by El_Tonio
I decided to get Pandemic: Iberia when I saw it on sale for $26 on Amazon.com last week (a sale that was still going on at the time this review was written for anyone who may be interested). This review is based on four two-player games (which is how we always play Pandemic), including one game using the “Influx of Patients Challenge.”
Pandemic: Iberia is very similar but not identical to traditioal Pandemic. Here is a list of some of the most important similarities and differences that stood out to us.
SIMILARITIES:
Setup is virtually identical (for example, there are just a few extra tokens to put besides the board -- see below)
You still do four actions, draw two player cards, and infect cities. Several of these actions (treat disease, share knowledge, build a hospital, research a disease) are very similar to those from traditional pandemic, while others are new (build railroad and purify water) or are quite a bit different (movement). More below on these differences. 
While there are some noticeable differences in seven the role cards, they are similar enough that they will at least feel familiar, so I decided to place in this section as well.
You still lose if you run out of player cards, run out of disease cubes, or if there are eight or more outbreaks
You still win when all 4 diseases are researched (the equivalent to curing from traditional Pandemic -- though researching has a different effect on gameplay than curing -- see below). DIFFERENCES:
Movement is quite a bit different. There are only three options (move by carriage/boat, train, or ship), which makes moving around the board slightly more difficult/challenging than in traditional Pandemic. 
There are two new types of tokens -- purification tokens and railroad tokens (plus a prevention marker that looks like a target and is used with the Nurse role card).
The purification tokens and railroad tokens are respectively used when taking the “purify water” and “build railroad” actions; which are a completely new addition to the game. 
The PURIFY WATER action lets you discard a card of the appropriate color (e.g., yellow if you are in a yellow region) to place 2 purification tokens in a region. You remove a purify water token instead of placing a disease cube in a city adjacent to a purify water token. This really allows you to plan ahead and safely leave an area for a while to focus on other parts of the map. The BUILD RAILROAD action lets you put a railroad token on a solid line adjacent to the city you are in. Railroad tokens make moving around the map a little easier (i.e. you can move to any city connected by a continuous chain of railroad tokens using a single movement action). We’ve found building railroad tokens between hot spots that are far apart to be very beneficial. 
Another small but noticeable difference is that there are only four hospital tokens (one for each color), and you can only (1) build a hospital in the region that matches its color, and (2) cure a disease in a hospital that matches its color (so, for example, you can only build a yellow hospital and cure a yellow disease in a yellow region). So, you MUST build all four hospitals to win the game. This adds another small challenge to the game. 
Finally, as noted above, you can no longer cure a disease (and diseases can no longer be eradicated). Instead you win if you research the four diseases. Treat disease always removes a single disease cube from a city even after a disease has been researched (unlike traditional Pandemic where treat disease removed all cubes from a city for a cured disease). Also, player cards that match the color of a researched disease can now be used to purify water in any region regardless of color. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:
Overall, we liked Pandemic: Iberia about as much as traditional Pandemic. It was similar enough to the original that it did not feel like we were learning an entirely new game, but the options and strategies were dissimilar enough that it still felt like a different game. In short, it is a nice twist on a great game we already like quite a bit.
Th replayability also seems reasonably high (and certainly higher than the traditional Pandimic base game without expansions); especially given this is a limited run standalone game that is unlikely to get any expansions. For example, we liked that they included 15 event cards (as opposed to just five in the traditional Pandemic base game). It is also nice that they included two variations on game play: (1) “Influx of Patients Challenge” where you move one cube of each color toward the nearest matching hospital -- if applicable -- each turn; and (2) “Historical Diseases Challenge” which gives each disease a “special ability.”
The only missed opportunity to increase replayability is that there are not more role cards in the game (there are only seven). I call this a missed opportunity since a few of the roles from traditional Pandemic could easily have worked well in Pandemic: Iberia. Two examples that come readily to mind include (1) the generalist which lets you do five actions each turn, and (2) the scientist who only needs four cards of the same color to cure/research a disease. I’m sure there are others that would have worked as well, but even just a couple/few more roles would have added exponentially to the replayability of the game. Maybe we’ll get lucky and the will release a couple of promo roles via the BGG store (unlikely, but you never know). My wife actually came up with a great idea of time traveling back in time from traditional Pandemic to Pandemic: Iberia using these or other roles we feel could work with this version of the game. I expect we will give that a try at some point.
NOTE: Special thanks to the BGGers who posted the images used in this review. See original image for full photo credit.