The 4 Squares Review - Betrayal at House on the Hill: 3rd Edition 

Why does everyone gets hung up with the floor plan being weird? Like a garden on the second floor followed by a basement and then an elevator to the outside is the most haunted house thing ever.

As someone who would call Betrayal my favorite board game, Zee hit the nail on the head. It's hilarious when the haunt is disappointingly short sometimes. One of my most memorable games of any board game goes as follows. We FINALLY get the dragon haunt! I'm so pumped to pop out that token and use that awesome dragon. My friend is exhausted and decides he's going to bed. On his turn (2nd in the haunt) he rushes to the room with the dragon and attacks it with a weapon. His teammate flips out saying they're definitely going to lose now, and a funny argument ensues. He rolls incredibly well and I look and see that the dragon is weak against that specific weapon only (something he did not know at the time, as it was only in the betrayers book), and has taken enough damage to end tge game in one attack. My friend laughed the whole way up the stairs and to his bed.

Betrayal is more of a structured experience then a traditional board game. If you're playing Betrayal to win then you're not playing it correctly.

I play with friends who are primarily roleplayers. I've never had a bad game. As far as tactics go, we get as tactical as the scenario allows.

"Oh man we're being chased by the giant cat again" pretty much sums up my history with Betrayal. I'm glad they've made some changes to help avoid that, one play I asked the table to just skip it and trigger on the next omen. There are so many scenarios I haven't seen yet, no more giant cat!

I LOVED the underground lake being on the upper floor in the first edition.

Tbh I think Betrayal Legacy is the real "third edition" of the whole Betrayal series, and by far the more streamlined and polished version so far. The artwork is the most cohesive and mechanics like the inhabitants really add a lot to the experience.

i think Betrayal as a game needs to be an app or PC game in order to truly show each room in all its macabre charm (in beautifully rendered graphics)

I have 2nd edition pretty much stuck on my shelf. It never gets to the table anymore because the main groups I play with have had one too many clunkers from the haunts. I love the idea, but having played it a lot the exploration part starts to feel quite pointless, especially when you know most of the rooms that do anything at all are going to beat you up and the haunts themselves are incredibly hit or miss. I like that 3rd adds the reason you're in the mansion at least (which is something I always joked about: "We have no idea why we're here but let's all separate and go towards the eerie noises alone") but I almost feel like the game needs a way to 'win' without the haunt... so you have a potential goal at least, instead of just waiting for the proper game to actually start :P I was super close to buying 3rd edition to replace my aging and abandoned 2nd ed but after reading up on it more I'm glad I fought off the urge.

3rd could/should have just been a component/rule book upgrade kit.

Wow. You guys were hard on this one. I had to immediately get 3rd education BECAUSE of the realistic artwork, streamlined rules, better looking cards, everything... The game just feels smoother and better. And yes you will get those weird and hilarious moments of "wait, why did that just happen?? I'm dead? 🤣" They also fixed when the haunt starts so you have at least 3 omens before the haunt begins. So now the haunt doesn't start immediately, which you guys called "funny" and we all called dumb because we had no items, and the traitor was usually super powered. Haunts are also worded a hell of a lot better so instead of "uhh wait what do we do?" It's understandable. They got rid of a LOT of their pointless tokens that you never used and streamlined them to just "small monster". Added awesome new tokens for things, like on and off switches, blood, fire, cool looking secret passages, and traitor tokens, the game just looks way better. The clips are 1000% better. The 2nd edition ones just slid on and off, these ones are actually locked on. No way they are sliding off. Sure, the characters have weird prompts to them but that makes them silly and fun. AND if you role play into it, that's when it's hilarious "oh she's depressed and likes blogging" "guys I found the library I'm going to read and look for a computer!" Oh something like that. And the events to start off the game are amazing. "Okay everyone we were invited here by a random person" instead of "okay so why are we here? Let's come up with a story I guess?" It's a great game, and this is coming from someone who loved second edition. 3rd all the way, no looking back.

the Legacy version is my all time favorite. I love having custom named items and characters! I'll probably get this one, I have the second edition with the Widow's Walk expansion and I still have yet to play every haunt.

A lot of people missed out on Betrayal: Legacy, which might legitimately be the best Legacy game outside of Pandemic. Which makes sense, since the lead dev on both the original Betrayal & the Legacy genre is Rob Daviau.

I would have loved to hear from Roy, given his experience with so many Betrayal variants, how he ranks them all relative to each other.

I’ve always said they should combine the mechanics of Arabian Nights with this. Like each tile you go to causes a choose your own adventure type of story. But you can still get items and stats and stuff. But I think they should just have like 50 starting scenerios which will make you choose the whole haunt from the beginning, you just don’t know where it’s gonna lead till the end.

I kinda wish they kept the inhabitants from the Legacy version, as it was fun running into someone and something happening

Thank you for doing this review!

If you have an love 2nd Edition, sounds to me that Betrayal Legacy would be the next one you'd want over this one.

A nice honest review. Thank You.

Has anyone else tried playing Betrayal with a Game Master type of role? The GM reveals and reads all cards, adds flavor, determines rule ambiguity appropriate for balance and theme, controls BG music and SFX, helps the sometimes lone betrayer with strategy. It fixed all the problems people complain about and honestly became one of my (and multiple game groups') favorite games when we play it this way. 3rd Ed looks more attractive with more vibrant printing, much much better character trackers, and nicer minis, but I'm not a fan of the starting scenarios. I prefer jumping in everytime with the potential to play any 50+ haunts. We've played many many times and never had the same haunt. Anyway, just curious if anyone else thought to play with a GM?

Thank you so much for doing this review. Thats 1 out of the 3 I REALLY want you guys to review. Now I'm just going to wait for reviews for Tiny Epic Dungeon and Massive Darkness 2.

I got an upgrade pack for 2nd ed. that fixed the character dials, they are double layered and have rolling dials for the stats. Plus it came with dice that have a nice haze to them and a base green with yellow pips, real spooky looking. I’m here for the theme and craziness of it and with that I’m cool with the game going bonkers and even coming up with a rule if needed. To add on that I’ve only ever played each haunt once, I’ve kept track on a sheet I taped on the box lid and if we did a haunt previously I’ll either pick the next haunt in order, swap the room that triggered it real quick, whatever the easiest option is and to me that doesn’t stray far from what we have to do at times with rules anyways. I’d hate to play the same scenario three times especially if they are swingy. Really if the haunt is early and/or the player count is low the bad guy has the advantage, the longer the haunt and higher the player count the good guys have the advantage.

How do the new haunt rules differ so as to repeat haunts? Or work in the Scooby Doo version?

Best part of this game is it shows the absolute absurd idea of the entire horror genre in any medium. They were right, the vast majority of horror stories can be solved by the “let’s just leave before anything happens” idea. But that is also why it is so fun.

So far, my playgroup likes this game (not syre which edition I have). Its no where near a balance game, but we play for the memories and moment it brings. But I get how sometimes the scenarios are so oddly done and the only thing you can do is agree on how to proceed and enjoy the ride regardless of the clunkyness

I love this game (1st and 2nd edition at least). They did fail to mention the biggest problem with the game, though. You ALL have to be decent players. If the Betrayer is a person who is not good at board games, it nearly ruins the game. I'd still play it every game night, though!

5:02 say this tile has 4 doors, or in general a door that would connect the Mystic Elevator. Are you allowed to rotate the elevator to connect so you may enter? I’ve seen mixed explanations on how the elevator works. Since technically it’s able to connect to any door & you’re not moving it’s location before rolling. Appreciate it 👊🏻

Man, they didn't fix the rules? That's the only reason I wanted to buy it. Glad I watched the review first!

I've enjoyed quite a few sessions of the 2nd edition. Fun game but i found that we'd end up repeating haunts more then we'd do new ones. I like how the haunts are done in this. I read that the Scooby game was like this and was hoping it'd be incorporated into the main game some way

As soon as you said "CW kind of vibes" I was straight out. I will look for a 2nd edition or Legacy if I want to pick one up.

Demo is shockingly accurate. The mystic elevator always comes up.

Why are they in the 2nd edition house? Clearly, they were on a church or school trip. Some are staff, some are students, and the kids snuck in the van. Oh, and the van broke down. And it's raining. And there's no phone service. And, uh, there's only this house on the hill you can go to for help.... Just go with it.

The starting scenarios is a good idea. As someone who has had to play "The Feast" three times in a row, I'd like anything that'd stop that happening again.

Brilliant game, Zee is 100% right, the clunkyness is a value-add if you like the game. Question not covered in review, are the scenarios all new and different to previous editions? Or are they just modified from 2nd edition but essentially the same? I am basically wondering if this can be viewed as just more content and therefore worth owning both this and previous edition.

It's a great game to have a few drinks and laugh with. It's not fair or balanced and you need to be alright with losing. Just enjoy the ride and look forward to each unique ending.

Character boards should have been die cut neoprene with little pegs to track! In all seriousness, my siblings and I love Betrayal but it's biggest draw is accessibility (until the haunt) and the (arguably goofy) flavour text/theme. Albeit quite a bit more heavy, would prefer to play Nemesis which for me is the advanced version of Betrayal (focusing more on exploration/atmosphere/potential betrayal of course)

I was hoping for glowing review but it seems like elements of this game are not being improved enough despite this being a 3rd edition. Such a shame. Some of these companies need to really step it up because areas for improvement have been clearly outlined by the community. Is Betrayal: Legacy still the way to go?

Finally, been waiting for a review. Let's see if the 3rd edition is any good!

I’m not sure I like the way the haunt happens in that you always are aiming for less than 5. Having the haunt happen sooner doesn’t seem good. I’ve always wanted the haunt to happen a round or two later, not sooner. My biggest disappointment here is that there still seems to be confusion in the rules.

So, is 1st edition a completely obsolete shelf warmer?

Cannaday mentions that Betrayal seems aimed at RPG players. Well thats certainly possible as one of the creators of Betrayal Legacy, in a Geek And Sundry video,explained they aimed for a simplified RPG borad game in a box

I'd love the chance to rewrite these rules and fix things :)

In case fans missed it. There's a component upgrade pack that has character cards with dials, and custom dice. I think it's much better if you love 2nd edition.

At this rate the 11th edition might be halfway playable. Not holding my breath.

My main complaint from this game's format is everyone has to know how to play. I try to teach this game, and then 1 person who doesn't know the rules gets the traitor.. but then doesn't play that side correctly and if I'm not playing that side, I'm unable to help say this happens every turn.

I like this game very much, so far it turned out to be hilariously awesome. However I prefer 2nd edition.

Fully agree with Camilla here. Artstyle and tile art isn't that good. I agree with Zee's overall sentiment that if you had to pick between 2 and 3, get 3, but disagree that this game "feels like a third edition". It's more like a v2.5. They should have just discontinued Widow's Walk and said this was the new expansion. For a third edition, I would have expected more.

they have missed an opportunity to make a cabin in the woods edition

How does it compare to the changes in the legacy version?

yes agree and most of the players wants to be the betrayer as its less stressful, this is a police catch thief game

Why after they made dials for 2nd edition upgrade pack did they go back to sliders?

With the other editions our playgroup came to the conclusion of "why play a game which can 50% of the time be rubbish based on a random book event." Tbh this looks like exactly the same to me as the other ones. Hard pass.

Mansions of Madness kinda killed this one for me. The additions sound great but my friends will always pick Mansions of Madness over this. Unfortunate since the variety is so much better.

6.5 seems a bit high for a game one doesn't care for, but I guess that's nostalgia for you

It's a shame they still can't get this right 😕.

Hmm i watched smosh i think they are playong 2nd edition, and like they said the haunt may trigger quicker, which would be perfect for the people i play with, id rather it be faster, than being a heavy fight game in the haunt phase, personnally if i played with my heavy game group i know we would all enjoy the the latter, but i want it to be very simple and based more on roleplay than the fight parts

It's a fun game. It's biggest issue is that it has to use a single game system to tell 50 stories. (You address this around the 11:00 mark) Still fun, but I don't play it anymore because of this clumsiness.

That's disappointing. I was excited to see there was a new edition, under the assumption that they surely fixed those problems by now??? but to hear they still haven't makes me sad. My favorite edition of this game by a good margin is still the Legacy version for the best storytelling, then dnd/scoobydoo because they were less klunky.

1st edition has an errata sheet longer than any of the other books that came with the game. 😀

So even on its 3rd edition they can't fix this game?! 😕

Is there still scatch off cards in this one

I'll probably get some hate for this but here it goes: It seems that everyone is just hating on the fact that the Haunts seem unbalanced or written poorly, and how come they haven't fixed this after three tries. I agree some of the Haunts and the rules for the Haunts are not the most clear, and could be better written, however, you have to remember that it is almost impossible to have everything work out perfect when the game has the amount of randomness in it (specifically which tiles are out, and where are they placed, and the time that the Haunt occurs). Yes Mansions of Madness fixes this issue, because the app tells you when to place out specific tiles, and has events happen at specific times. I know that may or may not change your mind, but we go into the game with these expectations, and enjoy it for what it is. Thanks.

I'll just be over here playing Mansions 2e. Same basic thing, just better executed. FFG actually play-tested it before they released it.

is it better than Legacy though??

This is pretty disappointing. My group played like half of betrayal legacy. I absolutely loved the "legacy" part of the game, but the "betrayal" part just straight-up broke down way too often. I really liked the premise of the game but thought the execution was a flop, so I was hoping this edition was going to get it right. Guess I'm never touching this game again.

I think you just have to accept that this game is set up to give you the highest of highs and lowest of lows. The story it tries to tell can give you one of the best game sessions you've played. But it can also fall flat. It's a solid game but not for everyone.

Seems like yall wanted a 2nd edition that was specifially moded in a way just for you? cool.

It isn't hard to improve a game for a new edition. Why couldn't they just put in a little more effort? The "broken" scenarios/haunts never bothered us, and i find it amusing that this angers people lol it's easy to move past it, but still they should have been able to fix that with playtesting 🤷‍♂️

If they actually decided to fix the fundamental problems everyone has with the game, at what point does it become an entirely new game? I have only played it once and really didn't enjoy it, but it seems like any new version tries to fix some things but ultimately the haunt part of the game doesn't work consistently to bring an enjoyable experience.

My least favorite thing about Betrayal 3rd edition is that, because of its existence, Betrayal Legacy isn't getting reprinted.

I sold my copy about 2 weeks after I bought it.....The most clunkiest, aggravating game I've ever played...It's mostly the ONE traitor guy how can't understand the rules (don't blame 'em) BUT cannot get help because he/she is the Traitor.....dumb, dumb, dumb...

Comparing the Scores given with the words of the reviewers surely tells me that Inflation is high everywhere at the moment. Basically slamming the game through the whole review and ending up on 6-7 for all reviewers?

I feel like this is a black and white game. Either people like it for what it is despite the issues, or just play something else. It's fun and I enjoy the experience with the group even though sometimes games can be super swingy.

At this rate of improvements to "Betrayal at the House on the Hill" the 25th edition could be blast when it will come out in the distant future. I like the setting and the flavor, I like the modularity, I understand that it isn't easy to get all the randomized modular scenarios straight rules-wise, but the graphic design is rather bad, components could be better, and does the game really need to have such a strong trashy feel? And a bit more agency for the players would go a long way.

No criticisms to anyone on this one, as it may not be your cup of tea, but Betrayal strikes me as the kind of game that is a sendup of every haunted house movie (good and bad) ever made. Rooms that don’t make sense, people making poor decisions, somethings going completely bonkers! It really is a parody of the haunted house genre as a whole, and isn’t really meant to be taken that seriously. With as much open endedness as this game has, it’s inevitably going to be sticky. I say lean back, relax, and enjoy the insanity 😊 P.s. I work at Five Below, and we sell the shirt Roy is wearing if anyone is interested 😁

I was about to order this game on Target. I'm glad that I watched this video before I did. Pass.

also, if you have the expansion and player board upgrade kit, going to third edition is a downgrade.

12:03 Because of the hidden information - and how both sides read different things and know different things - and their perception of the scenario are completely different from each other.

This game is quite bad.... The first half has no decisions and is super boring, it's blind decision-less fun-less repetitive exploration (soooo few items and omens and even events you read them all in 1-2 games). The second half is mostly super unbalanced and decided from the start, with rules problems and frustration. Can't rate it higher than a 3.5

This is not what I wanted to hear. I was hoping for everything to be fixed.

This game isn't for me. No hate. It just doesn't have what I look for in a multiplayer game.

Even when I was getting into the Hobby I had zero interest in this game. Just too chaotic for me to really enjoy. What's the point of building a story with a group of people when half way through the game most of the decisions you made don't matter? I think Zee is right you have to have a group that is there to have a laugh together, like a super chaotic D&D group who doesn't care if their decisions usually are irrelevant to how the game turns out and just want to see how the GAME plays out.

Isn't it fitting that the 3rd edition is a betrayal of the expectation and the hope it would be properly fixed? The only thing missing then is the review taking place on a house on the hill xD.

Every review I read of editions of this game always seems like a pile of excuses for a game that is 98% horrid design and 2% nostalgia.

I was ready to hotly debate in favor but as soon as they said ‘CW’ art I was dead. 😂 So disappointed! No real improvements to make this game mechanically better and terrible YA art. Ugh 😑

What's a 'cw vibe' (17:30)? Sorry, maybe it's an American thing I'm not familiar with?

Totally disagree with this review, the second edition is personally my favorite and the stretched out fun story really adds to the challenge of the traitor. When mechanics break which was rare it usually is just luck like real life where you have to work around it. If the traitor has an item you need you go get it from him. It covered all bases

It's not a "ME" problem, every single person that has tried to play this game comes to the exact same conclusions, the game is a mess and sometimes not in a fun way. Making an edition that fixes those problems will not make the other versions disappear, but at least will give the people the option to pick the version they want, and I'm almost sure most people will go for the one with revised and coherent rules

Camilla mentioned 'in the scenario we played...'. How many scenarios did you all try in this version to see how stable it was?

I never did like this game at all.

Dice are very plain looking.

So the haunt rule change first popped up either in widows walk or boulders gate. Not scobby doo. I know widows walk and boulders gate came out very close to each other.

11:36 I really hate this game.... And BTW, I have no idea whether you are playing correctly until afterwards - when you can discuss everything. This was the game that made me realize that I do not like games which are SO Asymmetrical, that you are playing different games. I have never played Root, but I doubt it would be a game for me.

all around weird video

The legacy edition is the most fun I’ve had in a legacy game.

The main problem with this game is the traitor. I can live with improvising rules or whatever (like for an RPG) if everyone is cooperating. I hate this game because of the traitor mechanism. It ruins any chance this game might be fun. Fourth edition needs to eliminate the traitor mechanism and maybe I'll try it...Maybe.

This game is the one game that i dislike so much i am really baffled why anyone ever want to play it actually. It is way too random for me.

Do not buy this game. Sure, it looks fun and it is until it gives you some arcane instruction and you have to stop the game, pull out the rulebook, thumb through trying to find out WTF that means. The game is so damn complicated, it is no longer fun. Instead it is irritating and you start arguing with your friends--the only thing that restores harmony is everybody packing up the game. I have tried to play 7 times (the first two times was with people who had played before and I was so lost on what to do they basically played my character for me). The other 5 times was with a group or by myself to try and learn the game. But I'd get to the Monster/Traitor setup and the instructions would be so esoteric that I'd pack it up again. I wish I'd never bought this waste of time and money.

Based on one play I gave second edition of this game a 2, and I hope to never play it again. I felt like I had zero agency in this game. It was almost like the game happened to me. Perhaps people love this game much like people love movies that are so bad that they can laugh at them? I really don't get it. Note, I gave this video a thumbs down because your ratings are all too high ; )