Gloom! review

Atlas Games | Story telling | £19.99 | 2-4 players | 60 minutes | www.atlas-games.com 

Gloom is a card game published in 2005 by Atlas Games where you assume the role of narrator over a gothic family who wouldn’t feel out of place at an Addams Family reunion. The aim of the game is to bring about the miserable end to your family as quick as you can, in the most gruesome ways possible.

You’ll play cards from your hand that may cause your Cousin Mordecai to be marooned on the moors, or Bathazar, your families unfaithful hound to be mauled by a manatee, all the while planning to cause nice things to happen to your opponents family. “Ohh, Lord Slogar has had such a terrible time recently, falling down a well, wasn’t it lovely that he was delighted by the ducklings he saw down there!” you’ll smirk as you lay a card across the table, viciously inflicting happiness upon a player.

It’s these morose and stupid stories make the game more fun to play, and it’s almost a shame when one player bumps off the last member of their family and you all count up your scores. Unfinished business and happy families still on the table certainly give you a desire to replay the game. 

However the game needs you to buy into this story telling, and it’s fancy clear plastic cards won’t be enough to hold your attention past the first couple of plays. If you’re not the sort of player who’d give in to a little performance, this may not be the game for you. 

There’s a very English saying “it’s not the winning, it’s the taking part that counts” and, like it or not, that’s a great description 
of Gloom. (Millie Lavelle, [email protected], Twitter: @geekonradio)

Buy your copy here.

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