This is such an odd review for me because even when an Unmatched set isn’t a “home run” for us, it’s still pretty great. Each monster of the week has a unique thing they do during play to add complications to the game, and as such you’ll want them to be dealt with swiftly. That’s okay – it gives the choice to sacrifice position and time in exchange for a guaranteed item that you need. It provides no bonus to damage, but using it on a vampire has the added effect of driving a vampire up to 10 spaces away (your choice), the exception being that you can't move them into sunlight. A board game can only cover so much ground, so when you’re playing with people who can recite lines from the show and know why certain thematic elements are used, it’s much more fun.

It would have been helpful to have a space on the board for this or a handy reference card that can be placed near the board. Buffy: The Board Game doesn’t seem to be willing to make a stand on which kind of game it wants to be and the end result is something that I can’t recommend to anyone. The customisation is also great for fans – it means I can choose to always include Anya and Spike if I want to. The Master's Story Artifact is the Mark of the Anointed, which is placed on a vampire servant, and gives The Master one point of life for every point of damage the servant does. There is not a lot of connection with the items, but that seems okay as they are used then gone then got back again and this cycling of items instead of hoarding adds a lot of movement and decision making to the game especially as the hand limit is three, (or four with fewer players).The box art is beautiful, with purplish hues covering a montage featuring The Judge, Spike, Drusilla, The Master, Cordelia, Angel, Buffy, Oz, Willow, Giles, Xander and vampire Xander, with a full-color picture of Buffy acting as the centerpiece of the box. I was playing as Buffy and Adam's minions had me pinned in the University Library, with Adam and each of his cronies blocking a doorway out.

The epidemiology of villainy shares a lot of features with the Matt Leacock classics, although it lacks the exploding ‘oh shit’ moments where an epidemic meets a thin reshuffle deck. There were dozens more monsters of the week that could have been included, there is no evil Angel or Willow Big Bad and some of the loved characters aren't even in it; there is no Oz, Anya, Cordelia, Tara, Dawn or Riley and the game feels like it really could handle them and use them effectively (werewolf mechanics anyone?

Those looking for a heavy game with groundbreaking gameplay won’t appreciate Buffy and those who aren’t fans of the show may struggle to find the fun.

The artefacts add much needed theme to a degree; they are not as difficult to find as some 'artefacts' in other similar games, Angel has the special ability to just draw them and tomes can be discarded to find them. The first, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Game,” was from Hasbro/Milton Bradley and is widely regarded as a great game, despite it’s mass production origins. So in a way, the game is season 7 of the show, where you face each form that The First Evil chooses to take.

Set in the 1990s, Buffy and her friends fought generic vampires, monsters of the week, and a “big bad” who from behind the scenes was responsible for the evil that season. The board is a decent size, with a series of locations spread across Sunnydale such as the university, Sunnydale High, Buffy's house, Angel's mansion and so one, the location areas are a decent size, but at the end of games that are not working out too well they can get a little crowded with various tokens, but not overly so. Once 3 of these have been revealed, the Big Bad is placed on the board and some more special rules come into play. First Baddies activate, then the Monster of the Week, and then finally the Big Bad if he has been revealed.