Overview
Daviau and Leacock's collaboration took the co-op puzzle of Pandemic. Cure four diseases before the world falls apart. And layered on a permanent story: an escalating global crisis over January to December, unlocked one month at a time, with mechanics changing under you as the year progresses. Characters get personal scars. Cities fall permanently to chaos. The rulebook grows.
The playbook is deliberately, carefully broken and rebuilt. Something you thought was a bug on session three turns out to be a mechanic in session seven. A card you saw in session one becomes central in session ten. It is one of the few games I have ever played that trusts the player to sit with a rule for a month before revealing what it means.
The trade-off is total. Pandemic Legacy plays once. You cannot rewind, resell, or replay it. The components are cut, marked and rewritten as you go. If your group cannot commit to finishing (twelve sessions minimum, typically eighteen), do not buy it. If they can, this is one of the most memorable experiences the hobby produces.
