Betrayal Legacy Review
/Decade after decade your families have experienced terrors and dealt with otherworldly horrors. Each family has its black marks, members who turned against the rest and gave in to their inner evil, yet only one thing remains consistent; The House. Betrayal Legacy is a multi-game storytelling experience that is based on the ever-popular Betrayal at House on the Hill. As you play through the game you will encounter new mechanics as well as twists in the story that will change the rest of the game. As this is the case, it is difficult to talk about the game without spoiling things that could happen, things that will happen, or things that will not happen. We are going to try to be as spoiler-free as we can but beware there will be some light spoilers below. If you are planning on playing this and do not want to be spoiled at all, then I would recommend stopping now.
However to give our summary so you know if it’s worth playing it simply boils down to this. If you love Betrayal at House on the Hill you will probably like this game. If you do not like Betrayal at House on the Hill, you are not going to like this game. If you have not played Betrayal, then we would highly recommend you go out and play that first.
SPOILER WARNING - Light Spoilers Ahead!
How to Play:
The basic mechanics at the beginning of this game are the same as in Betrayal at House on the Hill with a few exceptions. So to give some context lets go over a quick summary of how Betrayal is played before we start to call out what is consistently different. At the beginning of the game, each player takes control of a different character who all have different stat values for the four main stats; The physical stats of might and speed as well as the mental stats of knowledge and sanity. Everyone starts at the entrance to the house and then on your turn you will be able to move around the house to explore. If you go through a door to an undiscovered location you will flip over and place a room tile that matches the level of the house you are on. These different rooms might just be empty but they can also have special effects written on the tile or a symbol showing a card you must draw. Depending on the symbol you could draw a useful item card, a usually terrible and spooky event, or an ominous omen which is like an item just… eviler. Every time an omen is drawn you must roll some dice and see if the haunt (the second phase of the game) starts, with it being more likely with every omen card that is drawn.
Once the haunt starts everything changes. Depending on where the haunt starts a different scenario is played out. Most of the time this will reveal one player was a traitor the whole time and is now working against the rest of the group. Both the survivors and the traitor have their own scenario books to look up and read the rules of the scenario. Each team gets unique information, abilities, and potentially minions and only get to know what the book tells them about what the other team is doing. These scenarios can range from the ‘traitor’ being possessed by an evil spirit and trying to possess the rest of the survivors to the survivors are a bunch of detectives trying to catch the murderer (traitor) before he escapes. (Note: I just made these up but they sound like haunts that would happen in this game. I didn’t want to spoil anything). The game continues until one side completes the win objectives of their scenario.
Now some of the immediate differences between traditional Betrayal at House on the Hill and Betrayal Legacy (I am just looking at things different from the prologue and first game). First, a new area was added to the game, the outdoors where you can search around the front of the mansion. The way the haunt roll occurs is also different. In the traditional game, you would always roll 6 dice and the haunt would start if you rolled the number of omen cards drawn so far or lower. In Betrayal Legacy you now will roll a number of dice equal to how many omen cards have been drawn and it will start the haunt if you roll a 5 or higher. This is not always the case, as with the prologue mission you do not roll for the haunt at all and the game just tells you when to start. In Betrayal Legacy you can also add a sticker that represents your family once a game to some specific items cards to make it a family heirloom. Your heirlooms, when you have them, give specific effects and amplify the usefulness of that item. These stay from game to game and when you heirloom an item you also get to name it, which is fun.
Our thoughts:
Alright so before I get started I would like to clarify two things:
I enjoy Betrayal at House on the Hill but do think the game has its flaws.
We played Betrayal Legacy to its completion.
Betrayal Legacy at the end of the day is a great way to play Betrayal but it does not do much to fix any of the core issues Betrayal has. Adding the outdoors is a fun thing, I don’t think anyone is going to complain about more stuff, and it is nice as it changes the aesthetic around a bit. The change to how the haunt roll works helps to prevent the haunt from happening obscenely early, however, the haunt happening too early or too late is still definitely a problem as depending on the scenario it can really throw things off balance and make it really difficult for some people to win. As the game is played there are some new mechanics that come in that really do add some cool things, but even once they get added it seems like more often than not they just go unused and nothing really shakes up the game that much.
Betrayal Legacy tells a fairly interesting story but it feels like there is a lot of filler. Each game feels like its own self-contained story (much like the original game) with some loose ties to past and future games. There are a few that really play into the overarching story much, but there are definitely some interesting plot points and twists. Through who is the traitor, who lives or dies, and what items you make heirlooms you will create your own narrative for your families as you play which is fun but it would have been nice if there were more mechanical things that would affect your family in different ways. We were really hoping there would be some sort of special ability, buff, or even debuff for choices made that would persist through games but it just did not really ever happen.
The biggest problem in Betrayal has always been the rules, especially when dealing with the haunts, and this is no different. Almost every game you end up needing to relearn things when the haunt happens and sometimes that can just really suck. Mistakes will get made and when dealing with results that could have an effect on things in later games that can make people pretty salty afterward. Since almost every game there are hidden rules, agendas, and mechanics you are not sure what someone is doing or if they are doing it correctly. This is needed thematically for this game to function how it does, but it does not make it any less frustrating. Betrayal Legacy also has a decent amount that is not just in your control. If the Haunt happens at the wrong time, depending on where people are, who as what items, or who is the traitor it can be nigh impossible to win which just is not fun for everybody.
Conclusion:
Betrayal Legacy is a legacy game for Betrayal at House on the Hill fans, which is exactly what it should be. It does not fix any of the large issues Betrayal at House on the Hill has mechanically, but these same issues have not stopped people from loving that game either. We played it through and we had a great time, but we also were very frustrated at different times. Getting halfway through the game and seeing that you have virtually no chance to win but needing to play it out anyway is just not very fun. Some games feel very satisfying to win, but there were multiple games of this that ended and I felt like I had little to no control over how it would have changed. Some of the things added are pretty cool, like heirlooming items, but like a lot of this game, it can be just luck on whether or not it ends up mattering. You need to be able to not really care about how you do in this game and just enjoy the story each game plays, but if you cannot do that then you are just going to have a rough time.
Pros:
Each game plays very differently and tells an interesting spooky story.
Changes up enough about the game for veteran Betrayal fans to have a good time while keeping it easy enough for newer players.
Adds the ability to add your own little personality to the game making every copy of this a unique experience.
Cons:
Rules can be confusing which can be frustrating, especially since sometimes you cannot ask anyone questions about it or have them take a look.
Can be very luck-based, some games feel just out of your control.
Some of the mechanics added throughout play do not come up a lot.
TL;DR:
You might like Betrayal Legacy if you are a fan of Betrayal at House on the Hill, like horror stories and are looking for something pretty thematic, or looking for a nice progressive story to play with your friends over several games.
You might not like Betrayal Legacy if you are an overly competitive person, if you do not like arguing with people overrule clarifications, or don’t have a consistent group of people you can play this with.