Curse of the DarkProfessor Puzzle - OnlineEscape roomTabletopTo begin this game is absolutely stunning; as you uncover more of the castle grounds and you see the layout expand both on a 2D and 3D plain you cant help but feel excited by everything you're looking at. In saying this some players may feel a little overwhelmed by the expansiveness of the game and how much is going on, but I absolutely loved it! The hints and solutions element of this game is one of the best I've seen in a tabletop game, everything just makes sense and is easy to follow for where you're up to. The hints and solutions are covered with a "scratch card like" grey paint which allows players to only see what they need without accidentally reading more than needed. This is the same for the answer symbols; should you get a correct answer you are rewarded with a green square of the cards and tiles you need next; if you receive a red dot you have the incorrect answer and must try again. The map and layout for the castle grounds is beautiful; everything looks incredible and well thought out. Hidden details lie around every corner and have you not only looking at the puzzle cards but also searching through each room of the castle. But as with all escape games communication is key, we missed a key section of the game for a while because someone had overlooked the contents of the room and missed that we should have received a new tile. But because of the streamlined game format we quickly realised this and figured out where we'd went wrong. There are so many creative puzzles and elements to this game that I unfortunately can't discuss due to the potential for spoilers. I will although discuss the elements that are used in the advertising such as the stained glass window and 3D elements that really help to bring this game to life and immerse the players in the game. All of these additional elements play their own role in some incredibly unique puzzles that take a twist on the usual uses for such elements. This made the game really stand out for me among the other games I've played. There is another element that uses an internet connected mobile device which is so much fun and really caught me off guard during the gameplay. There we're a few puzzles that were broader in interpretation but discussing this with the group we were able to figure out what to do and progress past these points. 3 hours is a long time to be working on puzzles and you may benefit from taking a break at the halfway point but for us games night was in full flow and so was the food and drink so the time flew over. Overall I'd say for the money this is an incredibly unique tabletop experience that I would highly recommend to those who have played a few tabletop escapes! Difficulty - 3.5 / 5 Puzzles - 4 / 5 Theming - 4 / 5 Creativity - 4.5 / 5 Enjoyment - 3.5 / 5 Value For Money - 4 / 5 Overall Score - 4.25 / 5
The Balthazar StoneThe Mystery AgencyEscape roomTabletopThe Balthazar Stone is the first of The Mystery Agency games I've had the pleasure of doing, the ornate wooden box and incredibly detailed contents inside make this easily the most beautiful at home escape room ever done. Loading up the website printed on the inside of the box you are met with an interface of an old computer, a starting letter and a hints folder. From the beginning the production value of this project is evident from the packaging to the actual box, contents and accompanying website; all incredible. The puzzles in the box are incredibly detailed and all tie perfectly into the storyline and aid the development. Some of the puzzles in the box are non linear and can be solved simultaneously which makes this great for a group. Some of the puzzles are a little ambiguous to begin with but there are alto of discreet clues built into the game to assist, should you struggle the hints folder is there to assist. As stated at the beginning this game is absolutely stunning and probably stands as one of if not my all time favourite at home escapes. Its difficult to go into further details about what makes this game so great without giving any spoilers. I'd just advise trying to get your hands on it if you can. I can't wait to do the other escape games from Mystery Agency. Difficulty - 3.5 / 5 Puzzles - 4 / 5 Theming - 4 / 5 Creativity - 4.5 / 5 Enjoyment - 4.5 / 5 Value For Money - 4 / 5 Overall Score - 4.5 / 5
The Ghost in The AtticThe Mystery AgencyEscape roomTabletopDifficulty - 3.5 / 5 Puzzles - 4 / 5 Theming - 4 / 5 Creativity - 4.5 / 5 Enjoyment - 4 / 5 Value For Money - 4 / 5 Overall Score - 4 / 5 The Ghost in the Attic is both incredibly stunning and unique; the fact that the escape game doubles as a functioning board game is incredibly fun and impressive! Loading up the website printed on the inside of the box you are met with an interface of an old computer, a starting letter and a hints folder. As always the production value of this project is evident from the packaging to the contents and accompanying website; all incredible. I found the story told in Ghost in the Attic was more enjoyable and gripping than that of the previous MA games I've played with a few twists in the plot and a story developed through both props and puzzles this was an absolute joy from start to finish. I'd certainly say the puzzles in this game were about the same difficulty as the previous MA titles leaning more into intermediate / seasoned escape players. The puzzles in the game utilised everything within the box, in true Mystery Agency Style, hiding in plain sight unbeknownst to anyone with a keen eye this game could quite easily be mistaken for just a regular board game with a few oddities dotted around. Although we haven't gotten around to playing the board game it is something I'm thoroughly looking forward to, this aspect really adds to the life and longevity of the game! It's incredibly difficult to go into further details about what makes this game so great without giving any spoilers. I'd just advise trying to get your hands on it if you can. I can't wait to now solve the overarching meta puzzle hidden within the original 3 games!
EXIT: The Game - The Return to the Abandoned CabinThames & KosmosEscape roomTabletopThis was the first escape puzzle box I'd ever done and going into this having done multiple IRL escapes I did not know what to expect and I was very pleasantly surprised. With this being my first play of an EXIT game it was a little bit of a steep learning curve with figuring out the solution wheel, puzzle cards and hints. As the game went on it was way easier to understand. Due to this learning curve and the puzzles being very "out of the box" (some literally) it meant we rattled through hint cards. The design of this game is absolutely stunning and was a great introduction to the tabletop escape genre. The box itself turns into a 3D cabin that allows you to really get immersed in the story, I really hop more tabletop escapes take on this format. The companion app from KOSMOS allows you to track the amount of time you have used and calculates your score based on time elapsed and hints used. The app also optionally talks you through the introductory paragraph and has ambient sounds to accompany the timer and further the immersion. Difficulty - 3.5 / 5 Puzzles - 3.5 / 5 Theming - 3 / 5 Creativity - 5 / 5 Enjoyment - 4 / 5 Value For Money - 5 / 5 Overall Score - 4 / 5
The Leopold Trilogy: Episode 2 - White Sleep50 CluesEscape roomTabletop50 clues is a very unique escape game that comprises of 54 tarot sized cards each with a different number and illustration. Upon watching the introductory video you are shown how to operate the different elements built into the game cards. The elements allowed you to search items or combine items to progress the storyline via an online webpage. The game structure is easy to follow and use. 50 Clues is definitely on the darker side of the escape room world and it says so explicitly on the packaging, although players may find some actions conducted in the game disturbing. For me personally this unease added to the immersion and storyline. As mentioned in the previous review of part one the beauty of this game lies in it's simplicity; 54 cards and a website; that's it. The card design is very aesthetically pleasing and ads to the dark and grungy nature of the game. The storyline continues directly from that in part one and each card helps to progress that story. I enjoyed the puzzles in this game more so than that of the first one, although we found one puzzle in particular difficult as you had to imagine putting pieces of a broken map back together to get the full map and figure out where to go. Overall the story is intriguing and tense, the puzzles are great and the overall gameplay is incredibly unique. Looking forward to playing the final part of the series. Difficulty - 3 / 5 Puzzles - 3.5 / 5 Theming - 4 / 5 Creativity - 4 / 5 Enjoyment - 3.5 / 5 Value For Money - 4.5 / 5 Overall Score - 3.75 / 5
EXIT: The Game - Kidnapped in Fortune CityThames & KosmosEscape roomTabletopKidnapped in Fortune City has to be among the harder of the EXIT escape boxes. This EXIT box is among my favourite for the levels of creativity with the use of everything in the box and the mixture of puzzles, but as mentioned this comes at the cost of this box being incredibly difficult. The theming of this game follows a sheriff in a small town trying to figure out who committed a gold robbery, the sheriff has vanished and its up to you and your team to solve the case before time runs out! As mentioned above this murder mystery-esque element adds to the difficulty of the usual puzzle nature of the EXIT games. But it also adds to the enjoyment of the game, when we played through this box we had the whole town mapped out on our dining room table with all of the puzzle elements and it really helped immerse us within the story and environment of the town. There's a large mixture of puzzles in this box that really utilise all of the components of the set and that's what makes the EXIT games so unique in comparison to other tabletop escapes I've done. Overall a great box, but definitely leading more towards the expert side of the difficulty rating. Difficulty - 4.5 / 5 Puzzles - 4 / 5 Theming - 4 / 5 Creativity - 4.5 / 5 Enjoyment - 4 / 5 Value For Money - 5 / 5 Overall Score - 4 / 5
The Leopold Trilogy: Episode 1 - The Pendulum of the Dead50 CluesEscape roomTabletop50 clues is a very unique escape game that comprises of 54 tarot sized cards each with a different number and illustration. Upon watching the introductory video you are shown how to operate the different elements built into the game cards. The elements allowed you to search items or combine items to progress the storyline via an online webpage. The game structure is easy to follow and use. 50 Clues is definitely on the darker side of the escape room world and it says so explicitly on the packaging, although players may find some actions conducted in the game disturbing. For me personally this unease added to the immersion and storyline. The beauty of this game lies in it's simplicity; 54 cards and a website; that's it. No need to fill a table or chop up items. Just a solid storyline and a multitude of puzzles. The puzzles in this game vary from decoding to logic. Some of the logic puzzles for me were a little difficult to bridge exactly what we needed to do and thus several hints were used to help. I definitely think this escape game is targeted more towards experienced puzzle solvers as it offers very little instruction without hints. The hints although helpful did not offer much advise between the second hint and the solution and merely told you the answer and not how you get there. This meant for one puzzle we're still unsure how the answer was what it was. Overall the story is intriguing and creepy, the puzzles are fairly solid and the overall gameplay is incredibly unique. Looking forward to playing the other 2 parts of the series. Difficulty - 3.5 / 5 Puzzles - 3.5 / 5 Theming - 4 / 5 Creativity - 4 / 5 Enjoyment - 3 / 5 Value For Money - 5 / 5 Overall Score - 3.75 / 5
Journal 29Journal29Escape roomTabletopTeam - 1 player Outcome - Escaped Time Elapsed - About a week of on and off puzzling. This was my first time tackling a puzzle book of this complexity and it was incredible. 63 individual puzzles with call-backs and interlinked puzzles throughout. Each puzzle in the journal has two pages - A puzzle page and a QR code that takes you to a webpage in which you enter the answer to the puzzle. If you're correct it will give you a key (word) and you move on to the next puzzle, if its incorrect it will tell you to try again. You need to take note of each key as they are used throughout the book. Every single puzzle is very different and there's a mixture of puzzle types; logic, observation, sudoku, pattern recognition etc. Some of these puzzles were extremely difficult but fortunately there is a forum online in which users submit hints on how to solve the puzzles, this was great as it meant you could still figure out how to do it with the hints without just being told the answer or what to do. I'd highly advise taking notes and keeping track of both your keywords and how you figured out the puzzles. You will need to reference previous keywords for puzzles. There are some puzzles that also require searching through multiple pages of the book or searching the internet. Overall it took me about a week to get through this book with a few puzzles every night, more often than not I found it very difficult to put down. It was a great experience overall and I cant wait to get a hold of the other 2 books in the series. The only downside I would say to this book is that it starts with the storyline (at the top of the review) and then this story isn't really mentioned again. It would have been nice to have a story develop throughout but it didn't take away from the enjoyment of the puzzles. Final Review Difficulty - 4.5 / 5 Puzzles - 4 / 5 Theming - 4 / 5 Creativity - 5 / 5 Enjoyment - 4 / 5 Value For Money - 5 / 5 Overall Score - 4.25 / 5
The Vanishing GamblerThe Mystery AgencyEscape roomTabletopDifficulty - 3.5 / 5 Puzzles - 4 / 5 Theming - 3.5 / 5 Creativity - 4 / 5 Enjoyment - 4 / 5 Value For Money - 4 / 5 Overall Score - 4 / 5 The vanishing gambler is yet another stunning escape game from the team over at the Mystery Agency, following the story of a con artist that has gone missing from his prison cell; you are tasked to figure out how he escaped and where he is now! Loading up the website printed on the inside of the box you are met with an interface of an old computer, a starting letter and a hints folder. As always the production value of this project is evident from the packaging to the contents and accompanying website; all incredible. The puzzles in the box help aid and develop the story perfectly, each individual puzzle and prop serves its purpose. The physical props in the game are aided by secret websites and videos that also add to the immersion of the game. The puzzles in this game range from decoding to some really unique puzzles I've yet to see elsewhere. I can never wrap my head around Mystery Agency's ability to hide information in plain sight while making it seemingly ignorable, its incredibly impressive. Coming from a magic background I found the use of playing cards in this game even more enjoyable than most would; the use of cards was incredibly unique and fun. It's incredibly difficult to go into further details about what makes this game so great without giving any spoilers. I'd just advise trying to get your hands on it if you can. I can't wait to do the other escape games from Mystery Agency.
The Leopold Trilogy: Episode 3 - The Fate of Leopold50 CluesEscape roomTabletop50 clues is a very unique escape game that comprises of 54 tarot sized cards each with a different number and illustration. Upon watching the introductory video you are shown how to operate the different elements built into the game cards. The elements allowed you to search items or combine items to progress the storyline via an online webpage. The game structure is easy to follow and use. 50 Clues is definitely on the darker side of the escape room world and it says so explicitly on the packaging, although players may find some actions conducted in the game disturbing. For me personally this unease added to the immersion and storyline. The story in this final part brings together everything that has happened in the first two parts. As we progressed through each of these games within the 50 clues world we've come to better understand the puzzles and thus did not have to take a hint during this game. The puzzles in this part were incredibly fun and offered a large variety ranging from spot the difference to ciphers. One of the unique elements really utilised in this part is the timer that comes up on the screen in certain puzzles; this really adds a pressure to the decision you're making or puzzle you're solving. Overall this game really tests your puzzle solving skills and your decision making abilities, often under pressure. Although the game series is very dark I personally think its interesting to see controversial topics in an escape experience and it really adds to the intensity of the game. Difficulty - 2.5 / 5 Puzzles - 3.5 / 5 Theming - 4 / 5 Creativity - 4 / 5 Enjoyment - 3.5 / 5 Value For Money - 4.5 / 5 Overall Score - 3.75 / 5
