Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of this product in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.
I’ve only ever been to one haunted house. I think I would have been about eight, though it’s hard to be sure. It was a docile and low-budget affair at a local orchard. Quintessential New England. If I were to walk through it now, I would likely find it charming, but that was certainly not the case at the time. I was a wreck, terrified, crying and screaming. My poor mother had to carry me for most of it. I was so overwhelmed and so obviously losing my mind that two clowns hanging out in a dumpster broke character to try and cheer me up. I do not have coulrophobia, and I appreciate their efforts in retrospect, but the sight of two silent clowns in a dumpster doing jazz hands while bouncing back and forth and smiling was not soothing under the circumstances.
There are no clowns in dumpsters in Scream Park, a card drafting game about building haunted houses, but you are otherwise spoiled for options. That giant stack of cards includes over a hundred Scenes, features such as Cannibal Caves, Organ Store Rooms, Ritual Chambers, and Corn Fields. Each card is unique as far as I can tell. Don’t hold me to that.
The rules and structure will be broadly familiar to anyone who’s played 7 Wonders or Sushi Go!. Over the course of four turns per round, and three rounds per succinct game, players draft two cards at a time to add to their house. Some of these cards become new Scenes, which must be added in increasing value according to the numbers in the upper left corner of each card.
Beneath that number, each Scene has a list of icons necessary to complete and score it at game’s end. The more valuable the Scene, the more icons it needs. Many Scenes come with one or two of their needed icons already there on the bottom half of the card—the Ritual Chamber, for example, comes complete with its own Unholy Altar, which contributes one of the two knives necessary to score the Chamber. The other icons are gained by tucking drafted Scene cards under pre-existing Scenes. Think of it as interior decorating. You know what would go really well in that Cave Entrance we had installed? Some Bubbling Goo. Ooooh, what if we added Bone Pits to the Organ Storeroom??? This is where the setting of Scream Park starts to take off.
At least, in theory. It’s player group dependent. There’s nothing about how Scream Park plays that guarantees you will experience it as being about anything in particular. It is easy to churn through a game in about 15 or 20 minutes, paying little attention to the flavor. Scream Park holds up fine under those circumstances, but I don’t recommend it. It only shines when everyone drinks in the ambiance. The more you lean into, “Don’t you think this Lighthouse Room would benefit from some Endless Wailing,” the more fun you’re going to have.
The bonkers art from illustrator Nick Tofani certainly helps. This is not board game art in any traditional sense. The art in Scream Park isn’t concerned with cleanliness, coziness, or even particularly fussed about legibility. It is often ugly (complimentary). Tofani’s art is impressionistic and visceral, often trying to break the boundaries of the card. There is something schizophrenic about a lot of it, something unsettling that makes it clear these are not haunted houses in which clowns will smile and dance in a friendly way. Tofani’s contributions suggest that people may actually die in these haunted houses.
As you work on your haunted house, VIPs come to inspect your progress. These are my favorite part of Scream Park as a system, if we must think of it in those terms. The VIPs love haunted houses, but they have strict requirements. They’re discerning. They travel through your house in order, from left to right, scoring points all the while, but they won’t even set foot in a Scene unless it meets their exacting standards. The Fire Marshall is here to inspect any ongoing work, and will only enter a Scene that doesn’t yet have all of its required symbols. The Review Blogger, on the other hand, is only interested in seeing the finished product. The Haunt Brat is, thematically, my favorite. He’s seen it all before, and won’t deign to set food in a room unless you’ve kitted it out with unnecessary features. The moment they come to a room they don’t like, they turn around and leave, taking any remaining potential points with them.
The VIPs form the long arc of Scream Park. They keep every game from feeling the same. You have to look at and consider all three before making even your first decision of the game. Sometimes their preferences compliment or contradict one another, setting up scenarios in which you have to make tradeoffs. They also allow for moments in Scream Park during which you get to feel clever, a word I don’t often associate with these types of drafting games.
Sometimes, no matter how well you plan, everything falls apart. This is a drafting game with a pretty large deck. The laws of probability apply, for better or for worse. Scream Park hasn’t changed my opinion of drafting games—they’re fine—or haunted houses in general, but I had a great time. No need to carry me through this one.
Scream Park details
- Designer: Jasper Beatrix
- Artists: Nick Tofani
- Publishers: DVC Games
- Release Date: 2024
- Player count : 1 - 5
- Age range : 13+
- Time range : 25 - 35 minutes
- Mechanism(s): Closed Drafting, Hand Management, Set Collection, Simultaneous Action Selection
- BGG Geek Rating: 7.99111 - converted to Meeple Mountain scale: 4.0.
- More articles about Scream Park.
Thanks so much about the kind words about the game and specifically my art. Some of the funniest descriptors I’ve ever seen for my work. Happy you enjoyed yourself!