I love thematic escape rooms and I enjoy playing Nemesis by Awakened Realms. So when I had a chance to review an escape game based on the beloved board game I had to check it out.
Side Quest Nemesis is a 1-4 player escape game that takes around 90-120 minutes. It is friendly for those who have played the full Nemesis game or can act as an introduction to the Nemesis universe themes for newer players.
Gameplay Overview:
You play as a hired hand, taked with retrieving the cargo and rescuing the crew of a starship that has gone radio-silent. Upon arrival, you realize something has gone terribly wrong and need to fix the ship and wake the crew while avoiding the “intruders.”
Side Quest Nemesis starts you off with no instruction booklet, some fold-out sheets that become walls to the hibertorium, your deck of cards that drive the game, and your answer-key input sheet. Mechanically your goal is to explore the 7 different rooms of the ship, complete tasks, and overcome events in each room. You are equipped with your standee and room-map cards to keep track of where your character is. This also allows for non-linear room exploration.
When you enter each room on the ship, you must complete an event card. These are miniature puzzles that you have to overcome before tackling the larger room puzzles. The event cards can be failed, which adds an infection card to your status deck. Infection cards represent the potential of your becoming infected by an alien, which in turn influences the different endings to the game.
Once you complete your event card, you move on to the room puzzle. These are typically larger, more involved puzzles. These must be solved to advance through the ship and reach the hibertorium where you can wake up the crew. The tasks in the rooms consist of restocking escape pods, fixing engines, resetting life support systems, and a few others. Most of these puzzles are tactile, utilizing different types of logic in order to be solved. Typically they use the entry-key sheet and result in major progress through the story.
As you solve the room puzzles you receive pieces that are inserted into the hibertorium for its entry puzzle. Once inside you overcome a few final challenges that will push you towards one of the 4 endings to the game.
Game Experience:
I would love to get into the intricate details of what we experienced with each room, so what follows is the best I can manage without spoiling the experience. We started in the cockpit and had to set coordinates back to Earth. That was before we realized that the ship was infected. We had to rebuild engines, restock escape pods, analyze eggs, and escape some dangerous situations. It ends in a climactic rush through twisting corridors to escape.
Side Quest Nemesis was a massive hit. Right from the start it was dripping with theme and each puzzle was not only unique, but was thematic to the narrative and task at hand. The puzzles weren’t just a template put into the game to keep it moving. Speaking of puzzles, most major room puzzles had some novel and fun tactile aspects to them which was refreshing for an escape room game. We were initially a bit worried about the answer-input system, as it seemed clunky and tough to figure out, but by our second puzzle, we felt a lot more comfortable and able to quickly input our answers.
The nonlinear aspect of the room exploration made it feel a bit more dynamic that a typical escape-room game, while doing a good job capturing some of the tension you find in the full Nemesis board game. This escape game truly captures the feelings of the Nemesis board game without drifting into board game territory and stays rooted in escape game mechanics.
We found ourselves wondering what fresh new horror awaited us in each new room. The event cards really helped build the theming and the infection results made us worry about our ending even if we succeeded, and being a Nemesis veteran, I knew it was going to play into our ending.
Final Thoughts:
Side Quest Nemesis is a great escape-room game, featuring thematic, tactile puzzles that capture the theme and fun of the full Nemesis board game in a bite-sized version. We had a lot of fun and were engaged during 90% of our playthrough. The puzzles were intuitive and just challenging enough to make us feel accomplished when we figured out the solutions. The answer-entry key took a little practice but eventually became second nature.
Overall, I would highly recommend this game for a quick evening of fun.
Final Score: 5 Stars – A great escape-room game with thematic puzzles that serves as a solid introduction to the Nemesis universe.
Hits:
• Original thematic tactile puzzles.
• Multiple endings based on choices made during the game.
• Great theming and a good introduction to the Nemesis universe.
Misses:
• Puzzle-solution entry sheet required a little practice.
• Can accidentally get spoilers if you are looking for help on the hint sheet.
