Surpassing a Legacy

Last year, I wrote a post in praise of Pandemic Legacy: Season 1. The game hardly needs my endorsement; it's one of the most well-regarded games in the hobby, was number 1 on Board Game Geek for a very long stretch, and continues to sell tons of copies to this day. But the hype is real. I played it, loved it, and recommended it.

My same group of friends then moved on to Pandemic Legacy: Season 2. And in my view, it's even better.

Like Season 1 before it, Season 2 is a 12-scenario campaign game with a persistent story, expanding mechanics, and a raft of permanent changes you make as you go -- your choices have consequences and there's no turning back. However, unlike Season 1, well... it's unlike Season 1 in a lot of ways. Which is part of what made me love Season 2 so much. I've played quite a lot of Pandemic by now, both in its original, non-Legacy incarnation and in its different-but-not-too-different Legacy Season 1 incarnation. Season 2 felt to me like a substantially new experience.

Right out the gate, Season 2 inverts the normal mechanics of Pandemic: instead of representing spreading plagues with colored cubes and removing those as you act to contain it, you deliver supplies to locations in advance of the spreading plague to try to stop its spread before it starts. It's a subtle difference with some big strategic ramifications, and feels far more different when you're playing it than it does to hear it described.

The Legacy elements of the campaign are more sweeping and satisfying too. You begin the campaign with access to just a handful of cities near the center of the map. Exploration is a major part of what you do from game to game. You must map new territory, expanding the board with stickers as you discover places. Then you draw your own connections between the cities you've discovered, forging your own paths that have profound effects on later games. You get to "search" many of the cities you connect to, scratching off cards (like lottery tickets) to receive interesting rewards.

By the mid- to late-campaign, Season 2 feels only tenuously like regular Pandemic, as you're presented a series of scenarios with unusual goals that you must juggle with your normal objectives (unless you're told to ignore the regular goals altogether). There are even moment that play out like mysteries, if you pick up on the clues the game offers along the way. (Without explicit spoilers, I can only say this: read the flavor text of this game and keep it handy for future reference. It matters!)

I enjoyed Pandemic Legacy: Season 1, and would play a fresh copy of it again some day with friends who wanted to. But I loved Pandemic Legacy: Season 2, and would start a fresh campaign of it again right now. Of all the Legacy games I've played to date, it's the clear favorite. (Though my anticipation for the upcoming prequel, Pandemic Legacy: Season 0, is super high. Maybe unreasonably so.)

I give Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 an enthusiastic A. If you've played Legacy games and haven't played this one, you are missing out. It's a masterpiece.