When comparing Elder Sign vs City of Horror, the Slant community recommends Elder Sign for most people. In the question“What are the best scary board games to play around Halloween?” Elder Sign is ranked 4th while City of Horror is ranked 8th. The most important reason people chose Elder Sign is:
Elder Sign is a good game to play with newcomers unfamiliar with the rules due to the game not being super difficult (like Ghost Stories). While it does offer a challenge it is not completely stacked against the players like some other titles in the genre.
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Pros
Pro Allows for casual play
Elder Sign is a good game to play with newcomers unfamiliar with the rules due to the game not being super difficult (like Ghost Stories). While it does offer a challenge it is not completely stacked against the players like some other titles in the genre.
Pro Good for short bursts of co-op gameplay
Elder Sign is styled as a co-op experience that uses tightly integrated dice mechanics to allow for short and succinct play times of around 90 minutes.
Pro Survival is based on backstabbing
In order to live, you'll have to vote others to death. Great moments like the priest voting to kill the little girl.
Pro Works well with bigger groups
The more people, the more voters to convince to let you live and the more likely someone will have to die.
Cons
Con More than 4 or 5 players can lead to a lot of downtime
Elder Sign says it can be played with up to 8 players but playing with that many people can lead to a lot of sitting around, which can be boring.
Con Elimination gameplay
It can happen that someone is eliminated from the game, though in my experience it's not often that you have all of your characters voted off.