2011Gabriele Mari, Gianluca Santopietro
- Videos
- 53
- Creators
- 46
2 - 6 players90 minMedium weight

2024Jeremy Geenen, Ethan Janssen, Matt Rayford
Mainly reviews. The Stifling Dark is covered on BoardGameVideo.com by 14 reviews, 1 how-to-play guides, 4 recorded sessions, 3 unboxings, and 2 other videos.
From BoardGameGeek
The Stifling Dark is a one-vs-many hidden-movement horror board game with an innovative line-of-sight mechanic for 2-5 players. One player takes the role of the adversary, whose goal is to prevent the other players (the investigators) from escaping through a variety of unique actions. As an investigator, your only goals are to survive and escape. Investigators move around the board in a point-to-point fashion using their base movement speed. They may sprint to move more quickly, but they need to keep an eye on their stamina so they don't become exhausted. Additionally, investigators can pick up and use items, lock and unlock doors, or use their flashlights to try and find the adversary. Meanwhile, the adversary is secretly moving around the board, trying to stop the investigators from escaping. There are a variety of investigators to choose from, each with their own special abilities. The adversary also has multiple attacks and abilities that change how you play the game. Will you fix the car and drive out, or will you override the gate and try to sneak out? The investigators will need to decide if they want to stick together to watch each other's backs, or split up to race towards the exit. Either way, they must move quickly - the longer the game takes, the more chances the adversary has to stop them! The game ends when either all of the investigators escape (meaning the investigators won) or the adversary achieves their win condition (which is different for each adversary).
The Stifling Dark has 24 videos from 18 creators: 14 reviews, 1 how-to-play guide, 4 playthroughs, 3 unboxings and 2 other videos. They date from 2022 to February 2025.
To learn the rules, start with "How to Play The Stifling Dark (B&B Live Teach)" by The Board & Barrel, which runs 18 min.
For an opinion before you buy, start with "The Stifling Dark - How to Play & Preview - Boardgame Brody" by Meeple Mountain. 12 creators have reviewed it. To see it played, watch "Canje Previews Stifling Dark with Steve (OSCS)" by Canje Studios, one of 4 playthroughs.
If you like it, try Letters from Whitechapel, Whitehall Mystery, SCOPE Stalingrad or Mind MGMT: The Psychic Espionage “Game.”, which share several of its mechanics. It appears in convention videos from Gen Con 2022.
8 of 18
2011Gabriele Mari, Gianluca Santopietro
2 - 6 players90 minMedium weight
2017Gabriele Mari, Gianluca Santopietro
2 - 4 players45 - 60 minMedium weight
2020Juan A. Nácher
2 - 4 players10 - 15 minLight weight
2021Jay Cormier, Sen-Foong Lim
1 - 5 players60 minMedium weight
From BoardGameGeek:
The Stifling Dark is a one-vs-many hidden-movement horror board game with an innovative line-of-sight mechanic for 2-5 players. One player takes the role of the adversary, whose goal is to prevent the other players (the investigators) from escaping through a variety of unique actions. As an investigator, your only goals are to survive and escape. Investigators move around the board in a point-to-point fashion using their base movement speed. They may sprint to move more quickly, but they need to keep an eye on their stamina so they don't become exhausted. Additionally, investigators can pick up and use items, lock and unlock doors, or use their flashlights to try and find the adversary. Meanwhile, the adversary is secretly moving around the board, trying to stop the investigators from escaping. There are a variety of investigators to choose from, each with their own special abilities. The adversary also has multiple attacks and abilities that change how you play the game. Will you fix the car and drive out, or will you override the gate and try to sneak out? The investigators will need to decide if they want to stick together to watch each other's backs, or split up to race towards the exit. Either way, they must move quickly - the longer the game takes, the more chances the adversary has to stop them! The game ends when either all of the investigators escape (meaning the investigators won) or the adversary achieves their win condition (which is different for each adversary).
Designers
Jeremy Geenen, Ethan Janssen, Matt Rayford
Artist
Cory Freeman
Publisher
Sophisticated Cerberus Games, LLC
Categories
Mechanics