If you’ve played the base game, you know the specific brand of frantic, silent rage it induces. You’re staring at the Barbarian, willing the player across from you to just move left, while the sand timer bleeds out. Maximum Security doesn't just add more "stuff" to that experience; it turns the game into a customizable toolbox that fixes the one major flaw of the original: it could eventually feel a bit one-note.
Tuning the Stress Dial
The genius of Kasper Lapp’s design here is the modularity. Most expansions force you to swallow the whole thing at once, but this is a menu. If your group is constantly losing because the "no talking" rule is too brutal, you can swap in the anti-stress tokens. These are essentially "time-outs" that let you pause the chaos, talk strategy, and flip the timer. It’s the perfect olive branch for a kid who finds the real-time pressure more upsetting than fun.
On the flip side, if your family has "solved" the base game and can rob that mall in their sleep, the guards and beholders turn it into a genuine stealth mission. You aren't just managing your own movement anymore; you’re managing the patrol paths of NPCs. It shifts the game from a pure reflex test to something much closer to a tactical puzzle.
Specific Friction to Watch For
While the expansion is highly rated on BoardGameGeek, it doesn't magically fix the "Great Pawn of Frustration." That’s the big red piece you thunk down in front of someone to tell them it's their turn to do something.
In Maximum Security, the complexity jump means there are more reasons to thunk that pawn. With the addition of wall breaches and ventilation shafts, there are more "legal" moves to keep track of. If you have a player who already struggles with situational awareness, the added layers of the mage’s spells or the elf’s telekinesis might lead to more table-thumping than actual gameplay. My advice: introduce exactly one "Helper" and one "Challenge" at a time. Don't dump the whole box onto the table for the first session.
How It Compares
If your family likes the "everyone acts at once" vibe of 5-Minute Dungeon but wants something that requires more spatial reasoning, this is the gold standard. Where 5-Minute Dungeon is about matching symbols as fast as possible, Maximum Security is about predicting your teammates' intentions.
It also fills a specific gap for families who find traditional cooperative games like Pandemic a bit too slow or prone to one person "quarterbacking" the whole strategy. Because you can't talk (most of the time), everyone has to be an active participant. You can't just wait for a parent to tell you what to do. You have to watch the board, see the guard moving toward the Mage, and realize you’re the only one who can move the hero out of the way. It’s a high-speed lesson in paying attention to someone other than yourself.
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