The Dark Quarter is a cooperative, adventure game.

Title: The Dark Quarter

Year Published: 2025

Designer: Evan Derrick

Publisher: Lucky Duck Games

Players: 1-4

Game Time: ~60 minutes per scenario

Set-up Time: ~1 min plus ~5 minutes for the app setup per player

Ages: 18+

Theme: 1980’s fantastical New Orleans

Mechanisms: Coop, Exploration

How to win: Complete the finale of the final scenario of the campaign.

Game Description

Welcome to New Orleans, Louisiana, circa 1980: a vibrant city of music, food, and magic. Neon lights flicker in dirty puddles up and down Bourbon street; the innovations of the modern world clash with ancient and terrible traditions; and murder is never simple. The Beaumont Agency, staffed with a roster of brilliant, colourful, and ultimately flawed private investigators, specializes in solving cases that no one else can crack.

How to play The Dark Quarter

A spoiler-free how to play video for The Dark Quarter.

Main Mechanisms

The main mechanism that runs the game is dice-rolling but I always dislike calling that a mechanism. It’s a means to run this co-op game.

USP

The USP is the app driven QR code scanning element which was done cooperatively in Chronicles of Crime.

Also, the exploration element which was done in the competitive game Destinies.

The only unique part is combining the co-op with the exploration really.

Theme

A Mystical, Magical New Orleans with Werewolves and Vampire clans. I love it!

Setup & Rulebook

Setup is a breeze thanks to the app that walks you through every stage.

The rulebook throws information at you in a slightly strange order but with the help of the app as you’re playing it’s straight forward.

Components & Artwork

The minis are nice as are the premium components from the Kickstarter.

The art is cool and reflects the theme well.

Ease of Teaching

It’s coop, open information and app driven so you can teach as you go!

Similar Games

I already mentioned the two other app games from Lucky Duck.

The Dark Quarter Review

Positives

A fun story to follow with each character having their own thing going on.

The ever changing board that evolves with the story is something I’ve always wanted from a board game. (I got it in Destinies but it’s still good here!)

Speaking of Destinies, the smaller play area in this game makes things easier for everyone involved.

The app makes playing solo with all 4 characters really easily which is good for me. I want to see all the content I can.

You can save the game at any point and easily get it back out later…

Negatives

…and you need that feature because 3+ hours is a long time to play a single game.

The app is dripping out content over the year which is a tad annoying.

The Dark Quarter Round-Up

A very fun and spooky co-op for people that love getting immersed in a world and don’t mind app-driven games or bad language.

Rating

I give it 8/10