Themeborne | Escape The Dark Sector | Board Game | 1 - 4 Players | Ages 14+ | 45 Minutes Playing Time

Product Information

Once a combat has begun, it only ends when all enemies involved are defeated, or when a member of the crew is killed. Members of the crew are free to exchange items between chapters, but must ensure that before the next chapter card is turned no member of the crew has more than four slots’ worth of items in their inventory.

As these i mmersive chapter cards are revealed one by one, players must make decisions about what to do, before using a combination of tactical dice combat and the timely play of item cards to complete them. IMPORTANT—The fight action must be taken by at least one member of the crew each round of Close Combat. Escape the Dark Sector plays over a series of chapter cards. Each card has an encounter on it, and the players must decide who will flip each card. The player who flips the card will be the primary target for the main effect of the encounter.In addition to declaring that your crewmember will take the activate drone action and placing your crew die on the drone card, you must now also declare whether you intend to activate the Basic or the Advanced function of the drone. Games of Escape the Dark Sector are pretty brutal. There's not much opportunity for healing, so you simply attempt to protect the crew members who are the most badly hurt while you work from encounter to encounter, trying to make sure you're in the best shape for the final battle. The final battle usually doesn't care what shape you're in though and provides a solid challenge. Once you're familiar with the rules, which takes a single game, you can complete a mission in around 45 - 60 mins, which gives plenty of time to try again. And usually again. Although it is definitely part of the B-movie sci fi madness that is the Dark Sector there is a definite tonal shift. Although in saying that the art of the new cards is beautiful and a refreshing difference from the previous artworks. I think it comes down completely to personal preference whether you enjoy the theme or not but even if you do not care for the time travel shenanigans there are still several encounters that stay on theme and can be mixed in straight out of the box. I certainly have no plans to play it again for a good long while, as the game does get monotonous after multiple playthroughs in close succession. Replayability is not Dark Sector’s strong point. It’s a linear experience because it relies entirely on a limited amount of chapter cards that players will eventually get through. However, I don’t think the game is supposed to be played several times over in a short period - even if the reviewing process required I approach it this way. It’s a game that you open whenever you fancy something spooky, silly and novel. Each player must now choose one crewmember and one cybernetic, placing these cards in front of them, and taking the crew die bearing their crewmember’s name.

Escape The Dark Sector (hereafter: Sector) is a cooperative, sci-fi themed adventure game for one to four players. This 2020 release is the second, stand-alone instalment, in the 'Escape The Dark' series of games from Themeborne Ltd. Sector follows the publisher’s debut title, Escape The Dark Castle (hereafter: Castle), released in 2017. This symbol means you must roll an additional chapter die for each member of the crew and add them to the row. For example, with two members of the crew you would roll two additional chapter dice when you see this symbol. Along the way, the crew will have to overcome a variety of dangers, traps, and terrors. From cyborg guards and faulty replicators to killer alien organisms, each challenge is represented by a large, beautifully illustrated chapter card. If Close Combat follows Ranged Combat, any remaining chapter dice carry over. If not, simply follow the steps for setting up combat described earlier. When Close Combat begins, all members of the crew choose one action each and then execute them simultaneously.The other trait that Sector inherits from Castle, is its emphasises on storytelling to drive gameplay. A play through of Sector is styled like the progression through a story, told in three parts. It is a story that the players will influence as they progress, and that will differ in each play through. Only one member of the crew may take this action in a single round. - Place your crew die onto the activate drone tactical action card. Escape The Dark Sector (hereafter: Sector) is a cooperative, sci-fi themed adventure game for one to four players. This 2020 release is the second, stand-alone instalment, in the ‘Escape The Dark’ series of games from Themeborne Ltd. Sector follows the publisher’s debut title, Escape The Dark Castle (hereafter: Castle), released in 2017. Throughout the game, players will come across a variety of items that engage them and make them want to play and discover more. The art in this game is great and supports the sci-fi theme very well. The component quality is very nice, and the graph used as health counters really solidifies the theme. Crew cards show player stats and a crude drawing of the characters. Away from the purely mechanical improvements, the arc of the story you will experience has also seen some refinement. In Dark Castle you just dealt a bunch of chapter cards at random and worked your way through them. This meant you could easily come a cropper early on in a difficult encounter before you had a chance to gear up properly. In Dark Sector the chapter cards have been split up into Act 1, 2, and 3. Act 1 encounters are relatively easy, hurting you less, and allowing you to gear up before you get into the real challenges in Acts 2 and 3. There is a great feeling of progression as you work your way towards the boss, and the chapter cards just feel a bit more interesting than in the previous game.

The quality of the components is high. The cards and dice are all great and enjoyable to use. The time travelling theme is also quite interesting as it is a fair break from the standard sci fi darkness that is the core of Dark Sector. It can also be a bit jarring as one moment you are raiding a mutant inhabited shanty town and then you are on a desert island looking for pirate gold. It is a little immersion breaking, especially if you are making use of the Dark Sector Spotify playlist (Which is highly recommended that you do). The actions available to members of the crew during Ranged Combat are SHOOT and FLANK, along with all Standard Combat Actions • Shoot As soon as you get to your first combat in Dark Sector you will realise that you have a lot more agency in this game than you did in Dark Castle. The introduction of ranged weapons means that most of the time when you get in a fight you can choose to get right into melee or fire off some shots before rushing in. The clearest change in Escape the Dark Sector is its setting. Featuring mangled cyborgs, oozing orifices and space mercenaries getting aggro in a bar, Dark Sector takes its cues from grimy science-fiction films from the late ‘70s and ‘80s - think Alien, The Thing and Videodrome. There’s nothing especially unique here; if you have any interest in sci-fi horror then you’ve probably seen it all before. But it doesn’t stop the illustration of a space prison guard dropping a cigarette from their gawping mouth feel any less charming in an old-school kind of way. Dark Sector isn’t anything groundbreaking, but it captures the imagination in small ways that make it worth sharing with others. Escape the Dark Sector is a good adventure game. With two types of combat, the gameplay is engaging with decisions to make such as being able to choose your type of combat and what weapon to use. With so much combat in the game, it’s important that this is well-polished and a good mechanism.You play as crew members of the Equinox, each represented by a unique crew card and matching die. Each crew member has a rating in three traits: Might, Cunning, and Wisdom. Those traits will be present on the crew members die, at a frequency relative to the rating. For example, a character with high Might, will have a die will more Might symbols, than Cunning or Wisdom. This action involves popping out of cover to exchange fire with the enemy – you will SHOOT, hoping to inflict wounds and remove chapter dice, and you will be shot at, risking a loss of HP. For a crewmember to take this action, they must have a ranged weapon loaded with at least enough ammo to match the lowest Fire Rate of that weapon (see example below). Escape the Dark Sector is a simple sci-fi adventure game with a focus on atmosphere, storytelling, and player cooperation. It takes about 2 minutes to set up, lasts around 45 minutes, and no two games are ever the same. IMPORTANT—For one or more crewmembers to take any of the following actions, at least one other crewmember must be taking the SHOOT action (if in Ranged Combat) or the fight action (if in Close Combat). Escape the Dark Castle sparks an odd kind of pleasure in me. I have no personal experiences of tabletop gaming in the 1970s and ‘80s, yet I find myself feeling nostalgic about that period of gaming all the same. It’s possibly a result of having grown up watching countless episodes of Knightmare, a television game show inspired by Dungeons & Dragons that ran from 1987 to 1998. Either way, there’s something about the concept of Escape the Dark Castle that I find compelling. It feels like something from another era, when the seeds of board games like HeroQuest and roleplaying games like Call of Cthulhu were just being planted. It feels like something from another era, when the seeds of games like HeroQuest and Call of Cthulhu were just being planted.