Meanwhile, two "hotspots" have emerged, particularly for the German-speaking board game market, where a large number of new releases appear. One is, of course, SPIEL, the highlight of the board game year, and the other is the spring period between the Nuremberg Toy Fair and Spiel Doch! in Dortmund. Lookout Games naturally also has new releases in store during this time. One of these new games takes players underground.
As a real monster living underground in an abandoned mine, you naturally have to think about ways to pass the time. What could be better than building a ghost train through the winding tunnels and seeing who can construct the scariest route?
Ghost train construction in express procedure
The construction of this haunted house takes place over eight rounds plus one. In the first eight rounds, players draft tiles to expand their haunted house. In the final round, the tile that was dealt face down to each player at the start of the game is placed.
On their turn, a player has two options. They can draw a tile from the face-down round pile, which contains a different number of tiles depending on the number of players, and then decide whether to place this tile in their own area or in the center. Alternatively, they can draw a face-up tile from the center, which they must then immediately place in their own area.
Once all but one person in a round have chosen tiles, the remaining tiles from the round's stack are added to the other face-up tiles. The last person then gets to choose one tile from all of these.
In the ninth round, the face-down tile from the start of the game is placed on the last free space in the 3×3 grid.
In the final scoring, each ghost type is evaluated according to its individual requirements. Additionally, points are awarded for connected doors, which can be found anywhere along the edge of the player's personal game board. There are also two pairs of special doors that award double points when connected. The points for connected doors depend on the number of tiles that create the link. The player with the most points on their ghost train wins the game.
Information about Masses of Monsters
| Number of people: 2 to 5 people Age: from 10 years Playing time: 20 minutes Difficulty: Family game Long-term motivation: moderate Mechanics: Tile-laying game Game concept: Michael Luu Illustrations: Nele Diel Publisher: Lookout Games; Distributor: Asmodee Official Website: Masses of monsters Year of publication: 2026 Language: German Cost: approx. 29 euros |
Conclusion
In the almost overwhelming number of tile-laying games, "Masses of Monsters" tries to stand out in two aspects. It succeeds quite well in one, but unfortunately not so much in the other. Thematically, the game manages to offer something a bit new, which is partly due to the charmingly illustrated monsters. Unfortunately, the theme quickly fades into the background compared to the run-of-the-mill tile-laying mechanism. The scoring system for the different monsters is simply too boring.
It offers exactly the options you'd expect from standard scoring systems. There are points for adjacent or non-adjacent identical monsters, bonus points for monsters of a certain set size, points for different monsters, or points multiplied by the number of monsters – you've seen it all dozens of times before, and it just doesn't feel very appealing.
Before you can score points for the monsters, you first have to choose them, of course. This is the second aspect where the game tries to offer something new. Here, tile drafting is combined with a bit of push-your-luck. Do you wait until everyone has chosen something to have the widest selection when all the remaining tiles are revealed, or do you immediately grab the first tile that fits more or less well on your own tableau?
On paper, this mechanism sounds quite good, but in practice it's rather disappointing. With two or three players, it's rare for an open display to develop where you actually have a choice. It works better with four or five players, but even so, the selection mechanism just doesn't spark any real interest.
The rules are well-written, and thankfully, scoring overview cards are included for all players, so questions can usually be answered independently during the game. Otherwise, the entire game material is solid – it neither stands out positively nor negatively.
As a purely family game Masses of monsters It offers very little that hasn't been seen elsewhere. If you don't already own a tile-laying game, it probably works a bit better, but overall, I'm left with a rather unsatisfying impression.
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