So if you’ve played one Pandemic, you’ve played them all, right?
Wrong. Way wrong.
Now I can’t tell you much (it would be extremely easy to spoil it for everyone), but I can tell you a little bit. Number one: you will play this game between 12 and 24 times. Number two: you have not played anything like this. Number three: you WILL love this game!
From the moment you open the box, you know this game is going to be different. There are sealed boxes that you are not supposed to open until told to do so. There is a series of top-secret dossiers that you get to reveal as the game goes on. There are cards in the Legacy deck that tell you what to do next and when to do it. See, the game evolves.
Pandemic Legacy starts like an ordinary game of Pandemic (which is a fantastic game in its own right) but changes very quickly. It evolves from the choices that you and your teammates make. Did this happen? Then do this. No? Then do this. Did you choose to treat disease in Sydney instead of Essen? Did you completely eradicate the yellow disease? Every decision matters. It really can make a difference for the rest of the entire scenario. I love this.
I will tell you right now, this is the best game that my wife and I have ever played together. I wish that I could go back and start over, not knowing anything about the game. In fact, I bought a copy for my gaming group just so that I could watch them play (I’m not even playing this time – just watching).
I have said before that playing the first Time Stories was my absolute favorite gaming night ever, but Pandemic Legacy beats it out as a whole. Having the time in between gaming sessions to think about what you did wrong or what you are going to do next is incredible. The game is extremely well thought out and designed. Before we started playing Legacy, we had played the original Pandemic at least 20 or 30 times, but this game completely blows it out of the water.
In fact, that may be my only criticism of Pandemic Legacy. Once you have played and completed Pandemic Legacy, you might never play the original Pandemic again. We have, because it’s one of my wife’s two favorite games (the other is Castle Panic), but everytime we do we both say “I wish there was more Pandemic Legacy.”