Hair Brained Games Review - The Plum Island Horror (GMT)

We look at this curious cooperative board game from GMT and designer Hermann Luttmann involving Horrors, Mutants, Plums, Islands, Storms, and the occasional fleeting glimpse of a Sasquatch. Or was it?

[@hermannluttmann1637]

Oh my goodness! What a wonderfully thoughtful and entertaining overview and review! Thank you so much - I'll be sharing this all over the place. Your remarks are so insightful and it is obvious that you have really drilled down and understood the design. Thank you for that - and thank you for the Galaxy Quest reference, one of my favorite movies and for me, one of the most clever comedies ever produced. All the best and good gaming!

[@hairbrainedgames3127]

Heya! Absolutely glad to have played this, and thank you for making it! Got another group coming over this weekend, in fact, for another dive into Plum Island. Ah, Galaxy Quest. By Grabthar's Hammer, what a savings! ;)

[@Original_Maverick]

Awesome review! I really appreciate how the light-hearted implementation of the theme eases the gamestate for players. I think with heavy/hard co-op games, players can get really down on their luck. I've never been so delighted punching chits out of a game; there were wonderful references at every turn. I got a good laugh from "Mercury in Retrograde". I'm glad you won't need mothballs for this one, lol.

[@hairbrainedgames3127]

HEY! Thanks. YES, I love the humor in this, so perfect for the medium and topic, focused on frantic rather than dark. Aren't the little naming homages so clever? Yup, no mothballs on this. There's a game convention coming up and it's going to be *heavily played* (along with Downfall). Love hearing from ya. Hope you're well. Stoked to hear what your play session of it is like when you play it.

[@MeanderingMikesManCave]

Great Review ... I am looking forward to ripping the shrink on mine hopefully next week! And, yes ... there actually is a Plum Island in New York off the tip of Long Island! (Rumors of mysterious experimentation may or may not be true!)

[@hairbrainedgames3127]

Awesome! Thanks for the info on Plum Irland being real. As for the rumors, well... I guess we'll never know. ;) Let me know what you think of it too! Gonna be too cold to be outside this weekend, right? Perfect time to stay inside and work on a little... Plum... ing project? ;)

[@jumpmaster82nd.]

Great review! Need to subscribe and see more of your stuff! Thanks!

[@hairbrainedgames3127]

Well, thank you!

[@rbaynosa]

great review of a great game by a great designer

[@xPEACExTSM]

Can’t say more.👍

[@hairbrainedgames3127]

Well, thanks. I wholeheartedly agree with great game and great designer. I hope you are well, are you still playing People Power?

[@rbaynosa]

@@hairbrainedgames3127 indeed I am, I've been teaching it to casual players even. I'm thinking of getting this or dominant species marine. I know, nothing in common haha.

[@hairbrainedgames3127]

@@rbaynosaThat's fantastic! As for Dominant Species: Marine versus Plum Island... man... that's a toughie. Neither choice is bad, though, so at least you don't have to worry about that! Blessings.

[@Ride-with-Honor-]

4:33 Those fiendish Oompa Loompas!!! 😣😖🤯 😂

[@hairbrainedgames3127]

I know, right? I'm convinced they're the ones stealing all my peanut M&Ms...

[@Ride-with-Honor-]

@@hairbrainedgames3127 Oop...Better not invite me over! Sign me up to be an Oompa Loompa! 😂

[@Tombonzo]

A great insightful review, thanks!

[@hairbrainedgames3127]

Gladly! I hope you're well. We're in 8 degrees this morning. Brr.... Hope you're wamer.

[@jeffm2266]

30:24 Oh, goodness. Those Oompa Loompas are at it again!!

[@JumbleAndGaff]

Great review, entertaining as always 😊

[@hairbrainedgames3127]

Thank you, my friends. Keep up the entertaining vids. Your sheer joy in your Star Wars Unlimited series is palpable. Or is that... palpatine-able. ;)

[@JumbleAndGaff]

Ahaha! Marvelous. It's great to hear from you! @@hairbrainedgames3127​

[@larrymcintire6466]

Another terrific REVIEW! Super job, as I have become used to. BTW, haven't seen any of your reviews for quite awhile, hope you are OK!

[@hairbrainedgames3127]

Heya, thank you, you are too kind. :). Your timing is good, I just posted a very quick and short video on why I've been so absent lately. Thanks so much for commenting.

[@TeamCGS2005]

Thanks for the review 🙂

[@hairbrainedgames3127]

Gladly!

[@perutherford]

Where do you source the plastic card/deck containers from? Those look much more like what I want rather than what I have 😀

[@hairbrainedgames3127]

Heya! It's a variety of places, but mostly I can find certain ones on Amazon (I search for sewing or bead organizers and there's a large host of options. I'd link to it, but everytime I link the comment gets scrubbed from youtube.). Locally, Hobby Lobby is stock full of them. VERY worth it for organizing. :) The black counter trays you see are the GMT counter trays they sell. Also worth it. :)

[@crokinoledk]

Hello. Thank u you for an upload. I’m about to pull the purchasing trigger. How does it stack up against Dawn of Zeds 3rd edition? What’s your personal choice? Thank you for reply in advance.

[@hairbrainedgames3127]

Hey there. Thanks for commenting. Unfortunately, I haven't had exposure to Dawn of Zeds enough to really be valuable in providing an answer. I can tell you that of any game involving zombies that I *have* played, this is top of the pack, but that doesn't really help you with an answer. :) Did you pull the trigger on purchase? I saw that GMT did a big emergency follow up order to get more copies in the warehouse, so hopefully you were able to. :) Thanks again. Sorry can't be more helpful.

[@crokinoledk]

Thank you for the answer! I Appreciate it, and appreciate your reviews in general. I must admit I find them frank, not biased or geared towards promotion. Honestly - I postponed the purchase. Since I’ve been learning at once a few games with a steep learning curve lately, I’d like to avoid overly complicated right now. Too many good games and not enough time 😅. Kind of the curse of abundance 😜. Cheers

[@KSweeney36]

That was thing about saying the name fast is a US thing? As I don’t have a clue what you mean. I do like humour in my games. Just like above, is the humour in the game sometime a non American would struggle with or not get?

[@hairbrainedgames3127]

Interesting question. The humor is the game may resonate most fully with American audiences, and not all the nuances of naming and descriptions would be translatable in their full humor to other cultures. That said, a lot of it I think anyone could get the general 'gist' of it, even if they didn't fully understand the reference. But I'm not 100% certain on that. A good question for the designer. If you say the name too fast it blurs "horror" into another word with less pure connotations. It's not really a problem, just something I got funny looks about because I said the name too fast and it translated into something with more... steamy... implications.

[@uploadtime1780]

What is the suggested price on this one? Seems out at a lot of places.

[@hairbrainedgames3127]

Heya. I bought it pre-sale direct from GMT for $60 and it's still available at GMT Games web site (but they go up in price after initial shipping, so I suspect it's in the $90 range now). It's rapidly going out of stock, yeah. Amazon is the only place I've found it still in stock, but at a very high price point :(. The usual online game stores I go to (Miniature Market, Cardhaus, GameNerdz) are all sold out.

[@TeamCGS2005]

Are you playing solo? Is this game even solo? Thanks.

[@hairbrainedgames3127]

I've had sessions with all player counts, including solo. Solo is an undertaking that requires knowing all the factions well in order to do well. It's a blast, BUT it is quite a lot to think about for a single person. My favorite play count is 4, but it solos just fine (no hidden info per player or anything).