Betrayal at The House on The Hill 3rd Edition

Fans of Betrayal 2nd Edition will be quickly dismayed by the clearly lower quality board materials and recycled pieces from the Legacy edition, and this will serve as an indicator of what to expect for the rest of the experience. While it's entirely possible that players who have never played a Betrayal game may enjoy this, the edition was announced with two goals in mind: Reducing randomness throwing off game balance and streamline the gameplay experience so that players can jump in easier. This game fails at both goals significantly and seems to be just a money-grab. It is by far the most inferior version of the game. The issue here is that fewer game mechanics and simpler / more efficient game mechanics are not the same thing. Fans of the older games will remember once per game stat bump rooms; they are no longer present. Instead, there are rooms that increase one stat for one player when discovered, which is significantly less powerful. Additionally, many items and omens no longer cause players to adjust their stats. Instead, they add 1 to the RESULT of all rolls of a stat. This is both *significantly* more powerful in terms of effectiveness and therefore more randomized in nature, it and seems to confuse new players while also throwing game balance directly into the trash bin. Moreover, there are significantly more omen rooms, while the number of omens has not significantly changed, making many rooms explored post haunt absolutely frivolous, as you will definitely run out of omen cards quicker than you will tiles. This also means there are way fewer events tiles, so characters will have almost no opportunities to actually increase their stats, unless they become the traitor, where stat increase still appears to be common. Once again, this only increases randomness and decreases game balance, as the heroes' ability to fight is based on whether or not they've drawn items that give them a ridiculous +1 stat to whatever roll is necessary for this particular haunt, and if they haven't, they will be outclassed at all times. There is also a new rule mandating turn end IMMEDIATELY after drawing a new tile, which again, robs players of the ability to perform other actions, interrupting game momentum and causing the turn order itself to often be a new foe on the board aiding the traitor. And as a final kick in the shins to any fans of the game, the Vault is now open and other tiles with special text have been removed entirely or similarly significantly reduced in nature, robbing the game of all its charm. Oh! And haunts STILL don't properly navigate rules calls. One included us searching for a lost friend who was unconscious and could therefore be traded. However, it did not apply the "item" keyword, leaving many rules calls about turn order and item action economy nebulous, and the rules addresses this with an INSULTING, "We didn't bother negotiating rules interactions, so you just make a call. It's just a game." In short, the game has been cheaped out on, dumbed down, and sold back to us as an inferior version to prey on our hype. I cannot recommend this game for fans of the Betrayal series. IT'S JUST BAD and clearly went without playtesting of any kind. The few things that work: - An updated cast is more representational of different backgrounds and experiences, which is nice for players who want to play someone they connect with. - Landings are clearly marked. - Haunts use information sharing rules from the Legacy edition (Read both intros at the table, do all the set up, then split up to strategize, and when you use an action, you read the entire action text to the other team so there is minimal confusion.). - The haunts start on a roll of 5+ instead of 6+ which results in slightly quicker games (although the effect this has on haunt balance is difficult to determine, and like many other issues, seems to fall prey to randomness at higher rates because of the less consistent number of omens needed to start the haunt). - Scenario cards are unexciting but functional and allow groups to decide on a group of eligible haunts before the game begins. (It should also be noted that the base game comes with only 45 haunts, as opposed to the traditional 50, and the function of scenario cards seems as much to be about setting up potential expansions than actually creating a functional game.) Everything about this version is lazy, ill-conceived, and greedy. This push for simplicity eclipses what could have been some successful ways to make the Betrayal system more accessible for newer players of the series and board games in general, instead feeling like a wild west cutout town, where all the building facades look fine until you actually try to interact with them and discover there is nothing there. Perhaps the worst thing I could say about it is this: This is Betrayal at the House on the Hill's Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition. It's likely a perfectly serviceable game for new players, but it insults their intelligence, has no personality of its own, and will become nobody's favorite game. If you are a fan of Betrayal, SKIP THIS VERSION. You will be disappointed if you don't.