Queen Games 10353 - Escape: The Curse of the Temple Big Box 2nd Edition

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It is not complex. There are very few rules to master, and there is almost no grand strategic thinking. Just think about it like this: Since Caleb loves to even play it by himself, he’s the perfect one to show you how to play Escape The Curse of the Temple in this video review. Some rooms enables full cooperation. There are 3 switches, and you may choose only one of them. If you gather 4 of the same required symbol, you may place 1 crystal on it. But then you may not use the other two switches. If you as a team get 7 of the same required symbol, you can place 2 crystals on it. The last requires 10 symbols, but lets you place 3 crystals on it. Imagine 3 out of 11 total, just in one room! After the door slams shut, you can continue to explore the temple, proceeding from the chamber where you're currently located. The third count- down starts with three bangs of a gong and ends with the sound of the temple collapsing; this signals the end of the game after exactly 10 minutes.

The 10 minute timeframe immediately brings to mind Space Alert, another timed coop. Escape: The Curse of the Temple is a much lighter, more casual game than Space Alert. You can have the game setup, rules explained, and game started in under 10 minutes (often Space Alert requires that just to get the board arranged). As one would expect, this ease of learning/play means Escape: The Curse of the Temple doesn’t grab you quite the same way. I don’t feel nearly as much tension, and there isn’t as great of a need to communicate. This doesn’t mean Escape: The Curse of the Temple is a bad game or should be avoided, it’s just lighter, and thus more accessible. The initial game board consists of a row of three square tiles, each showing a combination of two symbols, say, two green adventurers or one green adventurer and one blue key in one corner of the tile. All of the explorers start in the center tile – the safe room – and each player starts with a hand of five dice. Each die has five symbols:

The final gong signals that the temple is about to collapse. If any of the players fail to escape before time runs out, it’s game over for everybody… ‘Curses’ and ‘Treasures’ Expansions I’m really impressed how tense this game is. I played it with three players, two players and alone. And everytime there was shouting. Yes, even in my solo play I shouted at the **** dice to do what I want (not that it helped much). I like this game very much and would recommend it to everyone who doesn’t have a problem with time pressure games. These late additions, found only by the most persistent forum diggers, were nonetheless welcomed by the fans. But they didn't fix everything. First I’m going to say: buy this game. Buy it, because there’s nothing like it in your board game library and you WILL find this fun, trust me. After a player has performed one action, he must re-roll all dice used for this action. A player may put aside any dice not used for an action and use them for a later action.

Note: Do not use the turn of fate too lightheartedly because each additional gem makes it harder to escape. Certain chambers have magic gem icons. Next to each gem icon is a combination of dice symbols – usually four keys or four torches. If you manage to roll those symbols while in the gem chamber, you ‘activate’ one gem. Take one gem from the gem depot and place it in the chamber. Congratulations – you’ve just made it easier to escape! Clearly, with a game that only lasts 10 minutes, you need a rapid set up. And that’s what you get with Escape: The Curse of the Temple Escape: The Curse of the Temple is a real time game in which you and your fellow players have 10 minutes to escape a cursed temple before it collapses. You’ll achieve this by rolling your five dice, which will enable you to discover and explore the temple chamber by chamber. You’ll activate magic gems to break the temple’s curse and then find the exit chamber and escape.While searching for the exit, the players will discover new chambers - but they'll need the right combination of adventurer, key and torch icons to enter and explore these chambers. Be sure to coordinate your actions and look out for one another as some tasks can be completed only collectively. What's more, even if only one player fails to escape the temple in time, all of you have lost the game! Teleporters: used/modified code from NSZ's Kino Teleporter Script and Koentje's Origins Portals Script (HarryBo21, D-2-K, Madgaz, Scobalula, DTXzPorter, Script Lord) Place the gem depot to the side with gems on it; the number of gems depends on the number of players. Also, place two gems next to the depot. Start the CD (or the sand timer) and you're ready to escape! To escape, you have to roll the number and one extra of ‘key’ symbols as there are magic gems left in the depot (i.e. if there were 5 gems left, you’d need to roll 6 keys to escape).

You may enter certain chambers only by rolling keys or torches; you will also need these icons to activate the magic gems.Steam Park makes the list of board games like Escape: The Curse of the Temple because of the real time nature of the dice roll. When you are figuring out what actions you are going to take, you roll dice as many times as you want. Whoever stops first gets one of the best perks. That little dice rolling dexterity changes the mood of the game into one you want to stand to play instead of sit down.

As if the game isn’t enough fun already they throw in a full expansion that allows for a lot of replay and defiantly makes the game more interesting for more experienced gamers or people that just know how to work well together. I will do a full review of the expansion later. All explorers start on the beginning tile, with only two others visible. As you roll and move through rooms – matching dice to the symbols in those rooms – new tiles are placed and the board builds itself as you go. Players must reach this decision unanimously! A turn of fate can be provoked only twice during the course of the game. For the expansion, the process is pretty much the same – just replace the 13 ‘basic’ chamber tiles (the ones that aren’t the entrance, exit or special gem chambers) with the curse and treasure tiles before carrying out the steps above. Then shuffle up the curse cards and the treasure tiles and place them to the side of the playing area.YOU WANT TO SUCCEED. Badly. But the more you are, the harder it’s going to be. So you’ll be playing 10-minute game after 10-minute game. So starts the introduction to the rulebook. It’s a good two sentence overview of the game, but it doesn’t really answer what’s so bad about the curse, how your team found themselves in the temple, where you learned what to do when you hear a gong, or how 5 dice ended up in your hand. None of this really matters at the moment, you’ve just heard a disembodied voice implore you to ESCAPE, and you feel certain your team better do so within 10 minutes, or else! Once the exit tile is drawn you simply have to get all of your gems into a magic altar, then each player must get onto the exit tile. If you all make it before the final sounds of the temple sealing shut play through your speakers you all escape and win, if even one person is left behind you all fail. I enjoy playing tile laying games where you explore areas and this did fit the bill. It is played in real time and I have played 2,3 & 4 player games of it. A game will take 10 mins from start to finish as each player frantically rolls their dice AT THE SAME TIME over and over again to get the Symbols they require to move around and complete tasks in the labyrinth.