Mansions of Madness: Second Edition Review

Intro

Fantasy Flight Games took a bold swing when they reimagined Mansions of Madness in 2016, transforming their sprawling horror board game into something sleeker and more accessible. This cooperative adventure drops one to five players into the twisted world of H.P. Lovecraft's cosmic horror, where investigators explore creepy mansions, solve puzzles, and battle otherworldly creatures lurking in the shadows.

What sets this second edition apart is its companion app that acts as your dungeon master, handling all the fiddly behind-the-scenes work while you focus on the fun stuff. With sessions typically running around three hours and a complexity that sits comfortably in the medium range, it's earned solid ratings of 7.9 out of 10 from the board gaming community. The sweet spot seems to be three or four players, though it works surprisingly well solo too.

How It Plays

Each game starts with choosing one of several scenarios in the app, which then tells you which tiles to use for your mansion layout and where to place your investigators. The app becomes your storyteller, revealing rooms as you explore, spawning monsters when things get tense, and tracking all the variables that would normally require a human game master.

Your turn follows a simple rhythm: move around the mansion, interact with objects or people, and maybe perform actions like attacking monsters or solving puzzles. The dice-based skill checks feel satisfying without being overwhelming, and your investigator's unique abilities give each character a distinct flavor. When you examine a bookshelf or try to pick a lock, the app presents you with mini-puzzles that range from pattern matching to logic problems.

Combat keeps things tense but streamlined. Roll your dice, apply damage, and watch beautifully sculpted miniatures clash on detailed map tiles. Meanwhile, the horror and damage system slowly wears down your investigators, creating genuine pressure as sanity slips away and bodies accumulate wounds. The app tracks everything, so you never need to shuffle condition decks or reference complex charts.

Highlights

The app integration is genuinely brilliant here. Instead of feeling like a gimmick, it solves real problems that plagued the first edition. No more need for one player to secretly control the monsters while everyone else investigates. The app handles randomization, story branching, and all those tedious bookkeeping tasks that used to slow things down. It creates genuine surprises since nobody at the table knows what's coming next.

The puzzle variety deserves special praise. Rather than just rolling dice for everything, you'll find yourself manipulating wire diagrams, arranging symbols, or tracing paths through mazes. These tactile mini-games make you feel like you're actually picking locks or deciphering ancient texts. Some players love them, others find them a bit finicky, but they definitely break up the rhythm in interesting ways.

Atmosphere oozes from every component. The miniatures are gorgeous, the artwork captures that 1920s Lovecraftian vibe perfectly, and the app's sound design adds genuine creepiness. When you're exploring a darkened laboratory and strange noises start playing through your phone, it creates moments of genuine tension that few board games achieve.

The replayability factor is strong thanks to randomized events, multiple paths through each scenario, and different investigators changing how you approach problems. Even replaying the same scenario feels fresh because the app mixes up monster spawns, clue locations, and story beats. With multiple scenarios in the box and more available through expansions, you're looking at dozens of hours of content.

Criticisms

The biggest elephant in the room is the app dependency. When Fantasy Flight's servers eventually go dark or your tablet dies, this beautiful game turns into an expensive collection of miniatures. Some players also find it oddly disconnected to have such a digital component in what's otherwise a very tactile, analog experience. The app works great when it works, but any technical hiccups immediately break immersion.

Those interactive puzzles can be divisive. While some players love the variety, others find them tedious or frustratingly unclear. There's nothing worse than knowing exactly what you want to do but struggling with a finicky touch interface. The puzzles also don't scale well with player count since usually only one person can meaningfully participate while others watch.

The pacing can feel uneven, especially with larger groups. Three-hour sessions are common, and some scenarios definitely overstay their welcome. Combat, while thematic, sometimes drags when you're rolling handfuls of dice multiple times per round. The game also suffers from the classic cooperative game problem where one experienced player can easily dominate decision-making, though the app helps mitigate this somewhat by giving everyone puzzle-solving opportunities.

Conclusion

Mansions of Madness: Second Edition hits that sweet spot for players who want story-driven adventure without the complexity of a full RPG. If you love Lovecraftian horror, enjoy cooperative problem-solving, and don't mind embracing digital integration, this game delivers an experience that's tough to find elsewhere in the hobby. The app removes so much friction from the first edition that it feels like a completely different game.

This works especially well for groups who meet regularly and want something with more narrative weight than your typical board game. Solo players also get tremendous value here since the app creates a genuinely engaging single-player experience. Just make sure you're comfortable with the app dependency and have realistic expectations about those three-hour play sessions. When everything clicks, though, few games create such memorable stories of cosmic horror and narrow escapes from eldritch doom.