This game was designed by Matt Leacock, the designer of Pandemic – if you have played Pandemic, you may see a lot of similarities in how this plays out but I find the theme in this game more enjoyable. While it has the usual co-op game issue of allowing an alpha-player to dominate, the iconic characters and their individual advantages mean that everyone has some reason to stay in control. I have had several very tense games where one wrong move might spell disaster (and sometimes does), and there are several difficulty levels to play. I have found that it takes about an hour to play (shorter if the players are more decisive, longer if they are just learning). Planning ahead is key (even when you don't have all the information yet) and it takes a few rounds before you get to know what type of strategies will work best (though each game will be different because of the different cards that will be drawn during the setup and play). Also, while even the easiest difficulty level may seem very difficult at first, don't be discouraged, within a couple of games that will indeed be easy to conquer.
