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Locked in an old abandoned house with your friends with no option but to move forward and explore to try and find an escape. Are you friends your enemies? Can you trust them? What was that sound? Is that a ghost? Can you navigate this house of horrors without going insane?
Welcome to Betrayal at House on the Hill, a semi cooperative game released by Avalon Hill Games that touches on every horror movie trope you could think of and boasts a crazy amount of replay value.
In this article I am going to be reviewing Betrayal at House on the Hill and how it stacks up today. I will also be touching on some of the expansions and also the legacy version of the game.
But for those of you in a rush lets get straight to the point!
Players: 3 – 6
Duration: 60mins – 120mins
Price: Check latest price on Amazon
Betrayal at House on the Hill Board Game Review
Betrayal at House on the Hill is a game that casts players as a group of explorers that are drawn to an old abandoned house. Little do they know that once they enter, the door will lock behind them, forcing them to explore the house to find a way out.
To add to the suspense, the house is haunted and not everyone in your group of friends can be trusted.
Players need to explore the house by placing modular game tiles down as they move into different rooms, trying to find items and avoid monsters and other creepy things until an event called ‘the haunt’ – during the haunt, 1 player will betray all other players and 1 of 50 different horror scenarios will take place.
Betrayal at House on the Hill is an amazing board game that is a perfect mixture of cooperation, horror and betrayal that will satisfy your horror itch – and is ingeniously made so that you can replay the game multiple times and have a different story every time.
With the use of the modular game board, 50 haunt scenarios and different character choices, Betrayal at House on the Hill is definitely a must have board game on my list.
What's Inside the Box?
The box for Betrayal is a standard size box – which is great for being able to find room on the shelf / drawer – wherever you store your board games.
But don’t let that fool you – Avalon has managed to fit a ton of pieces inside:
- Rulebook – duh!
- 2 haunted books – these have all 50 scenarios for both the survivors and the betrayer (more on these later).
- 44 modular room tiles.
- 1 Entrance hall tile.
- 1 Grand Staircase tile.
- 1 Foyer tile.
- 6 pre-painted explorer figures.
- 6 two-sided character cards.
- 30 plastic clips.
- 8 dice.
- 1 Turn / Damage Tracker.
- 80 Cards made up of Events, Items, Omens and more; and
- 149 Tokens.
Gameplay
The game starts with players each selecting a character that they will play as for the rest of the game. Each character has slightly different stats which may allow them to do things like move further (explore more rooms per turn) or ward off insanity a bit better than other players.
The players all enter an old (totally haunted) mansion through the front door which leads to the entrance hall.
The game is played in two phases that are played completely different to one another.
Phase 1 - Exploration
The first phase is the cooperative exploration phase where each player will take turns moving into different rooms of the house – mapping the layout of the mansion and its multitude of rooms as they move.
When a player moves into a room, they draw a tile from a pile that relates to that level of the house (basement, ground and first floor) and place it on the board.
In this way the players effectively create the game board as they move throughout the house.
The way this works with modular tiles is brilliant. Every time the game is played, the layout of the house will be completely different. An awesome touch!
Each room could contain things like items, events or uncover omens of the players doom!
There is are also hidden traps and elevators which could force players to enter other levels of the house.
These are all determined by drawing a card from the related deck.
This phase of the game is effectively a way to set out the layout of the house and for players to gather as many resources as possible to take into the next phase of the game.
When enough omens have been found, something will happen that will cause one explorer to betray all the others, thus beginning Phase 2.
Phase 2 - The Haunt
As mentioned earlier, the game contains 50 unique story scenarios included in the two haunt books.
1 book is for the survivors and the other book is for the betrayer.
During the Haunt phase, the traitor takes the book related to the betrayal story and leaves the room. The survivors take the other book.
The books will tell both sides, traitor and survivors, information about the scenario that is going to play out as well as the objectives and win conditions for each side – and there really is a story for every horror trope imaginable, from serial killers to werewolves.
Most of these stories are brilliant and really ooze the theme they are going for each side has no idea what the other side is up to or their particular objectives in the game. Each scenario includes special, story-specific rules that will dictate how players must work to meet the listed objectives.
Once everyone has read their side of the scenario, the betrayer returns to the room and play continues.
At this point, the game becomes an intense battle between survivors and the betrayer who each fight to win the game.
The first side to meet their win conditions as outlined in the scenario wins!
Game Experience
Betrayal at House on the Hill is a game that I was super excited about playing. At the time of release, it had major hype due to its awesome horror theme, modular game board, semi-cooperative gameplay and over 50 different horror scenarios players could play through in game.
I had heard so many stories about it, I was afraid that when I finally played the game that it would not live up to my expectations.
But it did….
Betrayal at House on the Hill is an awesome game. A lot of thought has gone into the scenarios and the overall theme of the game. It is by far one of the most deeply thematic games I have played (and if you are a horror fan – you will absolutely fall in love with this game).
Not only that… but it is one hell of a lot of fun to play. Which is weird… because the game does have a few pitfalls which in most other games would completely ruin it for me.
When looking at the games design it’s chaotic, random, in some cases – just plain unbalanced. This mostly comes down to the scenario that happens during the haunt – while most of these stories are really great, there are a few that are confusing or just plain silly.
Some of the rules during the scenarios are also super vague, requiring a few google searches to see how other gamers interpreted them – really ruining the immersion.
That being said – these are the exceptions to how the game would normally play.
The game can also be quite random – for instance if you are unlucky and draw too many omens before any items are gathered and the haunt begins, too bad… you’re in for a tough time.
The overall component quality is a bit lacking as well – Especially the painted miniatures which resemble colorful blobs as opposed to actual people, and also the track piece on the character tracker is a bit hard to get on / move (especially after multiple plays).
Pros:
- Features incredible traitor mechanism.
- Great variety in rooms and “haunts”.
- Engaging and fun story to follow along.
Cons:
- Too many rules for different “haunts” can be a bit confusing.
- Overall build of pieces seems low-quality.
- Some haunts are just lame / confusing.
Widows Walk (Expansion)
Widows Walk is an expansion to the base game of Betrayal released in 2016.
The expansion introduces 20 new room tiles as well as an entirely new floor that players can explore in the house – as well as 30 new cards and best of all AN ADDITIONAL 50 HAUNT SCENARIOS.
This expansion effectively doubles the size of the original games and increases the amount of Haunt scenarios to 100. That is an absolutely insane amount of replay value.
I have the expansion and I’m not going to lie; I am no where near even coming close to playing all of the scenarios – however, I have found the expansion scenarios are a bit more polished than the originals and the rules are a lot clearer.
Betrayal Legacy
Betrayal Legacy turns the base game of Betrayal at House on the Hill into a thirteen-chapter campaign where players take on the role of families that are drawn to the house over 14 generations (1666 – 2004). Each generation continues from where the previous generation left off and uncovers more terrible truths of the house.
Like all legacy games – decisions players make in the game have permanent and persistent changes that completely alter how the game is played moving forward. For instance – if your character dies in one of the chapters, you must play as one of their descendants moving forward.
You can read a bit more about betrayal legacy here in our article about the best legacy games.
Final Thoughts
Betrayal at House on the Hill is one of the best horror themed board games you can buy. While it does have its flaws, the game is really fun to play and the huge range of haunt stories means the game really never gets old.
The game is easy to set up and learn and is great for beginner board game players and enthusiasts alike.
Due to its awesome theme, replay value and awesome traitor mechanic – I am a huge fan of Betrayal at House on the Hill and it is a game that sees a lot of table time during my game nights.
I would love to hear what you guys think of the game below in the comments!
One Response
My family loves this game!
We bought it about a month ago. Would definitely recommend.