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Pandemic Board Game (Base Game) | Cooperative Board Game for Adults and Family | Ages 8+ | 2 to 4 players | Average Playtime 45 minutes | Made by Z-Man Games
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Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. You can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition: no shipping charges
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Return this item for free
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Brand | Z-Man Games |
Material | Paper |
Theme | Strategy |
Genre | Strategy |
Number of Players | 2 to 4 players |
About this item
- STRATEGY GAME: Players must work together playing to their characters' strengths as they plan their strategy of eradicating the diseases before they overwhelm the world with ever-increasing outbreaks. A truly cooperative game where you win or lose together.
- COOPERATIVE BOARD GAME: Only through teamwork will you keep the world safe from outbreaks and epidemics. Your team must work together and plan carefully to stem the tide of infection while working toward finding the cures.
- WORK TOGETHER AND SAVE HUMANITY: Four diseases threaten the world, and your elite team of specialists must find a cure for each of them before it’s too late. Everyone must work together applying their unique character skills to benefit the team—and the world.
- GIFT FOR ADULTS AND TEENS: Pandemic is the perfect Christmas or birthday gift for anyone who loves a bit of problem solving! A perfect way to bring together friends and family, be sure to check out our full line of Pandemic games!
- NUMBER OF PLAYERS AND AVERAGE PLAYTIME: This easy to learn family and adult board game can be played with 2 to 4 players. The average playtime is 45 minutes.
Frequently bought together
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Product information
Product Dimensions | 12 x 8.6 x 1.7 inches |
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Item Weight | 2 pounds |
Country of Origin | China |
ASIN | B00A2HD40E |
Item model number | ZM7101 |
Manufacturer recommended age | 13 - 15 years |
Best Sellers Rank | #10,215 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games) #305 in Board Games (Toys & Games) |
Customer Reviews |
4.8 out of 5 stars |
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
Release date | September 4, 2017 |
Language | English |
Manufacturer | Publisher Services Inc (PSI) |
Warranty & Support
Feedback
Product Description
Product Description
Four diseases have broken out in the world and it is up to a team of specialists in various fields to find cures for these diseases before mankind is wiped out. Players must work together playing to their characters' strengths and planning their strategy of eradication before the diseases overwhelm the world with ever-increasing outbreaks. For example the operation specialist can build research stations which are needed to find cures for the diseases. The Scientist needs only 4 cards of a particular disease to cure it instead of the normal 5. But the diseases are out breaking fast and time is running out: The team must try to stem the tide of infection in diseased areas while also towards cures. A truly cooperative game where you all win or you all lose.
From the Manufacturer
Four diseases have broken out in the world and it is up to a team of specialists in various fields to find cures for these diseases before mankind is wiped out. Players must work together playing to their characters' strengths and planning their strategy of eradication before the diseases overwhelm the world with ever-increasing outbreaks. For example the Operation Specialist can build research stations which are needed to find cures for the diseases. The Scientist needs only 4 cards of a particular disease to cure it instead of the normal 5. But the diseases are out breaking fast and time is running out: the team must try to stem the tide of infection in diseased areas while also towards cures. A truly cooperative game where you all win or you all lose.
Important information
Legal Disclaimer
CALIFORNIA WARNING: This product may be subject to Prop 65 rules and regulations. - www.P65Warnings.ca.gov
From the brand
From the manufacturer
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Work together to save humanity in the 2008 bestselling cooperative board game! Four diseases threaten the world, and your elite team of specialists must find a cure for each of them before it’s too late. |
Travel around the world, treat local populations, and collect sets of City cards to complete research. Make sure to contain the spread—if there are too many outbreaks, you’ll lose the game. |
As you cure each disease, they become easier to treat and remove from the board. When you’ve cured all four diseases, your team wins the game! |
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Each player can take advantage of their role’s special abilities. Use your strengths to support your team’s strategy as you work to discover cures. |
All players start in Atlanta at the Center for Disease Control. Build research stations in other parts of the globe to travel and discover cures more efficiently! |
Use Event cards for their special one-time effects to help your team get ahead. And when you’re ready for a new challenge, adjust the game’s difficulty by adding more Epidemic cards to the deck. |
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Pandemic | Pandemic - Legacy Season 0 | Pandemic - Hot Zone - North America | Pandemic - The Cure | Pandemic - Reign of Cthulu | Pandemic - Fall of Rome | |
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Customer Reviews |
4.8 out of 5 stars
18,362
|
4.8 out of 5 stars
631
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4.6 out of 5 stars
570
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4.6 out of 5 stars
352
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4.8 out of 5 stars
1,218
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4.7 out of 5 stars
475
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Number of Players | 2-4 | 2-4 | 2-4 | 2-5 | 2-4 | 1-5 |
Average Playtime | 45 minutes | 60 minutes | 30 minutes | 30 minutes | 40 minutes | 45 minutes |
Recommended Player Age | 8 and up | 14 and up | 8 and up | 8 and up | 14 and up | 8 and up |
Game Objectives | Fight diseases | Fight diseases | Fight diseases | Fight diseases | Fight against the Darkness | Fight against Invading Hordes |
Cooperative Game | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Strategy Game | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Adventure Game | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Expansion Option | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
Play over the course of 1 year | ✓ |
What's in the box
Product guides and documents
Videos
Videos for this product
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A wonderful teamwork game to save the world!
Emily Wersig
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Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers like the quality, replay value, and fun of the game. For example, they mention it's well-machined, welcoming, and has great replay value. Some appreciate the complexity, and cooperative nature. That said, opinions are mixed on ease of winning, ease of use, and simplicity.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the game fun, welcoming, and easy to play. They say it's a great problem-solving game for young adults and is equally fun with two or more players. They also mention that the premise of the game is cool, exciting, and a good strategy game. Overall, customers find the physical game itself outstanding and addictive.
"...It’s fresh and exciting every time I play it, and I always enjoy upping the difficulty to see how much better I can do against the diseases...." Read more
"...It is equally fun with two or more players, although the more players, the more challenging it is...." Read more
"...Overall, this game is a lot of fun and very approachable for beginner board gamers like ourselves without being so simplistic that it's boring...." Read more
"The premise of the game is really cool (and relevant). You and your team of experts need to research the cure to four different colored viruses...." Read more
Customers find the game Pandemic to be a truly cooperative game that encourages teamwork. They say it's won by everyone working together. Customers also say the game is fun and teaches cooperation. They mention that the game has good player interaction and is a great bonding game for families.
"...So altogether, Pandemic is probably the single best cooperative board game that was ever created...." Read more
"...Because I keep coming back.InteractionInteraction is very high...." Read more
"...We both love the idea that it is cooperative, especially since we are noobs to the more serious/strategic type of board games...." Read more
"...are likely spiraling out of control and it's a great bonding experience to work together even if you can't beat the disease.3...." Read more
Customers like the quality of the game. They say the design is outstanding, with high-quality components. The materials used are really good, and the role cards are unique. The cards are sturdy, and come in a very sturdy box. The game is awesome, and never gets boring. Customers also say the item was not damaged from shipping, and that the components are much more thought-out.
"...Okay I've rambled enough. If you're on the edge, buy this game! It's awesome. Every game is different and it never gets boring...." Read more
"...popular strategic board games, I came across this one and it seemed promising...." Read more
"...4. The game board looks nice and is made of good quality materials...." Read more
"...𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧The high quality of the game board and all other components made all the difference.𝐒𝐞𝐭 𝐮𝐩Takes 10 mins...." Read more
Customers find the replay value of the game high. They say the random setup of diseases, events, and other things adds to the game's replayability tremendously. The game is unique, which also helps the replayability. The gameplay is fantastic and easy to play repeatedly.
"...I've had friends over 4 or 5 times now and the game feels fresh each time.2. I like that the game becomes more intense as time goes on...." Read more
"...The experience of gameplay is different every time, because the players draw roles that feature special abilities..." Read more
"...Pandemic is a fantastic example of that and has great replay value. However,𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬..." Read more
"...The fake is passable and playable as a game, but nowhere near the quality of the genuine game...." Read more
Customers find the game complex. They say it balances dumb luck with careful strategic planning, and requires players to strategize and make decisions together. They also say the game is highly engaging and requires complex thinking, patience, and doomsday scenarios. Customers also say it's good for problem-solving skills, and good for fun, planning, teamwork, and communication. They mention the rules are not overly complex but are a bit more involved than the more basic.
"...Pandemic also balances dumb luck with careful strategic planning, because it’s possible you’ll already have the cure for a disease within the first..." Read more
"...Overall Pandemic is a great game. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in trying out a collaborative style of game." Read more
"...It requires complex thinking, patience, and doomsday scenarios, which is difficult to gain for younger kids, so it is a bit restricted in my..." Read more
"...We can't say enough how much we enjoy playing this game; it makes you think, and, more importantly, you have to work together!..." Read more
Customers are mixed about the ease of use of the game. Some find the rules straightforward, and the game-play simple. They say it takes all of ten minutes to explain the game and the directions are on the box. Others however, say that the game is difficult to learn, and that the instructions are terrible.
"...The art direction is also very complimentary of the theme...." Read more
"...Learning CurveLow. It takes all of ten minutes to explain and there are directions on the board and the turn cards.Downtime..." Read more
"...Ugh! As you increase the number of players, the game gets more difficult...." Read more
"...Overall, this game is a lot of fun and very approachable for beginner board gamers like ourselves without being so simplistic that it's boring...." Read more
Customers are mixed about the ease of winning. Some mention that it's not easy enough to win every game, but not so difficult that it becomes too easy to keep winning. Others say that it can be quite challenging to win, especially on the hardest setting. Some say that the game is sophisticated and difficult to remember all the rules. Overall, opinions are mixed and it'd be best to read reviews carefully before making a purchase.
"...If you're on the edge, buy this game! It's awesome. Every game is different and it never gets boring...." Read more
"...It’s fun since it plays a little bit differently each time." Read more
"...Some reviewers have suggested that the game becomes too easy to win once you get the hang of it - to these players, I'd suggest using the maximum..." Read more
"...but we especially love that it's a different game every time...." Read more
Customers are mixed about the simplicity of the game. Some mention that it has lots of pieces and rules, making it confusing at first. However, the overall rules are simple enough that kids can definitely grasp it after a few lessons. However some customers feel that some of the rules are not readily apparent from the rule book, making them difficult to remember. Overall, the game requires a lot of foresight and strategy if you want to win.
"...After that, the rules became much clearer and we were able to start playing a game with the two of us...." Read more
"...𝐒𝐞𝐭 𝐮𝐩Takes 10 mins. There are quite a few elements to set up before beginning play, and various different cards to keep a track of but it is..." Read more
"...3. I like that you can put the game at varying difficulty levels...." Read more
"...The rules are simple but the offers a ton of depth and decision space, wanting you to keep playing until you have beaten the game in a session." Read more
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In Pandemic every player is given a special role-card with a nameless character on it who has a special power that will be vital to winning the game. The game board itself is a map of the world with 48 of the most important cities connected to one another by white lines to indicate paths for movement. The four diseases you are struggling to cure are represented by tiny different colored cubes that will inhabit these cities, slowly making the population sicker and sicker.
The players have two objectives that are vital to winning. If the entire supply of any one disease has been distributed across the board, the players loose. So part of the gameplay involves traveling to the world’s many cities to treat the inhabitants and removing disease cubes from those spaces. However, to overcome the diseases and win the game, players have a hand of different colored cards with the names of different cities on them. Players can travel greater distances by surrendering some of these cards, but the real goal is to visit one of the research centers on the board and surrender five cards of the same color to find a cure for one particular disease. Once the cures for all four diseases have been discovered, the players win the game.
Much of the game’s intrigue comes from your hand of cards because in almost every game players will be unsure if they want to use those cards for transportation or save them instead for finding a cure. The majority of player to player interaction involves passing and exchanging these cards around to create optimal hands, but even that will prove a challenge. One of the hardest rules for the players to follow is probably the one that won’t let you exchange a card unless the city printed on that card matches the one you’re currently in. Having one person playing as the Researcher can be the greatest benefit to your team, since they get to ignore that rule.
So on top of the player’s gameplay being very intriguing, the diseases also have an interesting gameplay style. The game’s difficulty is determined by how many Epidemic cards that you have shuffled into the Player Deck. The diseases themselves get a separate pile of cards called the Infection Deck. Each card from the Infection Deck has the name of a city where you will place one more disease cube at the end of each and every turn. Epidemic cards from the Player Deck are downright diabolical, because they will force you to take the discarded Infection cards and then put them back on top of the deck they came from. That means diseases will start targeting the same cities multiple times and players will be running back and forth trying to keep the diseases under control. Outbreaks are even worse, when there are already too many disease cubes on one city and the game will force you to put a cube on each connecting city instead. The mass mayhem and panic that starts to circulate around the game table is one of the most enjoyable things about Pandemic.
The gameplay is a truly flawless experience, in my opinion. Turns tend to happen very quickly and each player’s unique power will strongly encourage coordination between everyone. Pandemic also balances dumb luck with careful strategic planning, because it’s possible you’ll already have the cure for a disease within the first turn of the game. However, if players don’t coordination their efforts and manage their resources wisely that is the path to certain doom. But it’s not only the balance and the coordination that makes the gameplay perfect but also the right theme.
Playing as doctors and trying to do something as noble as fighting diseases is something that everybody in the world can truly admire. When the world is suffering from a pandemic it doesn’t matter what creed or nationality you are since everyone will pool their efforts to save humanity itself, hence the cooperative play. The art direction is also very complimentary of the theme. The game and the cards kind of remind me of a computer monitor that’s tracking the progress of each person and disease. It’s all very family friendly too, since there is no artwork portraying any gruesome pain or agony.
Now, to nitpick on some of the game’s very few shortcomings, there are probably a few people who won’t be convinced a tiny colored cube represents a disease very well. Personally, this has never distracted me from an enjoyable game. Also, the spaces that represent each city can also be very small when trying to fit disease cubes, a research station and player pawns all together into a circle half an inch across. But once again, this has never been a problem to me if the game board isn’t shaken too much.
So altogether, Pandemic is probably the single best cooperative board game that was ever created. It’s fresh and exciting every time I play it, and I always enjoy upping the difficulty to see how much better I can do against the diseases. Winning and loosing are both very fun if you work well together as a team. But even to this day, Pandemic is an example to other game designers trying to make cooperative board games, and it’s not very hard to see why when you pick it up and play it.
It’s true, I haven’t ever beat this rotten game and yet I keep coming back. Because one day I’ll win; in spite of all the wounds to my pride I’ve had to nurse, one day I’ll – I mean- we’ll win. I say we’ll because this is a co-operative game where you all work together against those nasty strains of no-doubt-human engineered beasties. Now, I know there are those of you who beat this every time you play, like I beat Shadows over Camelot every time I play, but I’ve invited those sorts to come play with me and they can barely stand the shame of losing with me.
To make it even worse, we only play with 4 epidemics. I feel like I’m at an AA meeting: “Hi my name is Kyle.”
“Hi Kyle” echoes the crowd.
“I… I suck at Pandemic.”
This is the part where you put your arm on my shoulder and tell me it’s going to be alright.
Game Play
This board is a handsome map of the world; only instead of country boards you see in Risk there is a red web of interconnected cities. Everyone starts in Atlanta were a research station is and you go from there. Each player plays a scientist that has a special ability: one can move others on their turn, one can give cards to another without the restrictions other players have and so on. The game also begins with 9 random cities around the world with varying degrees of infection (one to three stacked blocks). If a city would have a fourth block put on it (called an outbreak), it actually stays at three and the cities connected by the red web get a block. Isn’t that nice? It’s called a cascading outbreak. Such a pretty name. If you get 9 outbreaks in a game you lose. If you run out of blocks for a certain strain you lose, and if you haven’t cured all the strains before your white deck of cards runs out, you lose. I hate to be a negative Nancy, but there’s a lot of ways to lose this game. If, on the other hand, you are able to find cures for each strain, you win!
How do you do that? Well you get someone who has got 5 cards of the same color in their hand to a research station, that’s how. One of the players only needs four.
Every turn each player gets to do four actions. Picking up a cube off a city counts as one, so does moving between cities. You can charter flights with your cards, rather than use them for cures. You can build research stations and fly between those without expending a card, and a few other things. Then you draw cards that you think will help you, but can instead turn out to be epidemics. And you also draw cards for cities that get infected: usually this amounts to adding on square to the city’s pile. As the game progresses, more cards are drawn at a time to be infected. Oh, and when an epidemic happens, the cards for the cities that were infected get put back on the top of the draw pile. Oh dear.
I hate to tell you what to do because what do I know anyway?
Those of you who beat this all the time should tell me what to do. I understand that finding the cures is everything- lest you run out of time. Others say, make sure that you never have three on on e city at a time, as to avoid outbreaks.
Make sure that the medic is only clearing off stacks of infections, the dispatcher should be moving people so that don’t have to move themselves.
Again, I never win, so what do I know?
Theme
If it hasn’t been obvious, I am completely sucked in by the theme. There are similarities to other co-operative games especially Forbidden Island: Each character has special powers, you make moves for the team and then the board pushed you closer to defeat, that sort of thing. Forbidden Island also shares the shuffle the cards and put them back on top of the draw deck mechanic. I tell you this so that you won’t be surprised if you decide to add them both to your game closet, this is why I haven’t added Forbidden Island to mine, though I’ve played the game. While this adds to the evidence that the theme could be stripped out of the game, I don’t recall cascading flooding going on in Forbidden Island, or feeling like humanity is hanging in the balance, or being glad I don’t live anywhere in Eastern Europe. That is to say, I think the theme sticks.
Balance
I read about people who win all the time and needed the expansion to rouse any concern in them. But who can believe everything they read on the internet, I ask you? Just because I’ve never won though doesn’t mean that it’s not an enjoyable experience, mind you. Because I keep coming back.
Interaction
Interaction is very high. There’s all sort of collaborative discussion that goes on through this game.
Learning Curve
Low. It takes all of ten minutes to explain and there are directions on the board and the turn cards.
Downtime
Nill. You are all in it together! And you even get to move a guy in your turn.
What’s not to Like?
I actually know where some of these cities are on the map are but they all have these lines that go from the pin-pointed location to the circle where you actually place the blocks. That remains a bit annoying even after playing the game 10 times.
Collateral Endorsement
My four year old likes “The one where they get sick” We run around curing cities till the infection deck runs out. He feels a lot better about himself than the rage I feel playing by the real rules.
Actually, as I think about it, the first time I played this game I was at the home of some friends and I think we won. But I’m certain I have not won with my copy of the game. I’d say mine is jinxed, but we’ve played on another friends copy and lost there too. Also, I should say that a brother of mine lost two in a row and saw the writing on the wall in the third game and left the table, swearing off the game forever. You might consider your own resiliency before buying this game.