The Last of Us: Escape the Dark
A tabletop adaptation of The Last of Us with character-driven gameplay.
The Last of Us: Escape the Dark is a tabletop role-playing game released in 2024 by publisher Themeborne. Created in collaboration with Naughty Dog, it builds on the studio's existing Escape the Dark series while adapting the world of Naughty Dog's video game. Up to five players take on the roles of characters from *The Last of Us*, navigating locations such as a quarantine zone, sewers, suburbs, and a university. Their objective is to reach safety while avoiding hunters and infected enemies.
Each player begins with a "hang-up," a personal flaw that limits their potential; overcoming it unlocks a gameplay perk. Survival yields rewards like crafting materials. Characters have distinct abilities—Joel’s physical strength, Ellie’s agility—and success in resisted actions is determined by rolling a character-specific die. The game uses dice and cards to simulate an open world. At the start, players build location decks placed across the board, with each location connected to several others. Routes between them may be unsafe. Location decks include chapter cards, camps, and stashed items. Chapter cards present events that can grant information, equipment, or items, or hinder progress. Players can travel by horse or truck to reach distant locations. After actions are taken, time advances and players decide the next day’s moves.
Threat tokens show how overrun a location is with infected; if too high, the location becomes blocked, forcing players to clear the route by defeating all cards in the stack. Spread cards indicate where infected may appear, with their threat increasing daily. When encountering enemies, combat difficulty depends on the enemy card’s threat level. Players must achieve a set number of wins, aided by equipment and weapons. They choose attack and defense strategies, including stealth or heavy combat.
The game was announced on November 1, 2022, as a partnership between Themeborne and Naughty Dog. The development team included Thomas Pike, Alex Crispin, James Shelton, and Jean-Duval Du Toit, with editing by Pedro Latro. Pike served as writer, Crispin as artist and graphic designer. Neil Druckmann, co-director and writer of *The Last of Us*, was a fan of Themeborne’s Escape the Dark games, and Pike was a fan of the video games.
Quick Facts
- Italic Title
- yes
- Manufacturer
- Asmodee
- Designer
- Thomas Pike · Alex Crispin · James Shelton · Jean-Duval Du Toit
- Illustrator
- Alex Crispin
- Writer
- Thomas Pike
- Publisher
- Themeborne
- Date
- 2024-11-29
- System
- Escape the Dark
- Genre
- Role-playing
- Language
- English
- Series
- The Last of Us
- Players
- 1–5
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
The Last of Us: Escape the Dark was announced on November 1, 2022, as a partnership between Themeborne and Naughty Dog. It was developed by Thomas Pike, Alex Crispin, James Shelton, and Jean-Duval Du Toit, and edited by Pedro Latro; Pike also served as writer, and Crispin as artist and graphic designer. Neil Druckmann, co-director and writer of The Last of Us, was a fan of Themeborne's Escape the Dark games, and Pike was a fan of the video games. The developers wanted to maintain the atmosphere of previous Escape the Dark games and found the post-apocalyptic setting a suitable match. They were interested in the open world and player choice aspects.
The game does not follow the same story as the video games, but the developers wanted to adapt its focus on character development, which led to the creation of 'hang-ups'—unique problems that hold each character back—following each character's personalities while allowing players to craft their own stories. Similarly modeled on the video game is the crafting system, wherein resources are combined to collect items, and players' ability to split up from their team members. In an extension of previous Escape the Dark games, the game uses three layers for combat: listening, stealth, and fighting. The game retains Escape the Dark's monochromatic aesthetic.
The game was funded through a Kickstarter campaign, which ran from November 8 to December 2, 2022; it tripled its goal within the first day, with more than 4,000 supporters, and raised more than £300,000 with over 9,700 supporters by the campaign's end. A collector's edition was available for Kickstarter supporters, featuring 3D tokens of the playable characters. Preorders opened on June 14, 2023, the tenth anniversary of The Last of Us, and the game was demonstrated at the UK Games Expo in 2023 and 2024. Originally due for release in December 2023, the game launched through Asmodee in the United States on November 29, 2024.
Reader's Guide
The Last of Us: Escape the Dark received positive reviews. Critics praised its art direction, with Starburst calling it 'a must-have gift for fans of horror' and GamesRadar+ naming it 'an early standout of 2025'. Wargamer commended its 'striking' and 'spectacular' visuals and thought the crafting, role-playing, and weapon mechanics added complexity that suitably represented the video game's world, though felt bad luck could unfairly mar a playthrough and the game's replayability. GameSpot similarly complimented the art style, particularly the color scheme for imitating the atmosphere of The Last of Us. Dexerto praised the game's captivating nature, citing its accessibility, replayability, and branching outcomes, and felt it maintained the franchise's 'premium feel'. The Dice Tower's Bryan Drake lauded the mechanics and enemies but found the gameplay repetitive and the art direction insufficient; he liked the black-and-white style but felt it lacked the beauty and thematic colors of the video games. The Dice Tower's Joey Evans conversely praised the art direction but found the repetitive gameplay and reliance on chance incompatible with the game's length, calling it a 'slog'. The game won Best Variant at the 2025 UK Games Expo Judges Choice Awards, and was nominated for the People's Choice Strategy Award.
Did You Know?
- The game was developed in partnership with Naughty Dog, and Neil Druckmann was a fan of Themeborne's Escape the Dark games.
- Each player begins with a 'hang-up'—a unique problem that holds them back—and journeys to overcome it and unlock a gameplay perk.
- The Kickstarter campaign tripled its goal within the first day and raised over £300,000 with more than 9,700 supporters.
More in Characters & Survivors
Elsewhere in The Last of Us
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced