiles are modular, the house you explore is different every game. As you explore, you’ll find items, run into traps, and trigger “omens” (events). Eventually you’ll activate a haunt that enables a horror scenario that has its own set of rules, most of which turn a player into a traitor that will try to kill you. Some of the scenarios in the original game involves aliens, a house that slowly imploded into the abyss, a musical pied piper that would hypnotize the players, killers that keep resurrecting, etc. It was amazing with its variety and scope and was extremely replayable... no two games were ever alike. This new version takes that basic concept and expands on it. Basically, there’s now an overarching story spanning decades. You have to play the game a total of 14 times to complete the story - think of it like a TV season, and each game you play is a new episode. Each game has actions that will affect future games, so play wisely. I can’t go into it more without spoiling it, so I won’t delve too much into the specifics of the mechanics of the legacy aspect of this game. I have played through several other legacy style games (Risk and Pandemic) and I’m happy to say that this game actually utilizes the legacy components the best out of those in my opinion. Risk and Pandemic’s legacy games were good, but they were a slow burn that took time to build. This is where Bettayal’s strength lies - with Risk Legacy, even though the rules are changing with each game, it still felt like a progressively harder version of Risk. Betrayal’s huge scope of variety and rules keep this game fresh, and it’s intriguing to see how this family storyline will play out in the end. The replayability is helping cut down on fatigue, and because of that I know my friends and I will finish this way quicker than Risk. And, when all is said and done and you’ve completed the core Legacy storyline, the game will be set up to be played over and over again with the unique changes you’ve made through the campaign. Now for critiques. I mentioned earlier that the original Betrayal game had its share of problems. Unfortunately, a lot of them are still there, mainly the balance issue and confusion over rules. It can scare away new players with the amount of rules - there are THREE rule books to reference, and those rules were often vague and led to a lot of debates on interpreting what the author meant. Some of the haunts also greatly favor the traitor or humans and can feel unfair too. Also, they really should’ve added a giant piece of paper that says to not punch out stuff. Everyone’s first instinct with board games is to punch out all the pieces. The game actually requires you to leave them punched in and to wait until the proper time to use them. Also, this is more of an Amazon problem, but the box I received was really beat up during shipping. Overall - excellent game. Worth trying for anyone vaguely interested in these types of board games, and definitely worth trying for fans of the original. Highly recommended.

The quality of details are amazing. The instructions are detailed but in some cases it comes to what everyone agrees on. The campaign is so much fun to play and when you are finished you can keep playing free play in the house you made! My only issue is when I was opening up my game I noticed both the campaign decks were flipped the wrong way but the correct order! It’s very strange and apparently been a problem for years according to forms I’ve read. It’s an easy fix, just flip each card the right way keeping them in order but try not to look or read the cards (Don’t want spoilers).

This game features a Legacy update to its predecessor, Betrayal at House on the Hill. The Legacy elements give the game a story-based campaign, with additional story aspects hidden within the flavor of the various cards (not only are you playing through your own characters' story, but you can find hints to things that have happened in the house before your characters ever arrived). The story has some great twist elements and a "Choose Your Own Adventure" vibe as different outcomes come from different choices made and who won or lost a haunt's events. Characters are named, items are taken as family heirlooms to confer familial bonuses, and the game grows from a small house with a small number of items and events to a more expansive estate with much much more that can happen. In addition to the campaign, returning components from the original have had a design upgrade, with a more atmospheric feel. Instead of the Widow's Walk expansion's roof, Betrayal Legacy has Outside as an additional area to explore, with twisting paths through the grounds of the estate. The game can also be used in "free play," like the original, and in fact is intended to be used as a "free play" version once the campaign is over. Some rules quirks from the original have been improved on, such as haunt-rolling changes to prevent encountering the haunt too early, or the inclusion of stairs to the basement on the main hallway tile so one doesn't have to randomly fall into the basement and then get stuck there until they find stairs again. Overall the game is an entertaining, immersive one, especially if you can convince your fellow players to get into character.

I just played the prologue and first two chapters with my friends, and we had a great time, but I would say that I don't think our experience would be as great if we hadn't all been familiar with the game. I came in with certain expectations from having read some of the reviews here and came away with a somewhat different impression of the game. So, yes, the game requires you to destroy/modify it as you play. I see some people saying that they laminated it/use sleeves or whatnot. Honestly, I reccomend just playing it how it asks you to. Trying to preserve it will be time consuming and ruin the experience. The parts where we were modifying the game were my group's favorite. The best aspect of the game is how it changes, and you still get your money's worth (14 games is a lot of time, and that's if you don't do free play afterwards). As far as balancing, the haunts are significantly more balanced than the original game if and only if you read the rules thoroughly and don't forget a special aspect to your side's haunt rules as I did one round, causing my own failure. The single best change to this game from the original is the rule that once one party does something in one of their colored haunt boxes, they have to read the box and explain what they're doing to the group. Many times in the original the traitor didn't know the parameters of their powers or the heroes dramatically misinterpreted their abilities, creating an imbalance even greater than the naturally lopsided nature of the haunts. This seems like such a simple rule change, but it really kills a lot of the frustration we had with the original, and the colored box system still ensures that information isn't shared too soon. A lot of imbalance in haunts in both games is created by people not understanding their abilities, not the haunts themselves, and this system solves that. Overall, Betrayal Legacy learns from the mistakes of the original in game play. As far as the quality of the game pieces, I have to disagree with a lot of people saying that they're worse than the original. While the figurine painting is less detailed than the original (frankly, I don't care), the quality of the figures themeselves is much better. The Jenny/Heather in our original game was moonwalking from her cheap material bending, while these ones seem far sturdier. I know many people take issue with the sliders. My group has never had a problem with them whatsoever in the original, which I know puts me in the minority. We did find the sliders in Legacy to be more difficult to move, but it wasn't enough to destroy the cards or really bother me at all. The gameplay itself is why we play, so uglier figurines don't upset me much, and wow is the gameplay good. The legacy aspect just adds so many layers that keep even my quick-to-burn-out friends interested and excited for the next round. I strongly reccomend it.

I love the original game and I am so excited to start the campaign for the legacy version. When unboxing I noticed that the box was slightly broken on one side and some of the inside box to gold the items was cracked/smashed. It would be nice to have received a box in undamaged condition when purchasing the board game new for the amount of money that it is.

I love this game! It is so much fun. It is a little difficult to set up the first time. I had to watch a video on it. I am really enjoying the story and scenarios. I love that this game changes as we play making it uniquely mine. For example, without giving too much away, at one point we encountered a cat we had to name. The friends we were playing with has a cat so we named it after their pet. Now their cat is part of our game! It is expensive but you get a lot of play time out of it. I think it is a good value for the money.

If you love Betrayal at House on the Hill, you NEED to pick up the Legacy version. In the original Betrayal game, you are a group of explorers in a house with a deep and terrible history. With the Legacy version, you are building that terrible history. In Betrayal, why is the Bloody Room stained with blood? Where did some of the odd items in the house come from? Who brought the Omens to the house? With the Legacy version, you find out because you are building the story of the house in which you will play future games. You get to trace the history of the house and it's items and follow it's story, influencing the outcome and what happens to the house and/or it's inhabitants. The rules to Betrayal Legacy are mostly similar to the original Betrayal game, but there are numerous modifications and additions. My daughters and I have been playing at least one chapter of the story each night since we opened the box. It's addicting and each chapter gets longer as the house builds. The house literally starts as a small homestead with only a few rooms, and as you progress through the years, more rooms are added on, as well as events, items, and omens. Which items, events, and omens are determined by how you played each chapter and who wins. I can't recommend this game enough.

I was excited to try this game and see how it was different. All the reviews keep it vague and I'll try to do the same while giving the review I wish I'd read before buying it. That being said THIS IS A GREAT GAME. You'll see reviews like I did mentioning how to preserve the game by putting sleeves on the cards and things like that. The game comes with stickers and encourages you to write names, fill in blanks, and add the stickers to the cards as you play it. It even instructs you to THROW CARDS AWAY once you use them. This blew my mind when we first started playing and I hated it, but once I gave myself over to the game and allowed myself to play the game as it was meant to it is probably my favorite game I own (though I still can't bare to throw the used cards away and just keep them separate). WHY WOULD THEY MAKE A GAME LIKE THIS? It's easy once I played it and got my head around it. The game is telling a story made up of 13 chapters. There are decks that you play from IN ORDER chapter by chapter and even THE RULES HAVE STICKERS you don't put in the rule book until after you've played that part of the game to avoid plot spoilers!!! It's both insane and kind of genius! I hated this game when I first started playing it because I was "destroying" it but it does so much service for the plot to do it this way I can't imagine a better way to do it. That being said - you can't replay chapters. If you have a gamer family (3-5 people) I HIGHLY recommend this game. It takes some getting used to and I've only played through 2 chapters so far but I'm in love. It's worth it.