Games for Halloween

It’s that time of year again. The local thugs from the Children’s Mafia are ringing your doorbell demanding protection candy. It’s a never-ending stream and you have to fight to keep from saying that you already paid the last guy. As the night wears on, your will deteriorates. It’s becoming harder and harder to not point out to the little thugs that those goofy costumes aren’t fooling anyone. You know it’s not really a dragon at the door and the cops won’t buy it either. But you hand over the candy anyway because you’re not a fool.

You need something to take the edge off. Something to help you keep focused. Something to scare you more than the ruffians at your door. You need to play a game!

We’ve got your back. Here are three games I’ve found perfect for a great time on Halloween.

Last Night on Earth

Do you like zombies? Of course not. Nobody likes zombies. They smell, they try to eat your brains, and they have no sense of personal space. But everyone does like some good old fashioned zombie killing. Last Night on Earth is a game that tugs on the nostalgia for classic 80’s horror movies with modern boardgame mechanics. Most players take control of a character pulled straight from TVTropes. Their job is simple, survive and escape the zombie horde.

Instead of a standard cooperative game, à la Pandemic, where it’s players vs. the game, or a truly competitive game that is everyone for themselves, one player takes control of the zombies. They have some rules on how the zombies can behave to keep things balanced but they also can use their ingenuity to help the mindless horde get to those tasty brains.

The board itself is modular so that it is different each time you play. This helps keeps things fresh, And with zombies, freshness is always in short supply.

Betrayal at House on the Hill

Another game ostensibly in the cooperative genre. You take on the role of people exploring an old creepy house. It leans more into the Cthuhlu realm than more traditional monsters like zombies. Your characters definitely have to keep a hold of their sanity.

Unlike the zombie game, instead of one player controlling the evil things, the first part of the game is all about the players vs. the game. But then, partway through the game someone is revealed to be a traitor or has been possessed. The game now becomes us vs. them.

Its been a few years since I was able to play this as, unfortunately, the friends who owned the copy moved away. But for a while, it was a staple of Halloween nights and it was always cool to learn who was secretly evil this whole time. Like Last Night on Earth, it uses a modular board system so the house is different everytime. There are several scenarios to play which also helps make every play through different.

Atmosfear

This isn’t a game that I would classify as good exactly. But it is very thematic for Halloween. You could say it has a good… atmosphere…

Sorry.

This is a pretty old game and you can’t really buy it anymore. The version I played for several years with friends on Halloween used a DVD but I believe there were older versions that played off a VHS. I can’t imagine the VHS version being any good at all after maybe the first time. The DVD version, while still limited by that technology does allow for slightly randomized events.

The general idea is you are trying to acquire keys and conquer your fear in order to defeat the Gatekeeper. The Gatekeeper is a creepy looking guy who appears on your TV to taunt you and make your life more difficult. On the surface the whole thing is ridiculous and cheesy. But it’s this cheese which gives it life. It’s just so cheesy you can’t help but be amused.