Top board pc games

Even though you're trying to track down a killer, Clue's methodical process of elimination no pun intended is easy to pick up. It's rather satisfying too, especially if you can crack the case before anyone else does. Risk knows a thing or two about the best board games. Having been taking us all to school in warfare since , it's one of the most beloved tabletop experiences available right now thanks to easy-to-understand yet weighty tactics.

Restricting battles to dice rolls helps keep things moving, too. This isn't a plodding exercise in tedium. There are plenty of alternate versions to try out as well if the original theme doesn't suit you; you can pick up everything from Game of Thrones to Lord of the Rings alternatives. It's impossible to discuss the best board games without Monopoly coming up at some point or another. Frequently seen as the most influential one of all time, it's often the first thing people think of when the medium is dropped into conversation.

There's a good reason for that; this has been a quintessential family pastime since the early s. Anyone can get involved, too. Brilliantly straightforward yet oddly satisfying, this property-wrangling game where you buy spaces on the board and charge rent whenever someone else lands there never loses its thrill of earning a big payout.

While it has its problems, you've got to respect the hustle. Want more recommendations for games night? Don't forget to check out the best party board games or the best card games. As for something a little more adventurous, be sure to drop in our our guides to the best tabletop RPGs and the best Dungeons and Dragons books.

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Best board games for adults Move over, Monopoly; the industry has grown way beyond those humble beginnings, and now it's awash with new ideas that will keep you playing for months. Betrayal at House on the Hill.

Reasons to avoid - Potential for uneven games. Reasons to avoid - Occasionally unfair. Reasons to avoid - Anxiety-inducing. Reasons to avoid - Tricky to master. Reasons to avoid - Expensive. Reasons to avoid - Complicated. Ticket to Ride. Reasons to avoid - Dry theme. Reasons to avoid - Can be frustrating. Reasons to avoid - Can drag. Reasons to avoid - Some won't like the pressure. Reasons to avoid - Potential for bickering.

Reasons to avoid - Luck of the draw. King of Tokyo. Reasons to avoid - Little strategy. Sushi Go! Reasons to avoid - Emphasis on chance. Spot It! Reasons to avoid - Gets repetitive. The Haunted Mansion: Call of the Spirits. Reasons to avoid - Duel mechanics need work. Rhino Hero. Reasons to avoid - Can be annoying. Zombie Kidz Evolution.

Reasons to avoid - Components may not last. Disney Villainous. Reasons to avoid - Hard to explain. Reasons to avoid - Can't scale for more players.

Pandemic: Hot Zone - North America. Reasons to avoid - Can feel unfair. Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective. Reasons to avoid - Really hard. Hocus Pocus: The Game. Reasons to avoid - A little TOO hard. Using their unique skills and abilities, players explore mysterious locations and encounter various enemies on the hunt for precious loot. Each dungeon offers a variety of different challenges, with players needing to be careful with which cards to play and what decisions to make - or otherwise risk having to retreat from exhaustion.

The roleplaying elements of Gloomhaven - which see the world evolve over time, similar to a legacy board game - are perhaps its most unique parts and help to shape the board game into a more epic and memorable experience.

The video game is currently in Early Access, meaning that currently the only way to play is through an adventure mode and not a complete campaign. However, the full version is on its way - and adventure mode is still a very fun way to play Gloomhaven. Charting the rise of an entire people from seemingly humble beginnings to a glorious age of prosperity, card game Through the Ages enables players to pull the strings and decide the fates of millions.

Much like 7 Wonders - also a civilisation-building game, albeit smaller in scope - Through the Ages is all about player choice and deciding which areas of your empire to invest in.

Unlike 7 Wonders, Through the Ages expands on this by forcing players to think carefully about all the different aspects of their civilisation - as they can become a weakness if left unchecked. In Through the Ages, players are not only working towards advancing their scientific knowledge and military power, but also obtaining the resources they need to feed their people. Across the space of three ages each player needs to steadily grow their cities by building new housing, feeding their people and researching new scientific discoveries, as well as ensuring that their military is strong enough to prevent their opponents from stealing from them.

Gaining the resources you need to carry out your plans comes from drafting and playing cards, with certain technologies or wonders helping players gain more of the cards they need.

Once the last age has come to an end, the player with the most advanced civilisation becomes the winner of the game. Through the Ages works very well as a digital board game in that players can witness the growth of their civilisation on-screen, seeing their tiny settlements turn into modern-day cities of technology and wonder.

The tabletop gaming world is a haven for history buffs, with countless board games based on seminal events that have taken place throughout human existence. From ancient history to the modern era, designers have long been fascinated by the passage of time - with many board games enabling you to actively branch away from what happened and create an alternative history of your own.

Perhaps most beloved of these is the iconic Twilight Struggle, a two-player game which attempts to recreate the complex Cold War conflict between the US and Soviet Russia. Featuring cards based on the real-life events of the period, Twilight Struggle has players search for confidential information, enemy spies and anything that will help them gain more worldwide influence than their opponent.

This might sound overwhelming but Twilight Struggle is actually a rather straightforward board game that offers tough decisions without being hard to play. You choose how to respond to world events and the actions of your opponent; how and where you decide to exert pressure is your primary interaction. As either the US or Russia, players apply their resources and brains to outwit their opponent.

Sometimes this will involve handing an unavoidable advantage to your opponent - or even pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. This is the really exciting thing about playing Twilight Struggle: the potential to create your own version of history. This translates well into the digital board game version with the inclusion of graphical and musical pizzaz. Why not make it even scarier by playing Mysterium?

A co-op board game about interacting with a ghost, Mysterium is sure to intensify any already spooky situation into an even creepier - but decidedly fun - one. Meanwhile, the ghost player will need to think carefully about which cards to give to each of the players in order to offer the right clues. This list combines some of the most exciting new games with some essentials that hold up to years of play. Best cooperative board games The best ways to play board games on PC The 5 best solo board games.

When we're looking at these games we're considering not only that they're great—smartly designed, possible to learn without an encyclopedia but deep enough to play again and again—but that they're great with friends.

Board games are a fundamentally multiplayer experience, and though many have fun solo rules, we'll focus on the multiplayer aspect for our best-of list. We also take into account the quality of the components, the visual design, and whether or not they take up as much physical space as they're truly worth.

We're looking at you, Gloomhaven. You might also be interested in the best way to get into Warhammer 40, via starter sets. Of all the games we've played recently, Betrayal at House on the Hill is the one we keep coming back to. Players take on one of many horror tropes before exploring an eerie mansion room by randomly-selected room.

This means you'll rarely get the same layout twice. That sense of uncertainty is also true of your objectives; Betrayal features 50 varied scenarios to play through. The way these are selected is brilliantly organic. As you pick your way through abandoned ballrooms and libraries, you'll uncover events, items, and 'Omens' that will eventually lead to staggeringly varied scenarios known here as 'Haunts'. The mission you get given will be then decided by how many Omens are in play and where you found them, so you never really know what's coming next.

That's where the game truly begins; you may be fighting to escape the house as it floods, or perhaps a traitor walks among you. Both sets survivors and traitors then have their own secret rules to follow. This results in a tense race to the finish as you work to undermine each other and, hopefully, survive.

Cosmic Encounter is a gold standard for direct-conflict games in any group, simply because you don't get to pick who you attack. The wormhole opens up each round and you just get thrown at an enemy you didn't pick, so no purposeful picking on the leader or the weakest link.

Each player is an alien race with one of a dizzying array of weird powers, all trying to take over a world in another player's system. First to take over five foreign worlds wins. Lots and lots of bickering and diplomacy and tense reveals ensue. The weird alien powers are what really make Cosmic Encounter fun. Every player gets a power that breaks the rules of the game in some strange way.

Maybe you can trade your hand of cards with an opponent's. Maybe you can add ships to a fight after it has already begun. Maybe you can see what your opponent is going to do before they do it.

Maybe you win the game under completely different conditions than everyone else. Even with the same players, no two games are ever the same. An absolute beast of a European-style strategy game, Coimbra has players drafting sets of unique, colored dice and collecting power cards in order to fulfill a variety of conditions. It sounds like a lot of other relatively abstract strategy games, no? The brilliance is in how the moving parts all interact with each other.

Cards have powers that activate based on what color dice you choose in a round. Dice then have effects based on what color they are but can cost more based on the number that was rolled.

They also let you pick more cards based on where on the board these dice are placed. Nominally set during 16th Century Portugal, Coimbra's theme is not nearly as important as its mechanics and its lovely looks. Beautiful graphic design and charming art round out a game that would probably be fun even if it were drab. It's among the best strategy games to be released in the last few years. Veteran designer Martin Wallace's newest is a departure from the norm for him: a strategy game focused on miniatures battles rather than an in-depth economic management game.

But Wildlands really typified his less-is-more design philosophy. Unlike a lot of miniatures games, Wildlands eschews dice and randomization in favor of deep tactical strategy and reliable effects.

Luckily, the board game revolution has reached video games, and you can get some cracking digital PC versions of your physical favourites. There are many other advantages to digital board games. First of all, you don't have to unpack a bunch of tokens and cards from a box, only to find that they do not fit back in the same box two hours later. Another big benefit is that a digital game takes up a lot less space, and generally costs a lot less.

If you like them enough to play with friends around the table, the option to go out and pick up a physical copy is still there, after all. As is our way with our lists, this is by no means exhaustive, but we've taken a broad view to collect our favourites and give you varied options.

You might find that your own favourite board game game isn't in the final 10, which of course means that it was number Why not head to the comments to give an impassioned speech in its favour? You might convert some readers to your team, and muster enough to break down the door of the treehouse and force us to include it when we update the list. Magic: The Gathering is the biggest trading card game in the world.

It's been around for decades and taken a few stabs at crossing over to the digital world in that time, but it was only with 's Magic: The Gathering Arena that it felt like it really hit its stride on PC. Arena is the same MTG you know from the tabletop, but translated into a fast-flowing, visually impressive app that sees it step up to the likes of digital-only card games such as Hearthstone.

Arena also lets you unlock some of the physical cards you buy in the game for free, so you don't need to buy everything twice to keep your collection across paper and pixels. With plenty of popular Magic: The Gathering formats from the original collectable card game, as well as some new formats exclusive to the digital version, and the chance to play upcoming sets a little ahead of their release, Arena proves MTG isn't going anywhere but up for a while. Civilisation games were born on the tabletop, with the first - 's Civilization by legendary designer Francis Tresham - serving as inspiration for Sid Meier's Civilization series on the PC which then inspired board games based on the PC games based on the board game; it's a whole thing.

Through The Ages takes the classic genre in a new direction, seeing players build up their empire using little more than a bunch of cards.

You draft technology, leaders, wonders and more from a shared queue of cards, making sure to keep your people happy and fed while also fending off attacks from your neighbours. The tabletop version of Through The Ages is a grand creation that takes hours to play and quite a bit of effort to keep all the cards in the right places. Having all the cardboard admin handled by your PC means you can focus on the game itself - which is a cracker.

Ticket To Ride has become a modern classic of board gaming since it first chugged out of the brain of designer Alan R. Moon in - and for good reason. There's a simple pleasure to spending matching sets of coloured cards to link up locations on the map with sets of dinky train carriages, aiming to complete your secret tickets by the end of the game.

The original version starring the map of North America has been followed by numerous expansions and spin-offs that see the players travel everywhere from Europe to India. They also bring new features to the experience, with ferries, tunnels and more taking the trains on an epic worldwide journey.

Ticket To Ride remains a joy in cardboard, and its PC version is just as delightful. Plus, you get to hear it go "Choo choo! Sure, building railways in Ticket To Ride is great. But have you ever wanted to rob a train instead? If so, you should probably find a new ambition, but Colt Express will let you live out your fantasies of being like Jesse James by rootin', tootin' and shootin' your way through a Wild West train heist.

Everyone chooses an action to take each turn in secret, before they all play out in the order they were played - leading to inevitable chaos.

You might go to blast a rival only to find they've scarpered onto the roof of the carriage, or make a move to grab some loot just as somebody pinches it right in front of you.