The Stifling Dark Board Game

Murder at the Sawmill

Stifling Dark is one of my wife and I’s new favourite games. It is a hidden movement one versus many game, think Fury of Dracula and Nuns on the Run, and now forget them because it is so much more than that.

Brief Overview

Stifling Dark is so much better than any hidden movement game I have ever played before, and I do LOVE a hidden movement game. As usual, we played this as two players because that’s how we get the best feeling for a game, as most of the time that’s how they will be played in our house. So, one player plays as one of three different villains, whilst the other took the 4 investigators. We played the recommended settings for the first game as well – why wouldn’t we? This means that we played The Butcher as the villain and the four recommended investigators.

So picture this: your young and carefree, filled with all the invulnerability that comes from youth, and you have heard the tales of the old sawmill up the road and how every ten years people go missing there. Instead of listening to your logical brain and going “nah, I’ll leave that thanks”, you think, “Let’s get 3 of my friends together and we will Scooby Doo this.” You rock up, and it’s as creepy and abandoned as you thought it would be. Now this is where our game starts. You have a board with 100s of different places you can explore along with a bunch of pitch-black buildings. As the investigators, it’s your job to go into the pitch-black buildings and find evidence. Once you have found enough and turned it in at the computers, you can pick one of the three escape scenarios. One is unique to each villain, and 2 are unique to what side of the board you are playing, either the sawmill or the fairground. Sounds easy, right? A jolly jaunt to a few dark buildings, pick some evidence, and bounce. Not really. The other player is playing as one of three unique villains who all play completely differently and have their own goals in mind.

Now, with this being our first game, we were told to play The Butcher. He’s a bit of a creep and likes to stalk people sending literal shivers up investigator’s spine. That is not a euphonism they literally get a token called a spine chill token. He will be hiding around the buildings and gaining ‘Stalk’ points. These allow him to outright attack the players, and his goal requires only one kill for the win. The investigators can reveal him, if they are lucky, with their flashlights, meaning he will have to spend his next turn ‘disappearing’. The investigators can only use or charge their flashlights, not both, and the number of times they can use it before it needs to be charged is limited.

This was a fantastic game, and I cannot recommend it highly enough for those people who like hidden movement games.

Nitty Gritty Breakdown

Each turn, the investigators can move, and if they choose to, they can sprint. This loses them some stamina. If their stamina drops low enough, they can take damage, which is no joke, especially when playing against The Butcher, who only needs one of your investigators to drop for him to win. The wounds can either be face up or face down. A  face-up wound will have additional effects, think Eldritch Horror type wounds. You can have a collapsed lung which permanently lowers your stamina, or perhaps you will gain a wound that allows you to only partially use your flashlight. A face-down wound will not affect you other than having that wound there. Speaking of wounds, let’s not forget the conditions. The Butcher’s main attack (at least in the recommended set-up) causes a condition on top of a nice juicy wound, and that condition is bleeding. Bleeding means that each turn (until you have gained two) you will gain a further wound. Meaning that the limited med kits and removing wounds becomes very important.

The board is split into three different light levels: you have bright light, which is somewhere your flashlight is laying or if you have turned on the light in a room. This light level reveals the enemy or any items that are lying on the floor.

There is dim, which means the enemy can be standing right in front of you and you won’t be able to see him/them, and items are hidden. Dark, which means that your movement cost is doubled.

Now, there are events that take place every turn, but the recommended first play has you not use these, but I did peek at them, and they can be pretty brutal towards the end game. But as we didn’t use them in the few games we played, I can’t adequately say anything about them besides that.

From the villain’s perspective, it is their job to meet their end goal. We have since tried all three different killers that come with the game, and I can confidently say they play completely differently and are challenging in their own ways, both to play as and against. They have what I would call a DM screen with a miniature board that they keep track of the investigators and themselves on and have a fine balancing act between being close enough to perform their actions but far enough away to not be revealed. In the Butchers case this would be building his stalk points in order to attack, keeping investigators on edge with his spine chill tokens. In the case of the Insatiable Horror this would be to attack the investigators, and the unpredictability of the attacks is impressive. It can gum up investigator’s flashlights or lay eggs in them. Finally in the Cultists case this would be to bleed the investigators to summon a God which is honestly a little terrifying to play against.

Tips and Tricks

This will have to be broken down into two.

Investigators: During our first game, the instructions recommend moving in pairs, but as counterproductive as it seems, both my wife and I in our preceding games split into three groups: a pair and two lone investigators. It’s important to remember the killer can’t be everywhere. And The Cultists (who have five killers on the board at game start) have to reveal their location at the beginning of their turn so you can plan accordingly. The villains are fast, sure, but when they perform an action on an investigator it reveals them.

• You don’t have to use the flashlight every turn.
• It is not the end of the world for one investigator to be hurt, but you shouldn’t leave it forever, ESPECIALLY against The Butcher.
• Do not be afraid to split up. You have a lot of ground to cover and a lot of evidence to gather.
• If you’re nervous because you think the killer is around, you can use the adorably named ‘Flashlight Hug’ where two characters aim a flashlight at each other to cover each other in the warm embrace of bright light. Nothing beats seeing the vein in my wife’s forehead throb when I used this knowing she was creeping about nearby and I’d neatly defanged an attack
• DO NOT skimp on the items. There are some truly great items that can be picked up and used.
• DO NOT skimp on the investigators’ unique special one-use power. I am unfortunately one of those players who save things for the end game and consistently ignore my own advice.
• Killers: The players ARE squishy, but not that squishy. Do not be afraid to really get in there and do some damage.
• You can hide literally right next to an investigator, especially if their flashlight is pointing away from you.
• Darkness does not impede your movement, and you can sprint every turn with no consequences.

Two Player Review

We really enjoyed this game, and it played very well as a pair. We feel that it would be better with more people, as one of the perks of a one versus many game is that the ‘one’ is privy to the plans of the ‘many’. But as a pair, unless ‘the many’ talk their plans out loud, this cannot be used. But it did not take away from either side of the screen. There were some truly funny moments as the killer, where we are literally hidden just out of view or around a corner, and several photos were taken to show how close the investigators were at any given time to uncovering the killer. Of course, as is always the case during our first game my wife managed to win. I was close, oh so very close to not getting the ‘you’ll do better next time’ face and voice but alas, at least this time it was not be. When with a swing of his hook The Butcher (played by my wife) cornered one of my investigators a mere two turns from my victory and killed her off. I could only watch in horror as the bleed condition ended her life whilst I searched in vain through my items and abilities for something that could help.