Board Game Review: Betrayal Legacy

This one’s going to be a tricky one to review, because there is so much to spoil with Betrayal Legacy.

Betrayal Legacy is based on Betrayal at House on the Hill, a survival horror board game, combined with Rob Daviau’s Legacy format. We’ll be talking about both of these separately, then combining them together to show you how the game works.

Betrayal Legacy’s basic mechanics are the same as its predecessor. You will move through the haunted manor, flipping over tiles to explore the building. When a room tile reveals a symbol such as an Omen or an Item, you will draw the respective card. When you reveal an Omen tile, you will roll the dice to determine whether The Haunt happens. When The Haunt happens, one player will be revealed to be The Traitor, and that’s when the game really gets interesting.

Legacy games take the knowledge that, frankly, you’re probably not going to play your board games more than a dozen times each, and uses that to its advantage. Each game is different, as each time you play, you will permanently alter the board. You will affix stickers to the board, you will tear up cards, and in doing so, you will forever change the game state. There are hidden surprises inside Legacy games, boxes with new content opened only when the game directs you.

So, now let’s talk about Betrayal Legacy. The game begins in 1666, with a small manor house. You will only have a few tiles to flip over and reveal. Each person will establish their family name by writing on their own sheet. Each session, the timeline moves forward with a new generation experiencing the horrors that came before. You will gain access to new tiles for new rooms, matching the eras and architectural styles of the time. The house will expand… and the haunt will grow worse, more terrifying.

Throughout the game you will be writing on different cards and tiles, identifying them as belonging to your household or naming them. You’ll be attaching stickers as directed. You’ll open up envelopes, finding new things within the box you hadn’t noticed before and will sometimes find the hauntings of previous games lingering behind. The prepainted models can be swapped out with different colored bases, so though you may have played a small child last game, you will play an adult descendent in your next. Where Betrayal at House on the Hill was telling a horror story, Betrayal Legacy is a novel or a TV series, with each game connected over time.

Again, I don’t want to spoil a ton. Hell, I don’t want to be spoiled! We’re only a single game in, and can’t wait to experience the horrors of the house ourselves. A spoiler-filled review will come along, someday, once we’ve completed the game.

If you like Betrayal at House on the Hill, or Legacy format games, you NEED to pick this one up. Luckily, we’ve still got a few days till Christmas!

Avalon Hill sent Dice Monkey a copy of Betrayal Legacy for review.