Ravensburger Horrified Universal Monsters Board Game for Family Fun

what our customer say this product:

Powered by

1. P. Delux Verified Buyer – 11 June 2024

   Really enjoyable game once you learn the rules and strategies.

   Unlike other games, you can increase difficulty so has lots of replay value, but hard to engage younger ones first as you learn the rules, so i guess why its for ages 10 and up, but I played with younger ones, who enjoyed it.
   

2. Monkey Pox Verified Buyer – 16 December 2024

   OVERVIEW: Horrified is a 1-5 player cooperative family board game, created in 2019, that takes an hour or two to play. Players assume the roles of heroes attempting to rescue a village from famous Universal Studios monsters, reminiscent of their classic movies. Achieving success requires dedicated communication and cooperation to manage character actions efficiently and effectively toward common goals. The game mechanics are very easy to understand and the cooperative nature of the game allows for the rules to be taught as you play. Both the player and monster turns are quick to resolve, improving the overall pacing of each game. Difficulty can be adjusted by including more monsters in the game and character special abilities offer variety, lending to the replayability factor. The theme is globally relatable to all ages, and the mechanics are easy to understand. Horrified is a cooperative  gateway game with enough depth to satisfy a middle weight game enthusiast. COMPONENTS: The game board is bright and well marked, while the cards and dice are good quality as well. The player badges, tokens, and standees are thick cardboard, but the monster mats are much thinner and flimsy. The plastic miniatures are durable, with slightly less detail than on a common RPG miniature. I upgraded my personal copy of Horrified with Funko Universal Monster Minis (photos included) which improved the table presence dramatically. The miniatures included are serviceable, but shorter and less dramatic in comparison. SCALABILITY: Although the game allows for five players, any more than three can complicate strategies quickly. The turn pacing is relatively fast, but monsters act after every player. This can thrust a player into danger multiple times before having the ability to react. Solo play or two players is ideal, but three players can succeed with communication and dedication towards common goals. Difficulty is scaled by the number of monsters included in each game, adding to the complexity of  completing each monster’s mini game algorithm. SPECIAL ABILITY MECHANICS: Every character is differentiated by abilities unique to that character. These involve taking actions, moving heroes, moving villagers, and manipulating items. These abilities can be combined to have a dynamic impact on the success or failure of game objectives. Special abilities are a key part of Horrified’s game variability and replayability. MONSTER MECHANIC: The monsters win if they reach the end of the Terror Track by killing Villagers and putting heroes in the hospital, or by running out of cards in the Monster Deck. The Monster Deck involves cards which indicate items and villagers to place on the board, events, and monster actions. Mosters are activated by icons that show how far they move and how many attack dice they roll. Attack dice either hit with the monster’s unique attack, activate the monster’s unique power, or miss. It all fits on one card and makes for a quick Monster Phase, but you only have so many cards in the deck. One monster is always designated with the Frezy Token, which can change according to the Monster Card in play. The Frenzy monster receives additional actions indicated by the current Monster Card. ITEM MECHANIC: Red, blue, and yellow items fuel the algorithm of the game. They include pitchforks, garlic, and other thematic references, but the item color and item strength are what is important to the mechanics of each situation. These are blind drawn from a drawstring bag, according to the Monster Card in play. These items can be discarded to prevent monster attacks and used to defeat the monsters. Monster attacks that succeed in killing a villager or injuring a hero advance the Terror Track. VILLAGER MECHANIC: Monster cards will occasionally place Villagers, who come out into the monster infested streets heading for a specific destination. If the monsters start killing these people you will lose. Heros can escort the villagers to safety, but it can mean going out of your way to protect them. For their effort, every hero that guides a villager to their destination successfully receives a Perk Card. Perk cards offer special bonus actions that do not require action points from that character. These Perk Cards can be played during any player’s turn, but not during the monster phase. MONSTER MATS: The monsters are each driven by special rules on specific monster mats which include how they attack, their special attack, a mini game in which you advance upon the monster, and how to ultimately defeat them. The upper portion covers their Frenzy level, unique attack and special ability. The lower half includes their unique mini game that must be completed before the monster is confronted, and the conditions to finally defeat them. Players must navigate through the Black Lagoon to face the Creature in it’s lair. They must destroy four coffins to corner Dracula. Players must discover the cure then administer it to the Wolfman. They must prove the existence of the Invisible Man to the police before he can be apprehended. They must solve the Mummy’s sliding puzzle before he can be put to rest, and players must teach Frankenstein and the Bride about their humanity before they can fall in love and live in peace. PROS: This is a very inexpensive gateway cooperative game that is easy to learn, doesn’t take much time to set up, relatable to all ages, and is well worth the cost. It is ideal for solo play and comfortable with three players. Horrified provides an hour plus of classic movie entertainment without overstaying it’s welcome, yet has the versatility to offer replayability and difficulty modifications. It is the type of game that you can ask someone to help you defeat the monsters instead of challenging an opponent to a duel. It is quick to set up, easy to teach, and incredibly accessible to a wide range of players. CONS: There is very little negative I have to say about this game. The price is hard to beat considering the content and value. I think the miniatures included could be more impressive, but I personally compensated for that with Funko Universal Monster Minis. Some have argued that Horrified has a diminishing return after eliminating monsters becoming progressively easier towards the end of a game. However, the Frenzy mechanic and the diminishing Monster Deck effectively maintain pressure until the last turn in my experience. Four and five player games can be unforgiving as monsters have four or five opportunities to act between a player’s turns. The mechanics can be somewhat simplistic for some seasoned gamers, but still enjoyable on some level. CONCLUSION: Horrified is an invitation for non-gamers to join the hobby. It has a relatable theme, is easy to learn, easy to set up, and not competitive. You win or lose together as a team. Horrified is a balanced puzzle similar to Pandemic but reduced in scale and game pieces. With six monster options available (The Bride and Frankenstein work together) and seven character choices, it offers a fair amount of variety and replayability. A second stand alone version called Horrified: American Monsters was released, but it is not designed to combine with this version in any way. I understand that the two games are incredibly similar with different mini games for the monsters, so owning both is only practical for die hard fans. Obviously fewer people are familiar with the Chupacabra than the Wolf-man. The original version is the game you can convince your grandparents and your mom to play. Everybody relates to these monsters and quickly become invested in the theme. Aside from upgrading my monsters with the Funko Universal Monsters Minis, I also obtained the Funko Hero World Scooby-Doo Target exclusive miniatures to replace the player standees. I find that the miniatures increase both player relatability to the characters and the tactile experience overall. The original Horrified is an easy recommendation for any novice or light to medium weight cooperative or solo strategy game enthusiast. NOTE: The photos include Funko Universal Monster Minis and Funko Hero World Scooby-Doo Minis that I upgraded my personal copy of Horrified with and are not included with the original game.

   

3. Mervin Verified Buyer – 24 February 2025

   I am experience boardgamer with scythe, terraforming mars,gloomhaven in my collection but i must say this game is so enjoyable. The gameboard is beautiful and color monsters that i didnt even feel a need to paint the minatures like i usually do, great components but i sleeves the cards and laminated the monster board for it to last longer.
   After 15 plays i would say i mastered the game quite well and the solo mode is very thematic and fun to just pull out and have a fun 50 mins game. You cannot compare it to the strategy and complexity of heavy games, but for this price and quality, it is a must have game, easily my top 10 must have games in your collection. It appeals to wide group of gamers and non gamers and easy enough to teach to young ones as well.
   Play time is quick around less than 1 hour with multiple characters and monsters for variability and the setup is fast too.
   This will probably also be my go to game to introduce others into the boardgaming hobby as it is easy enough to teach and play.
   

4. Sean Murray Verified Buyer – 6 March 2025

   Got this as a birthday gift for 11 year old nephew. It was close to Halloween so the theme and timing were in sync. Played it with my brother and other nephew aged 6. My brother is pretty good at picking up game rules quickly so he helped teach us all how to play and we had fun! The game is complex but the rules were easy enough to grasp so the kids caught on quickly and even I did too. There are a lot of variables and you can pick different combinations of monsters as opponents. Each monster requires different methods and strategies to defeat them and you can raise difficulty by playing against more monsters as you get better at the game and seek more of a challenge. It was fun working together as a team and even though we started in the “easy” mode, it was not a slam dunk… it was definitely a challenge. Seemed to be a hit with my brother’s family and I think they will play it a lot.
   

5. April Verified Buyer – 7 March 2025

   My husband and I are big horror movie fans. We have purchased a few horror games and this is by far the best! It’s fast paced and feels a bit like if Clue and video games had a love child. As you move into “rooms” you can loot everything, there are NPCs you have to do side missions to protect. The players act as a team, strategizing together, sharing items, helping each other. It’s great. We won our first play-through on literally the last monster card left! I can’t wait to try some of the more complex monsters. Will be playing again tonight!
   

6. Scott P Verified Buyer – 10 April 2025

   After a few power outages I thought I would try to figure out what else I can do at home by myself without electricity that isn’t reading. I ended up looking up board games you can play solo and this is one that fell onto my radar. I’ve now played it by myself and with others and it’s a lot of fun! The Universal Monsters theme doesn’t hurt either, since I’m a fan of these old movies. Each monster has its own unique challenges, as do each of the playable characters. A lot of thought has definitely gone into this game. The board and pieces all look great and are good quality. It’s easy to learn for the most part. We had a question or 2 about a couple of minor things, but you pick it up pretty quickly as you play. Despite the theme, there’s nothing particularly scary about it, so I don’t see why it couldn’t be played with any age, as long as they can follow the instructions. Good replay value because you decide which monsters to include and how many. The difficulty level is also changeable for the same reason (too easy playing against 2 monsters? Try 3. Having trouble against 2? Try 1). Highly recommended!