The Last of Us: Escape the Dark is a story-drive, co-op game.

Title: The Last of Us: Escape the Dark

Year Published: 2024

Designer: Alex Crispin, Thomas Pike, James Shelton

Publisher: Themeborne Limited

Players: 1-5

Game Time: ~120 mins

Set-up Time: ~5 ins

Ages: 14+

Theme: The Last of Us video game world

Mechanisms: Co-op, dice rolling, story choices.

How to win: Get to Jackson and defeat the Boss.

Game Description

Playing as a group of survivors, you will weave your own unique story of survival and companionship as you explore an open-world map. Beginning your journey in a forsaken quarantine zone, your goal is to travel to the reputed safe haven of Jackson while keeping everyone in the group alive.

How to play The Last of Us: Escape the Dark

A quick and consice rules overview of The Last of Us Escape the Dark. This can be used as a rules refresher.

Main mechanisms

Co-op along with a story-driven choices make up the main mechanisms of the game.

USP

At the time of writing it’s the only TLOU board game so that’s something. It came out between season 1 and 2 of the TV show so more eyeballs will be on this IP than ever.

I would say, if you’ve only watched the TV show and you haven’t played the video game it will have less of a thematic connect.

Theme

TLOU Part 1 & 2 are my favorite video games of all time the TV show is up there too. It’s a unique take o a ‘zombie’ apocalypse.

I would say this game loses a lot of the heart of the story of part 1 but keeps you in that world.

Setup & Rulebook

Setup is OK with MOST of the random elements labelled somewhere. Some you need to remind yourself by looking in the rulebook.

It’s one of those awkward games where you can’t teach it all in order. Some bits you need to know before others but won’t make sense unless you know something earlier etc It’s a whole thing.

Components & Artwork

The components are nice. Especially in the Collector’s Edition that I have. The Survivor and Clicker minis I have are nice. The plastic boxes that hold components are really nice.

The art is good and fits the theme, but I’m not a fan of this ‘black & white’ look that Themeborne are insistent on. I get that it was in the style of a book for the first games, but TLOU didn’t need to stick to that. This world has muted colours anyway so a splash of colour would have gone a long way.

Ease of Teaching

The game is easy to teach. With it being a co-op, players can be talked through their options before deciding what to do.

Another thing is that you don’t have to pre-load all the rules before starting. You can teach each element of the game as its needed. Combat, which is especially long, can wait until combat starts.

Similar Games

I haven’t played the other games from Themeborne, but they seem quite similar

I continue to hold out hop for a CMON TLOU game.

The Last of Us: Escape the Dark Review

Positives

Currently, the only game for this IP

Fairly simple game play.

If you’re unsure of the rules, what feels right thematically is usually the correct answer which is a good thing.

The collectors edition is really nice and comes with the cardboard components from the retail version.

Can easily be played solo with 5 characters if you have the space.

It’s a challenge, but…

Negatives

…it can feel a bit random. In my first game my first encounter was against a Clicker and Joel nearly died on the first day. I could have withdrawn or bypassed the combat but as it was my first game I wanted to stick it out. I lasted 2 days.

Misses out on the best part of The Last of Us Part One, the story.

It’s in black and white.

The Last of Us: Escape the Dark Round-Up

A fun, co-op story driven game that ironically, misses out on one of the greatest stories of modern times.

Rating

I give it 7/10