A Legacy in the Making

We recently just finished our game of Pandemic: Legacy. For those of you who don’t know Pandemic: Legacy is a special kind of game where the results of all previously played games affect the way the next game is played. Anything from destroying certain components or adding new rules can happen based on how well (or bad) you did the last game. Today I want to talk about the game and discuss the future of legacy games as a whole. As a preface, I will do my best not to spoil the game for the people who have not played it yet.

Look at the new and improved board….umm…coloration?

Pandemic : Legacy plays very similar to normal Pandemic with the players curing diseases and balancing the infection rates as they grow and grow with each epidemic card that is drawn from the player draw deck. The main difference between them is the fact that a lot more aspects of infection and outbreaks are tracked to affect the next game you play. If a city outbreaks then you have to mark it at panicked and it only gets worse from there. Also, based on how you win or lose the amount of funding cards that are in the deck will change.

“But Kyle that doesn’t sound like anything that would merit such craziness around legacy games. Are you going crazy in your head?” No, dear reader, I am not, for the last and most important part of Pandemic: Legacy is the Story Deck. This deck not only holds all of the story of the game you are going to play but also references those mysterious hidden panels and sheets that come in your box! This is by far the most integral and awesome part of this game, and any legacy game to be honest. The story that goes along with the game is what allows for long lasting affects that change the game.

Don’t worry if you drop it like we did you can easily put at back together by looking at the bottom right of each card. Just make sure you avert you eyes from the rest of it!

I am not a fan of normal Pandemic at all, but the story with the game and the ever changing landscape of our board made it a lot more interesting to me. My favorite part was the characters. There are quite a few of them and whenever you create one, you can develop relationships between the players that give you extra skills. This tied in with the fact that all characters get names makes the character system very enjoyable. My least favorite part was the ever changing rules. I was prepared for the environment changing but sometimes remembering all the rules was extremely difficult, especially since we were playing once or twice a week. New Rules are added as your progress through the game and sometimes I felt like I needed to reread the entire rule book just to remember what the last rule changes were. However, this is a necessary “evil” in these types of games and I really enjoyed the game itself overall.

words to live by in a legacy game!

Legacy games are a new breed. There are only 3 in existence that are truly referred to as legacy games. Those being Risk: Legacy, Pandemic: Legacy, and Seafall (which is not out yet). There are a few unofficial ones like T.I.M.E. Stories and Campaign Style Boardgames but those are not as heavy on the component alteration. I think these games are one of a kind and I hope to see a lot more of them. In my opinion they are the best parts of a 10 x 10 challenge and a child playing with his parents Lego collection…like in the Lego movie…because he is destroying what his father loves and cherishes…. Well, you will get it someday.

How do you feel and Pandemic: Legacy or Legacy games in general? Let me know in the comments! See ya next time.

-Kyle