When comparing Mysterium vs Pandemic Legacy, the Slant community recommends Mysterium for most people. In the question“What are the best co-op board games?” Mysterium is ranked 9th while Pandemic Legacy is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose Mysterium is:
Mysterium is a deduction game, which helps to reveal the subtleties of how the other players think. The person playing as the Ghost is not allowed to speak, so the psychic investigators have to try and find any connection between the vision cards they've been handed and the correct choice from a multitude of options. For example, the ghost can give a vision card that has a red river, a clock, and fields of wheat on it. The investigator then has to deduce that the red river represents the ball of red yarn on one of the choices. But there might be red elements on other cards as well. Or the investigator could choose to focus on the clock, or something else that the ghost didn't mean or notice. Getting things wrong might not advance the team of investigators toward victory, but it is balanced by the often comedic misunderstandings between the investigators and the ghost.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro A fun way to get to know how people think
Mysterium is a deduction game, which helps to reveal the subtleties of how the other players think. The person playing as the Ghost is not allowed to speak, so the psychic investigators have to try and find any connection between the vision cards they've been handed and the correct choice from a multitude of options.
For example, the ghost can give a vision card that has a red river, a clock, and fields of wheat on it. The investigator then has to deduce that the red river represents the ball of red yarn on one of the choices. But there might be red elements on other cards as well. Or the investigator could choose to focus on the clock, or something else that the ghost didn't mean or notice.
Getting things wrong might not advance the team of investigators toward victory, but it is balanced by the often comedic misunderstandings between the investigators and the ghost.
Pro Beautiful artwork
An excellent example of the heights this medium has reached. All the components and cards look like miniature paintings that are a joy to observe.
Pro Excellent value for money
You get a lot of high quality components in the box. Various cards, two sets of tokens, sleeves, cardboard templates, a sand timer, and other bits and pieces. The design fits in to the mysterious theme, and nothing looks out of place. This can easily be a game around which you can center an intimate party with friends.
Pro Incredibly thematic
All pieces and mechanics of this game work together in favor of a unified theme, and it works really well. The ghost is not allowed to give any verbal or non-verbal clues apart from the intended Dream cards. The psychic investigators have to get in to the mind of the the ghost in order to guess correctly, so it does feel like mind-reading in a sense. The time limit for each turn promotes a feeling of high stakes, and keeps you on edge- as you would be, if you really were in a manor communicating with a ghost.
Pro Very high short-term replayability due to the persistent story in the game
With individual plays regularly ending in teasers and cliffhangers players will be eager to play the next round in order to move the story forward and find out what happens next.
Pro A persistent campaign means that your descisions have consequences, both good and bad, in future games
Pandemic Legacy is the latest in the Legacy line of games where things that happen in one game can, and often do, have affects in later games. The characters you use can gain new abilities and or flaws, components can be added and/or destroyed and rules can be added, amended, or removed, all based on the things that you do from game to game. This helps players feel invested in the game and makes their decisions even more meaningful than they already were. This ongoing change also means that your experiences may very well be unique to your group and that other campaigns of the same game will go drastically different, with only main plot points in common.
Cons
Con Can get stale if overplayed
Mysterium is built for one story only- finding the culprit of a murderer using visions from a ghost with amnesia. Though there are expansion packs that provide a larger variety of choices, they don't change the story or add any new mechanics. You would have to give plenty of time in between games, in order to keep it from getting repetitive, boring and stale.
Con Takes a lot of time and space to set up
There are many components to this game that need to be set up beforehand. The majority of the table is occupied by the three levels psychics have to advance on. A number of options is laid out for the psychics going from finding the culprit, to room, to murder weapon. The cards are large, so they quickly fill up the space. There is also the cardboard clock that you have to put together each time, and the board that the ghost sits behind.
On average, set up can take about 20 minutes, and require a large dining table if you're playing with 6 players.
Con No long-term replayability
After the main campaign is finished (12-24 games) the game is mostly finished. Technically you can play the final mission over and over, but permanent changes made over the course of the playthrough, such as stickers added to the rules, board, and player sheets as well as components that are physically destroyed make the game less fun to replay after the main story concludes.
Con Requires a commited group to play and experience the full extent of the game
Pandemic: Legacy games are meant to be experienced over 12-24 games with the same players so that everyone involved can share in the overarching story of the game. Unfortunately, many gamers may struggle to find 2-4 players that can regularly meet up to play the game, making it difficult to finish the main story.