Pandemic is the game I cannot keep off the table anywhere. After introducing it to friends, it always gets played multiple times in an evening. The fact that the game is so hard to beat (we haven't even attempted anything beyond the Normal game) makes it more of a challenge. We always get SOOOO close to curing the diseases, and the discussion that follows is a fascinating analysis of what could have happened and real-life application. The variability of the different roles from game to game keep it fresh, and we have all learned to react quickly any time there are two cities with three disease cubes next to each other -- when an epidemic happens in one, the game comes to a fast end as you watch the disease spread out of control. The limited time of the game is another plus as very few of our games have lasted longer than an hour.

Others have explained the rules well, but I have found that all I need to do is walk players through a few rounds and they understand the game totally. This is the most successful game I have ever used at school as a high school teacher. Students will hang around to play it and borrow it for one more try to crack it. I have begun keeping a gaming log in the box with the game so players can record who played, what roles they were, and any comments they had win or lose. One measure of replayability is fact that I have had to print many more pages to add to the log.

This is a definite winner!

My wife and I stopped by the Z-Man table at Prezcon 2009 (a yearly board game con in Charlottesville, VA) and purchased this game. After reading the rules I became instantly fascinated by the game. I knew that if it played as well as it sounded we were in for a real treat. I will not go into the details of the game, others have already done that, but I will tell you this… Pandemic is the FIRST game we have ever purchased that after the initial play we literally could not put it away. We played it three times back to back the first time out of the box… it was an instant obsession (I’ve never played a new game three times back to back before). For all three plays we came very close to winning… but as the saying says “close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades”. The third loss was the most painful. We (three of us) were so very sure we were going to be victorious… but two chain-reaction breakouts snuck up on us and stole the victory away. Pandemic is well worth the money, the components are of high quality, it is great fun to play, and it appears to have excellent replay value. This is a game that you will play often… once the “bug” infects you after the first play.

I played this game at a friend's house, and now I can't stop thinking about it and REALLY want it for my birthday! It's an intelligent game that requires high strategy from it's players. The best part is that you work as a team to beat the game--its not about who wins, its about beating the game. I've played it four times now, and the game won twice! It is NOT easy! You really, really have to work together to beat it. It's very clever the way that its set up, and I like the sciency aspect of it. It does require a lot of rule-reading in the beginning -- it took us about two hours to read through the rules and play one game of it. But once you get it, it's addictive. Great fun!