Author’s note: I will try not to go into too much detail here. That said, if you are sensitive to body horror, this game may not be for you. Some discussion of this topic is necessary for the review.
“Hideous Abomination” (2021) was designed by Judson Cowan and published by Board Game Circus and Tettix Games. It also sometimes goes by the name “Tüftelmonster”, though I will be using “Hideous Abomination” throughout this review.
You play as a mad scientist creating a monster out of various body parts. You roll the dice to determine if you draw more body part cards, steal parts from someone else, bolt down parts so they can’t be stolen, or refresh your hand by discarding and redrawing all cards. You then play parts onto your monster, making sure all open connections are matched together. Players take turns until either all body part cards are used or you can’t add onto your monsters further. (Usually, the first will end the game. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game end due to the second, though it is technically possible.)
At the end of the game, players add up points based on their monsters. You get points for having monster parts from a consistent “color” of monster, each representing a different type of monster. (For instance, orange cards are based on demons, while gray cards are meant to look like zombies, and green ones are sea monsters.) You also get points for certain objectives, such as having the most eyes or the most ears. Each player also has secret objectives they need to complete. There are a lot of different ways to get points in this game. I’m probably missing some.
There is also an expansion called “Robots and Rot” (2021). Rot parts make certain tiles useless, while robot parts are automatically bolted down and resist rot. I played with these for the first time at the game, and I wouldn’t recommend doing that. That said, if you like the game, the expansion is pretty good and integrates quite well to add another layer of strategy. Most of my comments from here on out apply fairly equally to the expansion as to the base game.
I actually really like this game mechanically. The requirement that you have to exclusively match open sides to open sides makes it different from most draft-and-build games (such as “Betrayal at House on the Hill” (2004) or “Steampunk Rally” (2015)). It’s a simple but effective change from similar games that adds an entirely different layer of complexity while still being easy to understand. The addition of stealing mechanics and the matching mechanic of bolting is also a notable improvement from similar games. It also manages to strike a complexity balance between draft-and-build mechanics in games like “Betrayal at House on the Hill”, which are just about drawing until you get something that fits, and extremely complicated multi-round build-and-sell models in games like “Steampunk Rally”. It provides a good strategic element without being hard to learn and engage with. The mechanics aren’t exactly unique, but are really well-done and refined in ways that do improve on genre conventions a lot. My one critique is that I think there might be too many ways to earn points, to the point where it becomes confusing for the players. But that’s a relatively small criticism, and doesn’t take away from my overall enjoyment.
The big thing in this game (and the reason for the slight content warning at the start) is the art of the game. As you might expect for a game about monsters, there is a lot of art that lands somewhere in the realms of body horror or even cosmic horror. Some cards depict writhing piles of discolored and lumpy flesh with eyes poking out in random places. Some heads are just a bunch of tentacles with some unidentifiable orifice at the end of each. There are mouths on hands and other places mouths shouldn’t be. The zombie and rot cards have exposed organs, blood vessels, and bones sometimes, or have body parts falling out of their sockets. I will say that the decision to lean into a cartoon aesthetic rather than a naturalistic aesthetic does help to lessen the impact of these; I’m someone who actually has a fairly low tolerance for things like body horror, but the fact that it does not look real made it more than tolerable for me. But certain cards were still uncomfortable to people I’ve played with, so I do want to put this caution out there. That said, I don’t want to imply these are the majority of the cards. Some are just normal-(ish)-looking depictions of demon wings, or feathery limbs, or furry legs, or lobster claws, or scaly heads. The majority of cards are not things that I would consider body horror. It’s just that a large enough percentage is that it is an unavoidable feature of the game.
But that weirdness is to be expected. It’s a game about monster building. That’s going to come up. What I didn’t expect was that there were actually a lot of tiles that are just… humans? Like, there’s one that is a normal, naked human torso. There’s one that is a tattooed knee, and another that’s an injured knee. There’s a perfectly normal hand, and another that’s a foot with a toe tag (a tag used to identify corpses in morgues). There’s even one that is a crotch with a visible bulge under the purple-and-pink polka dot underwear. There are also a surprising number of demon cards that are based on punk, alternative, or related DIY aesthetics on explicitly humanoid-looking cards. As someone who regularly wears DIY’d punk-inspired clothing, I find it kind of funny, actually. I just find it odd that the only time any cards have something that matches a definable modern human aesthetic, it’s demons having an alt aesthetic.
The reason I call this out specifically is that you could probably tell there would be at least some light body horror based on the box alone. The art there is milder than some of the actual cards, though it is at least enough that the average consumer could infer that body horror is an aspect of the game. But none of the explicitly human parts (or even the aspects that blatantly co-opt alt aesthetics without necessarily being on human body parts) are actually visible on the box. Given how much they show of the actual art on the box, this somehow feels intentional, and I wanted to call it out.
Setting aside the body horror and weird human elements for a moment, the art of this is incredible. The style is a strong cartoon aesthetic with a lot of bright colors. The monsters are both easy to categorize and distinguish, even across a wide swathe of body parts. I’d give it maybe a B+ on pieces lining up well to one another; it’s probably the best I’ve seen of games that don’t use a specific, designated connector to line up all pieces across all cards (like doorways in “Betrayal at House on the Hill” or mechanical connections on “Steampunk Rally”), though there are still some connections that clearly don’t match up correctly. I am also surprised by the sheer variety in body parts and styles that the art achieved. There was a really strong variety here that shows a lot of effort put into it, and I’m a fan.
Who would I recommend this game for? It’s a fun draft-and-build style game that I think has broad appeal. I actually am having a bit of a hard time writing this section, not because I think it’s unappealing, but because I can’t think of a specific situation I’d recommend it for. So long as you are comfortable with a bit of body horror, it has a nice balance of accessibility and strategy. It nicely improves on genre conventions in ways that make it a much more engaging experience without being hard to play or understand. The art is really creative and well thought through. You do need a decently sized table to play it on, but other than the body horror, that’s my only major caveat. So, if you’re looking for a new game and are okay with the art, I’d highly recommend looking into this game. This is the 15th game I’ve reviewed for TechNews, and might actually be my strongest recommendation yet. Good job, Judson Cowan. I have no idea who you are, but you hit it out of the park on this one.