Escape the Dark Castle | Solo Playthrough

Can I survive? Considering I lost my last 8 games, probably not...
Set-Up - 0:05
Playthrough - 3:10
Podcast - / user-318456537
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A copy of the game was provided in order to create a playthrough and review. No other compensation was received for this content.
Music from filmmusic.io
"Come Play with Me" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (creativecommons.org/licenses/b...)

[@gasa5251]

love the tension and excitement in the boss fight ! cool game

[@OneStopCoopShop]

G asa Usually the tension doesn’t last so long, since I am dead :)

[@ActionHeinz]

This little thing managed to get more immersion and tension across than all these flashy games with quintillions of miniatures, colorful cards, vast game boards and rules more complex than German tax law in booklets thick as the bible...

[@OneStopCoopShop]

Agreed! Such great fun for a simple game :)

[@sargondp69]

[As I commented on the Gray Board Gamer playthru for this] Well made game. The commercial is convincing enough to think it was made in 1983. Not crazy about combat, at least the player roll match up part that I would axe and just double the shown traits (perhaps), but it is ok. What is really missing is any kind of space or map--it is a castle dungeon and those have maps or some labyrinthine system. This can be hacked into the game with some work but you would need to read all or most of the cards to do it as they would need to be placed in separate decks. Possibly they have this or will have it in expansions. A couple easy to implement ideas: 1) Shuffle the boss into the bottom half of the deck but you still need to continue through all cards to escape. 2) You can keep playing when someone dies. Have the party become demoralized: select one of their two higher stats and roll their die. If they roll that stat, then they lose it for the rest of the game (rolling it in combat/card resolution = fail). This can also help groups who play the game often, with survivors getting bonuses, first choice, etc in subsequent games.

[@OneStopCoopShop]

Nice variant ideas in there. And agree that a bit more spacial awareness in the game could improve the experience.

[@manducator824]

This was really fun to watch, I almost get as excited as you must have been while winning for the first game. I played 3 times and haven't won yet but once I was very close. Close in enough to keep believing in a future victory. And you're a good teacher.

[@OneStopCoopShop]

man ducator what’s really scary is adding in the expansions. Then you REALLY won’t survive ;)

[@Hybban]

Those RARE victories are so sweet!

[@OneStopCoopShop]

Hybban So glad I got it on film!

[@kingthunderstar3302]

Awesome playthrough! At least two of my favorite characters which are the Abbot and the Miller escaped and my other two favorites are the Cook and the Tailor. I really liked watching this! Thank you so much for posting this and congrats on your first victory!

[@OneStopCoopShop]

Thank you, and glad you enjoy the game too! My son and I just smashed the Undead Queen a few days ago, thanks in part to help from the Spirit. Companions for the win ;)

[@kingthunderstar3302]

@@OneStopCoopShopGood job that you and your son smashed the Undead Queen and I hope you both beat the Death Knight and the Plague Lord as well

[@arenoskarlaen4951]

Very clear solo play through, really enjoyed this video. I picked this game up yesterday because the b&w gothic art style really caught my attention. I actually won my first solo game, the boss fight was quite tense and I barely even won, I made a couple of slip ups with the rules which may have aided me or not.

[@OneStopCoopShop]

Even if there were slip-ups, as long as you had fun it’s all good!!

[@jerrieljiji2321]

Awesome play. Thank you.

[@OneStopCoopShop]

Thanks for watching!

[@lopyod]

Not sure but against the boss maybe you should have discard items from the YOU character only not the other one

[@OneStopCoopShop]

pierre lopyod (looks at the card... feels shame). Good point! I was playing on ultra hard I guess ;)

[@tdnavy1066]

This game looks awesome.

[@OneStopCoopShop]

It can be a lot of fun :)

[@NemesisEG]

We adore this game and grabbed the expansions too. Themeborne have a kick starter running for their Alien-esq version and it looks just as fun. Scales nicely from 1-4 and sometimes you’re in trouble from the off, other times you can do no wrong.

[@OneStopCoopShop]

NemesisEG Yeah, I actually heard about the game from that KS. I had missed it the first few times around.

[@NemesisEG]

It looks as if it'll give you more combat options; which is a good step up from DC.

[@OneStopCoopShop]

Yeah, agreed. I'm excited to see it one day!

[@NemesisEG]

One day!

[@joebarlow1667]

Fun playthrough, and an excellent game. One note: at 18:28: the warped cudgel is a two-handed item, so you couldn't also have a second item on the miller.

[@OneStopCoopShop]

Maybe my guy was really strong! Just kidding, good catch, and thanks for watching.

[@joelcole161]

Warped cudgel is single handed. Says so right on the card.

[@seanmorgan2257]

nice win it is nice to know beating it is not a rumour

[@OneStopCoopShop]

Exactly!

[@Empty-nd9fb]

LOVE YOU VIDEOS!!!!!!!!!!!

[@OneStopCoopShop]

Thanks!

[@trianglestri7487]

I love this game, I have all the 3 expansions and I tot they add so much fun and extra mechanics to keep things Interesed, I am hoping for them to possibly move onto designing a second one rather than expansion packs, I feel like the next chapter can benefit from a dungeon map, multiple ways, small puzzles and such

[@OneStopCoopShop]

I'm not sure if they'll come back to Dark Castle, since they moved onto Dark Sector and outer space. But I agree on the expansion packs. My son and I played the undead queen one recently, enjoyed the new encounters, got a ghost ally for a while - lots of fun!

[@trianglestri7487]

@@OneStopCoopShop Im glad u enjoyed it too! sometimes feels great to play games like this that dont have much complexity plus the art style is awesome XD i recently bought kingdom death monster and after a month havent really been able to get my head around it lol,

[@OneStopCoopShop]

I haven’t played KDM enough yet. If you want help with understanding it, Bairnt has done a whole series of plays right here on our channel. You can see him rise from fighting lions to... nastier things :)

[@trianglestri7487]

One Stop Co-op Shop I’ll definitely check it out - It took me ages to even assemble the stupidly complex statues lol let alone understanding the game - but it looks amazing

[@drcfungis2045]

Great Game . Kids love to play it. Recommend

[@OneStopCoopShop]

Glad you enjoy it too

[@sentino68]

Wow. You actually sleeved them? That’s hard core.

[@OneStopCoopShop]

I don't sleeve much, but those were the ones that came with the kickstarter and they are really nice :)

[@Mind_of_MATT]

Very cool play & you won! I got into it just watching & I love the art, the flavor texts & the fact that the death book description is longer with more detail than the victory card. * I ordered the game. Does anyone know if there are differences in quality with the Asmodee edition?

[@OneStopCoopShop]

I didn't even know Asmodee was distributing it! Hope you enjoy :)

[@Mind_of_MATT]

I will & I hope to also use it as an intro of sorts for my friends into table top gaming.

[@OneStopCoopShop]

@@Mind_of_MATT Well, as long as they are okay with probably dying :)

[@Mind_of_MATT]

@@OneStopCoopShop I figure possibly half of them might be. I really can't be sure till I try. It should be a rough gauge to see who's interested to playing this type of table top game which I hope will eventually lead into Old School RPGs. Not going to force it. Just seeing if perks any interest.

[@goncaloferreira6429]

nice show. FF vibes are real.

[@OneStopCoopShop]

Yes! Absolutely it had to be an inspiration for them. (Though lone wolf was more my jam)

[@Procarz]

Hello :)... I have a question about this card ( 22:48)... As far i understand double cunning count in this card or only single one sign in dice? :)

[@OneStopCoopShop]

Double or single. As long as cunning shows up, you are good

[@seaqueen9980]

Can you tell me where I can get the plastic card covers?

[@OneStopCoopShop]

These ones came with the Kickstarter as an add on. Not sure if they are still selling them

[@paultougher907]

Where do I buy the sleeves for the cards??

[@OneStopCoopShop]

They sent these to me, and they were part of the Kickstarter. It looks like you can buy them straight from Themeborne, but they are currently out of stock - www.themeborne.com/shop/a6-clear-sleeves

[@paultougher907]

@@OneStopCoopShop yeah I got them shortly after I wrote this comment 😅 just waiting for the collectors box to come back into stock then my collection will be nearly complete lol

[@strixt]

20:53 You upped the Miller hp by 2 instead of 1

[@OneStopCoopShop]

Whoops! Thanks for the catch :)

[@Veryghoster]

Why didn't you use dice tray?

[@OneStopCoopShop]

Oh, I don't remember. I recorded this nearly a year ago :)

[@karlorthehunter458]

Is this a one-off kind of game or is there a campaign?

[@OneStopCoopShop]

One-off. What you see in this playthrough is the standard length of the game: 1 intro card, 15 chapter cards, and a final boss (if you survive that long). Expansions add variety to the characters and cards and items, but don't change this core gameplay.

[@darkchaos9522]

For the boss fight you were only supposed to get rid of one person item not both

[@OneStopCoopShop]

That would have helped!

[@teenageapocalypseusa5368]

It's a shame this game is nothing but a series of combat encounters. If 50% of the cards were other things it would make it so much more atmospheric. Do you know if the expansions maybe do that?

[@OneStopCoopShop]

I've played most of them, and the answer is... sort of? They tend to keep a ratio of 70% combat to 30% encounter. And Escape the Dark Sector is similar. Sorry!

[@teenageapocalypseusa5368]

@@OneStopCoopShop That's super useful info; thank you. I'm going to buy all the expansions and sift out their encounters to make up a brand new deck that is 50/50 - will make the game much better.

[@the250mikec]

Miller rolled wisdom a lot, except at the end:)

[@OneStopCoopShop]

the250mikec He is surprisingly wise in this play ;)