| Designer | Kerry Breitenstein |
| Publisher | Twilight Creations, Inc. |
| released | 2004 |
| Players | 2 - 6 |
| Playing Time | 30 minutes |
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"Twilight Creations" stays close to its horror roots and presents this easy but also somehow disappointing game of explorers trapped in a maze-like haunted mansion made up of square corridor tiles which look very dull. As many reviewers have already noted, this game's theme has been thinly applied - what we have is in fact a variant of "Das verrueckte Labyrinth", with more randomness and probably less fun.
Each player starts at the same "entrance" to the haunted mansion (which - apart from some ghostly drawings on some of the tiles - is totally devoid of any monsters or horrific encounters), and tries to reach the exit (on the other side). The problem is: half of the game you are played instead of being the player, and all tiles can be moved, INCLUDING the exit.
Each player has his own hand of cards: at the beginning of a round 4 are randomly selected and carried out, step-by-step, like in Robo Rallye. You can decide where you move if you move, but most of the time there is only one way. There are also cards which let you trade places with other players (very often this is forced on you, as there is only one adjacent player you can trade places with) or cards that let you "miss a step" (probably because you encountered something horrible). Other cards let you miss out a turn, or let you exchange/turn tiles without a player on them.
Then follows a deliberate round, where you play 4 cards to your liking, in a "programmed" way - sans the "white cards" which move the exit or let you pass. Here the starting player (who changes every round) has a clear advantage, as he can be pretty sure that his orders can be carried out.
First who reaches the exit wins.
We played the game three times in a row - and invariably the game went exactly the
same way: In the first round everybody maneuvered roughly into
the center of the house which is isn't very big really), in the next round the
starting player would invariably win IF the round before no "move the exit"
card had been accidentally drawn. If it was drawn, the next starting player got his
chance, as it was usually possible to prevent the former starting player from using the
exit if "move exit" was drawn in the random round. Only in the last of the 3
games there was a chance that one other player instead of the starting player could have
won, and only if this player got lucky with his card play (in fact there was simply a
50/50 chance).The first 2 games lasted exactly 2 rounds, the third game 3 rounds, and the
starting player always won. Not very interesting if you think about it. There might be a
little more variation if you play this often, but frankly: don't expect too much.
This is very light fare, like "Zombies!!!", if there is one redeeming trait about this game it is the fact that it is easy to play with non-gamers, and doesn't last very long. But that's about it. For more brainwork you might still fare better with the now old, certainly not perfect but still much more interesting "Das verrueckte Labyrinth".
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©2004, Moritz Eggert