Betrayal at House on the Hill Reviews

4.8 Rating 9 Reviews

In Betrayal at the House on the Hill, creaking floorboards, unsafe architecture and an ominously named “Pentagram Chamber” are not all you have to worry about. As you and your intrepid cohort scour this twisting mansion, choking smoke fills the air, deafening screams flood your mind and sinister spirits peel away from the walls. You scavenge weapons and trinkets for protection only to be betrayed by one of your allies, whom you discover is embroiled in a classic horror plot. Brought to you by Avalon Hill, this largely co-operative experience has you exploring a haunted house, which has each of its three floors built as you play. This procedurally generated board is the host of all manner of terrors, which can alter your stats and grant you items as you play. As you discover particularly creepy items, known as “Omens”, the game reaches closer to its crescendo, wherein a dice roll decides when the “Haunt” begins. It is at this point that main horror trope is triggered, typically controlled by one of your friends. Each haunt is selected based on what the most recent omen was and where it was found. This can result in one of 50 different scenarios unfolding, with instructions for both the survivors and traitors in separate handbooks. Both sides have their own objectives and knowledge as to what is going on, but neither are aware of quite how much the other knows. Once one team has completed its goal, be that destroy the opposition, escape the walls of the house or bring a sacred item back to its resting place, the game is won. The Betrayal at the House on the Hill game box contains six pre-painted, plastic explorer figures, each of which is paired with a two sided character card. These cards display two different sets of statistics per figure, for you to choose from, affecting both starting traits and progression. You’re also provided with 45 tiles to build the board, ensuring a wildly different layout each time you play, and 80 cards which depict the events, items and omen that your party may encounter on the way. This title boasts simple rules, combined with massive replay-ability, making it a fantastic game to rope people into the hobby. For those more experienced, Betrayal at the Hill on the Hill is a great opportunity to let your hair down and have some good clean fun in a terrifying setting. If you find that you just can’t get enough of the game and demand more, plenty more waits for you in the Widow’s Walk Expansion. Player Count: 3-6 Time: 60 Minutes Age: 12+

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Przemyslaw M

Verified Reviewer

“Great game, and 50 different scenarios do the job really well :)”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 years ago

“A perfect addition to our family games night. Players take turns creeping around a spooky old mansion, hoping to find items and improve their character before the traitor is revealed!! Then the haunt begins and it's a race against time as the remaining heroes try to outlast the monsters. Great fun with 50 spooky scary scenarios so lots of replayability. My wife and children aged 9, 13 and 15 are already big fans!!”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Love this game! Fantastic replay-ability and interesting haunts. As soon as you get to grips with the basics is very simple to play and always different. We normally play in a 3, but could imagine it would be even better with more. The widows walk expansion pack also develops the game well!”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“I bought this game for my house’s weekly games night, and we had very mixed responses to it. I’d like to start off by saying that contrary to what other reviews say, this game is VERY complicated when you first open the box. You will need to watch a Youtube tutorial to understand how to play. There are a hell of a lot of cardboard tokens and it’s not very clear what they are for (answer: you don’t need any to start with, and depending on the story scenario you end up with, you may need a few of them later in the game). The first half of the game is very fun, and involves exploring the house by placing down randomized “room” tiles as you step through doors. Some tiles have specific instructions written on them, and some have symbols which prompt you to pick up a card (it’s not very clear if you have to pick up a card every time you enter the room, or just the first time). Most of the cards will introduce an obstacle, and you will have to roll dice to see whether your character can overcome it — much like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book. We all enjoyed this part of the game, although the number of room tiles and event cards is very limited, so it probably gets boring after a few playthroughs. At some point in the game, drawing an “Omen” card will trigger the start of a story scenario, and this is where the game falls apart. At this point, one of the players is revealed to be a traitor — they will get one set of instructions, and the rest of the players will get another set. These instructions tend to be very complicated, so whether you enjoy it or not depends on how geeky you are. Some of our group were losing the will to live, trying to understand what’s the aim is. In general, the traitor summons some kind of monster(s) which try to kill the players, and the players have to work together to defeat the monsters. However, the combat system is not very well designed and it’s not very clear how it works; and also some of the players (myself included) were bored by this point and wanted to be killed off! Overall, I think the game needs to be reworked and tightened up to make the experience better. I’d introduce many more rooms and events to make the game more replayable, and get rid of the whole “traitor” mechanic, instead having one player designated from the very start as a dungeon master who guides the story and controls the monsters. There needs to be some sort of aim for the players during the exploration phase: maybe they are trying to find some kind of treasure, and touching it triggers the “haunting”? The combat system needs to be reworked, and the game components need a LOT of work (the player characters are nice plastic figures, but the monsters are generic circular cardboard tokens; the player statistic cards are very poorly designed indeed and are double-sided for no apparent reason.) Overall, a game with a lot of promise that failed in its execution.”

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Posted 4 years ago

“Amazing fun. The rules are relatively straightforward but do require some effort, so borderline casual game. If you like magic maze, pandemic, hero quest then this is for you!”

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Posted 5 years ago

“nice quality”

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Posted 5 years ago

“Excellent game. The dynamic changes as you move through the game which is great. I would recommend over 4 players though for the best game.”

2 Helpful Report

Posted 5 years ago

“Betrayal is a little complex starting off but ounce you get the groove of being an explorer searching the haunted house builds tension. Untill the beautiful moment some one or no one is the betrayer! This initiates the next phase. The betrayer gets there own objectives as the survivers do. And this builds a really cool mechanic where you where ounce working together. Then with a dice roll trying to survive or trying to kill the survivors. Best part is there are 50 different scenarios! Making every place different from the next. And the betrayer never the same person! Good game for those after something a little different and of course a Halloween game!”

Helpful Report

Posted 5 years ago