The premise of this game is that players are all on a doomed space ship and are racing to be the first to reach an escape pod (exit the board) by rolling two non-standard six-sided dice (1,1,2,2,3,3) and moving the indicated number of spaces. The board is two-sided (designed on one side for 2–4 players and for 4–8 on the other) and, on first sight, it appears to belie the name of the game: “no escape” must surely be a misnomer because there seem to be plenty of escape routes...
Though this is a simple game, however, it is not quite that simple. In a player’s turn they will be rolling and moving but they will also be placing out a tile to add to the maze. If they have one, they may additionally be adding a tile that gives a special effect. Pretty much all the tiles laid will be aimed at making life more difficult for your opponents, so No Escape becomes a lively unrelenting “take that” game. The roll and move mechanic means that it inevitably involves a high degree of luck but No Escape nonetheless works as a fast-playing fun game.
Unless a player quite literally scores a runaway win, you can expect games to take somewhat longer than the 30 minutes indicated on the box, but the game is fun throughout and works surprisingly well as a party game, especially as No Escape is at its best when played with 6–8 players.
No Escape is designed by Jonathan Thwaites, and published by OOMM. It is currently midway through its Kickstarter campaign. The game shown here is a prototype, so expect upgraded components if the Kickstarter funds…