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

Product Information

Instead of a castle, players are now in a space station, in which they are imprisoned. Like the previous game, this is a story game, similar to a Choose Your Own Adventure book. The goal is for the players to reach their ship, the Equinox, by surviving a series of encounters. This cooperative game supports 1-4 players and is 20-60 minutes long. Gameplay Overview: 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. 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. 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. Choose a weapon card in your inventory. Take the number and type of ammo dice indicated by the ammo value and place them on it. If doing so would exceed the ammo capacity of the weapon, take only as many as are needed for it to be fully loaded.

Escape the Dark Sector is a good game, but it can be repetitive and hard to understand sometimes. If you really enjoyed playing Escape the Dark Castle, then this game might be for you, but if this is your first time with either of these games, the fantasy version is easier to engage. The Basic function of each drone has a fixed outcome, but the Advanced function requires you to roll the TECH DIE to determine the outcome – and be warned, these drones are known to malfunction and the results are not always positive! The actions available to members of the crew during Ranged Combat are SHOOT and FLANK, along with all Standard Combat Actions • Shoot 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. To begin, players will assemble chapter dice to represent the health of the enemy. Then players collect the dice for the type of weapon they are using which should match the type of combat chosen. In ranged combat, players roll ammo dice equal to the fire rate of their weapon. Different weapons will use different types of ammo dice, and some enemies are weaker to certain types. In close combat, players will roll their crew die and remove a chapter die from the enemy’s health matching the same symbol that they rolled on their crew die.

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. 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. If players survive 13 chapter cards, they then face the boss card. This is a much more difficult combat encounter. Five bosses are included in the game and each has a special perk that changes the way combat works. For example, the players might be forced to only use explosive weapons or be required to only engage in close combat for the encounter. After completing a chapter and before turning the next chapter card, ensure both tactical action cards are flipped to their ready sides. The new boss is as dangerous as the others and it is always welcome to have another random option to face at the end of the game. Araknochron is a horrifying time travelling spider cyborg who uses the rift die to add random negative effects to your crew members at the start of combat. These are all powerful and potentially deadly effects and the potential to wipe a party at the start of the encounter without any prevention is possible so he is definitely one of the harder bosses to face.

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. The second game in the Escape the Dark series, Escape the Dark Sector is a simple, sci-fi adventure game with a focus on atmosphere, storytelling and player cooperation. This Game is perfect for newcomers to table-top gaming. It takes about 2 minutes to set up, lasts around 45 minutes, and no two games are ever the same.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. Whenever new item cards are drawn into the item pool, crewmembers can exchange items with each other. You may give and/or take any number of items from one other crewmember, so long as this does not result in you or them exceeding four slots’ worth of items at any time.

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. The formula laid down by Escape the Dark Castle (Dark Castle) is adhered to in this follow up, Escape the Dark Sector (Dark Sector). 1 to 4 players will make their way through a series of chapter cards, turning them over one at a time to uncover traps, monsters, moments of respite and more on their way to the final boss and the way out. It’s a cooperative game with a simple dice mechanic making it incredibly easy to teach and play. Full disclosure: a review copy of Escape the Dark Sector along with the official playmat was kindly provided by publisher Themeborne COMPONENTS The other crewmember may still perform one action in the round you trade with them, so long as that action does not involve the use of any of the items being traded.

You may immediately use the newly acquired item, unless it is an item which normally requires an action to use (such as a ranged weapon).

With Escape the Dark castle the main choices given to the players were about who goes into the next room first, as they are likely to get wounded, and about taking turns resting in combat. In Dark Sector you feel like you have much more control over your destiny. In doing this the game feels less arbitrary than its predecessor, the wins more meaningful, the losses more understandable. Escape the Dark Sector feels like it improves on the Dark Castle formula in every way. More chapter cards, varied start cards, more bosses, loads of custom dice and a great box to store them all in just makes this a superior product to Dark Castle. I love the previous game, but Dark Sector is going to replace Dark Castle for me. The new mechanics are not that difficult to teach and really give a sense of tactical choice that was at times missing from Dark Castle. The game has much more variety in its core box and feels like a more complete product. It’s another absolutely solid game from Themeborne and I can’t wait to see what they do next. Important: If the SHOOT action is not declared by at least one player then Ranged Combat does not take place and no Ranged Combat actions can be taken. Instead, a round of Close Combat begins meaning only Close Combat actions or Standard Combat Actions can be taken. On the other hand, having fewer options to heal makes it harder for players to reach the later parts of the game, and feeds into an overarching issue of Dark Sector being significantly more difficult than the first entry in the series. Like that of its predecessor, the artwork and graphic design throughout Sector is presented in a striking, stark, monochrome. This distinctive style is evocative of the artwork in the aforementioned fantasy books from the 80's. As a design choice it serves the game well, enriching the theme. It also provides a welcoming, warm shot of nostalgia. Like me, you might enjoy the apparent nods to various sci-fi franchises, nestled in the game’s artwork.

Review Summary

A word of warning: despite its simple nature, this devious game will often defeat you! If you fail, try again. You’ll have fun exploring the space station every time, regardless of the outcome. With its focus on storytelling and player cooperation, Sector provides an atmospheric gaming experience that immerses you in the unfolding story. Playing Sector is fun. You may not win often, but when you do, you’ll feel like you’ve earned it. Even in defeat, you’ll have enjoyed creating a story unique to that play through. Once a combat has begun, it only ends when all enemies involved are defeated, or when a member of the crew is killed.