My Take on "Betrayal at House on the Hill"

I kept seeing this game at the cons I had been attending a couple of years ago. Betrayal at House on the Hill. My attention was always drawn to it, because 1.) I love horror films, books, shows and anything to do with the genre. 2.) The game appeared to be a dungeon crawl, I totally dig that. I was a big time RPG’er. -and- 3.) The quality of the game that I saw being played looked great.

Yet, I passed this game by several times.

Some of the reasons that I kept buying other games before buying Betrayal at House on the Hill were:
- On further inspection of the components, I saw that the character cards had slider bars to manage your character’s statistics. I’m not a big fan of slider bars. They eventually get loose and it is difficult to keep your stats straight if you mishandle your character card.
- Holy freaking cardboard chit-fest! Not a huge problem, but the box storage looked, well, er…non-existent. The box has a six-compartment divider in it that does anything but divide those chits. Nothing a Plano tackle box or plastic baggies couldn’t solve.
- My wife hates horror. As my chief game-playing partner, I would have to look elsewhere to get playtime in on this game.
- Shouldn’t the title of the game read, "Betrayal at THE House on the Hill" or "Betrayal at A House on the Hill" or "Betrayal at SOME House on the Hill", etc.? I just thought that the title was missing something.

OK, so I obviously bought the game. What did it? Ted Cheatham. That man could sell underwear to Scotsmen. I heard an audio review, by Ted, for Betrayal at House on the Hill. Ted has such energy and enthusiasm for whatever he’s presenting, that it made me forget all of the reasons that I wasn’t impressed enough to go out and buy it forthwith.

I bought it, read the rules and cajoled my wife into playing it with my son and I. It took a lot of dishwashing and dusting to get her to play this with me, so keep that in perspective. I have no shame. I will bust my hump to get my wife to play games that she’s not too keen on playing.

What this game is lacking:
- For a horror game Betrayal is pretty dull. The game play is less than Carcassonne. LESS than Carcassonne. As if you thought that was even possible?! It is. Betrayal is a bit dry. Move, lay a tile, read an encounter. Wash, rinse, repeat until the Haunt begins. Yawn. Action and thrills are few and far between.
- There are a lot of errors, misprints and vagaries in this game and its rulebooks. More fun than the game is the interpretations of the Haunt parameters as read by the players. It’s like solving a Holmsian mystery.
- Mentioned above, the box storage and the character cards are a bit…myeh. Another problem with the components are the chits. There is a boatload of them. Sifting through them to find the specific ones can be a bit anticlimactic. Like getting your zipper stuck shut on your wedding night.
- There are big tokens included within the game that represent big monsters, main bad guys or bosses (whichever term you prefer.) Tokens? Come on, Avalon Hill, you couldn’t have sprung for a couple more minis?!
- Underground Lake.

OK, I still enjoy this game occasionally. Yes, despite all of the gripes listed above, I like this game. Why?
- The theme of this game is incredible! This game stays true to all of the ghost stories, spooky tales and monster movies that I grew up on. Betrayal doesn’t candy coat it either. There is blood, disturbing descriptive imagery and edgy realism. Some kids tender sensitivities may not be suited for Betrayal. Play with caution. We play with our son, but that’s only because he’s already scarred for life because he has us for parents.
- Some of the components leave a lot to be desired, but they are in full color and printed on sturdy stock.
- This is a tile-laying dungeon crawl; therefore there are infinite possibilities. The replayability of this game is high. But only based on the number of Haunt scenarios and tile layout. The replayability is also low, due to the dryness of the game play.
- The Haunt. This is the real game behind Betrayal at House on the Hill. At some point in the game a traitor is revealed, without any prior knowledge of the traitor having been the traitor. All of a sudden, one of your friends goes bad. Then the traitor reads some objectives and the remaining players read their objectives and either the traitor wins the game or the remaining players win by completing their objectives, respectively. This is where the action begins. Sometimes The Haunt can be over pretty fast (see the above reference to one’s wedding night) and that too can be pretty anticlimactic. Other times the Haunt can go on for a bit and that’s where the satisfaction lies. Another aspect of The Haunt, that I like, is the fact that players (non-traitors and the traitor, that is) in this game have opposing or differing winning conditions. This is a nice change. There are times when all of the games that have like winning conditions get a bit dull and I need to play a game that has players going for different goals. Betrayal scratches this itch.
- The player’s pawns. I really like the pawns in this game. There are an equal number of male and female pawns. Wow! Is chauvinism in gaming dead? The miniatures are fully painted and well sculpted.

Betrayal at House on the Hill is an OK game. Speaking to the general public, it’s worth a play or two. I would definitely try this game before you buy it. Personally, I like to break it out in October or on a stormy night. Other than those times, the game stays on my shelf. I’d like to play this game more, but more than that I’d like this game to be more than it is.