You knew better than to follow your friends into the old house on the hill, but still you did anyway. Morbid curiosity drew you through the creaky, dilapidated doors and into the dark, dusty parlor. Armed with only a faintly glowing flashlight, you slowly explore room after room, each one stranger and creepier than the last. Out of the corner of your eye you think you saw something. Was it a deadly spectre or simply the moth-eaten drapes blowing in the wind? Then, you see a small, wooden chest in the corner of the room, it’s lid slightly ajar. Your instincts tell to approach and open the chest. Inside is a doll, a hideous, grotesque doll. It has a wide, maniacal grin, stringy hair, and huge, bulbous, bloody eyes. You pick up the doll and suddenly the house begins to quiver. You hear a monstrous roar coming from the depths of the house and a warm, sickly sweet wind sweeps into the room. Somehow, you have summoned a legion of undead demons bent on dragging the entire house down to Hell with your merry band inside. You and your friends grab anything they can find to use as a weapon and quickly devise a plan. You are not going down without a fight.

To anyone who has played the board game "Betrayal at House on the Hill", this is a typical evening. Yes, I’m talking about a board game. Despite the coming of video games, internet video streaming, and smart phones that can do both, board games simply refuse to go away. This is because (and maybe I’m a little crazy saying this) there are many board games that are actually a lot of fun. "Betrayal at House on the Hill" is a testament to really fun board games. Like a zombie, it will happily invade any family gathering or party and refuse to leave until it is joyously beaten back into the closet.

So, what exactly is this board game all about? The premise is simple. You and the other players move your token around the board to explore a creepy haunted house. The actual board you play on is made up of dozens of small room tiles that you place down as you explore. So, you sort of build the house as you play. This means that each time you play, the layout of the house is slightly different. Some rooms will trigger events which will force you to make a dice roll or a decision that can help or harm you. Other rooms may contain an item or weapon that will come in handy when you run across the horrors of the house. All of these events are narrated beautifully on the cards you draw. In fact, I would recommend that whenever you read an item or event card, that you do so in a cheesy, over-the-top voice for full effect.

However, there is more to this game than just wandering through a creepy mansion. As you explore, you will also discover “omens”. Omens are a type of special event that bring you closer to your doom. Discover enough omens and eventually you will trigger the “Haunt”. The “Haunt” is a scenario that drastically changes the game. Often, it will turn one of the players into a villain that the other players must defeat or introduce a horrifying monster or situation. There are fifty unique “Haunts” that can occur, each with their own story. All the haunts are dramatically explained in a separate booklet which you are urged not to read casually so as to avoid spoilers. This gives the game a huge amount of replayability. One night, you may be unraveling the secret of an ancient pharaoh’s curse, the other you may be fighting to survive an onslaught of carnivorous plants, and on another you may be trapped in a strange alien experiment.

While the game really is quite the adventure, it is not a perfect experience (at least not for everyone). "Betrayal at House on the Hill" is not a well-balanced, competitive game. Much of your success or failure is based on random dice rolls or card draws. Because of this, there will be moments when the game feels brutally unforgiving and even unfair. Most people play board games like Risk, Monopoly, and Chess because they enjoy a fair and balanced competition. You will not get this experience with "Betrayal at House on the Hill." The game is so randomized with the various scenarios and their unique rule sets that it is difficult, perhaps nearly impossible, to master the game’s mechanics through time and practice. You simply never know what the game will throw at you. People who are very competitive or who easily feel cheated will probably become quite frustrated with the game overall. In fact, the game proclaims itself to be a strategy game, but I find that to be slightly misleading. S

"Betrayal at House on the Hill" is more of a light role-playing experience and if you approach it as such, your expectations will be exceeded. It is a game that provides you the tools to live out your horror, B-movie fantasies (or fears) with a group of friends. It is all about events happening to you and most of the events that happen may kill you in a horrible, hilarious fashion. If you don’t worry too much about who wins or loses, then the game experience will be filled with hilarious surprises and bizarre moments that you will remember long after the game is over.

The contents of the game are sturdy and well-made. The artwork is colorful and creepy. There certainly are a lot of tokens and dice included, which may be intimidating at first, but really the game’s basic mechanics are quite simple. However, because the game has a different rule set for each scenario, you will inevitably run into questions that are not addressed in the small rule book provided. To help alleviate this issue, there is an official online errata that answers a lot of these more specific questions.

Overall, "Betrayal at House on the Hill" is a fantastic game to build your evening around and with Halloween just around the corner it would be perfect for any spooky party. The game is produced by Avalon Hill. So, if your curiosity has been piqued you can look at their website for more information. Amazon.com and BoardGameGeek.com are also great places to look if you're considering purchasing the game. Also, Geek and Sundry do a hilarious playthrough of it on their Youtube channel, TableTop. I should also mention that "Betrayal at House on the Hill" will be receiving its first large expansion, Widow's Walk, at the end of this October.

So, if you're feeling the itch of adventure this Halloween season, maybe "Betrayal at House on the Hill" will tear into it like a savage werewolf. If danger is your game, then invite over some friends, turn down the lights, and see what new horrors you'll discover in the creepy, old house on the hill.