Until Daylight, a cooperative survival card game, takes three to six players on a brutal journey through the rubble-strewn world at the end of days. With raiders lurking everywhere and infected wandering the streets, it will be hard to survive, let alone find any other survivors. Brutes and monsters lurk among the hordes, and the unforgiving atmosphere will test the willpower of all that attempt to survive the night. Most will not. The game’s motto is to “search without restraint, fight relentlessly and survive this ruthless world.”

Whether you’re able to achieve that will be up to the teamwork and determination of your group. The weak don’t survive. But neither do the slow or reckless. A cohesive strategy and a dependence on each other are paramount if players intend to last until daylight. 

STORY

A pillar, a hipster, a trigger, a haggler, a drifter, and a psycho walk into a bar. Well, it might not be a bar. Anywhere with rubble will work because the world is in chaos. Marauding raiders and tireless infected have taken over. Survivors are few and far between and they stick together. This means that a bar, or any location, is useful only inasmuch as the loot that it contains. Weapons, ammunition, food, parts for crafting, and any other resources that can assist in slowing down or killing the many threats that roam the land.

Each of the six unique characters has their own tragic backstory, befitting an apocalyptic scenario, and it will be up to the players to decide who they will use and how the narrative will conclude.

GAMEPLAY

Until Daylight is divided into two phases: search and combat. A companion app will guide you through the two phases. If you don’t use the Until Daylight app, a sand time and round tracker will mark the progress of the game, but I recommend using the app. The search phase uses tense music that builds atmosphere and tension during the hurried search for resources and equipment.

The search phase is designed to force quick, efficient moves that rotate between the characters. Each player is given one action. An action can involve: drawing a rubble card, building a trap or barricade, giving a rubble card to another player, taking a rubble card from another player (with permission), using a rubble card that requires an action, or doing nothing. After a player takes an action, they must say “Next” before another player can go. That verbal requirement encourages a frenzied pace and frantic movements in order to maintain a speedy round of searching and preparing. When using the Until Daylight app, the pulsing sounds further intensify the session. When the timer finishes, the search phase is over and the horde appears.

The combat phase is not timed, which enables players to develop a strategy for attacking the horde of raiders and infected that will pursue the player whose turn was active when the search phase ended. When a character sustains four points of damage, they die, so it’s essential to maximize the efficiency of your group’s attacks, rubble cards, and traps or barricades.

The raiders and three variants of infected will all unleash their own attacks once the players have finished their attacks. With only one action per character, a tactical balancing act ensues.

Kill as many as you can, but know that doing so draws some of the horde to you. Augment your attack with rubble cards, but don’t recklessly expend all of your abilities if it’s not the right moment. Make sure your barricades and traps will absorb most of the damage. Identify the biggest threats and see if you can surgically remove them from the fight. Draw bigger hordes off your injured teammates to ensure their survival. 

And be prepared for tough rounds. The size of the horde is dependent on the round number and the player count. So later rounds will have larger waves of enemies.

Until Daylight is hard. You will likely lose. The game designers even warn you of this.

 “Your first games should be difficult, and you will probably die. Don't worry — it's normal because surviving the apocalypse is anything but easy. Every attempt will teach you a little more about the game mechanisms and strategic priorities.”

The honesty is appreciated. Efficiency is vital to your success. The search phase is a brutal gauntlet that must be navigated with speed and intention. In a short span of time, players need to gather ammo, build traps and barricades, heal any injuries, and organize their inventory to maximize preparedness for the fight ahead. If you don’t use your time wisely, the combat phase will be painful, and most likely fatal.

But the mechanics are thrilling and the gameplay is fun. If you’re able to stick with it, Until Daylight will challenge you. It’s an edge-of-the-seat kind of game, and surviving is an experience you’ll savor.

VISUALS

The card game looks great. The cartoon art style beguiles the player and lures them into a false sense of security. The quality of design here is superb, though. The game box holds all of the components nicely. The thick cardboard character cards are stylish with the dials sandwiched between two mats that contain character abilities and backstories. The colors on the components and cards are strong without inhibiting clarity. Everything is easy to read and easy to distinguish between.

The apocalypse may be grim, but it sure is pretty.

REPLAYABILITY

Similar to playing a Souls-like video game, the beauty in Until Daylight lies in developing a firm grasp of the mechanics and facing the challenge head-on. Knowing the difficulty but pushing yourself to the limits anyway. You can play Until Daylight a lot because you’ll not win all of the time. The adversity will bring you back.

WHAT IT COULD HAVE DONE BETTER

Update: It’s worth noting that the game does include a before-you-start section that’s designed to quickly send players into their first game. And Flyos Games includes Until Daylight on the Dized app, which can help with understanding the rules and playing the game.

With a companion app already designed, it would be nice to have a first-game tutorial that guides players through Until Daylight. This is by no means a necessity but it would help players to jump into the game more quickly. With the transparent certainty that the first game (or first several) will end in failure, the sooner players can jump into the fray the better. It’s not designed to be easy, though, so it’s hard to fault it for the difficulty.

VERDICT

Until Daylight is a wonderful game with excellent mechanics that create a pervasive atmosphere of tension and danger. The difficulty of the game might scare off players, but if you’re up for a challenge then the apocalypse beckons. If your survivors make it will depend on how well you understand the search and combat systems. It’s worth playing, whether you win or lose.