28.7.2017

My family and I have had fun in a mini "brick and mortar" escape room at a recent convention but the price to take 5 of us into an escape room is pricey so it's not something we're going to do much. Even as a date night for just my wife and I, the cost is up there. So this new trend of escape room games at home has me excited. Having the "Exit" series also win the German Spiel des Jahres award this year also means that the trend will likely continue to give us fun new offerings.I ordered a copy of the Egypt themed "Exit" escape room game "The Pharaoh's Tomb". My daughter wasn't super excited for it so it was just my two boys, my wife and I. We sat down, not knowing exactly what to expect,and opened the box. I'll work to avoid spoilers while also letting you know what's in there and what we experienced.The contents of the box are simple...basically you get a bunch of cards, a decoder disk, two "strange items" (paper strips with hieroglyphs), an instruction book and a diary/notebook from a previous explorer. (It's not a spoiler but I enjoyed the nods to pop culture in that the notebook was from "Dr. Ford" and there are some hidden images that remind you of a certain whip toting, snake hating adventurer)The instructions outline how to play the game and then give an introductory story to get you started. You are part of a tour group touring the Egyptian Pyramids. You've been separated from your group and find your way into an impressive burial chamber. Through some accident you triggered a trap of some kind that rolled a massive stone door closed. You spy the notebook of Dr. Ford, an explorer who was searching the pyramid earlier and has discovered some clues that he hopes may lead to escape and/or greater treasure. Using his clues (and your imagination that the images from his notebook and the deck of cards represent an ancient pyramid in which you are now trapped) you must try to escape or be entombed wth the ancient pharaohs. You start a timer (not included) and work your way to escape, hoping not only to escape but to achieve a good score to brag about your exploits.Even though we obviously weren't trapped in a pyramid (which is good since my wife is a bit claustrophobic which can cause anxiety in small escape rooms) the art, storytelling and puzzles helped draw us in and feel like we were part of an actual adventure.The first couple of puzzles were tricky but were good to help us get a feel for the way the game was meant to be played and what we were expected to do. Or so we thought...as we continued working through the puzzles and opening up new passageways we found ourselves stumped. Fortunately this game system includes a series of "help" cards that can be used to nudge you in the right direction (for a score penalty of course). We used one hint early on to just help keep the group from getting frustrated too early. Then we used additional hints later on when we felt like there was nothing else to do...and boy were we surprised at the results. I won't spoil anything but I will applaud the creativity and the way this game really makes you try to think differently. Thematically it required a little imagination but once applied it really worked and I really enjoyed the tricky bits.It took us 88 minutes to escape and we used 6 help cards which scored us 4 stars (out of 10). Probably not a great score but definitely a great experience and I look forward to trying out the other Exit games (as well as other escape room home games).The one problem I have with the game is that it really is a "play once" game. I know that I personally probably couldn't/shouldn't play it again (because I now know all the puzzles) but I would have loved to have an Escape Room game day and let family and friends try this one out while perhaps I played a different one. Due to some of the things you have to do to the game pieces it really can't be replayed (unless you plan ahead of time to not cut up pieces but instead make photocopies/etc...it would be tricky even then for some of the puzzles). Really I can't fault the company too much. Making it repayable means people would play once and then pass it to a friend rather than having to buy a new copy for the friend. And really the price of the game is reasonable when you consider it is the same (or less) than the price for one person to attend a "brick and mortar" escape room.*********9 out of 10 stars

21.4.2020

Cooped up indoors during pandemic lockdown, I picked up a handful of games in the Exit series to help pass the time. I'm a decades-long fan of puzzles and have enjoyed both of the actual escape rooms that I've tried out, so I figured this would be a good fit for me.I have mixed feelings about all of the games in this series. The pamphlet that you get with all of the clues is meant to be torn up, cut up, written on, destroyed, so you can't pass the experience on to someone else when you're done. They certainly make the most of this in their puzzle design - between this one and Forbidden Castle, there were some very clever puzzles - but when you're done, I guess you just toss the entire thing in recycling.$10-15 is cheaper than a real-life escape room, but throwing everything away after a couple hours still feels a little wasteful.Of the three I played, Dead Man on the Orient Express was the stand-out. It is far and away superior to Forbidden Castle and Forgotten Island. The clues when each puzzle was introduced felt fair, and in retrospect I had all the information I needed to solve them even when I felt stuck and looked at hints. Every time I repeatedly failed a puzzle and got frustrated, when I actually resorted to reading the solution, even having been defeated, I was able to admit that, yes, I overlooked information the game gave me. Not saying my interpretations wouldn't have also made valid puzzle solutions, but... yeah... I had enough information to solve the puzzle without the hints.By contrast, the other two sometimes assumed I shared a brain with the game designers. I appreciate puzzles that require outside-the-box thinking, but when nothing in the puzzle's text even remotely suggests what I should do and I'm just stuck mashing bits of paper together, waiting for the puzzle to come into focus, and even the first two hint cards (which get deducted from your end-of-game score) essentially tell me, "Maybe you should look at the puzzle harder,"I'm not really impressed by the hint system in the series overall. It's no replacement for a live escape room attendant who can figure out how gentle or specific a hint you need to have a breakthrough. If I had to ask for 10 hints to solve the game and only 3 of them told me something I didn't already know, I'm going to resent being assigned a score of 2 stars out of 10 at the end of the experience.I only wish I had truly grasped that the materials would be destroyed by the end of the experience, because I was very hesitant to tear pages out and write on them, and it meant I probably spent 45 minutes stuck thinking, "They would *never* ask me to _____," where that blank wound up being the solution. And, given that I was playing this solo and was still held to the same scoring standard of groups, I wish I had not timed myself at all, not bought into the scoring system. There's a very satisfying whodunnit at the end of the game that asks you to account for every character's alibi, and seeing the two-hour mark rapidly approaching, threatening to bring me all the way down to a 1-star rating, I made a hasty conclusion without considering one last important clue. I wish I had prioritized enjoying the puzzles over getting a good score.Even as the best one that I've played, I wish I had not played this entry first. There's a certain amount of BS you have to put up with with any of the entries in this series, just by the design of trying to simulate an escape room with a pamphlet, a stopwatch, and a deck of cards, and I wish I'd had a better idea of what to expect so I could've appreciated how good the puzzle design was in this one.After checking reviews, it seems like most reviewers had the same general experience I did. This one is a delight. Forbidden Castle is garbage. Abandoned Cabin is almost universally recommended as the best one to start with. I'm definitely going to consider the reviews if I decide to pick up another one of these games - the quality of this series is inconsistent, but its high points are pretty dang good.

19.6.2019

(Firstly, I do not have verified purchase on this because I patronise a specific retailer for my boardgame purchases.)I play a lot of board games and I was lent a couple EXiT games from a friend. I had not played any escape-room style board game before (though have played one actual escape room) so didn't go in with any expectations. Let's just say that three hours later I was hooked.EXiT games try to recreate the puzzle of a real-life exit game, where you and a group of friends are placed into a thematic room and have to solve a series of puzzles, physical and mental, in order to escape. Indeed the EXiT games tend to paint a story of being trapped in a room somehow, in this case a cabin,from which you must escape, though this aspect tends to be a bit tongue-in-cheek.I've now played five EXiT games and they've all been good and very creative. They all (so far at least) use the same basic premise of including a rulebook, a (game-specific) cluebook, a three-level rotating disc and three decks of cards: riddle cards, which you reveal as you solve the puzzles and which reveal more clues to work from; answer cards, which you use to check whether you got an riddle correct; and help cards, which you use if you get stuck.It's not clear from the rules, but you can look at any part of the cluebook from the start. The cards, however, are secret until they get revealed. All of the EXiT games I've seen so far start with a single card from the riddle deck getting revealed immediately due to there being an illustration of a specific one in the cluebook. The revealed card then tends to include a symbol that matches a locked door, cupboard or box in the illustration and provides you some graphical or puzzle that can be combined with the clues in the cluebook to solve that particular puzzle. Once you think you have solved the puzzle, you dial your solution on the included disc to reveal an number. You then turn over the corresponding answer card and this reveals whether you're correct or not. Quite often there are a few false leads are obvious mistakes at least.You tend to have to work through some ten or so puzzles to complete a single EXiT game and this tends to take two or three hours. Naturally you can speed this up by using the help cards but generally you want to try to solve the puzzle without the help as otherwise you're not really playing the game. But it's handy to have the help cards for when you truly get stuck.Now, some of the puzzles are truly creative. I don't want to spoil any of the stuff in the game, but there tends to be a puzzle or two in each game that makes you sit back and go "wow", and the Abandoned Cabin is no exception. Bear in mind that sometimes it will be necessary to cut, fold or mark some of the game components, so this is a one-use game unless you make the effort to avoid doing this by taking photocopies or using tracing paper.Compared to the other EXiT games I've played this one is pretty straightforward and a great one to start with. Certainly some of the other games assume you've played EXiT games before in how they address you in the cluebook preamble, so I'd suggest trying to play through them in the order they were published.Anyhow, all told these are great. You get a two or three hours of solo or co-operative puzzle-solving entertainment that's usually very enjoyable for about fifteen quid. If you play with a couple of friends this is very good value.

15.6.2020

Okay, I haven’t played this exact one yet, but please read on:My husband and I have done 2 real escape rooms and loved them both. During the quarantine I wanted to find something non-electronic that we could do together and a cooperative game sounded like just the thing. We started the EXIT series with the Mysterious Museum (a level 2), then Secret Lab (3 1/2). Since then we’ve also played Pharoah’s Tomb (4) and Sunken Treasure (2) and have Forgotten Island (3) and Forbidden Castle (4) waiting in the wings. Having done four of these games so far, this is what I have to say:We are absolutely AMAZED at the cleverness. I’m particularly amazed that although each game follows the same basic format (i.e.once you’ve played one you will know quickly how to play the rest), each one is completely and utterly different in terms of theme and puzzles to solve. We have seen no duplications of anything, though each game does give you more ideas about how to think for the next one.We time each clue and then enjoy going back over what stumped us. Some puzzles took 1-3 minutes, others took 20-30 minutes or more. On the first game my husband felt we were stuck too long at one point so he went for a clue, but I was sorely disappointed that we did that. Since then we tough it out - NO CLUES! Though after we’ve escaped the room it’s fun to go back and read them.Also - these are one and done games. In other words, once you solve it you won’t want to do that again (unless some time has passed and you have a terribly memory) because it’s one solution - one game. There is no variation if you play it again. BUT... for the price - it’s cheaper than two movie tickets (also one and done) and totally worth it for an evening of entertainment. They say you have to cut/tear/bend and while that’s true we managed to keep each of the games in tact and passed them along to friends. Sometimes it SAYS to cut so we cut and just taped back together. If bending was required we used our imagination so as not to deface the game or give clues to the next players. We were able to make it happen each time. So technically you can pass it along if you want to, but even if you didn’t - like I say - cheaper than going to the movies.How many people? One could do it. Two was perfect for us. MAYBE three, but the caveat is that the pieces are small and can only be looked at by a couple people at a time. If you had a group of 4 or 5, someone will be waiting. Two people is great because the ones I got quickly, he wouldn’t have and visa versa.My only complaint: the writing is quite small on some of the pieces making it really difficult for me to read. My younger-eyed husband didn’t have a problem, but if it were just me the tiny print on some of the cards would have taken away some of the joy.So far we’ve had four great date nights and had a blast. The people who aren’t liking this game obviously just bought the wrong game for them. Go into it understanding and accepting the challenge and you will do just fine. The clues are pretty good and are progressive... so lets say you take a clue and you already had figured that out - it won’t count against you and you have two more progressive clues to check if you’d like. So there is no reason you can’t finish or understand the game. Be patient, clever, and think outside the box (or sometimes inside the box, but I digress...)LOVE.THESE.GAMES. !!!

15.6.2020

My husband and I have done 2 real escape rooms and loved them both. During the quarantine I wanted to find something non-electronic that we could do together and a cooperative game sounded like just the thing. We started the EXIT series with the Mysterious Museum (a level 2), then Secret Lab (3 1/2). Since then we’ve also played Pharoah’s Tomb (4) and Sunken Treasure (2) and have Forgotten Island (3) and Forbidden Castle (4) waiting in the wings. Having done four of these games so far, this is what I have to say:We are absolutely AMAZED at the cleverness. I’m particularly amazed that although each game follows the same basic format (i.e. once you’ve played one you will know quickly how to play the rest),each one is completely and utterly different in terms of theme and puzzles to solve. We have seen no duplications of anything, though each game does give you more ideas about how to think for the next one.We time each clue and then enjoy going back over what stumped us. Some puzzles took 1-3 minutes, others took 20-30 minutes or more. On the first game my husband felt we were stuck too long at one point so he went for a clue, but I was sorely disappointed that we did that. Since then we tough it out - NO CLUES! Though after we’ve escaped the room it’s fun to go back and read them.Also - these are one and done games. In other words, once you solve it you won’t want to do that again (unless some time has passed and you have a terribly memory) because it’s one solution - one game. There is no variation if you play it again. BUT... for the price - it’s cheaper than two movie tickets (also one and done) and totally worth it for an evening of entertainment. They say you have to cut/tear/bend and while that’s true we managed to keep each of the games in tact and passed them along to friends. Sometimes it SAYS to cut so we cut and just taped back together. If bending was required we used our imagination so as not to deface the game or give clues to the next players. We were able to make it happen each time. So technically you can pass it along if you want to, but even if you didn’t - like I say - cheaper than going to the movies.How many people? One could do it. Two was perfect for us. MAYBE three, but the caveat is that the pieces are small and can only be looked at by a couple people at a time. If you had a group of 4 or 5, someone will be waiting. Two people is great because the ones I got quickly, he wouldn’t have and visa versa.My only complaint: the writing is quite small on some of the pieces making it really difficult for me to read. My younger-eyed husband didn’t have a problem, but if it were just me the tiny print on some of the cards would have taken away some of the joy.So far we’ve had four great date nights and had a blast. The people who aren’t liking this game obviously just bought the wrong game for them. Go into it understanding and accepting the challenge and you will do just fine. The clues are pretty good and are progressive... so lets say you take a clue and you already had figured that out - it won’t count against you and you have two more progressive clues to check if you’d like. So there is no reason you can’t finish or understand the game. Be patient, clever, and think outside the box (or sometimes inside the box, but I digress...)LOVE.THESE.GAMES. !!!

7.2.2021

This was our second escape game from Thames and Kosmos (The Abandoned Cabin being our first).We ended up trying the app this time for the little tutorial, soundtrack and timer (you don't have to). The soundtrack was fun to have on in the background without being too distracting. The app tutorial probably would have been more helpful the first time we tried one of these games. It's helpful to have a pencil and pen, paper and scissors handy. I also highly recommend keeping track of the puzzles you've completed (represented by a symbol) along with the cards associated with it that you referred to. You can usually set aside/get rid of the riddle cards pertaining to that puzzle/symbol once you are done with them,though cards featuring rooms or sceneries will often be kept around longer. It could be helpful to have a little bit of knowledge of compasses though it probably isn't necessary.As two players, it ended up taking us just as long the second time around - roughly three hours. I enjoyed the puzzles in this one more - they were clever but also quite challenging (one requiring three riddle cards was a bit mind boggling to process and led to some laughter). The crescent symbol and related page (6) and cards (including Y & Z) was probably my least favorite part. We realized at the end that something seemed off related to cards Y & Z and discovered that we had done it wrong, yet by chance still managed to get the code right.We did use four clues, not counting a couple we used but didn't actually need because we had figured those things out.Patience is key because it can be very frustrating at times. Keep in mind it can take time for certain puzzles to be solved (you may need several pieces or riddle cards before you can do so, so some cards will be set aside until you can use them later). Clues can be used if needed.I managed to figure out a few things that ended up being helpful but thank goodness for my partner and their own way of thinking because I would have been completely lost for many parts. It is definitely an interesting way to spend time that does not involve technology, and that asks for more focus in a world of shorter attention spans. The downside is that it does feel rather wasteful being a single use game. Contrary to the cabin game, which could potentially be used again with care taken, this one definitely felt unusable after completion. With the cabin game, it also felt to me like there were cards leftover or not consulted, whereas this one seemed to make use of pretty much all its materials, which is at least a plus if you aren't able to use them again.The website Boardgamegeek offers a good explanation of the game if you need some guidance (see Darryl T's Exit: The Forgotten Island - A Detailed Walkthrough) but try to challenge yourself as much as you can. It's nicer to look at it after your attempt.It's funny how when we finished this, we were both exhausted and feeling like we were done and probably wouldn't do another one of these for a while, if ever. A day or two later, we were already thinking of playing a new one. It made me think of giving birth. How it could be described as very hard in the moment - to the point of not wanting to endure it again - but then you forget the pain and are ready for baby #2 (or 3 in our case)! lol

1.1.2021

We got both "The Mystery Museum" and "The Polar Station" for Christmas. I'm writing the same review for both games, but rating them differently.We're no strangers to escape rooms. We've done several in-person and several at-home versions. In the past, we've done the "Escape the Room" brand, but switched to "Exit the Game" this year. In reviewing, I'll also be comparing the two brands as well as the two games.When playing the "Escape" brand, you have a timer that goes down, similar to a real escape room. With the "Exit" brand, you start a stopwatch to keep track of your time and can take as long as you want. The "Escape" brand has a decoder where you put keys in at the end of the game to get you "out." The "Exit" games have codes you figure out as you go along,and there can be several in each game. We never had any problems, but other reviewers of the "Escape" games said they had problems with the decoder not working. There will be no problems with "Exit" games having similar issues. With the "Escape" games, if you put in the wrong code you lose time, whereas with the "Exit" games, you can try the code over and over with no penalty. Trust me--you'll want to have at least tried working out the code and not just guess random numbers. With "Escape" games, you wait for a set time to be able to use the clue cards, which may or may not help you, but there is no penalty to use them. With "Escape" games, you can use the clue cards any time you want, although there will be a penalty depending on if it helped or not. With "Escape" games, you can erase anything you've written on and give the game to someone else to play. With "Exit" games, you're destroying things so one game and you're done. No one else will be able to play it. Overall, I liked the setup of the "Exit" games better, but it's a personal preference.As to the two games we got--We played "The Mysterious Museum" first, thank goodness. It has an intermediate rating. It was challenging, but not too difficult. While it may have taken a while with some clues, we could eventually figure them out and they made sense. It was fun to play. I therefore give it 4 stars.On the other hand, "The Polar Station" was not so fun. It has an advanced rating, having one more "dot" on the difficulty scale. It was way harder. We were surprised it was only one dot higher and not two. "The Mysterious Museum" was linear, but this was all over the place. We found ourselves using the clue cards often. There were times we had to go all the way to the solution (there are three cards per code, with the last having the solution) and could see how to get to that conclusion, although it took great leaps to get there. In one case, even after we saw the solution and the explanation, it still didn't make sense. We're no dummies, but we all ended up feeling frustrated instead of having fun. Therefore, only a 2 star rating on this one.

26.10.2020

I have bought and played several of the Exit! games now. This is a review for the "Catacombs of Horror". Firstly, this game is a double length story. It contains more puzzles than the previous Exit! games as well as more physical items and props.The Good:I had a lot of fun playing this game. There were some really ingenious puzzles, some that made me smile and the "finale" puzzle was pretty cool and made me feel clever solving it.I like to play as a challenge so I never use the hint cards. None of the puzzles felt so horribly complicated that I couldn't eventually figure out what to do and a lot of them made me think but were satisfying when that "aha!" moment came.I loved that it had more puzzles and was longer,and it meant there were a lot more innovative types of puzzles too.The not so good:I tend to play these games a little differently to how they are designed to be played - I don't often have a long amount of time to sit uninterrupted and play and don't always have people around to play games with (particularly during lockdown!) so I tend to play on my own and start and stop when needed and if I get stuck on a puzzle I pause the timer and come back to it another time or day. Because this was a longer game, I found I got a bit overwhelmed with the bits and pieces and what I had used and what still needed solving. I think this may not be an issue if a group of people is playing it together in one evening but it may be that the sheer amount of puzzles can be overwhelming! There is a break point in the game so it can be played in 2 sections which is definitely good.Despite being advertised as a one and done kind of game, I do try to keep my copies in a good enough condition that in a few years I could play them again when I've forgotten all the solutions! Or I can lend them to other people. This one had one puzzle that definitely could not be undone or re-done. Usually it is possible to trace a card or photocopy it if it needs changing or manipulating in a destructive way but this game can not be left in pristine condition. It was a cool puzzle though and the games do say that they are a one use thing so I'm not taking any points off for that! Just useful to know for people who ,like me, want to keep them for another time somewhere down the line.Overall this is a fantastic entry into the Exit! range of games. The theme was interesting (though a bit creepier than some of the other Exit! games I have played so bear that in mind that it may be more suitable for older children not young families) and the puzzles fit into the theme well, the range of pieces in the box was more varied than in the shorter games which made for a wider variety of puzzles. I would really recommend this game for people who like to get their brains working.

13.4.2020

We’ve done live escape rooms before and like logic problems, but we are by no means brainiacs. I bought this for date night with my husband. It’s our FIRST ‘at the table’ escape room so we had no idea what to expect. It took the two of us 3.5 hours with one clue and we only took it because at the time we convinced ourselves that there was some sort of error (there was NOT, by the way... the game is flawless). Even with the clue we weren’t getting it so we had to take the answer. We totally understood it (it was actually something we had tried) but we still weren’t seeing it. Later we had an “ah-ha!” moment and I decided the seeming error was one of the best riddles - super funny to me,

4.4.2021

EXIT makes themed escape games that come in a small box at a reasonable price. The object is to complete a mission like finding treasure, repairing a crippled jet, solving a mystery, etc. In the process, you become trapped — your need to escape helps provide the pace and motivation to progress through the game.Typically, the EXIT games come with instructions, a booklet of illustrations, decks of Riddle, Answer, and Help cards, Strange Objects, and a colorful decoder disk that helps send you throughout the game. There is no board, timer, or points — all players work together to solve the riddles, which could be codes, word puzzles, picture identification, cutting, marking,

31.7.2019

I've played four of the regular EXIT games so far so made an effort to pick this one up at the UK Games Expo this year. Luckily one of the first stalls I got to had a copy so I instapurchased it. However my group has been unable to get together to play it until last weekend, so my excitement had waned a little. But we tore the shrink off and excitement was soon running high as we battle our way through the puzzles.So, if you've not played an EXIT game before, these games are basically a bunched of themed puzzles in a box. They're supposed to recreate the exprience of a real life escape room game in a box. And whilst they don't exactly do that, they are still a lot of fun if you like solving logic puzzles.

24.3.2021

Spoiler Free review: This was the first Exit the Game that I tried as it was recommended and a moderate difficulty (3.5/5). I played it two player.Overview: It was fun, and did make me want to try other (harder)titles, but it could have done more with some of the puzzles. If you have escape room experience, you will have no trouble with this, but it was still entertaining and took about an hour. This was great with two people, and would likely be great for one person or a family. There's maybe not enough to do for a larger amount of players (6).Pros: There's a great variety of puzzles in here! The designers have thought of many ways to use card and paper for some unexpected solutions.

7.4.2021

EXIT makes themed escape games that come in a small box at a reasonable price. The object is to complete a mission like repairing a crippled jet, finding treasure, solving a mystery, etc. In the process, you become trapped — your need to escape helps provide the pace and motivation to progress through the game.Typically, the EXIT games come with instructions, a booklet of illustrations, decks of Riddle, Answer, and Help cards, Strange Objects, and a colorful decoder disk that helps send you throughout the game. The games are designed to be played only once. All players work together and there is a series of help cards to ease you through sticky problems.

11.3.2020

Each week we have a group of 4 to 6 of us sit down for 3 hours to chat, laugh, and experience board and card games. As of late, we have been testing the games in the Exit series which has been 12 of their titles to date.With that being said, my review and comments below.Quality cards, well constructed. Nice artwork, small and sturdy box, properly packaged with all the material that's needed. In 12 sets bought and played, no pieces were ever missing or damaged.People have down voted the one time use of the game, which had me suspect when buying and trying. I bought the game for the experience, so the one and done was not a problem for me/us. While some people are used to replying a game and its common to pick it up,

1.10.2018

Escape room puzzle games were all the rage in 2017/18, and Kosmos led the way with these games. I bought this one for my mum (in her 70's) and we played it over a Sunday afternoon.You are given a booklet, a set of puzzle cards and a set of answer cards. You begin locked in a castle and you must find a series of keys that will turn different locks that will eventually free you from the castle. And that's it... you must find the clue to the first puzzle card, then turn that card over. The card gives you further information to enable you to find the next key.There is a code ring included with the game. The code ring shows different key parts of one of three rings. So the key head shapes are on the outer ring,

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