Earlier this year, Privateer Press announced LEVEL 7 [OMEGA PROTOCOL], the next game set in the terrifying world of LEVEL 7. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the components and mechanics of the new game and which new aspects of the setting it explores.

In LEVEL 7 [ESCAPE] players take on the roll of escaped test subjects frantically trying to find their way out of the Subterra Bravo facility. The actions of these escapees destabilize the relationship between the human and alien elements in the base. By the end of the story the situation is completely out of the government’s control.

The government had planned for this contingency, however, and that’s where the LEVEL 7 [OMEGA PROTOCOL] story picks up. In this new game players take on the roll of either a highly trained commando team sent to pacify the situation or as the overseer in control of the enemy forces trying to stop the commandos.

Much like the alien creatures in LEVEL 7 [ESCAPE] are drawn to a player’s fear, both sides in this confrontation are tied together by their use of the adrenaline system. During a commandos turn he can perform a variety of actions, like moving, attacking, and opening doors. Each of these actions has an associated adrenaline cost. A commando increases his adrenaline for each action by taking adrenaline tokens but can gain only a set amount of tokens each turn. This adrenaline is then passed to the overseer who uses it as fuel for activating his abilities and figures. The system creates a situation where skill and luck can allow the commandos to limit the amount of actions the overseer can perform during his turn.

The commandos each have a military specialty and plenty of training and equipment to get the job done. These aspects are represented in character creation when the players select cards from both a personal and common deck of kit cards. These kits make the different commandos stand apart from each other and add plenty of replayablity to the game. During gameplay, kit cards grant a wide range of abilities to commandos, allowing them to do things like deploy drones or use abilities that improve the performance of the entire team.

Stance cards are another aspect of the game that makes each commando a little different. Each commando chooses which stance cards he will use at the beginning of every round. They determine some of the commando’s abilities, his movement and defense stats and how many adrenaline tokens he can gain in a turn.

The commandos must work together to accomplish a series of missions and stop the insurrection. They are not only working against the overseer player, but also against a clock counting down to the Crisis Point. When the Crisis Point is triggered, the danger level increases, and the overseer has a much greater chance of winning.

The overseer spends each of the nine missions attempting to destroy the commandos. He controls distribution of the map elements and the movements of the inhuman creatures that have overrun the facility.

During the setup of a mission the overseer determines what will be in each room and which doors the commandos will have to breach. During the game, the overseer has access to a force of dangerous creatures he will place on the map when the commandos explore new rooms. A few of these creatures will be familiar to players of LEVEL 7 [ESCAPE], but there are new threats that Dr. Cronos has kept hidden as his own contingency plan.

The overseer’s dashboard is a collection of abilities determined by the mission. He spends adrenaline tokens on these abilities to spawn new threats on the map and improve the capabilities of his creatures. Each ability has a cool-down period that restricts how it functions for a specific amount of time. The overseer must manage the number of adrenaline tokens he spends each turn and be careful he doesn’t use an ability too early.

LEVEL 7 [OMEGA PROTOCOL] is a tactical miniatures-based board game for 2-6 players releasing this fall. Fearlessly enter the belly of the beast as part of a highly trained team of operatives and work together to neutralize all threats or take control of the swarms of creatures inhabiting Subterra Bravo and ensure the human intruders know true terror before they meet their grisly fate.