Escape: The Curse of the Temple - after hearing the title of the game, you pretty much know exactly what it is about. Players take on the role of Indiana Jones-like adventurers deep in an exotic temple. The object is to work together to get all players to an exit before time expires. This task is quite difficult, involving exploration, teamwork, and time management. Escape is exciting, a bit chaotic, loud, and also very, very fun.
I am a huge fan of cooperative board games like Defenders of the Realm and Flash Point: Fire Rescue. It is far more relaxing to sit down with my friends and family to play when there are no competitive gameplay elements and we all contribute to meeting the goal. However, one fundamental flaw in games like these is how easy it is for one player to dominate the game to the point where it isn’t fun for anyone else. Often, the player with the most experience with the game will give too much advice for newer players. A bossy player like this really detracts from the feeling of teamwork and camaraderie.
Escape fixes this problem with the co-op genre in interesting ways. The game has a strict time limit of ten minutes. While you can just use a standard timer, the game includes a CD with a ten minute soundtrack. It is glorious; tense music with rising crescendos add a heart-pounding ambiance to the whole experience. Players also take turns simultaneously, and thus make their own decisions largely without input from others. Because of the timer and simultaneous action, it is all but impossible for one player to dominate the game.
As the game begins, players place their adventurer meeple on the starting tile, and two other tiles drawn from the stack are placed next to it. From here, players can explore, attempting to activate enough magic gems found throughout the temple in order to lift the curse and allow them to escape. The more gems that are activated, the easier the final exit becomes.
So how exactly do the adventurers find their way outside the temple? Each player gets a set of five dice to roll, and each face has a different effect. The green adventurer symbol allows movement from one tile to the next. Blue keys and red torches are used to enter tiles marked with these symbols, and also can be used to activate gems. Beware the black skull! When this is rolled, it locks the die from being rolled again. However, don’t despair: rolling the golden mask will unlock up to two skulls, allowing you to roll them again. Rolling dice over and over again is a hoot, and adds to the frenzied feel of the game.
Cooperative elements are very strong in Escape. If two adventurers are in the same chamber, they can pool their dice together to meet whatever requirements are needed. To activate a gem, for example, you might need to roll 4 keys. That can be take quite a while if you are solo, but if two or three people work together, it is much, much easier. Another way players can cooperate is by rolling golden masks to help others in the same room recover their locked black skull dice. In the end game, teamwork is perhaps most important. When a player escapes, they can give one die to a poor soul still inside, making their way to freedom that much easier. It truly is one of the most cooperative games I’ve ever played.
It deserves mentioning how impressive the game components are. In Escape, time is of the utmost importance, and any second spent deciphering the icons or being confused about what to do next is totally wasted. The graphic design is extremely clear and easy to understand, but not at the expense of theme. You can tell that the designers carefully considered the balance between making the game attractive from an aesthetic standpoint while still being simple to comprehend even during the thick of a heated gameplay session.
Escape: The Curse of the Temple is one of the most interesting and unique games I’ve played in recent memory. The compelling theme and easy mechanics make it accessible to younger children and even non-gamers, yet still enjoyable for more accomplished gamers. Rolling all those dice is fun, and the relentless soundtrack adds to the frenetic pace and action. I highly recommend this gem to any fan of cooperative games.