Pandemic Legacy Season 1 Blue Edition Board Game for Adults and Family | Cooperative Board Game | Ages 13+ | 2 to 4 players | Average Playtime 60 minutes | Made by Z-Man Games

This review may contain MINOR spoilers. I will not spoil any part of the story, though I may touch upon the upgrade system a bit, not going into too much detail so that an element of surprise may remain.I can't really say a TON about the game without spoiling it...but if you like Pandemic, you'll love this! This is Pandemic with more of a story, ever-changing threats to deal with (though still well within the vein of Pandemic - they aren't COMPLETELY changing the game on you), and the need to consider future repercussions as well as immediate needs.A few things I'd like to get out of the way first:1. For anyone wondering, this is NOT an expansion to another game. This is a stand-alone game. This game cannot be combined with regular Pandemic.2. If you haven't played the original Pandemic game, I'd recommend considering that game and its expansions first. It's a great game...and this game isn't easy to jump into if you haven't played Pandemic before.3. This is a game that changes as you play it. You will write on things. You will apply stickers. You will rip things up. You will open upgrade packages. If this bothers you, play regular Pandemic. This game would be nearly impossible to play in such a way that you can "reset" it. That said, it will last you a good long while and it's worth just playing it properly.If you played normal Pandemic with the expansions, it will take a bit of adjustment, no longer making use of things like the lab (one of my personal favorite expansions)...but Pandemic Legacy easily makes up for that with many of its unique features and ever-changing story.At least at first, Pandemic Legacy plays very similarly to the original game with few noticable changes. This WILL change with every game session. Some of the differences you'll note:- The game has a maximum of four players.- Pandemic Legacy may be played an unlimited number of times, but the STORY of the game takes place over 12-24 game sessions (depending on how well you do). It seems that the game taking only 12 game sessions would be nearly impossible unless you cheat. The game scales in difficulty as you win and lose.- The game starts with only four characters - the medic (improved disease removal), dispatcher (move other players), generalist (more actions and upgrade slots), and researcher (create cures for diseases more easily). That said, new roles will be unlocked occasionally throughout the game.- After every game session, win or lose, you get to choose two upgrades. These upgrades may grant your characters more abilities (like Pilot - when you use a card to fly to another city, do not discard the card), starting the game with additional research stations, making diseases easier to cure, etc.- If you play carelessly, your characters may gain downgrades that complicate their lives for the rest of the game. Collect too many downgrades on a character and they're removed from the game. From then on, you must pick a different character or use a generic character with no special traits whatsoever. These downgrades can USUALLY be avoided if you play carefully. My group made it through the first half of the game without getting a single downgrade.- When a city outbreaks, that city will gain increasing levels of unrest. Eventually, the city will become more difficult to traverse. This means that allowing outbreaks to happen will eventually make the overall game more difficult. It may be better to lose an early game if you can avoid getting too many outbreaks.- The more you win the game, the harder it gets. The more you lose the game, the easier it gets. The game is designed to scale to the skill level of your group. You are almost certain to have a mix of wins and losses. There are two mechanisms that control this. The first is your "funding" level. You have a floating number of event cards thay may be placed in the player deck. The more you have, the easier the game becomes. For each game you win, you have two fewer event cards to play with. For each game you lose, you gain two more. The second mechanism is replay. When you lose one of the 12 missions or "months", you get a second chance. Since you get 2 upgrades at the end of every game you play, you'll end up with more upgrades, the more you lose.- You always have to be mindful of the future if you want to do well. It's better to lose gracefully than to win at a heavy cost. The penalties that you accumulate will sick with you through the rest of the game. If you can lose a mission without accumulating any downgrades, you will only be better for it. This fundamentally changes how you play each game.- As you play, the game introduces new complications and may change the goals needed to win. There are hidden rules. Hidden game pieces. Hidden character cards. Many things will change as you play the game...but that's why you buy Pandemic Legacy over normal Pandemic.If you've never played Pandemic before, I'd honestly recommend considering getting that before this game. The games do not tie together, but Pandemic Legacy is less forgiving to players unfamiliar with the game system. If you already have and love Pandemic, BUY THIS GAME.

Update: Without giving anything away, all I can say is that after playing the whole game through, I would still pay and do it all over again! From month to month, the game took on more interesting twists and turns than I can describe here. Characters became lost, cities fell, and legends were created. The final move of the final game timed perfectly with the Inception soundtrack that we were listening to and my wife and I looked at each other and felt such a sense of completion.So yes...buy this game!Original Review: My wife and I are long term lovers of cooperative games and Pandemic in general, but this game has blown away all of my exceptions of the genre. To summarize my initial thoughts let me say this: I have never played a more nerve wracking game that I enjoyed so much!The specifics (without giving too much away): Pandemic Legacy starts out exactly like your normal game of Pandemic. It is January, and your group of scientists and medics travel around the board, putting out fires while trying to get the prerequisite number of cards to cure the disease. HOWEVER ....after the second epidemic card comes out the game changes in a radical way and from there it is a fevered frenzy to keep up.Legacy Deck: This change, and all future changes, is mandated by the Legacy Deck. From there, you'll find the specific scenario instructions for each month of game time. So far, my wife and I have played through March, and each one turns up the heat expectations that you are supposed to meet. Sometimes, the Legacy Deck gives you a new character, other times new abilities, or it might even make the game harder; however, you meet it, you'll look forward to each time you have to go back to the deck.SPOILER ALERT: Why this is such an intense game: When you play original Pandemic, Forbidden Island, or the like, you tend to not care as much about disastrous situations but this one makes you pay for it. For example, in original Pandemic, I feel confident with letting a few outbreaks to occur. I tell myself that it's just Lima and it is only touching a few other spots so if it goes up it's really no big deal. WELL, in Legacy it is a HUGE deal. Each time there is an outbreak, you have to put a permanent sticker on the board which gets progressively worse. This is called the PANIC mechanic and it works like this. On the first outbreak, the city is now panicky. The second and third times it has an outbreak the city is now RIOTING which means that you can't take direct flights in. The Fourth time it happens the city COLLAPSES and now taxes you a card to simply try to enter the city. The FIFTH time it happens the the city FALLS which means that it will tax you two cards to enter it, and if your character is in the city when it falls it dies. WOW! Talk about pressure. So, in the first round my wife and I ended up with a South American outbreak Chain Reaction and we are now permanently on alert of it happening again.To Conclude, I strongly recommend this game for you and your game group! It has gotten me out of my board game boredom and reinvigorated my play.Unfortunately, when you get through all 12 months this will be the last time that you'll be able to play the game as you can not go backwards and do it all again. BUT who cares! At minimum, your group will have this game for 12 hours of play time if you never make a mistake.

This is our second Legacy game (Machi Koro Legacy was out first) and it's a blast! It starts almost identical to the original Pandemic, but morphs after every play-through, adding components, modifying rules, and unfolding a compelling narrative. We're about halfway through and I'm considering picking up the "red edition" for a second run-through. The different color editions have identical gameplay, it is only to help keep things organized if two separate games are running.