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The Last of Us: Escape the Dark

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The Last of Us: Escape the Dark
A logo: "The Last of Us" in large black text, with a black banner and the text "Escape the Dark" below.
ManufacturersAsmodee
Designers
  • Thomas Pike
  • Alex Crispin
IllustratorsAlex Crispin
WritersThomas Pike
PublishersThemeborne
PublicationNovember 29, 2024 (2024-11-29)
GenresRole-playing
LanguagesEnglish
SystemsEscape the Dark
SeriesThe Last of Us
Players1–5
Playing time60–120 minutes
ChanceDice rolling, card drawing
Age range14+

The Last of Us: Escape the Dark is a 2024 tabletop role-playing game published by Themeborne. Based on Naughty Dog's video game The Last of Us, the tabletop game was developed in partnership with Naughty Dog as an extension of Themeborne's Escape the Dark games. The 1–2 hour game allows up to five players to control characters from The Last of Us. The goal is to reach safety from enemies while exploring locations from the video game, such as a quarantine zone, sewers, suburbs, and university.

The developers wanted to maintain the atmosphere of previous Escape the Dark games and found the post-apocalyptic setting a suitable match. Their adaptation of The Last of Us's focus on character development led to the implementation of personalities and the combat and crafting systems. The game retains Escape the Dark's monochromatic aesthetic. Themeborne announced the game in November 2022; it was funded through a Kickstarter campaign, and released in November 2024 to positive reviews.

Gameplay

[edit]

The Last of Us: Escape the Dark is based on the video game The Last of Us,[1] allowing up to five players to control characters from the game: Joel, Ellie, Tommy, Tess, Bill, and Marlene. The goal is to reach safety from enemies such as hunters and infected.[2][3] Aimed for ages 14 and up,[4] each game lasts approximately one to two hours.[5] The game begins in an abandoned quarantine zone;[6] players explore locations from the game—including a former survivors' colony in the sewers, the ruins of a suburban community, and a makeshift research lab in a university—in a quest to reach safe haven in Jackson, Wyoming.[1][2] Each player begins with a "hang-up"—a unique problem that holds them back from their full potential—and journeys to overcome it and unlock a gameplay perk;[3] survival grants rewards such as materials for crafting equipment. Represented on their character cards, each character possesses different abilities, such as Joel's physical strength and Ellie's agility. When performing actions that face resistance, players roll a character-specific die to determine their success.[1]

Dice and cards are used to simulate an open world.[7] At the beginning of each game, players generate card decks for each location, which are placed across the board; every location is connected to several others, allowing players to select new routes upon each playthrough,[1] the paths between which may be unsafe.[8] The location decks consist of cards representing chapters, camps, and stashed items. Chapter cards feature different events, which may lead to the acquisition of new information, equipment, or items for players to use; alternatively, they may feature outcomes that hinder the journey. Players can travel by horse or truck to access locations at a greater distance. Upon reaching a location, players can choose to explore via chapter card, or camp. After players complete their actions for the day, time passes, and they must decide their actions for the following day.[1]

Threat tokens indicate to what extent each location is overrun by infected; if a location is too overrun, it will become blocked and players will be forced to circumvent it[1] or clear the route by defeating all cards in the stack.[8] Spread cards indicate where the infected may appear; the threat of their presence increases each day. Upon encountering infected or human enemies, players engage in combat. The difficulty of combat encounters is determined on the threat level of the enemy card; players must achieve a certain number of wins to be successful, and their chances of success are increased by using equipment and weapons.[1] Players use a combination of item cards and dice to combat enemies; they can select different attack and defense strategies, including stealth or heavy combat.[3]

Development

[edit]

The Last of Us: Escape the Dark was announced on November 1, 2022, as a partnership between game company Themeborne and The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog.[2][3] It was developed by Thomas Pike, Alex Crispin, James Shelton, and Jean-Duval Du Toit, and edited by Pedro Latro; Pike also served as writer, Crispin as artist and graphic designer, and both as game designers.[9][10]: 29  Neil Druckmann, co-director and writer of The Last of Us, was a fan of Themeborne's Escape the Dark games,[11] and Pike was a fan of the video games.[8] The developers wanted to maintain the atmosphere of previous Escape the Dark games and found the post-apocalyptic setting a suitable match.[9]: 1:44  They were interested in the open world and player choice aspects.[9]: 0:34 

While the game does not follow the same story as the video games, the developers wanted to adapt its focus on character development, which led to the creation of "hang-ups", following each characters' personalities while allowing players to craft their own stories. Similarly modeled on the video game is the crafting system, wherein resources are combined to collect the item, and players' ability to split up from their team members.[8] In an extension of previous Escape the Dark games, the game uses three layers for combat, inspired by the video games: listening, stealth, and fighting. Pike described the infected system as "Escape the Dark meets Pandemic ".[8] The game retains Escape the Dark's monochromatic aesthetic.[12]

The game was funded through a Kickstarter campaign, which ran from November 8 to December 2;[1] it tripled its £120,000 goal within the first day, with more than 4,000 supporters,[13][6] and raised more than £860,000 with over 9,700 supporters by the campaign's end.[14][15] A collector's edition was available for Kickstarter supporters, featuring 3D tokens of the playable characters.[7] Preorders opened on June 14, 2023, the tenth anniversary of The Last of Us,[16] and the show was demonstrated at the UK Games Expo in 2023 and 2024.[17][18] Originally due for release in December 2023,[1] the game launched through Asmodee in the United States on November 29, 2024.[4]

Reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Dexerto5/5[19]
The Dice Tower (Bryan Drake)7.5/10[20]
The Dice Tower (Joey Evans)6/10[21]
Wargamer9/10[5]

The Last of Us: Escape the Dark received positive reviews.[22] Starburst's Ed Fortune called it "a must-have gift for fans of horror".[23] Wargamer's Mollie Russell praised its "striking" and "spectacular" visuals, and thought the crafting, role-playing, and weapon mechanics added complexity that suitably represented the video game's world, though felt bad luck could unfairly mar a playthrough and the game's replayability.[5] GameSpot's Jon Bitner similarly complimented the art style, particularly the color scheme for imitating the atmosphere of The Last of Us.[22]

Dexerto's Brad Norton praised the game's captivating nature, citing its accessibility, replayability, and branching outcomes; he felt it maintained the franchise's "premium feel".[19] The Dice Tower's Bryan Drake lauded the mechanics and enemies but found the gameplay repetitive and the art direction insufficient; he liked the black-and-white style but felt it lacked the beauty and thematic colors of the video games.[20] The Dice Tower's Joey Evans conversely praised the art direction but found the repetitive gameplay and reliance on chance was incompatible with the game's length, finding it to be a "slog".[21]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Meehan, Alex (November 9, 2022). "The Last of Us board game has players escorting Joel and Ellie through hordes of Infected". Dicebreaker. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on November 9, 2022. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c Plant, Logan (November 1, 2022). "Naughty Dog Announces The Last of Us Tabletop Game". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on November 2, 2022. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d Makuch, Eddie (November 1, 2022). "Last Of Us Board Game In The Works, Promises 'Dark Twist' On The Video Game". GameSpot. Fandom, Inc. Archived from the original on November 2, 2022. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  4. ^ a b Gripp, Milton (October 30, 2024). "The Last of Us Board Game". ICv2. GCO, LLC. Archived from the original on November 4, 2024. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
  5. ^ a b c Russell, Mollie (November 22, 2024). "The Last of Us board game review – gratifyingly grim". Wargamer. Network N. Archived from the original on November 22, 2024. Retrieved November 25, 2024.
  6. ^ a b Pi, Lena (November 8, 2022). "Деньги на создание настолки The Last of Us: Escape the Dark уже собраны" [Money for the creation of the board The Last of Us: Escape the Dark has already been raised]. Igromania (in Russian). Archived from the original on November 8, 2022. Retrieved November 10, 2022.
  7. ^ a b Jackson, Claire (November 8, 2022). "The Last Of Us Is Getting A Board Game And It Looks Pretty Cool". Kotaku. G/O Media. Archived from the original on November 9, 2022. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
  8. ^ a b c d e Eggett, Christopher John (January 2023). "Outbreak". Tabletop Gaming. No. 74. Warners Group Publications plc. pp. 20–23.
  9. ^ a b c The Last of Us: Escape the Dark – Board Game Preview. Themeborne. November 9, 2022. Archived from the original on November 9, 2022. Retrieved November 10, 2022.
  10. ^ Latro, Pedro, ed. (2024). The Last of Us: Escape the Dark – Rule Book. Norwich: Themeborne. Archived from the original on December 4, 2024. Retrieved December 5, 2024.
  11. ^ "The Last of Us: Escape the Dark". Themeborne. November 1, 2022. Archived from the original on November 1, 2022. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  12. ^ Jarvis, Matt (November 1, 2022). "The Last of Us board game on the way from Escape the Dark Castle creators". Dicebreaker. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on November 2, 2022. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
  13. ^ Croft, Liam (November 9, 2022). "The Last of Us Board Game Funded at Triple the Pledge Goal". Push Square. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on November 9, 2022. Retrieved November 10, 2022.
  14. ^ Smith, Marc (March 25, 2023). "The Last of Us: Escape the Dark - Naughty Dogs Meisterwerk wird als Brettspiel umgesetzt" [The Last of Us: Escape the Dark - Naughty Dog's masterpiece is implemented as a board game]. PC Games (in German). Computec. Archived from the original on March 25, 2023. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
  15. ^ Redwood, Francis (February 7, 2023). "The Last of Us HBO and PlayStation hit adapted to board game". Norwich Evening News. Archived from the original on February 7, 2023. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
  16. ^ Russell, Mollie (June 15, 2023). "The Last of us board game hits pre-order for $75". Wargamer. Network N. Archived from the original on June 28, 2023. Retrieved November 25, 2024.
  17. ^ Stenhouse, Henry (June 2023). "UK Games Expo 2023: The Non-Award Awards". Going Analog. Greenlit Content. Archived from the original on June 13, 2023. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
  18. ^ Shaw, Ben (May 31, 2024). "The Last Of Us Escape The Dark With Themeborne". OnTableTop. Beasts of War. Archived from the original on June 14, 2024. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
  19. ^ a b Norton, Brad (February 24, 2025). "The Last of Us: Escape the Dark review – An utterly thrilling tabletop experience". Dexerto. Archived from the original on February 24, 2025. Retrieved March 12, 2025.
  20. ^ a b Drake, Bryan (January 4, 2025). "The Last of Us: Escape the Dark Review with Bryan: Not Everything is Black and White". The Dice Tower. Archived from the original on January 16, 2025. Retrieved April 30, 2025.
  21. ^ a b Evans, Joey (February 1, 2025). "Last of Us: Escape the Dark Review: Let's Roll". The Dice Tower. Archived from the original on February 13, 2025. Retrieved April 30, 2025.
  22. ^ a b Bitner, Jon (February 27, 2025). "PSA: The Last of Us: Escape The Dark Board Game Is Available At Amazon". GameSpot. Fandom, Inc. Archived from the original on February 27, 2025. Retrieved March 12, 2025.
  23. ^ Fortune, Ed (December 13, 2024). "Starburst Board Games Gift guide 2024". Starburst. Archived from the original on December 17, 2024. Retrieved December 20, 2024.
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