Game Time! Downton Abbey: The Board Game Review

Downton Abbey: The Board Game

Year: 2013

Ages: 8+

Players: 2-6 (For the purpose of this review, there were 4 players)

Set Up Time: 1 Minute

Playing Time: Took us 25 minutes.

Object: Be the first maid or footman to have completed all their chores and collected the most bells.

Review:
+ The board game looks like a replica of Downton Abbey and folded up it looks like a beautiful photo album cover with the title on it.
+ The Carson's Cards/Letters/Destination Cards mention the characters in Downton Abbey as well as the board itself contains the names of characters with the rooms (for example, "Lord Grantham's Dressing Room" is one that you may visit)
+ You can as either a Maid pawn or a Footman pawn.
+ This is a "Destination" game which I looked up to discover was a series of games in the UK. They have several editions including one of Harry Potter and many that are based around places in London. 
+ If you are playing with people who have never seen Downton Abbey before, that's okay! There is no trivia questions you will need to know.

- The "Maids" and "Footman" pawns are hard to distinguish between. Too hard to keep track of whos pawn is whos when playing with 4 people. More than once we found that the background colors weren't distinctive or different enough and players had moved other players pawns.

Overall:
In the end I was very impressed with this game. You never know what you will be getting with a TV or Movie board game. Some are horrible and have nothing to do with the show and some are actually pretty decent. Since Downton Abbey is a version of the already established (in the UK) board game "Destination", it's very easy to follow, all the rules make sense and it's well worth a play for any fan of either Downton Abbey or the Destination series. I got this as a Christmas gift this year and have already played it more times than other board games I have had for years. 

A

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