In recent years, group deduction games have seen their popularity explode. One only has to think of the enormous success experienced by Among Us. Other titles have come to add their personal touch to the genre and this is the case of Dread Hungerwhich combines group deception and deduction dynamics with survival, adventure, and combat mechanics.
The setting is as follows: eight explorers try to sneak their ship through a narrow passage in the unforgiving Arctic of the 19th century. Among the crew members, two traitors, named “Thralls”, of dubious allegiances, call upon dark powers to sabotage the expedition. Each player embodies a member of the crew (the captain, the chaplain, the cook, the doctor, etc.) The eight roles only exist for the sole purpose of encouraging players to play a character, be it vocally or through their actions, and thus set the scene. Beyond these few narrative elements, Dread Hunger doesn’t really have a story to speak of. The players create the plot.
Once the game has started, the players must, on the one hand, explore the surroundings to find coal and wood, in order to feed the furnace of the ship and allow it to move forward. They only have three days to get out of trouble. On the third day, the blizzard hits them and, if they haven’t already arrived at the iceberg blocking the passage (the final stage) and on the way to blowing it up, it’s a waste of time. In the meantime, they must also survive, that is to say find and prepare their food, warm themselves around a fire, make weapons to defend themselves against wild animals, etc.
The danger also comes from the two randomly chosen traitors hiding in the crew members. They are subject to the same survival mechanisms, but their objective is to prevent the ship from reaching the high seas. To do this, they can use dark magic to sabotage the craft, kill the crew members or, if they are clever liars, turn them against each other. The traitor experience is complicated by the fact that players have two lives. When a player is killed for the first time, he is sent to the prison of the ship and the other players can free him… if they deem him trustworthy. Thus, brute force is not always the best avenue, and traitors must play with finesse, otherwise they will be quickly unmasked.
We understand that, as in any group game of deduction and deception, the quality of the experience depends almost entirely on the people you are playing with. The survival elements are fun and make the game stand out from others in the genre, but the group deception and deduction dynamics remain its strong point. Headphones and microphone are obviously not optional, and it will be better to play with people we know or with strangers who have a definition of pleasure similar to ours.