Game review: Pandemic

What is Pandemic?

Pandemic is a race against time to save humanity against four deadly diseases that have erupted on Earth. In Pandemic the players are members of a disease control team who work collaboratively to simultaneously develop cures and prevent new disease outbreaks. Each player takes a specific role in the team with each role having a specific ability, such as the scientist who speeds up the cards you need to develop a cure for one of the diseases. 

Is it Fun?

Pandemic is unquestionable a fun and exciting game to play – even in times such as these where it all seems a little close to the bone. The game is cooperative meaning only by working together as a team do you have any chance of ‘winning’ and beating the diseases before a pandemic breaks out.  The game is perfectly balanced, almost every game reaches a critical point where the situation is almost out of control and the immediate actions of the players is critical. Each turn the players have a range of choices such as moving around the world, treating disease, building research stations or sharing knowledge to try and discover a cure. The balance of who does what combined with effective movement around Earth is critical to success. The most dramatic part of the game is at the end of each turn when you draw the ‘player cards’ to see where new infections have arisen. Everyone has their fingers crossed that one of the dreaded epidemic cards that speed up the spread of disease does not appear!

Is it Educational?

The game effectively models the unpredictability of pandemics and highlights the challenges in trying to treat and contain new outbreaks. The game components have been designed to be as realistic as possible such as the characters (e.g. the dispatcher who can move resources to the most needed cities) and event cards (e.g. the government grant that releases money for new research stations).  The game is a useful discussion tool for exploring the spread of disease on a global scale, but the educational value really ceases there.

Conclusion

An enjoyable, cooperative game and each time you play it feels like a really different experience. One of the most pertinent things about the game, especially in preventing the current spread of Covid-19 is that by working together the players can take action against a pandemic.

Dr Louise Robinson is Lecturer in Forensic Biology and Dr Ian Turner an Associate Professor in Learning and Teaching, both at the University of Derby.