Hey all, you may have noticed that it isn’t the usual day for my posts. It all stems back to being extremely busy over the last few weeks with my real life job. But, here I am and I have a first impressions review of Escape the Nightmare. So I will just jump right into it this week.
How it’s Played
This overview is from the rules that come with the game, at least at the time that I received it.
Shuffle some nightmare types together and deal a hand of them to each player. Prepare a stack of wardens that are keeping you in the nightmare. Give each player time to read their cards and then begin the time limit. Players trade cards attempting to obtain matched sets of nightmares, whenever a player obtains a matched set they pause the game and defeat one of the wardens. If all of the wardens are defeated then you have escaped the nightmare and are victorious.
However if the time limit runs out then you lose. Also whenever a player receives a card it affects them, restrictions make it harder to communicate or trade and actions require you to do something or immediately lose the game. Finally the wardens will try to stop you, using their powers to make it harder for you to obtain sets.
Good luck.
You’ll need it.
The Pretty Little Bow
As this is a preview copy, I am unsure of the quality of the actual packaging and card quality. However, something that I can comment on is the art on the cards. The cards have some wonderful pieces of art on them, to an extent, that I almost feel like the cards are too small to show the beauty of the art on them. The art on the cards would make wonderful posters. That is essentially all I can comment on, as the card art is really all there is in the game. But goodness, the art for me is wonderful.
The Way You Play
This is the first “real-time” game I’ve had a chance to play. It was a good change of pace for myself. Having never played a real time game, it took a little longer to grasp the way everything worked together, but eventually it was figured out and all was well. I think the biggest thing for me personally to figure out, was the “It’s Coming” card. To be trying to get wardens defeated while there are actions to accomplish was almost awkward for me, however, others I was playing with had no problem whatsoever with it. So far, I have only been able to play on the “Tutorial” level of difficulty, and am anxious for more time to play and up the difficulty.
What’s not to Love?
The biggest downside to this game for me is some of the Actions. Not every action was for me. However, to give a rare positive in the “What’s not to love” section, I was very happy to see a chart that broke down each Nightmare type, and the general actions you can expect when playing. The chart even went into which card types have art that may not be appropriate for everyone, which is something I think was very thoughtful. Other than that, I so far, haven’t found anything else to not love about this game and am anxious to play more and get more in depth with tougher games set up.
What’d you think?
This is a new game that I had some skepticism about, due to being more real time than I’ve ever played. Another thing that got me a bit was that it seemed to have some “party game” aspects (singing, hugging, etc), but with a fairly “gamer” theme, which seemed at first as a bit contradictory. But after some initial getting used to, I quite enjoyed the game. I quickly forgot about how I didn’t think the game style and theme matched. To me, this means that they worked well together for me. Having gotten through a few plays of the tutorial, I am excited for more game nights to play some more. And being a game that I am looking forward to playing more, I’d have to say I think it is a very good game. I am also still amazed at how incredible the art is. I could get lost in the art for hours.
That’s all there is for this week. I hope you’ve enjoyed my First Impression of Escape the Nightmare! I will hopefully be getting a few more posts up the next 2 weeks. I look forward to posting again soon, and remember, I love you all!
Bored?Games & Co! 