Stumbling in the Dark

Sometimes, a game is far more clever in concept than in execution. I recently played such a game called Nyctophobia -- lauded in a few circles for its innovation, but not particularly fun in actuality.

Nyctophobia is a "1 vs. the rest" game. The one plays an axe-murdering psycho chasing the others through the woods at night. The game takes place on an 8 x 8 grid where plastic pieces are snapped into place to form a maze of trees. The "victims" all put on opaque glasses, and are unable to see the board. The "psycho" also serves as gamemaster, helping everyone take their turns as the only player able to see.

On your turn, you're allowed to move two spaces and, at each space, "feel around" to the adjacent spaces near you. You describe aloud to all players what you're feeling as you "stumble around in the dark," and as a team you try to solve the maze and reach your car to go for help. The killer takes his turn accord to scripted rules, moving toward the players who most recently made "noise," and trying to attack and defeat any one member of the group to win the game.

It's a fun enough premise, riffing on the "cabin in the woods" sort of horror movie trope. But in practice, the game simply does not work. First, the rules are sort of unresolved about the role of the sighted player. To what degree are they really trying to win the game, as opposed to trying to facilitate a fun experience for the other players, "dungeon master" style? The game doesn't seem particularly balanced for either choice, nor does it seem particularly fun to just operate as a game master in such a non-narrative system.

It's no better for the victim players. No matter how much literal hand-holding you get from the single player, it's impossible to feel around the spaces near you without accidentally brushing against things you're not supposed to be feeling. "Um... that's actually two spaces away. You're feeling the wrong space." "Well... there's a tree right next to you. You're not supposed to feel what's on the other side."

The components aren't great either. I imagine the makers of this game didn't have much chance to test with the final production components, because the board isn't big enough, nor the pieces all distinct enough, for the gameplay to flow smoothly. Also, the dark glasses you wear to play the game aren't actually solid black -- they're slightly reflective. Once the glasses are on, you're forced to close your eyes anyway, as the reflections are unsettling and awkward even after you dim the lights in the room. And long before the game ended, this actually caused me a headache.

Each player in the game is given a special power that's straight-forward enough to remember (since you can't look back at it), but also too complex for the solo player to remember all of them. Our game melted down in short order when the "killer," forgetting about my tree-climbing power, started me super-close to the car (as the crow flies). By random chance, I ended the whole thing in about 10 minutes... which felt like at least 5 minutes longer than any of us wanted to be playing.

There's a fun idea at the core of Nyctophobia, but I can't recommend this implementation of it. I'd grade it a D. Not many board games have ever actually caused me physical pain, so it's not one I'd look to play again.