Although it may feel like all of 2020 has been scary, the official day for scary stuff — Halloween — is next week!

We’ve posted in the past about great games to play on or around Halloween (like Gloom or Hit Z Road). And this year, we have a few more to add to the mix.

Of course, since we’re focused on family-friendly games we typically won’t share about truly dark or gruesome games. Instead, you’ll find things like our review a few days ago of Scooby-Doo! Escape from the Haunted Mansion.

And the game we’re reviewing today has a number of similarities to Scooby-Doo! (minus the Mystery Inc gang). It’s a cooperative game Kosmos released last year in their “Adventure Games” series called The Dungeon.

Are you ready to take on The Dungeon?

 

How to play Adventure Games: The Dungeon

The games in the Kosmos Adventure Games may seem similar to their EXIT escape-room type games. However, games in this series are more focused on the telling and discovery of the story rather than puzzles.

The game comes with an Adventure book that players read from as they make choices in the game. Since it’s a cooperative game, all players are working together to figure out how to escape the dungeon.

To begin, each player chooses a character card, takes Heart/Health cards, and places their figure on the starting map tile — a dungeon cell.

From there, players take turns “exploring” different elements on the map tiles and cards.

For example, on the starting tile, there are 8 items to interact with — each labeled with a 3-digit number.

As players explore the dungeon, they’ll reveal more map tiles and more options.

On a player’s turn, they can move their figure to any already-revealed location and place their pawn next to a number. Players can then explore that location number, combine two adventure cards, or combine a card with a location number. (When combining, the smaller number goes first.)

Players then read the location number, or combined number, entry from the Adventure book. (Or you can download the app and have entries read to you while you play.)

As players take damage, they flip over one of their Heart/Health cards. If all of a player’s cards are already flipped over to their grey side and they take damage, they remove one of the heart cards from the game.

The game is played over 3 chapters. Each chapter lasts about 90 minutes and players may save their progress between chapters or just keep going.

At the end of the 3rd chapter, players will find out how the story/game ends. Then players refer to the last page of the rulebook to see how they scored.

 

Can the whole family enjoy The Dungeon?

We’ve really enjoyed a number of escape-room games because of the various puzzles we encounter as we play. And it’s fun to see that different members of our family have a penchant for solving different types of puzzles.

The Dungeon, however, is something different. And while it was an interesting storyline, the game itself felt more like we were just rattling through it. There are a few differences along the way based on some choices, but overall it just runs down preset tracks.

As such, The Dungeon will appeal to players who enjoy more stories in their games. Because it really is all story.

Which means reading is a big part of the game.

Of course, you really only need one player to be the reader. Or you can download the app and let the entries be read to you by your device. We didn’t try the app, but after playing the game, think it may be like listening to an audiobook where you punch the numbers to hear different paragraphs of the story to read next.

Players have heart/health cards for a reason — because they can take wounds based on the things they inspect. But we also don’t see how you can get away without taking wounds. Because you’re going to want to explore every number on the maps. And some are just going to be unlucky. But you don’t know until you check it out.

That being said, there’s no player elimination. If a player’s character gets down to their last heart card and takes damage, the player to their left takes damage instead. It’s like their teammate jumps in to protect them and takes the wound for them.

The game also won’t be for everyone because it takes about 4 and a half hours to play through it all. Each of the 3 chapters takes about 90 minutes. The good news is that you can easily take a picture of the map layout and then pack it up to play subsequent chapters later.

Like many escape-room game, there are a number of Hints you can look at along the way. Doing so will hurt your score, but most are helpful if you need a nudge.

 

How does The Dungeon score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

Adventure Games: The Dungeon doesn’t rank on our “let’s play again” game meter because it’s really a one-and-done experience.

Once you’ve played through the game, you know how it turns out. There is some branching along the way, but it all circles back to the same ending. So when you’re done, there isn’t a draw to “play” through it again.

As such, you may be able to pick up a copy of The Dungeon in a game swap or on a game trade table. At least, after we share with some friends, our copy will most likely end up in such a swap so others can discover this story-driven experience.

We’d like to thank Kosmos for a review copy of Adventure Games: The Dungeon.