This is a personal, largely spoiler free (or spoiler-vague) review of the The Invisible Man fanmade scenario by The Beard for Arkham Horror the Card Game.
Based on the story by H. G. Wells, The Invisible Man has the investigators called to hunt down the titular villiain before he can expand his reign of terror. The scenario plays out in an arc where the investigators are half tussling with the badguy right from the start, and half scrambling for clues to allow progress to be made. Once that's done, however, it's a matter of taking him down - while the more clever investigators are instead poking at his defenses, trying to find ways to slow him.
The Invisible Man is a solid, enjoyable scenario that gets right to the point. There's no need for build-up - you're immeidately thrown into a wild hunt in the woods that demands you move quickly. There's a great push and pull early on - you can fight and evade with the Invisible Man to help progress the acts, but doing so is risky early on. The encounter deck has a variety of hunter enemies to harry you, and other enemies you'll want to chase down - with treachery cards that punish you for trying to do hit and run techniques. For a cherry on top, there's even a little sidequest you can do for an optional reward, made all the more exciting because the doom clock is extremely tight. This ends up being a great tradeoff - investigators are constantly wanting to be at different locations, all of which have various downsides to weigh that decision. Certainly, the guardian running to save the seeker might help, or passing a Combat test on a side objective - but they could end up taking 2 horror when they go back to fight the Invisible Man! It makes you question if it's worth it, and makes you doubt your decision either way - exactly what a punishing mechanic should do.
The primary mechanics of the scenario involve both combat and investigative players participating towards the same goal. The Invisible Man has Combat and Evasion decks that you need to flip over when you fight or evade him, with effects that are generally bad - but as you gather more clues, you can instead spend them to stack the decks in your favor, getting bonuses instead of penalites. It's a simple enough idea that ends up being a ton of fun, slowly turning a lopsided fight in your direction
If there's any complaint to be had with the scenario, it's a minor one about the flavor. The feeling of hunting an invisible enemy through the woods is great - but he doesn't feel like much of a direct threat, and lacks the sadistic villainy that I'm familiar with from the movie.
With two 19 XP investigators, I found The Invisible Man to be a perfect level of difficulty. It was hard, but didn't feel impossible or frustrating, and the difficulty of tests felt appropriate. The standalone bag does have a -5 and a -6 in the chaos bag, so I would expect it to be easier during a normal campaign.
The Invisible Man is a great scenario that's engaging right from the get-go with a fun mechanical twist and a perfect level of balance to be difficult but fair.
Rewards
XP Cost: 2
Potential XP Gain: 1 (locations) +2 (Griffin) = 3 XP or 1 XP after costs
If you complete a small side-quest during the scenario, one investigator may add Griffin's Notes to their deck. If you successfully complete the scenario, one investigator may add the Invisibility Serum to their deck.
