One of the great things about being a parent is that you always have someone to play board games with. I've tested family games, miniature games, even some strategy games with my nine year old daughter, and - a few tears over lost games notwithstanding - she's emerged triumphant (or at least able to play the game) every time. But The Night Cage is the most daunting daddy-daughter test so far.
The Night Cage is a horror board game. I don't just mean it's a board game with a horror theme pasted on, like Betrayal at House on the Hill - I mean that the atmosphere it generates between its art and its mechanics can be genuinely nerve-wracking.
Mechanically, it's a very neat cooperative board game. Four prisoners (five if you have that many players) are trapped in the Night Cage, a maze of darkness where the passages continually shift. The tiles that make up the tunnels and crossroads of the labyrinth only exist for as long as the light of each prisoner's flickering candle can illuminate them.
Your turns are simple, navigating around the board, revealing new tiles as you advance your candle and discarding the old ones you no longer light up. Those tiles come from a single big stack that represents all the wax left in your candles - once the tiles are all gone, you're trapped forever. To escape, each prisoner needs to find a key, and then all four must make it to an exit tile at the same time.
'Trapped in an endless labyrinth of darkness' would be enough of a nightmare on its own, but there are other things in the stack of wax tiles besides passages, keys, and gates. There are monsters lurking in the darkness - the 'wax eaters'. The first time I flipped one of these over, I actually yelped "Oh no!" aloud, causing my poor daughter to jump about six inches off the floor.
I was reprimanded. "Daddy, can you not do that please," she instructed me. "That was scary."
Once revealed, the wax eaters linger on the board, waiting for any hint of movement within their line of sight. If a prisoner moves into or out of their path they will rush straight in that direction, striking every prisoner in their way. When a prisoner is hit, three wax tiles are thrown off the stack and into the discard - perhaps taking an irreplaceable key or gate with them - and the prisoner's candle is blown out.
Until that prisoner can meet up with one of the others to relight their candle they're alone in the dark, unable to see beyond the tile they're standing on, forced to walk blindly into danger…
The vibes, as they say, are immaculate. This is a classic co-op game with a timer that puts a limit on the number of turns you can take to achieve your goal. It has most in common with the original Forbidden Island, because the primary puzzle you're managing is the space you need to move. But the incredibly stark monochrome art absolutely sells the fantasy that your prisoners are alone in the dark.
I have a tip for anyone who wants to encourage their children to play more challenging games - try and make sure they win game one. Victory was totally out of my control for The Night Cage, but fortunately the game provided for us, and we somehow escaped.
The end of the game was remarkably tense - with no more tiles in the stack, the only passages present were the ones our prisoners had already illuminated, and these flickered out one by one. The win felt like a true escape from darkness.
"I didn't get my candle blown out once," my daughter pointed out to me, "but both of your prisoners' candles went out." I guess she's just built different.
She's happy to play again, provided I don't make any more yelps of alarm - my bark of surprise was apparently the only actually scary part of the experience for her. She's intrigued by the additional monsters present in the advanced version of the game, and the mysterious boss monsters that raise the threat even more. I have no idea how we're going to beat them. Together, or not at all, I guess.
If you've played The Night Cage (with or without your kids), I'd love to chat about it in the official Wargamer Discord community. Also, if you have recommendations for any more weirdo horror themed games, I'm all ears - I'm a big stan for Cave Evil.
Team Wargamer is always testing new games to see if they might earn a spot on our guide to the best board games - check it out for some great recommendations.