Board Game Review-Pandemic

Pandemic was my kick-off into co-operative games, my first one.  I've loved co-ops ever since. Working with your friends instead of against them just makes games more fun, in my opinion.  (I tend to exaggerate my love of back stabbing for humor's sake)


Pandemic is very well-designed in difficulty.  Most of the games I've played have boiled down to two outcomes: the game burns us, or we barely scrape a win. 
So, the basic premise: Each player is a disease hunter, each with their own specialty.  You rush around the world, trying to balance destroying the 4 different kinds of disease before they become too prevalent and finding cures for the 4 by getting someone with 5 cards of a disease type, which players can pass to each other under certain conditions.  You get two cards that can be used for cures each turn, but it works as a timer, because once that stack of cards is gone, you lose.  Nice mechanic: you can discard cards to fly to their assigned cities for free. An example of balancing collecting cards for the cure versus fighting the diseases.


It's a good game that anyone can play, but it has a larger learning curve than Castle Panic, since it is more complex.  The theme is well done, with a little above-average artwork.  They went for a fairly tame theme, which works for me.  Unlike most co-op games, in which the world dies by zombie or alien invasion if you lose, instead, the world merely dies of disease. :)
The stock game might become repetitive, but the expansion adds in a lot of replayability with the different modes of play and additional characters you can throw in.  Unfortunately, the expansion is another $30 onto the already $35 base game.

Publisher Stuff:
Publisher: Z-Man Games
Players: 2-4 (expansion "adds" a 5th, using the exact same rules as with 4 players)
Ages: 10+
Playing time: 45-60 minutes




Summary
Pros:
-Well Designed
-Tense for 80% of the game


Cons:
-Possible for one person to start playing dictator, especially once the tension ramps up

I'd give it a 9.0, I will never turn down a chance to play it. 


P.S. I'm a little out of it since I just had my wisdom teeth removed Friday, so if there are any questions, shoot up a comment and I'll fire back.


P.P.S. I wrote this before Christmas, and I guess I was really out of it, since I never posted it.  But I've polished it up a bit, and here we are!