A brand new release from Z-Man Games and Matt Leacock and a must have for all fans of the Pandemic game franchise. As many avid gamers will already know, the original Pandemic game was released some years ago and has been a huge hit ever since.
Z-Man Games have themselves described the new release as "Pandemic Hot Zone North America is the first in a series of smaller, more portable versions of the beloved 2008 cooperative game." This new, smaller game is also available as a downloadable version to print and play.
There are rumours the announcement of this release was first leaked back in February 2020, ironically just before the current world crisis of Coronavirus (Covid-19) became bigger and began to take over the world as a real life pandemic. Some may feel the timing of this release to be totally apt while others may have been questioning the decision. However you may feel about this matter, it certainly doesn't affect the enjoyment you will experience during game play.
My partner and I purchased our copy of Pandemic Hot Zone North America from a good friend who has their own online gaming store Ed's Gaming Emporium and you can find this as well as many other types of games and accessories on his website www.eds-gaming-emporium.com
May I just add that this is not a paid promotion nor have we here at The Realview Room even requested to do so. Our delivery was also affordable and very quick, so a thumbs up for Ed's Gaming Emporium for a friendly, efficient and professional service. Thanks Ed!
So back to the main topic of this review. Pandemic Hot Zone North America as I have already mentioned is a smaller version of the previous versions of the pandemic games. I believe that the main idea of the game is yes to introduce a new story with a new location, but to also add a travel element to it too. The game box and some of it's contents are smaller in size so it is ideal for gaming on the go. However it may not be a good idea to set it up on a car ride or possibly a train journey due to the amount of game pieces.
What's included?
So what will you be receiving in your purchase? Let's look into the game's contents. In the box you will find 1 game board, 70 cards which include character/role cards, reference cards, location cards, epidemic cards, crisis cards and key items. The game also contains 48 disease cubes in blue, red and yellow, as well as three cure vials in the same corresponding colours, character pawns, an outbreak marker, and an infection rate marker. For a game that's small on size it sure is packed with lots of game pieces.
Game Play
Pandemic Hot Zone North America is a 2-4 player game recommended for players aged 8 years and upwards. The game takes roughly 30 minutes to play which makes it considerably shorter than the original and many other expansions also. I believe that when my partner and I played it for the first time earlier this evening, we had actually completed it in around 25 minutes. For those of you that aren't familiar with the game play of the Pandemic games, the aim of the game is to work as a team in roles of skilled professionals to try to reduce the spread of multiple dangerous viruses and to prevent further outbreaks leading into other countries or major cities. In this version of Hot Zone North America this is the official game description "Disease threatens North America and only you can stop it! Play with your teammates against the game to prevent outbreaks, find cures, and win or lose together"
This version plays pretty much the same as the previous games with just a few little tweaks. So here are the differences.
The four roles won't be new to fans of the Pandemic games. There is a researcher, a medic, a dispatcher and a generalist. Each role card has special skills or abilities which only they can utilise. However the researcher and dispatcher roles have been slightly altered.
Instead of having four diseases there are just three in this version which unlike previous versions this time cannot be eradicated completely.
There is just ONE resarch station rather than you as the player having to place multiple research stations all over the game board map to cure these diseases.
When it comes to the game's initial setup, the number of cards drawn is a little different.
To discover a cure players only need to collect four cards of the same colour instead of the usual five.
There are only three epidemic cards in this game, but the rules do state that all three must be played in every single play through.
And lastly there is also an addition of Crisis cards that can be included into your game to increase the difficulty level. It is advised that while you are getting used to the game that you put these cards to one side and do not include them until you get a better idea of how to play. So ideally playing without the Crisis cards maybe better for someone that has not played any of the Pandemic games before.
The game play itself is pretty easy to pick up. Each player in turn can take up to 4 actions which can be either of the following:
Drive or ferry - Esentially moving your pawn to a city that is connected by a line o the game board to the city that your pawn is currently in.
Direct flight - Discard a city card from your hand to move immediately to the city shown on that card.
Charter Flight - Discard the city card from your hand that shows the city that you are in to move to any city.
Treat Disease - Remove 1 disease cube from your city, returning it to the supply pile.
Share Knowledge - If there is another player in your city and both players agree, you can do one of the following: give that city card matching your city to that player or take the city card matching your city from that player.
Discover a cure - you must be in Atlanta to do this action. A player must collect 4 location cards of the same colour to cure disease.
For the full rules of this game, you will be able to find them in the information leaflet that comes with the game or alternatively you can find them online via a QR code provided.
Our Thoughts
Here at The Realview Room, the whole team absolutely love the Pandemic games! So the thought of purchasing and trying out a brand new release was quite exciting. One of the first great things about this game is the price tag. The Pandemic games do tend to be on the mid to high range of the gaming scale when it comes to the price. They usually average between £25 - £60 depending on which version you buy and of course where you choose to purchase it from, however Hot Zone North America is relatively inexpensive. My partner had purchased ours for less than £20, which in all honesty is pretty damn decent considering the amount of contents that are included in the box. The game maybe smaller with maybe just a few less pieces but that doesn't compromise game play much at all. This is something we were really impressed with. Contradicting that, I did feel like I was expecting a few more changes to the aspect of the game itself, although we have yet to play the game with the added crisis cards so this is one that I cannot pass judgement on quite yet as I'd like to give it a fair chance.
The gameplay time, as I mentioned earlier in this article, was also quite accurate as it depicts an average of a 30 minute game and we had finished it this evening in around 25 minutes, so pretty much spot on there.
Another small issue I had with this game was that we weren't introduced to any new character roles, just slightly altered ones that we have seen and played with before. It would have been nice to see some new characters.
All in all, Pandemic Hot Zone North America is a decent little game, it is one for beginners and experienced board gamers alike to enjoy and have fun with while getting the brain cogs turning to think of strategic moves. I feel that this first game of the smaller game series is probably best suited to gamers that may be new to the world of Pandemic and perfect for taking almost anywhere with you. It's fun, it's familiar, small, affordable and enjoyable
The Realview Room team always gives marks out of 5 for every item that we review, so despite a couple of niggles from me I think Pandemic Hot Zone North America deserves a decent score of 3.5 stars out of 5.
It's definitely one to check out and great fun to play. If you would like to see our team take part in a quick gameplay video then please feel free to let us know via our email therealviewroom@outlook.com or contact us via our facebook page or our facebook group The Realview Roomies.
Thanks for reading and happy gaming everyone!
Kim 😊
Comments