Side Quest Nemesis Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Side Quest Nemesis, a thematic escape room game published by Board and Dice. Side Quest Nemesis is thematically based on the Nemesis game from Awaken Realms.

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.

You play as a hired hand to retrieve the cargo and 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, and failure means an infection card being added to your status deck. Infection cards represent the potential of you becoming infected by an alien that 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 to wake up the crew. The tasks in the rooms consist of restocking escape pods, fixing engines, resetting life support systems, and a few others.