For many, Pandemic has been the gateway game into the modern world of board gaming. We purchased this gem about ten years ago and it has since spent countless hours on the game table and is the centerpiece to some of our favorite game memories. 

Since its release, Pandemic has seen itself expand from the original game to a family of games all with the Pandemic name. The latest addition to the family is Pandemic: Rapid Response. 

What is Pandemic: Rapid Response? 

Pandemic: Rapid Response is a real-time cooperative game for 2 to 4 players. Players make up the Crisis Response Unit, a diverse team with each crew member having their own unique abilities. Together you must fly a specially equipped plane to cities all around the world that desperately need food, water, vaccines, and other supplies. 

To do this, you’ll roll dice to create supplies, fly the plane, and make deliveries to cities. While doing this, the clock is counting down, revealing new disasters that you and your team must respond to before time runs out. 

How do you play?

Setting up the game is very easy. The rulebook has a great overhead view of the game board that shows where everything needs to be placed. Simply have everyone grab a set of colored dice with their player pawn, give everyone a role card, place the supply crates (cubes) in their matching-colored rooms, shuffle the city deck -using it as explained in the rule book to both place your plane and determine the random cities that you will need to deliver aid to, and then you’re ready to play!

Cards and Dice 

The city cards represent the locations where players will need to travel to deliver aid. Each card features symbols that show the type of aid that city requires: vaccine, food, power, first aid, or water. Around the edge of the board are the names of all the cities. This functions as the plane’s flight path. When you reveal a city card, place it next to its matching city spot on the edge of the board so you know where your plane needs to fly. 

These symbols are also present on the dice which players will use to move from room to room on the plane and activate effects. There are multiple rooms on the plane where players will go to generate supplies, clear wast, and deliver aid. 

During set-up, each player is given a different role. These roles give players special abilities that they can use during the game.

Player Turns

To start the game, players will flip over the two minute sand timer and begin taking their turns in clockwise order. On their turn players will roll all of their dice Yahtzee style, (unless your role card states otherwise.) The first roll you’ll roll all of your dice, then you will be able to re-roll any of your dice again, keeping results that you like, up to two more times. You can do these re-rolls at any point in your turn. So you can roll all your dice, use some, then roll your remaining dice later in your turn. 

Any dice that you have used or assigned to a room cannot be re-rolled. Just unused dice. 

Using your dice

Move: Spend any one of your rolled dice to move your pawn through an open door from your current room to an adjacent room. The result of the die does not matter. 

Fly: Spend one of your dice showing a plane result to move the plane to an adjacent city, either to the left or the right of the current city the plane is in. 

Assign Dice: To use a room’s effect you must assign enough dice to it. Each room requires specific icons to be rolled and assigned in a specific quantity. 

Activate Rooms: Each room of the plane has a unique effect you can use when enough dice have been assigned in that room. After activating a room and using its effect, dice are returned to their player. 

If you activate in a supply room you generate that supply. Take the shown number of supply crates from that room and place each on an empty cargo space in the cargo bay. Generating supplies creates waste which builds up over time and stops you and your team from operating efficiently. Once you’ve activated a supply room, take all the dice used and roll them to generate waste. Any waste generated moves the waste tracker the same number of spaces on the waste track. If it ever reaches the end, you lose the game. 

Recycling center: Luckily you’re able to reduce your waste in the recycling center. Here you’ll assign dice to move the waste marker down by certain number of spaces. 

Cargo Bay: When you’ve generated supplies the crates come here. This is the room you’ll need to be in to send supplies to the city you’ve flown your plane to. Activate the room to drop the supplies to the city, then remove the corresponding supply crates from the cargo bay and return them to their supply room(s). When you successfully deliver aid, you get to take one time token from the supply and place it in the HQ, giving you more time to help the remaining cities. 

Turn End: when you cannot or do not wish to do anything else on your turn, play passes to the next player on your left. 

Times Up!

When the timer runs out, players pause the active turn, discard a time token to the box, and then draw the top card of the city deck. Flip the sand timer over again and resume the game. 

The game ends when either there is no more time left and players are out of time tokens, or the waste marker reaches the final space on the waste track. 

What do we think?

Pandemic: Rapid Response is a lot of fun. It’s so unique however that you don’t need to be a fan of the original Pandemic to enjoy this game. Out of all of the games that we’ve played, there’s only been a handful of real-time games that I’ve really enjoyed and Rapid Response would definitely be at the top of that list. 

Real-time games are hit or miss for some. There’s a level of stress that’s added to the play experience that some find un-fun, and I totally get that. But while there’s definitely a level of stress that arises from the clock counting down, we felt that there was more time to breathe in Rapid Response as opposed to other real-time games such as Escape, for example. Rather than everyone rolling their dice frantically all at once, the turns help give players a moment to assess the board and regroup their thoughts. So while there’s a heightened level of stress, it isn’t so much so that the game feels chaotic.

At the same time, you’re still participating even when it’s not your turn. Those two minutes fly by and you need to roll your dice fast! So when it wasn’t our turn we helped the payer rolling by moving any supply crates they activated so that they could just focus on their dice. This not only helped everyone know what was going on, but it also contributed to the “team” aspect of the theme.

The game itself plays very quickly, often taking less than 20 minutes, and while it’s simple enough mechanically, due to the time crunch placed upon players, it can be very challenging. We have both won and lost spectacularly which is a lot of fun. If a game is too easy and there’s no threat of losing then what’s the point? 

There’s also plenty included to help extend the life and replayability of the game as well. There are multiple role cards to try out, each giving you a different unique ability during the game, four difficulty levels, and even Crisis Cards you can add in for an even greater challenge. All this adds up to the game being fun for a good long time. 

Theme

I absolutely love the theme of Rapid Response. This is really a unique game in the Pandemic universe and not just Pandemic with different mechanics. 

The familiar names of cities outline the edges of the board. But rather than needing to travel to the cities to help cure them of diseases, you’re in the air and need to assemble the correct supplies that the people on the ground need. 

I really like that you aren’t just trying to send supplies either, the location of the game, the plane, creates challenges for the players to overcome as well. The more you supplies you produce, the more waste that piles up and prohibits your team operating effectively. You can’t just produce the supplies, you have to manage the waste that results or else you’ll lose the game. 

The cooperative nature of the game really pays off. You have to work together to complete the objectives during the allotted time that it does create the feel of being an elite team flying overhead delivering supplies. And the stress of the clock counting down reminds me of the stress you feel in Pandemic as you are rushing to cure diseases before a specific city’s card is drawn and another outbreak happens.

Components

First and foremost this is a dice game, so lets talk about those. 

The dice are perfect. Yes, perfect. They are beautiful, well sized, easy to pick up, have a nice weight to them (read: don’t feel cheap), sound great when shaken, and all of the icons are easy to differentiate. This last part is important as you’ll spend the whole game quickly rolling these on your turn and visually processing the results before placing them. 

Everything else included in the box is very well made and of top-notch quality. The board is beautifully illustrated, not distracting, and well designed to facilitate all players easily around it. All of the cubes, player pawns, and cards are also top grade.

The biggest thing to mention is that while there is a sand-timer, we’ve abandoned it and instead use our phones. When we play, we’re all so focused on the game itself and frantically trying to complete our objectives before the time runs out that we needed a buzzer to let us know when the two minutes were up. 

How does it play with two? 

We have played Pandemic: Rapid Response at all player counts and can safely say that it is just as much fun with two as it is with four. 

The biggest difference will be in the flow and strategy. With four players you have a bit more time in between your turns to look over the board and figure out your plan. With two you’ll have a little less so communication becomes even more important. We enjoyed the game just the same no matter how many people were playing. 

Can kids play?

The box says it’s for players ages 8 and up and I’d say that is probably right, if maybe a bit young depending on the child. 

If your child can play the original Pandemic game then they’ll be fine playing Rapid Response. The biggest hurdle I see for kids would be the need to have fast processing speed and handle the pressure of a time crunch. The real-time aspect can stress anyone out; it certainly does our oldest.

This is easily scaleable however. If two minutes is too difficult, add an extra minute and see how that goes. While the rules say that you aren’t supposed to talk strategy between when the timer goes off and you start it again, you could always take a minute or two at that point to help younger players formulate a strategy so that they feel confident and know what they need to do when the timer starts up again.

Summary

Pandemic: Rapid Response brings all of the quality gaming experience you’d expect from a game holding the Pandemic name with an entirely unique feel from the original. The real-time aspect of the game combines perfectly with the theme, adding the right amount of stress, suspense, and challenge for players, while the time between turns offers the much needed moment to breathe not often found in real-time games. The game plays quick enough for players to enjoy multiple games in one sitting, while the variety of player cards and difficulty settings keeps the game feeling fresh and challenging for many many play sessions. All this added with the fact that not only is it fun at all player counts, but that it is easy to teach to new players means that this game will be able to see the table a lot. 

We think Pandemic: Rapid Response is a great option for anyone looking to add a real-time game to their shelf or a quick and unique cooperative game to enjoy with their families or friends for game night. 

If you have any questions, be sure to leave them in the comments below!

To purchase your own copy of Pandemic: Rapid Response, you can do so HERE!

Thank you so much to the great folks at Z-Man games for sending us a copy of Pandemic: Rapid Response to review. As always, our views and opinions are our own.

Game Info:
Title: Pandemic: Rapid Response
Ages: Designer: Kane Klenko
Publisher: Z-Man Games
Published: 2019

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