Finstere Flure actually translates to "Dark Corridors", and I think that the name couldn't be any more perfect for the game we played. Each player took up a party of three people who somehow had gotten into a haunted house, and the players had to try to get two of their figures out of the house by using the exit at the opposite end of the gameboard. As for movement, each figure had an allowance of a total of 7 spaces which it could move each turn, but these moves needed to be split up between the turns as shown by numbers on each figure.

However, the most important element of the game is the Zombie which also starts moving on the gameboard as soon as the players have started moving into the house. Each turn, after all players had moved all of their playing pieces, a Zombie-card would be turned around, showing how many spaces the Zombie would be allowed this turn. The Zombie would move straight ahead, but at all crossroads it would also look to its sides as to whether it could see and player figures in the crossing corridors. If it could see a player, then it would turn and start moving towards him. However, the Zombie always needs to move towards the closest player, and since it keeps checking for player figures at all crossroads it could quite be possible that the Zombie would change its direction several times during its move.

When a player is captured by the Zombie, that means bad luck for him, since his figure is thrown out of the house and the player has to re-enter the house with the figure. However, there are certain elements and twists in the rules which make the game rather exciting, and there is a much deeper element of strategy in it than might be suspected at first. Thus, if the Zombie faces player figures on both its left and right side, it cannot decide in which way it should move and - dimwitted as it is - it simply continues moving straight ahead. Another feature are blocks of stones which players can push around in order to hide behind them, but no true hiding place can be created this way, since the Zombie can leave the gameboard by walking through the wall on one side of the board and re-entering the board on the opposing side.

We played the game with a total of six players, and it was won by Greg in the end (by the way, that's me up there on the left hand on the photo, sitting next to Greg. And since this would otherwise cause questions: I am wearing a tie because I had to talk to representatives of several major companies today, and looking a bit business-like is quite advisible with these people). I must say that I rather enjoyed our session of Finstere Flure. The game was really entertaining to be played with that many people, and my overall good impression of it was strengthened even more by the artwork used in the game. All players' pieces were illustrated with artwork from ODC comics, and thus each player did lead a quite unique group into the building (Teeny-Gang, Police-Squad, Priests, the Addams Family etc.) The Zombie itself was made up of several parts, and these could be interchanged to make it looking in different spooky ways. Finally, the game also contained some variant rules and even an english set of rules is available, so that I would say that - despite slight similarities to Roborally - this game certainly is one of the MUST-BUYS at Essen 2003!