I am a massive Lovecraft fan, such that my obsession also extends (occasionally) into my professional life. Over the years, I have tended to purchase virtually anything and everything gaming-related with a Lovecraft theme. In recent years, I've been much more cautious in this regard, as slapping a Lovecraft/Cthulhu theme on stuff does not itself a great game make. Being at the forefront of Lovecraftian boardgaming - producing the reboot of Richard Launius' Arkham Horror (and its many expansion) - Fantasy Flight Games can usually be trusted in this regard. Indeed, for a time Arkham Horror which seemed to be FFG's signature product and, I believe, one of the company's biggest sellers. Despite it being a great game, like Lovecraft's Great Old Ones, Arkham Horror has transfigured into something of a bloated monstrosity. Whilst I love the game both in solitaire and co-op mode, the older I get, the more loath I am to play it given the time it usually eats up (about 5-6 hours last time it hit my table). Indeed, whilst FFG are still reprinting the AH, they seem to have focused their energy on expanding their stable of Lovecraft games with new offerings rather than additional product for AH (which hasn't seen a new expansion for a couple of years). The most recent edition to this stable being of course Eldritch Horror: a wonderfully streamlined and globe-trotting spin on the older game, and whose core mechanics are similar to Arkham Horror.
In Eldritch Horror, players take the role of investigators, whose job it is to halt the return of one of the Ancient Ones (such as Azathoth, Cthulhu or Yog-Sothoth) whilst retaining life and sanity in the process. Eldritch Horror differs somewhat from AH in that players have to solve three mystery cards to defeat the Ancient One threat, rather than closing gates to other worlds (although this remains a helpful strategy - see below). As per AH, EH also sports a doom track, which various events (usually the opening of gateways to various horrible dimensions) will push forward from turn to turn. Should the doom track reach zero, the Ancient One awakens and usually bad things happen - most likely resulting in the players loosing. Various other mechanisms (usually driven by cards that are revealed throughout the game) can also cause the players to lose if they do not fulfil certain objectives within a given timeframe. In the game I played, a card was revealed which forced my characters to stop a Tcho-Tcho cult within a certain number of terms or otherwise I would lose. This, of course, causes interruptions to players seeking to solve the mystery cards before the doom track reaches its end.
If Arkham Horror tries to represent in boardgame terms a typical Call of Cthulhu rpg scenario, Eldritch Horror seeks to replicate a typical world-spanning CoC campaign - but does it in a much more streamlined manner than its precursor.
Eldritch Horror set up in preparation for my first game.
The two investigators I chose for my first game: Mark Harrigan and Leo Anderson: manly men doing manly things...
Pimping out my game using FFG dice (including Blessed and Cursed dice - not shown here) and Litko stands for gates and monsters. I also have an FFG dice bag (see the photo above) with big green tentacles on the front from which monster counters are randomly drawn. Oh, and a dice cup with a supposed 'Elder Sign' emblazoned on it as per the dice bag shown here: uncanonically, a star, not a tree...
For goodness sake, people, this is what an Elder Sign looks like!
Rather than provide a detailed review of gameplay, I will instead summarise (probably already evident from the above) what I think makes this the better game comparable to the otherwise excellent Arkham Horror. Firstly, it has a slightly smaller footprint and set up time. Whilst the board is of a good size and, as per usual for FFG, the gaming components are of the highest quality, I can fit this on the desk in my study (which I can't with AH). Gameplay is far more streamlined: there are fewer phases/stages to go through, such that each turn runs fairly quickly and fluidly. As a consequence, the game takes significantly less time to play. Notably, the processes of closing open gateways (one of the ways of stopping the doom track from advancing) only takes a single turn - it could take up to three turns in AH. My first play - using two investigators - lasted two hours, including set up time: a massive difference in comparison to AH. Bearing in mind, this first game was also a learning game, so I would anticipate this taking maybe 90 minutes on average (although more players/investigators will of course expand the typical length of a game). Like AH, EH also scales to the number of investigators used. Being fully co-operative, it also works extremely well as a solitaire game. Whilst I lost my first game, it was quite close - and this to me is the mark of a good solitaire or co-operative - as per my comments about the LotR card game, if the game system likes to beat you with a heavy stick very early on, it tends to be a frustrating and not terribly enjoyable experience. Like AH, EH is dripping with theme and colour, and does replicate the feel of a desperate race against time in order to stop the end of the world - as per the previous point, losing the game regularly is not a issue for me as long as it 'feels' winnable and that the journey to the endpoint was narratively immersive (which for me, EH is). The rules are also somewhat shorter and slightly better organised that those of AH.
Given that Arkham Horror has not seen much love in recent years, my suspicion is that Eldritch Horror may emerge as AH's 'replacement' - at least until FFG get around to doing a new (and hopefully more streamlined) version of the older game. Overall, this is highly recommended - especially if you are a Lovecraft fan. On the Gaming Self-Abuse Scale (tm), this scores a whopping 9/10.
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