Shadow Hunters board game

by Christian

(Pennsuaken)

Game:
Shadow Hunters
Board game manufacturer:
Z-Man Games
Number of Players:
4-8 (The more the merrier)

Quick verdict

Just when I thought I had seen it all, the Survival Horror genre throws their hat into the board game arena. The Shadow Hunters board game is just that.

The game and gameplay

Now in all honesty I adore this game. It’s challenging, it’s lengthy but not too long and it tackles a subject matter I love… the supernatural!

This game is interesting as it was designed by a Japanese game designer and seeing something other than a video game out of Japan is amazing.

In this game you play one of three characters: a Shadow, your classic monster of legend, a Hunter, or a Neutral; being your ordinary human. This is why such a high volume of players is required for maximum game fun.

We usually have trouble finding more bodies and have played this with just two or three players and it has fireballed into failure. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves.

Shadow Hunters board game takes place in an evil forest, devoid of happiness and light. A place of loathing and seclusion. As players move about, the idea behind the game is to keep your identity a secret.

Shadows prey on the living, Hunters find and destroy the monsters of the night and the Neutrals are there to get in the way and learn about the secret world around them. Like a militant version of Guess Who, your job is to discover the identity of the other players.

There is no moving characters on a board or anything like that: this is a classic card game with flair. Players are seated around the board and play cards in order to “out” the other players and attack.

Unlike most games of its genre, Shadow Hunters is a board game jam-packed with contents. Sometimes the more items a game has the better, other times it just makes them more complicated. Yes, there is a rule book and it is easily understood.Along with the rules comes one board, 16 wood cylinders, a six-sided die and a four-sided die (this excited me, not many board games utilize dice outside of the 6- or 10-sideds.) Finally you also get 75 game cards which breaks down as so; ten Character Cards, six Area Cards, 16 Hermit Cards, 16 Black Cards, 16 White Cards and eight Player Cards. And that’s it.

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Pros and cons

Shadow Hunters board game is great for lots of people, which is the first of a few Pros. Just when you might be getting tired of moving small pewter minis around a game board, this game breaks from that classic gameplay. Also, very few board games promote role playing and this one does exactly that.

It’s like playing poker, you need a stern poker face in some instances. Finally this game is great for social interaction! If you want just a neat party game then this is for you.

The cons are few and far but still here. The rules are in-depth and until you get the hang of it, you may need a cheat sheet or some sort of condensed rules sheet near you. Also, the Shadows and Hunters are fun to play but it takes someone with incredible patience to play a Neutral; these characters are left with very little to do in the game. Even the advertisement bills them as “or a civilian, in the right circumstances, might claim victory.”

In bigger groups the Neutrals are played by people who show up late when all the Shadows and Hunters are taken. It’s the same as any game, everyone wants to be the race car in Monopoly and no one wants to be the thimble. Other than these two, the game doesn’t have that many faults.

The verdict

Shadow Hunters board game is a fun experience and it may surprise you. It looks daunting, but it’s easy when you get to grips with it. Try it, it’s fun!

Christian’s footprint is 3 ½ out of 5.