Z-Man Games | Pandemic – The Intense Cooperative Strategy Game | Race Against Time to Save the World | Simple to Learn, The Ultimate Games Night Challenge | 2–4 Players | Ages 8+| 45 Mins Playtime

Pandemic was the first game to introduce me to cooperative boardgaming. It became an instant favourite and still holds up very well. This should be a staple in every boardgame collection! In Pandemic, you must save the world by working together as a team to control viral outbreaks and cure diseases. How is it played? Pandemic is a turn based cooperative game where you can take up to 4 actions per turn. These actions involve moving around the world to different cities, removing virus cubes from infected cities, building research centres and curing diseases. After each turn, you draw cards to help you cure diseases (some of which may actually cause an epidemic which will spread a disease). And then you draw further cards to advance the viral outbreak. This finely tuned balance is what keeps the virus spreading so you have to work together to stop the spread as well as cure the disease. How do you win? You win if: - you cure all diseases (you don't have to eradicate them by wiping them off the map, but kudos if you do) You lose if: - You can't draw any more player cards - You run out of virus cubes and can't spread a disease further (it's out of control at this point) - You have too many outbreaks The key is to work together as a team and use each of your unique abilities at the most opportune times. It's a fantastic game that combines strategy, teamwork and luck! It's quite daunting the first time you play it, but after a few playthroughs, the mechanics become clearer and it can be enjoyed by players of all ages. If you have more than 4 players, it works quite well with one person acting as a host for the game and offering their insight to things you may have missed. It also has a lot of expansions which increase the replayability of the game, but in my opinion the core game is enough to start with for a while. This really is a great game!

I recently got back into board gaming after many years not playing them and was looking for something different that could be played co-operatively rather than competitively. Pandemic was mentioned many times as a great example so I decided to give it a try. This is an excellent game. I've been learning the game and playing it 2 player with my wife and we are finding it very enjoyable. The core of the game is playing as two people with different roles trying to travel around the world treating disease outbreaks ( of four different diseases) and trying to find cures whilst the outbreaks of these diseases escalate and epidemics emerge. The game has a mechanic to provide the spread and escalation of infection and outbreak, it's very well done. My mind boggles at the game designer coming up with this. It's a clever game yet not too complex and we found it accessible and were grasping it quickly. Soon we'll be adding our friend as a third player and really look forward to it. It's a great game to get your working together, communicating and forming strategy to try to prevent a worldwide unbeatable pandemic. This is an excellent game. Very impressed.

Easy to understand rules, perfectly made co-op style board game, thrilling action gameplay with one common goal to find cures for all 4 types of diseases teaches quick and efficient strategy, teamwork, basic geography Perfect as for couples so for whole family as you are not playing against each-other nobody walks away angry from table. Limited amount of turns depending on how many player play as the player deck runs out of cards before the cures are found the game is lost and that is one of 3 ways to lose the game so you need to develop effective quick tactics on every turn and full cooperation with other players. There are no dice in the game, you can do up to 4 actions per turn, so the game is very balanced and not purely based on luck. If you fail to treat an infection in time you risk an outbreak, you can only have 7 outbreaks then its game over when the 8th comes or you risk running out of infection cubes that is the 3rd way to lose the game. The game board and all pieces are very good quality and very detailed, lovely graphics, only cards and board are from card everything else is in plastic, there are many pieces but you get 2 compartments in the box and all pieces come in separate resealable plastic bags. Took us 2 people 90minutes to play the 1st time so for experienced players it can be 30-45 minutes if played without expansion sets that are available separately.

Pandemic is a great introduction to the world of board games for all those people who expect you to bring out Monopoly or Cluedo when you suggest playing one. Pandemic is cooperative game for 2-4 players about travelling around the world and fighting four diseases and takes around an hour to play. This theme is portrayed strongly through all the elements in the box, from the different roles you can take, the disease cubes spreading if left unchecked to the epidemics that occur regularly throughout the game. The cooperative nature of the game leads to a sense of togetherness as you play, as well as promoting friendly conversation around the table, and will be a new experience for a lot of players. The rules of the game are tight, simple enough to learn and convey a sense of being able to affect the state of the game without wholly relying on random elements. A single turn consists of a player taking four actions which include moving, treating a disease, building a lab and curing a disease. After this the player will draw two cards, most of which are useful but a few (4-6 as determined at the start of the game) are epidemics which cause the disease to intensify through making them more likely to spread. Finally 2-4 more cards will be drawn from a second deck to determine which cities either became or increased their levels of infection this turn. After this play passes to the next player and they follow the same turn structure. The game is won when all four diseases are cured which you do by spending an action at a lab and discarding five cards of that diseases colour. Curing a disease does not, however, remove it from the game, if there are still cubes of that disease's colour on the board it can still spread. To stop a disease from affecting the board again you must remove all its disease cubes from the board and then that disease becomes eradicated. This is not required to win the game, but in certain circumstances can make your like much easier. Losing the game can happen in a number of ways. One way to lose is the card pool you draw from each turn works as a kind of timer, if ever someone can't draw at the end of a turn you lose. Another way is every time you are told to place a disease cube on a city with three disease cubes of that colour already there you cause an outbreak which puts disease cubes of that colour on each connected city. This, in turn, can cause a chain reaction effect making you repeat the action (although never back to a city that is part of the chain) and for every outbreak you move the outbreak marker along a track, if it reaches the last space you lose. Another way of losing is if you run out of disease cubes of a certain colour and have to place one, the disease is classed as having infected too many people and the game ends. So that's the basic overview of the game and if it sounds entertaining to you in any way you should try the game out. Having said that there are a few downsides to the game. Firstly, as I said, if you are a beginner in the world of board games it is a great starting point, but if you are more of a veteran it is harder to recommend the game. The content, for me, feels a bit too light, and after a game or two you'll likely have come up with a strategy that works unless you get unlucky with card draws or your role cards (this is more of an issue in the two player version). After about half a dozen games I also felt like I'd seen pretty much all the game had to offer and it was consigned back to my bookcase to be used only when there was someone new to introduce into board gaming. Of course, this in itself should make it a buy for even the most grizzled veteran, a game that successfully introduces new people to more complex board games without them looking for the exit. To some extent the problems would be fixed by adding a few more surprises to the decks, which is what the On the Brink expansion does, except I can't really recommend that expansion on the basis there is so little physical content in it for the same price as the base set. So, in summary, if you are new to the world of board games and this sounds good, get it. If you are used to board games, but have friends/family/significant others who you'd like to try board games, this is a really good choice (although there are other games that fill this slot). If you are a board gamer without any of that though it is a harder shout, you would really need the expansion to get more than half a dozen games out of it and then you are talking £40-50 which could, in my opinion, be spent on better games including its big brother, Pandemic Legacy.

Really fun game to play with up to 4 people. The size packaged away is easy to store, it does spread out a bit in game play but can be easily played on a coffee table. Condition arrived perfectly, no issues.

Bought this game after watching it played on Wil Wheaton's Tabletop and have been very pleased to add this to my stack, prior to this game I had not owned a truly co-operative game and to be honest I am not sure I will find another to beat it. First off the quality of the board and pieces is top notch, the look and feel is lovely and having played it a fair few times now no sign of wear and tear has appeared on any of the pieces or cards. The game mechanics are simple to understand and each player has access to a card that gives a quick run down of the basic turns rules/actions on a general level as well as any character specific rules on their cards. This neatly means once you've played it a couple of times you don't need to refer back to the manual. Which is nice. The game has one way to win, which is curing every disease, but many ways to lose which means even when you're a seasoned player and think you've worked out a solid strategy how to win you can be blindsided and lose. The difficulty level of the game can be altered as well using the number of Epidemic cards which is a nice touch so that you can gradually increase the challenge. Also the different player roles make each game different as skills you may have relied on previous games are now unavailable - the random selection process ensures people are forced out of their comfort zone which adds to the variety of the games. All in all this is a brilliant game to bring people together, especially in a regular group of gamers who spend their time working out ways to screw each other in a desperate attempt to win, you won't be disappointed to spend an hour playing this.

This is a very good board game with a strong concept and engaging gameplay.great purchase. Everyone loved playing this game at home

This is the re-printed, restyled and updated version of Pandemic - a game where everyone has to cooperate to win (or lose) together From the 2008 Edition (and near identical 2012 reprint) there a few changes to components and artwork, plus 2 new player characters, but other than that game play is pretty much the same as before. The 2008 Edition has a more old fashioned feel (that some people like) but this is bit more modern and a little bit more interesting visually (imo). Owners of the original don't have much reason to update (in my view) Basically you have to work together to save the world. Every game plays differently and every game is challenging, you wont beat it first time. Play is fairly low on luck so you have to be thinking and planning from the start. I really don't know what else to say, it is about THE best co-op game out there. Component quality is reasonable but not outstanding. A lot of plastic components (all 96 disease markers, look funky though) but decent quality board and cards - pretty much what to expect from a modern Z-Man made game. I don't like the colouring of the player markers (there are 3 that are a different shade of "greenish" and the orange Medic card has a red player marker) and the unpainted Research Stations (why aren't they painted I wonder?). The Blue colour infection cards are more like purple too, which is slightly annoying if you are sensitive to such things. For those concerned about rumours of faulty boards (the first print run had missing link between Sao Paulo & Lagos) we got our copy from Amazon in early March 2013 and had no issues. If you do have a faulty board email Z-Man and they should send out a new one If you have only ever played "traditional" board games like Cluedo you really should try Pandemic, though if you are just starting out in the modern co-op genre then Forbidden Island is a little less challenging (and more family friendly, F.I. plays well with younger players from 6 or 7)

Pandemic - in my opinion - is the best board game ever published. It takes just the right amount of time to play (30-60 minutes), is cooperative so everyone playing is a team trying to beat the game which makes the social dynamic more engaging than a competitive game, the mechanics are basic and easy to learn, and the game is different each time you play. I have yet to find another game that borders on so close to perfect as this one. It doesn't even need the expansions (except for On the Brink - you have to get that just for the petri dishes for your disease cubes) which to me complicate an already precisely balanced game. I cannot praise this game enough, and everyone I've played it with has gone out and bought their own copies.

Erg toepasselijk thuisquarantaine vermaak! We spelen meestal op een avond een paar rondjes achter elkaar, want het klaarzetten en opruimen is wel wat werk met al die kleine onderdelen. Zeer geschikt voor mensen die niet tegen hun verlies kunnen.

Great game, kids love it

Haven't actually played yet but opened the package. Looks genuine and is in English, perfect :-)

This is such a great game. The mechanics of this game have been set up so well where both winning and losing are possibilities right until the end. Having the extra characters means the replayability of the game is increased and each game comes with different challenges. Its also really easy and quick to pick up so most people will be able to jump straight into it. A great game for any games night! Easily the best co-op game that I have come across.