Resident Evil 2: The Board Game

There is so much to say about this game, but I will attempt to keep it brief.Pros:- The box, booklet art, miniatures, tile art, cards... okay everything looks UHHHMAZING! It is very true and faithful to the source material.- The game can create a serious sense of dread. In an attached picture I went into a room and rolled the dice and generated a corpse, normally no big deal. Next I go to the item with a corpse on it and nothing happens. Grab the item and roll the dice again and now every corpse in that room is a zombie. 'Okay, 3 zombies... could be worse.' Dodge roll and draw my tension card. Spawn a Licker in the room.... 'Well, that went South REAL quick.'- Always a unique experience! I've replayed a few standalone scenarios with some friends, currently doing the campaign with my wife. Jumped ahead to 3A and 4A since that is where the game starts to get into full swing. The experience I had on my campaign and the experience I had on the scenario play were completely different. Sure it all starts the same, but going into a room on the first play through it could be empty. Then on your next play through the dice aren't as nice and you spawn 2 zombies..... or worse.- Campaign Pacing. The campaign starts off and is extremely easy on 1A. Then 2A is still pretty easy as you are still getting the hang of things. The game keeps adding new elements, but they are all introduced by 3A. So you aren't overloaded with rules and gameplay elements on the first scenario.- The game is 100% Co-Op and fun! This subjective, but the wife and I love playing this together. Talking strategies and plans constantly and what to do next.Cons:- Board art is great, but trivial and hard to see.- Walls and doors. Some rooms have walls in them and every connecting tile gets a door. It's hard to tell if the door is open or closed, normally you do know though. Personally, I created my own walls out of foam board and doors out of another product. I purchased the 12 blank character pieces with colored stands and printed door pictures and spray painted the bases black and red. Need about 20 doors total though if you go this route.- Expansions are available, not required, but pricey. Roughly $100 for the base game. Then $50 for the B-Files, then $30 for each G expansion. Once again, not required to play the game and enjoy it. I have purchased every expansion available, but haven't finished the original campaign yet.- Setup time takes about as long as the scenario. Between matching tile shapes, setting up the board, setting up items, shuffling your tension deck with the necessary cards, placing items, typewriters, zombies and corpses on the board, it takes quite a while. The scenario booklet does make it extremely easy to do, but it still takes upwards of 30-45 minutes to set up your first few scenarios. Once you get going though, the scenarios take roughly 1-1 1/2 hours to complete.Overall this is an amazing game. It's loyal to the source material and most of the Cons are more nitpicks than anything. I was first introduced to Resident Evil on the PS1 with Resident Evil 2 back in mid 1998 and have been hooked ever since. With the amazing board game and the amazing Remake, it's a good time to be a Resident Evil fan!

This is a treat for any RE2 fans out there.I didn't even know there was a board game for it, and the high rating compared to some of the reviews made me a little bit hesitant at the beginning (missing pieces or the prints being too dark) but I thought, 'hey. Why not? I'd rather see for myself' and placed the order.And my worries were completely unfounded. I was completely blown away. I think I got a reprint version because the tiles were crisp and very easy to see, all of the ammunition dials, and the figurines were there in perfect condition (and the details of the figurines are really a treat! They are really well made).I'm not used to complicated board games, so reading the rulebook took me a while, but once you get the hang of it, it just clicks. The entire gameplay feels like a perfect combination of tension (and running for your life, saving up ammo), and that refreshing mindblowing moment of screaming "YES!!" when you manage to land a hit when both your character and the final boss are on their last legs. (Of course, there is plenty of that feeling of hoping you will actually manage to land a hit on the zombies/G with only a few handgun bullets left, which makes it much more uneasy and terrifying.)I played with a friend who only ever heard of RE as a passing franchise, and we both enjoyed it immensely. I don't think I can put into words the amazing feeling of actually defeating Birkin when both of us had completely run out of bullets (Especially after losing handgun bullets rolling 1s, running out of our trusty shotgun shells, and even worse, missing three magnum shots consecutively- yeah, we were having a really bad luck streak). Birkin was down to 4 HP, and my Leon and her Claire only had 1 and 2 HP left each. And we both managed to roll four knife attacks. In a row.Wow, what an experience. Harrowing, intense, terrifying, and completely, utterly exhilarating.We are on our 2nd campaign run right now, and because of the card randomizing elements, this run has been completely different from our first one.And as a videogame fan, it's really cool to be able to recognize the locations or the actions the characters are taking depending on the scenario.The boardgame is just lovely, definitely crafted by people who know what they are doing, and I can see myself replaying this for a really, really long time. Overall? 10/10.

This game is sturdy and way cheaper that ordering through a store. It pretty easy to operate once you get the hang of it. The design is free tiles so it makes it easier than trying to match each scene. You will need a decent sizes area to play. It takes about 2 hours for a session.

Is the game fun and fair? Absolutely. Is it worth the base price of $115.00? I'm not so sure about that.The game itself is phenomenally fun to play. I have not felt such tension in a board game except from Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition in certain scenarios. I highly recommend this game if you enjoy Resident Evil or Survival Horror based games. However, buyer be warned, the actual contents of the game are of lower than average quality.The plastic miniatures, the map tiles, and even the playing cards are all more fragile than I expected them to be. The base game of Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition sells for $99.00 and the materials that come in it are far more durable than what this game has to offer. I highly recommend purchasing card sleeves for all of the cards. You will need around 100 Standard American card sleeves (63.5 x 88 mm) and around 60 Mini European card sleeves (44 x 68 mm) in order to accommodate all cards in the base game. I also recommend finding some way to reinforce the cardboard map tiles due to their fragility. I already had to apply super glue to one of them that split apart at the crease.If you can get proper protection for all contents in the game, then you are set and ready to enjoy a board game based on Resident Evil 2!