Each of the players chooses a character with some special abilities like Climber, Diver or Medic, and together they take turns discovering new cave tiles and overcoming obstacles which can be found there. The game resorts to a manageable bit of dicerolling to solve some events like cave-ins, but in the end it is up to the players' cooperation skills to get out of the cave as quickly as possible. Due to the time limit, the game qualifies as a push-your-luck-type of game which forces the players to take some risks to get forwards quickly, and in their despair they may try to be even quicker if they are hunted by a relentless horror which is trying to track down an explorer. If this should happen, or if another event causes the loss of health points, a character may fall unconscious and may need healing from another character. However, death is not possible in this game, and so no player will drop out and be condemned to watch the others for the rest of the game.

Back in 2012 Adam Kaluza presented his cave exploration game The Cave here at the SPIEL. On first contact Sub Terra may feel similar, but the cooperative approach totally changes the angle in which the players need to look at the game. Cooperation is necessary to make best use of the character abilities, and additional playing depth is reached through elements like ropes, ledges, treacherous terrain or cave diving. And for those players who want to immerse even deeper into the gaming experience, INSIDE THE BOX is offering the ultimate experience. The Collector's Edition of Sub Terra which is also available here at the SPIEL does not only feature the basic game, but a wagonload of extras like beautiful resin miniatures, art- and comicbooks, additional game modules with new rules and characters and more. As a thematically influenced gamer, this ultimate version of the game met my taste quite well…