Brandon Thompson
United States
Louisville
Kentucky
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I've had my eye on Witch of Salem pretty much ever since I saw the page on the Geek a few years back. However, the number of lukewarm reviews kept me from immediately blowing my paycheck and picking it up. Unlike some people, I absolutely love the box art and it doesn't bother me a bit that the game's title does not reference the fact that the game is about Cthulhu.
I finally broke down and bought this game while at Gen Con. The components really are a work of art. The board is gorgeous and the bits all seem to fit the theme. As a bonus, there really aren't too many fiddly bits. Game setup takes about 5 minutes.
As this game has been around for some time now and other reviews have discussed at length how to play, I will omit any such explanation. Essentially, WOS is a cooperative game where the players are all racing to close portals before the evil Necron gathers enough power to summon a Cthulhu monster to our world.
First off, this game really is hard. It feels only slightly easier to me than Ghost Stories. As in Ghost Stories. players can really be hosed by a bad dice roll at a critical moment. This is not a deal breaker for me, as I believe players can plan around this sort of thing and I find a little bit of risk makes the game more thrilling.
If you're playing this game right, you'll have traded away any critical items before you have the chance to lose them in combat.
There is much talk on the forums here about the rule where you cannot share information regarding the portal tiles with your fellow players. I thought this would be an obnoxious rule, but in my play I found that it didn't really matter as each player designated himself responsible for certain buildings based on which artifact he currently had. The rule did not bother me at all as I simply had to put faith in my fellow players.
I have yet to win the game, but I have been tantalizingly close several times. Each time that I lose, it makes me want to go back and play again until I win. The more I play, the more experience I gain and the better I play the next game. WOS requires you to really plan ahead far in advance!
I feel like this game has received an unfair amount of criticism and I have no reservations recommending it to any fan of difficult co-operative games with a strong theme. Don't go into this thinking it's Arkham Horror, because it certainly is not. WOS is more like Ghost Stories, and if that's your bag, there is much fun to be had with this scary little box. 
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David Anderson
United States
seattle
Washington
Two Time Cancer Survivor - Never Give Up. Never Surrender. -Jason Nesmith from Galaxy Quest (1999 movie)
After losing my Father, Grandfather and childhood best friend to suicide, My message is simple: You are not alone.
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We've found that playing with open information does not ruin the game. It's only slightly easier. Open information adds more tactical choices, too. Try it both ways and see what you think.
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The neutral evil villain known as
United States
Brownsburg
Indiana
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agreed, open information has still not helped us win!!!
try it.
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Game Girl
United States
Virginia
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Open information is how we play. We win usually 1 in 6.
I like that it is faster to play and easier to set up. Sometimes I need my HP Lovecraft fix, but don't have all the time needed to play Arkham Horror.
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Peter J. Towns
Taiwan
New Taipei City
New Taipei City
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How's the learning curve? I have interest in this game, big time. I love the art style and the idea of a quirky, hard as nails eurogame version of Arkham Horror. Could be just the shakeup I need, and your review has pretty much settled that I'm going to give it a try.
That said, I really would love to hear from anyone about the learning curve. Thanks!
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David Anderson
United States
seattle
Washington
Two Time Cancer Survivor - Never Give Up. Never Surrender. -Jason Nesmith from Galaxy Quest (1999 movie)
After losing my Father, Grandfather and childhood best friend to suicide, My message is simple: You are not alone.
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If you mean "how hard it is to learn", I'd say it is very easy. The rules are fairly short and well written.
If you are wondering how hard is it to do well at tis game I'd say it is pretty merciless. It took my wife and I 6 plays before we finally won. It will take a few plays to figure out how to prioritize your actions to give yourselves a chance to win.
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I like that, unlike most purely cooperative board games, giving each player private information allows each individual player to make a unique contribution to the game. Cooperative board games with no hidden information can be played by one person controlling all four characters just as easily as by four different players, which does take away from the game to some extent.
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