The Night Cage

Drips with the theme of darkness.

In this cooperative "horror" board game, one to five players find themselves in a pitch black and crumbling maze with only a candle to light the way, a motif well represented by the board itself. Working together they must collect a key each and ALL make it to an exit before time runs out.

This is trickier than it sounds as a) there is a limited number of tiles which acts as the timer, b) some tiles are monsters that turn off your light and make the tiles run out faster and c) other than the exit door, players cannot move through each other or hold more than one key.

On your turn your choice boils down to move or stay (if your candle is still on), and staying gives you some nerve tokens which you can then use to sprint or stop the darkness from closing in. When you move, you light up what you can "see" (one step away with a candle) and remove any tile no one else can see. This means the maze shifts constantly, and monsters (who don't move when lit) thankfully wander off once you lose line of sight on them.

Ultimately it's more a game of planning ahead and opening paths / clearing ways for your team mates, and since we are pretty good at that we've not yet lost a game of this, even on the advanced mode. Still quite exciting though, especially when the darkness starts closing in and it is fast to teach. Just a little slower to setup each round. Thumbs up!