Search
Review of Pandemic: The Cure - Experimental Meds
Blurb from the publisher: 'Pandemic: The Cure - Experimental Meds.
Adds: two thirlling challenges to Pandemic: The Cure.
Other uses: eight new roles. Eleven new event cards. Three blank event cards.
The mutation: a fifth disease is spreading across the globe.
The hot zones: Epidemics make the regions more varied... and dangerous!
Directions: requires Pandemic: The Cure game. Can be played before, during or after a meal.'
What you get: Your USD 49,99 buys you Pandemic: The Cure - Experimental drugs, an expansion for the two to five player dice iteration of the cooperative game that can be played within thirty minutes and which won quite the accolades when it was published in 2014.
In addition to the game's rulebook that can also be downloaded free of charge from the company's website, the box contains the following items: 8 Player pawns, 8 Role cards, 40 Player dice in eight colours, 11 Event cards, 3 Blank Event cards, 12 Purple Infection dice, one Purple Cured Diseases card, one Mutation Reference card, one Sticker sheet, 11 Hot Zone dice for the Hot Zone Challenge and 5 Hot Zone Reference cards.
Gameplay: Experimental Meds brings reinforcements. Even though the number of players does not change, players can now add an Archivist, a Celebrity Activist, an Epidemiologist and another five specialists to their arsenal. Needless to say that each of them operates differently. As an example, the Field Director treats diseases in adjacent regions, while the Epidemiologist can bottle up two dice as samples instead of one with a single roll.
The new favourable events include Major Research Grant (helping players find a cure faster) and Emergency Conference (where one or more players may join a player in a region). Some events have persistent effects, and will last until the next player's turn.
There is now a fifth disease infecting people, and it is by far the most unpredictable and less easy to control. Its sides are not similar to the old diseases, in that two of the numbered sides now have either a multiplier (x2) or a subtracter (-1). The multiplier adds another die from the bag straight out. The subtracter takes a die from the bag and places it into the box. All results are cumulative. A cure can be found in the same way as with other diseases, the only difference being that x2 and -1 are actually counted as seen, i.e. each -1 reduces your roll, while x2 multiplies it.
The Hot Zones Challenge makes the game even harder. Each segment in the Infection track gets an Infection die allocated to it, as do certain regions with a high number of particular diseases. Every time an Epidemic occurs the die in the Hot Zone is rolled and placed in the region with the current player. The results of these dice can be either positive or negative, but they may be used only by players that are in the same region as the die. As an example, a biohazard sign may be rerolled, a die roll towards finding a cure may be modified positively, moving to a region might become more costly etc. If that region had already three Hot Zone dice, the dice outbreak as if they were diseases.
The strong points: Pandemic: The Cure is by far the fastest Pandemic game. For this reason it is probably my favourite. The new expansion manages something rather noteworthy: it increases the difficulty without necessarily increasing the game's duration. Modularity is at 100%. You can choose or omit any of the four new rule aspects or components that it contains. The material is well-marked, so you can mix and match even in consecutive games without any hassle whatsoever.
The new roles are interesting and exponentially increase the number of combinations, providing additional asymmetry to the game. Their themes and play are very interesting, while mostly retaining balance. There might be allusions of some minor power creep, yet I don't feel they are valid, due to the options that each role provides outside of the dice allocations. If players prefer to choose the roles than have them allocated semi-randomly, they will have to thoroughly think what they want to do. Compare the Field Director from this expansion to the Medic from the previous one. Do you want to remove more diseases from the board where you are, or to remove less, but effectively reach to half the board without even moving? If you think that the generalist compares poorly to the new characters, think again: she still rolls seven dice after all. I also liked how two of them (the Celebrity Activist and the Operations Experts) are recommended for three or more players on the actual card due to their support role. It shouldn't have taken more than a handful of plays to figure that out, but still.
The fifth disease is a blast, seeing how it works differently to the previous four when infecting regions. Is it random? Yes. Does it make the game harder? Significantly so. Should you prioritize the elimination of purple? Yes, you should, but always within a logical context.
The Hot Zones challenge is an interesting mechanic is that it is not a disease per se, yet it can be detrimental to your effort at times while helping you in others. It is rather situational, a gift that you might or might not want. Depending on how prudent your moves are, these dice might be the least used materials in the game.
I was feeling weird while defacing the game's regions with the stickers that alter the dice allocations on three of them. Yet, all regions are double sided, showing the same image twice. This means that should you decide to play future games without the Mutation aspect, you will simply need to turn those three from the other side. Cool!
The components and art are very well done, just like in the basic game. The box is one of the sturdiest I have ever perused. As expected, the dice attributed to diseases are bright and transparent, while the one indicating player actions are non-transparent, with more subdued colours.
I consider it a huge advantage that the components from this box will fight in the basic box along with that box's material. For space-starved gamers like me, one box in the library (and one in storage) is the only way to go.
The weak points: The present expansion does not alter Pandemic: The Cure's nature. It is now by definition a heavier game, slightly longer even, yet it is still more random than basic Pandemic. I find it extremely unlikely that a fan of P:tC will not enjoy the present expansion. On the contrary, I believe that it will attract gamers who the original game didn't catch as readily. There is no denying however that the four new aspects that the game introduces will not hold equal weight for everybody. As much as I enjoyed the Hot Zones Challenge, I admit that in my statistically non-relevant playtests they led towards the participants aiming for an equilibrium; a way for these green dice to be absolutely irrelevant to the board, and using them only when they would substantially increase our chances of winning. That made them rather static, metaphorically speaking, a weapon of limited use to be utilized only in an emergency. That isn't abnormal, mind you: they are supposed to be more detrimental than helpful. Yet, not everybody will be enthusiastic about their role.
As with the basic game, the materials are once again abstract. Some of the details from the basic game are lost, like how the role cards looked like badges, while now they are standard cards. Some of the colours of the new roles are incredibly close to the colours of the previous roles, e.g. the Field Director and the Dispatcher; make sure you do not mix their dice. Even though I am not colourblind, one of my players is and had some problems telling apart certain roles. The box is substantially bigger than it needed to be, namely as big as the box from the basic game. I wish these issues were better taken care off.
The list price for the expansion is as much as the basic game cost when it came out. That's... a lot. Frankly, this shouldn't have been higher than USD 30 to 35. Obviously, it can be found at a more reasonable price. Seeing how counterfeit goods are all over the place, pay attention where you are shopping from. If the price looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Conclusion: If one enjoys Pandemic: The Cure, he must own Pandemic: The Cure - Experimental Meds. It is undeniably expensive, but this can be taken care of by shopping around. It adds through both quality and quantity to the basic game, increasing its variety, complexity and challenge levels, while at the same time refreshing the gameplay and possible courses of action. Unless I am teaching the basic game to new recruits, I am very unlikely to play it without ot.
For more info on Pandemic: The Cure - Experimental Meds, visit the Z-Man Games website at http://zmangames.com/home.php.
Shameless plug: for more gaming news and content (including, for example, pictures of Pandemic: The Cure - Experimental Meds that I am unfortunately not able to upload on RPG.net for the time being) and to better keep track of my reviews, subscribe to my Antonios S facebook and twitter page.
