Review Details

Arkham Horror LCG: Core Set

Product Review (submitted on April 24, 2020):

I bought this game with a gift card about 2 years ago, and it has quickly grown to be one of our favorite games. The core set gives you some adventures and challenges, although it really gets valued from the expansions at the campaign level...of course, that adds more cost, so there is a downside.

What I like: it is a cooperative game, and also a story game. Its hard to find games which have both. Your investigator keeps growing in experience, which leads to new cards, and a sort of role playing adventure.

Though the game is random, you can mitigate bad stuff happening to a certain extent with the cards you have. That makes it more of a tactical game.

I love the token pulls in the game. The majority of the tokens for skill tests are negative, putting you in the mind of something bad happening...which fits with the scary theme. And there is the auotfail token, which causes great grief..that is balanced out by the star token, which can cause you to pass the test + use investigator abilities.

Investigators have different classes and are interesting, from fighters to clue gatherers, rogues, survivors and mystics, all these great types are there, yet they are all unique by having special cards to help and special weaknesses to remediate.


Downsides: quality of the pieces is okay, although getting coin capsules will improve the token quality (they can get worn down from usage).

Game is only for 2 people, though you can proxy cards to get 3 with this set. Fantasy Flight encourages you to buy another core set, but it is probably better to buy the expansions to get more cards.

The 3 adventures in the core set are okay at best. The first two are the most exciting, with the Gathering being an introductory scenario. The Midnight Masks is the most fun and where the game shines. The Devourer Below is not as much fun, and is a challenge to get through. All three are a good introduction, but where the games shines is in the deluxe expansions and the mythos packs. ( Note, this costs $, but it is worth it to get the most out of the game). We are on our third expansion, and love the adventures and the cards.