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Avalon Hill Betrayal Legacy
You could earn
6255 Victory Points
with this purchase
With it’s history shrouded by crazy- eyed ravings and the spookiness of maniacs, it was wondered that no one would know the unsightly and evil spawning origin of Avalon Hill… until now.
Avalon Hill Betrayal Legacy fuses the concept of Betrayal at House on the Hill — exploring a haunted mansion — with the permanency and multi-game storytelling exhibited by Daviau’s Risk Legacy and other legacy games that followed. This whirlwind of a game consists of a prologue, and a thirteen-chapter story that takes place over decades. Players represent families, with specific members of a family participating in one story, with the chance of an older version of those chosen characters (assuming they were alive), or their descendants showing up in later stories.
Why would people keep exploring a haunted mansion for decade after decade, especially when horrible things happen there? Curiosity, I suppose, or perhaps an unmannerly boldness that comes from the belief that we know better than those who have come before. Look at all that we’ve learned, ponder at the tools we have at hand! Surely we’ll all exit safely this time…
As with other Betrayal titles, the game is narratively-driven, with elements that record the history of your specific games. The tools mentioned earlier, for example, become attached to specific families. This isn’t just a bucket; it’s my bucket; an heirloom bucket, the one my grandpappy used to feed his family’s pigs when he was a boy, and while you can certainly use that bucket, I know how to wield it best from the time he spent teaching me how to slop.. and I get a bonus for using it.
Age: 12+
Players: 3-5
Time: 45- 90 mins
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Description
With it's history shrouded by crazy- eyed ravings and the spookiness of maniacs, it was wondered that no one would know the unsightly and evil spawning origin of Avalon Hill... until now.
Avalon Hill Betrayal Legacy fuses the concept of Betrayal at House on the Hill — exploring a haunted mansion — with the permanency and multi-game storytelling exhibited by Daviau's Risk Legacy and other legacy games that followed. This whirlwind of a game consists of a prologue, and a thirteen-chapter story that takes place over decades. Players represent families, with specific members of a family participating in one story, with the chance of an older version of those chosen characters (assuming they were alive), or their descendants showing up in later stories.
Why would people keep exploring a haunted mansion for decade after decade, especially when horrible things happen there? Curiosity, I suppose, or perhaps an unmannerly boldness that comes from the belief that we know better than those who have come before. Look at all that we've learned, ponder at the tools we have at hand! Surely we'll all exit safely this time...
As with other Betrayal titles, the game is narratively-driven, with elements that record the history of your specific games. The tools mentioned earlier, for example, become attached to specific families. This isn't just a bucket; it's my bucket; an heirloom bucket, the one my grandpappy used to feed his family's pigs when he was a boy, and while you can certainly use that bucket, I know how to wield it best from the time he spent teaching me how to slop.. and I get a bonus for using it.
Age: 12+
Players: 3-5
Time: 45- 90 mins
I became a board gamer because of Betrayal at House on the Hill. That is not hyperbole either, I stumbled upon Will Wheaton’s Tabletop series on YouTube and the first video I found was his playthrough of betrayal at house on the hill. I immediately purchased the game and nearly every Friday night for the next few months became Betrayal night at my first-ever gaming group. We played this game to death. It was my first real taste of just how thematic board games could be, the emergent narrative of the game was capable of satisfying a craving for storytelling, that I didn’t know board games were even capable of. Sure the game was plagued with balance issues, and sure the rules could be a little clunky and it did not take long for us to see nearly all the cards and items in the game. This was our first game, and we loved it, warts and all. Alas, years pass and this game eventually fades away from our game nights, seldom spoken of and all but forgotten. Then one day browsing the internet I stumbled upon it; Betrayal Legacy. I was a more experienced board gamer now at this point, I knew what a legacy game was and all I knew was I needed it.
Betraying Your Friends, But Its For Fun
If you have never played Betrayal at The house before, the premise is relatively simple to understand. You and your friends have entered a spooky mansion for vague reasons, together you explore this creepy house by laying tiles and using your stats (might, speed, knowledge and sanity) to survive the perils of the mansion.
As you explore your characters may get stronger or weaker depending on how lucky you are, but don’t worry you are not allowed to die in this half of the game. At some point in the game “the haunt” will be revealed and at this point, the game changes massively. Typically, one of you will be revealed as a traitor, and now the traitors’ job is to defeat the non-betrayer players! The non-traitor players are tasked with foiling traitors’ dastardly plans.
Each haunt is unique and each comes with a bit of story and new rules for how the game will be played. These haunts vary wildly, there could be a mummy now wandering the halls of the mansion determined to destroy the players. There could be aliens preparing to invade Earth using the mansion as a base of operations. Or you could all be turned into tiny mouse size people being chased by cats.
All manner of horror movie tropes is utilized here to vary each game you play. Not all haunts are created equally, some shine and others… Well, it can leave you with a bad taste in your mouth. This brings us to the legacy version now.
Multi-generational Betrayals
The core gameplay loop of Betrayal Legacy mostly remains the same. You are still exploring the house and the game will always lead to a haunt being revealed. The way the game differs now is that the game has a 13-chapter overarching story to tell by playing through. Decisions you make will fundamentally change the experience the next time you play. Room tiles could be permanently destroyed, or altered, new rules are introduced, and new items, event cards and omen cards all get added as the campaign progresses. There’s also a whole new area to explore; the garden as well as the ground floor, the first floor and the spooky basement.
There have been a few rules tweaks to the game, such as how haunts are revealed among others. Old-time players will feel right at home and newcomers won’t find any of the changes too complex to follow. You still have the same stats and dice checks are unchanged.
Spoiler-free Story Talk
Reviewing any legacy game is tough. The main selling point of the game is the story, which you and your friends get to experience, and of course, I do not want to spoil this for you. So I am going to keep this part as vague as I can. There is a house at the top of the hill that you and the other players all visit, to hopefully become the owners of this lovely not haunted at all mansion.
If you do claim the victory, you become the proud new owner. At the beginning of the game, you select a name for your family and a name for your character, this is cosmetic only but it is a nice touch. Then using a handy deck of cards, you are told how the story begins and how to proceed. The game then begins and at some point, certain conditions are met. Then you refer to the deck of cards again which will give you the next story beat and what that means for the game going forward.
Eventually, the game will come to a close and depending on what happened, the deck of cards will provide you with instructions on what to do next. This could be reading from a story journal, adding new tiles or cards and even adding completely new rules to the game. Ultimately someone will be declared the victor and they will be the owner of the mansion for the next chapter. I just want to add here the first scenario of this game is fantastic it blew me and my gaming group away and left us ravenous for more, that’s as close to a spoiler as I want to get.
The story is where this game shines here for me, I have very much cooled on Betrayals gameplay. Being able to create my own story and affect how the mansion was created is what allowed me to keep playing this campaign to completion. The story wavers slightly at the midpoint of the campaign and sometimes feels a little tacked on as if you are just playing betrayal with a few extra steps. This for sure changes in the second half of the campaign which I frustratingly can say no more about you will just have to take my word for it.
What Does Betrayal Legacy Do For The Betrayal Series Legacy?
Earlier on in this review, I said this game can sometimes feel like Betrayal at House on the Hill with extra steps and this will already let you know whether this game is for you. Betrayal Legacy is nothing new to the Betrayal formula, this being its biggest strength and its biggest weakness. Betrayal in my experience is like Marmite, you will love it or hate it and Betrayal Legacy does not do enough to buck that trend.
If you hate Betrayal at House on the Hill for its balance issues and corny haunts, seriously give this one a wide berth it is not for you in the slightest. The flaws in the game all remain and the component quality somehow got worse. That being said, despite these many flaws Betrayal Legacy still can tell a great story. This takes commitment from the players involved though, a lot of commitment. You need to forgive this game a lot to be able to enjoy it, and if you can’t do that well Betrayal Legacy just is not for you and I do not blame you.
In my opinion, however, you are missing out on some of the wonderful storytelling this game is capable of. If like me you are a huge Betrayal series fan, this is a must purchase in my opinion. It’s more betrayal and at the end of the campaign, you still have a playable game with a mansion that is unique to you and your gaming group. Have fun telling spooky stories.
Betrayal Legacy, a haunted mansion stands before you what should you do, well explore of course, separate from your group members, stick together, collect items, all the fun of Betrayal at house on the hill and the longevity of the Legacy game genre combined.
The game has been bought, now its time to assemble the regular game group for this one, need a minimum of 3, maximum of 6 regular players, as each game will impact the next one played. Imagine a TV series where you’re left on a cliffhanger for the next episode.
But there in lies the rub, what if you can’t get your core gaming group together, or if you do, nobody can commit to consistently meeting up every week or would want to play the same game. This is the other side to the game.
Betrayal, with its major basis on Betrayal at house on the hill, is a tile placement quest game which part way through when enough ‘Omens’ are revealed will change the game play up, to make it more challenging, usually separating one player against the rest.
Having struggled to get this game to the table it is difficult to write a fully comprehensive review of the game play in its entirety, as whenever it is game night it’ll be a different game wanted to be played or not a long game, something short, not the same players, multiple factors always come into play.
Upon opening the box, you are presented with a healthy chunk of carboard and components of high quality to play with, structure and guidance is provided for what should be opened and when, helping to streamline the game play and legacy part of the game. This I have to admire for the price tag, knowing you are getting a truly thematic game, followed by the stand-alone version is always worth it.
This however is my point as great a game as it could be / Is, I would recommend one of two options depending on what you are looking for in a Betrayal game:
Option one: For a quick game that doesn’t require the investment in time and can be more flexible shall I say, go for Betrayal at house on the Hill and stand alone pick up and play as and when you want version. You still get the thematic element but not as deeply rich and involving as you would if you got betrayal Legacy.
Option Two: Betrayal Legacy, Highly Thematic, not to say Betrayal at house on the hill isn’t but the idea of a Legacy game is to leave you wanting more, to draw you in after each game. Keeping the same players, and then at the end you’ll have a stand-alone game to play anyway, you’ll have to complete the Legacy part first.
In conclusion I think its more down to the time you have available for Gaming and the group of friends you can pull together for this. It boils down to how busy is your daily life, and what type of game drives you to play it. Do you want a quick game to sit and play, then next time play something different, or do you want to commit to that weekly game of the same genre for the next few weeks to come. I leave this open for discussion, but for now enjoy whichever game you next purchase that is what is counts, plus Victory points usually, they count alot.
Zatu Score
You might like
- Storytelling elements of the game
- The lasting changes you make to the game are permanent and truly make it your own
- All the hidden secrets and extras the game adds as you progress through the story
- Perfect for regular meet-up groups
Might not like
- Finishing a legacy game takes a commitment that not everyone can commit to
- Some haunts are very poorly balanced
- The player boards are of very poor quality