INITIAL THOUGHTS
What are my thoughts for Escape Dark Castle? I loved it. It is a charming, relatively quick card and dice game. It has an old computer game graphics look; which I find makes the game feel retro in away. The art style is very dark horror and all black and white. Though the game is very simple in mechanics, it feels though it has a depth to it that makes you want to play it multiple times.
REVIEW
Escape Dark Castle has a very Dungeon crawl; vibe to it. In the game, you can pick from a list of characters who have differing stats for cunning, wisdom and strength. These are not heroes either just regular townsfolk who have been imprisoned in this castle. Using your regular townsfolk, you will go through a constructed deck of random encounters that signify the castle, and if you make it to the end, you’ll fight the end boss to escape.
I cannot state enough how charming this game is. It is so simple to learn, teach and set up, but still holds the ability to be a fun game. There is a thin line between simple and boring in games sometimes, but Escape Dark Castle walks it like an acrobat on a tightrope.
Pros
There are some mega pros to this game. It’s super easy to learn and teach people. This makes it a great game to pick up and play on the same night, which is rare in board games. It also makes it a terrific game to introduce people to board games with.
It is fun! It has a very high stakes vibe without making you feel stressed about the game. It is easy to talk and laugh with other players while you make your way through traps and monsters.
It is also able to be played solo. I am a big fan of games you can play alone because I love playing games all the time and don’t always have a group to do it with. This game, however, does succeed where some games fail because it doesn’t feel like a completely different game when you play it alone. It keeps very similar rules and mechanics which I love.
Cons
There are a couple of cons with this game though. This game again is very simple, and while I love that personally if you are into a complex game that you can strategize and win every time. This game will not be for you. In the same vein, this game is based almost solely on luck and as such is incredibly hard to win. I played it a lot the last week or so and still have not won a game.
That being said I have several friends who hate luck-based games who played and enjoyed the game, so I say still give it a shot if you are able.
CONCLUSION
If I had to describe Escape Dark castle in a work, it would be charming. It has a feel to it that makes it almost nostalgic for me, and I had many friends who agreed. It is very simple but wears it well. It’s fun, short and easy to play making it a great game for new players or for playing between more complex games at game night.