Speaking of haunted houses, one of the most classic tropes in horror movies is just that. Archetypical movies like “House on Haunted Hill” and “Hausu” paved the way for modern incarnations like “The Conjuring,” “Crimson Peak,” and so many others. Representing far more than just location-based ghost stories, horror is filled with houses that have been haunted by demons, science experiments gone wrong, serial killers, and every manner of possessing spirit imaginable, like some sort of undead homeowners association. Heck, sometimes the house *itself* is the villain.
Avalon Hill’s “Betrayal at House on the Hill” is built on the foundations of those films and gives you a way to experience all the different aspects of the genre in a single game. “Betrayal at House on the Hill” is a tile-laying game where you will build the map of the house, adding room tiles as you explore this ridiculously haunted mansion. From the start of the game, your only goal will be to search the house and discover the creepy and unsettling secrets that lurk within, but at some unpredictable point, the Haunt will trigger, and only then will you find out what sort of challenge you and your friends are up against … and whether your fellow explorers are even who they claim to be.
The beauty of “Betrayal at House on the Hill” is that so much of it is randomized, so you almost never encounter the same scenario twice. One session might put the group up against a giant plant monster whose roots drag its victims into the basement; another could unleash a literal dragon for the party to placate; or maybe you’ll discover that one of your friends is a psycho slasher with a ring of invisibility, and it’s everyone for themselves as you try desperately to escape. No matter what kind of horror haunts the house, each time you play you’ll be in for a nightmarish treat, especially since you never quite know when the person sitting next to you might be the enemy you’ll have to face … or perhaps *your* next victim.