Pandemic is a classic cooperative board game😼 on the level of such household staples as Settlers of Catan and Ticket To Ride. It may be the ultimate cooperative experience for 2020 because it's a ga🐬me about working together to create a cure for a deadly virus. There are many variants and alternate versions of Pandemic, but one that should absolutely be on every board game shelf is Pandemic: Hot Zone - North America.
Hot Zone - North America takes the traditional Pandemic experience and min🌞iaturizes it into a convenient, travel-sized package. In doing so, the game changes in a couple of significant ways: it's a much quicker 🌱game, typically averaging no more than 30 minutes from setup to completion, and it streamlines the game down to its essential core mechanics. Whether you're experienced with the original Pandemic or not, Hot Zone - North America may just be the superior version of the game.
Big Game In A Tiny Box
The form factor of Hot Zone - North America is one of it's most appealing qualities. The 12"x 6"x 2" box small enough to slip into a backpack or shoulder bag and much easier to take with 𒁃you while tra𝓡veling. Once set up, the small game board fits even on a small surface like a coffee table or ottoman. All of the cards are miniature as well, which can make them more difficult to handle admittedly, but they just save so much space. Hot Zone - North America is a much more flexible game than standard Pandemic because it requires less space to play.
The game itself is essentially the same as Pandemic, just scaled down. There🐲 are only 3 viruses to cure instead of 4 and only a small handful of locations across North America to manage. You can still play with 4 players, but there are only 4 different roles to 🤡choose from (luckily, they're
the 4 most useful roles in regular Pandemic). With fewer diseases to cure aꦺnd fewer places to go, the games go a lot quicker.
Small Difference Change The Strategy
In Hot Zone - North America, there are no research centers to build. All cures must be created in Atlanta, so players wi🌄ll have to strategize and plan their route back to the middle of the map for every cure. Though there are 3 diseases it still takes 4 cards of the same color to create a cure, and the hand size is only 6 (down from 7 in regular Pandemic) so it's necessary to do more trading in this game, which is easier because there are fewer places to go. The design changes are smartly🦹 implemented and compliment that advanced pace of the game.
There's a new mechanic in Hot Zone called Crisis cards. These cards a semi-randomly seeded in the Player deck just like Epidemic cards and have an immediate effect. Some Crisis cards will advance the Infection Rate prematurely while others will stop you from doing any flight actions until the next Crisis card is pulled. The Crisis cards are an optional mechani𓆉c to increase the difficulty of the game, but after experimenting with them for several games, I 🌠prefer not to use them. The negative effects can ruin an otherwise winning strategy, and though randomness and problem solving is a big part of Pandemic, losing because of a random Crisis always felt unfair.
A Better Version Of Pandemic For Fewer Players
I actuꩵally came away from Hot Zone - North America thinking it's better than traditional Pandemic for 2 or 3-player games. The game has always been about planning your turns several moves ahead and working together to efficiently deal with problems, but Hot Zone compresses all of the action into a more confined play area that makes the teamwork feel more salient and meaningful. It isn't necessarily any more or less challenging than standard Pandemic, but just by nature of having shorter games, your team wꦜill reach the nail-biting finale quicker and more often. Sometimes regular Pandemic games can feel lost long before they're actually over but with Hot Zone - North America, it always seems to come down to the last turn.
As my collection grows I really appreciate games that take up less space without sacrificing depth and complexity. Hot Zone - North America is right in the sweet spot. It's a game I'm excited to bring to board game night with the family or play 2-player with my partner. The 30-minute playtime makes it easier to get quick games that don't requires as much commitment. I'll still play the full Pandemic in the future, but 🎃for now, Pandemic: Hot Zone - North America is definitely the superior Pandemic.
Pandemic: Hot Zone - North Aꦇmerica was provided to TheGamer for this review. Learn more about the game on the official .