Hey PI-Fans,

If you’re a fan of spy-fiction, you’ll want to check out Corey Konieczka’s ‘The Initiative‘, a brand new cooperative legacy board game from the mind that gave us Eldritch Horror. Set in a Jumanji-esque 1994, players find themselves dragged into a conspiracy when an old board game turns out to be more than it appeared at first glance.

Like a cross between an escape room and strategy game, players must marshal their limited resources as they navigate the game board, strategically burning their dwindling actions as they rush to uncover clues that will let them solve a series of coded puzzles before they run out of time and fail the mission.

As the game progresses, the legacy elements of The Initiative then come to bat, as winning or losing missions unlocks new challenges in a ‘Choose-Your-Own-Adventure’-esque style with added tools, codes and complexity slowly working their way into the game as the complexity (and threat) ramps up.

With The Initiative’s game’s campaign split through a number of 30-minute chapters, this heady combination of code-breaking, puzzle solving and strategy provides an interesting twist to the escape room formula.