October is finally upon us and you know what that means…

It’s time for all the cafes in your area to start selling 🎃Pumpkin Spice Lattes🎃!

 

 

 

Why 🎃Pumpkin Spice Lattes🎃 you ask? HALLOWEEN OF COURSE!!! (Also because who doesn't love warm hot goodness in a mug?!)

 

Gather your friends, dress up like ghosts, ghouls and other weird and wacky things, get the fun size Chocolate Bars out and look at playing these 5 games from the comfort of your own home! (Caution: for those with weak bladders, seat them closest to the bathroom!)

 

1) Nemesis Lockdown

 

 

Atmospheric and deeply thematic, this semi-cooperative board game places you as a crew member on a spaceship infested with grotesque, hostile aliens. Great, nothing like hostile aliens to make Halloween more fitting!

 

In the vein of survival horror videogames or film classic Alien, playing Nemesis Lockdown (the first Standalone Expansion for the amazing first game Nemesis) fills you with tension and distrust as you perch on the edge of your seat, fearful an alien might ambush you out of the shadows. But are the aliens really the ones you should be worrying about? Each person will play as a unique character with their own skills, equipment and most crucially, a secret objective. Does your best friend really want you to get out of this ship alive? Or have they been plotting to leave you to die to an alien this whole time? With new expansion and even a Dr Who Spinoff, you'll be playing this until next Halloween!

 

You’ve heard of stage presence—this game has table presence. With its variety of intricately detailed miniatures and its dark, shadowy board, just setting up this game will give you chills. (Even looking at the box makes me uneasy but I’m a baby).

 

Dim the lights, bust out the fog machine and be ready to star in your own Alien movie, because Nemesis Lockdown is tension in a box - click here to view this game!

 

 

2) Arkham Horror: The Card Game

 

Get your investigator costumes ready! Looking for a horror game with horror in the title? Look no further then the amazing LCG Arkham Horror The Card Game! If you're a big fan of Deck Builders such as Magic the Gathering and YuGiOh but don't want to keep purchasing different cards when new sets drop, this is the game for you! (Best for 2 but add another core game to play up to 4 players)

 

With a blend of role-playing and traditional card games, you will take on the role of an investigator in the mysterious town of Arkham. Encounter terrifying Lovecraftian mysteries (Think Cthulhu and crazier!) while you play to the strengths of your unique character while grappling with their inner flaws. Thanks to its countless expansions and packs, this infinitely replayable game has the potential to be a core piece in your collection, for monsters and madness that you can play all year round!

Click here to view this masterpiece of a game!

 

 

3) Betrayal at the House on the Hill

Are you missing haunted houses because they keep being demolished? Well, I’ve got a house for you—except it’s actually a board game...and it also comes with a side of betrayal - tasty! Players take on the role of one of six possible characters and explore a haunted mansion, full of 👻ghosts👻 and dark omens, until one of the group secretly betrays everyone. (It's normally the people we don't think it is......but then we know it's them......but when it's not, it just makes the game way more trickier!)

 (I think you'll need more than a flashlight in this game!🔦)

Before Betrayal at the House on the Hill even begins, players will get to design their own haunted mansion using room tiles or build them from scenarios in the book, meaning each game, you and your friends (or family, it's Halloween in the end) will explore a totally new spooky lay-out.

 

 

 

If you can get past its mouthful of a title, Betrayal at the House on the Hill is lighter than our previous two entries, while still retaining that spooky atmosphere. Accommodating 3-6 players at a runtime of around one hour (bit longer for first playthrough), this is the perfect Halloween board game for your more reluctant players—or anyone looking for something simpler, but just as spooky - click here to view this spooktacular game!

 

 For those Dungeons and Dragons players who want a spooky experience, click here for a version of this game based in BALDURS GATE! 

4) Aliens Another Glorious Day in the Corps

 

Wait a minute — isn't this just the same as #1 on the list but actually the theme you wanted it to be? (I know, I know. It's just this game is a huge throwback to one of the best 👾Alien-Like👾 movies of all time!)  

"In space no one can hear you scream" is the iconic tagline of Ridley Scott's Alien. (Sounds like a challenge Mr Scott!)

With the other games on this list, they are all co-operative until a certain point, where as Aliens Another Glorious Day in the Corps is co-op from the get go! You and your friends will take the roll of a specialist Colonial Marine who need to gear up with serious firepower and head into Hadley's Hope to find survivors and answers to why this is all occurring! You will need to work together, keep your cool and stay frosty (but keep warm with your 🎃Pumpkin Spice Lattes🎃!) to fight off relentless Xenomorph ambushes and get out of each scenario alive!

 

With 6 different missions and 2 of them being just being survive missions, it's either kill or be killed! Will you be able to survive the endless waves of Xenomorphs and make it out alive? Will someone in space hear you scream? Click here to find out if you survive!

 Also, if you really love the Alien universe, they've also started a RPG! Click here to view the RPG Range!

This list too spooky? Here is a quick joke to lighten the mood!

What do you call an alien with 3 eyes? - An Aliiien!

 Okay, I'll stop.

5) Psycho Killer A Card Game For Psychos 

 

Every single time I say the name of the next game, my brain starts playing the song by Talking Heads on repeat. 

Sick of Co-Op games? Sick of being the slow one who would get picked off first in a horror movie scenario? Maybe this card game is the game for you!

Enter Psycho Killer - A Card Game For Psychos!

 

In Psycho Killer - A Card Game For Psychos, each player is trying to escape from the evil psycho killer (count the amount of times I use the words Psycho and Killer in this entry!) and their vast array of 🗡️weapons🔫 and to be the last one standing! Whoever is bravest will start the game by drawing the first card and whenever a "Psycho Killer" card has been revealed, whoever is holding weapons will take damage (so it's best to pass your cards around so you're not holding them when the Psycho Killer card is played!)

The winner is the player with the least amount of injury points and they are the only player to escape the Psycho Killers!   Click here to view this Psycho game!

 

Buying Guide

In summary, if you’re looking for...

A amazing warm cup of goodness? Any cafe around the 31st of October.

A thematic experience full of tension? Nemesis Lockdown.

A card game with tons of twists? Arkham Horror: The Card Game

A thematic experience that doesn’t take 3 hours? Betrayal at the House on the Hill.

Something cooperative and story-driven? Aliens Another Glorious Day in the Corps.

Halloween-lite and buddy fight? Psycho Killer A Card Game For Psychos.

 

 

And there we have it! Our top 5 horror board games for Halloween! What do you think? Did we miss anything? Count how many times I reference those tasty Lattes? Let us know in the comments below!