by: Michael Barnes

It’s Halloween, and there’s a new edition of Avalon Hill’s cult classic BETRAYAL AT THE HOUSE ON THE HILL on store shelves. I originally reviewed the first edition back in 2005 for the now-defunct Games International and I gave it a good score despite some glitchy flubs in its content that resulted in the game needing an extensive FAQ to avoid crashing. And I never could get over the fact that the Underground Lake was on the second floor.

But the game has persevered over the years, becoming something of a collector’s item and fetching high prices on eBay. It’s one of those games that become “that” game for some people…as in “remember ‘that’ game” or “I want to play ‘that’ game again”. At my store, Atlanta Game Factory, I would often see tables full of people playing BETRAYAL all night long. The second edition is more or less a straight reprint but it fixes a lot of the original game’s problems and offers some new content for longtime players. I’m happy to report that if you’re in the market for a fun, fairly light game to play for your spooky goings-on this weekend that won’t chase away girls or non-gamers, this game may be your best bet.

The game starts out with the investigators cooperatively exploring a mysterious house by laying tiles as they reveal rooms, encounter terrifying events, and collect strange Omens. Flavor text abounds, and you’ve really got to read your cards out loud in an ominous voice to get the most out of the game. Folks that draw a card and enact the effect without telling the table what happened should be branded as fun murderers and asked to play something else. There are some very light RPG elements as each character has four stats that can change over the course of the game and equipment can be gathered to augment their abilities. Some rooms have special effects and the house layout is different every game so the simple, tangible fun of building a haunted house sort of eases players into the process.

Every time a player draws an Omen card, a die roll is made to check to see if the Haunt begins. When the result is less than the number of Omens the roller has drawn, a table cross-referencing the room and the last drawn Omen is consulted to determine what exactly is bedeviling the house and which of the investigators is on the bad guys’ side. This is when the game goes a little crazy.

The Traitor is given one scenario book and the Survivors take one specific to their team. These books describe to each side what their particular objectives or victory conditions are, some of which are secret. There are fifty mostly good to great horror scenarios ranging from Lovecraftian horror to ghostly brides and zombies. Even Count Dracula and Frankenstein’s Monster put in appearances. Unfortunately, some of the Haunts are decidedly better than others so some games wind up being merely decent while others emerge as thrilling horror epics. The random nature of when and where the Haunt happens can also introduce some issues and some situations where the balance is completely screwed up, which might irritate the more deterministic, luck-averse gamer who likely shouldn’t be playing this game anyway. That being said, the range of special rules, objectives, and narrative available ensure that there is plenty of replayability and since it’s only about 45-60 minutes with minimal setup, it’s not too taxing to play it again. A huge part of the fun of the game is having no idea what you’ll be encountering when you start- or if you’ll be the one possessed, rendered insane, or otherwise driven to evil.

It’s a gimmick, but it’s one that totally works and it creates a cool atmosphere of uncertainty and suspense—qualities that are often lacking in horror games. You won’t get scared or have nightmares after playing it, but at least it offers a surprise beyond card draws or die rolls. Each game tells a very distinct narrative and I think part of the appeal the game has had over the years is that it’s almost an omnibus of horror stories. Stripping away the theme and setting reveals that BETRAYAL is really a very simple dungeon crawl, but the horror context manages to create something very different that sets it apart from its competition.

Aside from numerous bug fixes and text cleanups- all of which are very welcome and almost eliminate the need for any further documentation- the new edition eliminates some of the more problematic Haunts. The old version also had several scenarios that required specific counters, but these have been retooled to use simplified, generic tokens. This is a smart, streamlining move but I do miss the old “Kidneys” chit. There are eight completely new Haunts as well as a couple that have a new “hidden traitor” mechanic that sort of retools the betrayal element.

I’m glad to see such an accessible and fun-to-play game back in print, but I think a huge opportunity was missed to improve the component quality and graphic collateral of the game. The box art is awesome, and is a tremendous improvement over the first edition. But every other component apart from the new generic counters is exactly the same as the old edition. It doesn’t look bad and some elements like the card style are quite nice, but compared to some of the other games on the shelves these days it looks a little dated and old-fashioned.