Category Archives: Room in a box
Enigma Fellowship: The Enigma of Lost Knowledge
Room-in-a-box, Jul 2021
Having launched in the early days of the pandemic, Enigma Fellowship is now well established with a range of five different box games, so I'm very behind the times reviewing their first one. The Enigma of Lost Knowledge has you commissioned to invest… (more)
Category: Room in a box Tags: Enigma Fellowship, Room-in-a-box
Exit: The Sacred Temple
EXIT's puzzle games are endlessly creative within a very tightly defined format, and while the difficulty level and theming vary, once you've played one you know what you'll get from another. Except that The Sacred Temple takes the range in a whole n… (more)
Category: Room in a box Tags: Exit, Room-in-a-box
Exit: The Cemetery of the Knight
Room-in-a-box, Apr 2021
The Exit series of puzzle games keeps rolling on; the games follow a well-defined format and style, and at this point are definitely starting to blur one into another. On the other hand, it's a format and style that works well and reliably delivers a… (more)
Diorama Games: The Vandermist Dossier
Room-in-a-box, Sep 2021
I don't normally review games that are pending a crowd funding campaign, but I'm making an exception here for two reasons. Firstly, this game has already been available for some time in Dutch – the Kickstarter is for the new version, upgraded and tra… (more)
Category: Room in a box Tags: Diorama Games, Room-in-a-box
Escape Tales: Childen of the Wyrmwoods
Room-in-a-box, May 2021
Escape Tales don't do things by halves. Children of Wyrmwoods, the third game in the series, doubles down on the style of the earlier games in pretty much every way – even more story! even longer game time! even more possible endings! For fans of the… (more)
Category: Room in a box Tags: Escape Tales, Room-in-a-box
Unlock!: Secret Mission On Jedha
Having been rebels and independent smugglers in the first two games, this third one puts you on the side of the bad guys, as an undercover Imperial agent tracking down a crate of valuable minerals. This includes the unusual feature of needing to peri… (more)
Category: Room in a box Tags: Room-in-a-box, Unlock!
Unlock!: An Unforeseen Delay
In the second of Unlock's Star Wars games you are a smuggler attempting to escape from imprisonment on an Imperial cruiser. Like the first, this is definitely a game designed for beginners.
Also like the first, it successfully conveys an action mov… (more)
Unlock!: Escape From Hoth
The first thing to say about Escape From Hoth is that it's not intended for enthusiasts. All three of the games in Unlock's Star Wars box are easier than their usual standard, and this is the simplest of the lot. Presumably since they were anticipati… (more)
Unlock!: Around the World in 80 Minutes
Based on Jules Verne's novel, you do indeed have 80 minutes to solve this one rather than the standard 60 minutes, so it fits Unlock's usual pattern of having the third game in a box be longer and more difficult. In many of their other box sets the t… (more)
Unlock!: Professor Noside's Animal-O-Matic
Professor Noside, Unlock's recurring villain, is back for a fourth game; this time, instead of trying to foil his latest plot, you're helping extract him from a predicament of his own making, after an accident with his latest Animal-o-matic invention… (more)
Anne expert reviewed Escape the Queen Anne's Revenge by Escape The Crate:
Played: 15 Jan 2022 Team size: 2
EMIT agent - free the prisoner and finish his mission.
Quite a big game. We counted around 8 "places/rooms". Only a few puzzles each place of course but still a big game. Collecting puzzles, anagrams (which we are not fans of) and some very nice mirror action is what stood out to us. Some props were used in several puzzles. We also chuckled of a few story items.
This game had nice puzzles, but we were not fans of the format. When playing a telescape game before we have been very happy with the 360 degrees view of rooms and that just wasn't part of this game. Also - one of the main game features was that you had to type in the name of two things to combine them. It feels like a very dated interface. Design wise, it felt a bit stock-photory at times - which it probably is. Not really a problem, but not a big aesthetic experience either. The hint system could have used some better naming - you had to choose what puzzle you wanted a hint for, but we couldn't connect the puzzle to the name.
If you can get into things without a fancy interface, we would recommend this game.
EireBanshee expert reviewed The Glasshouse Ghost by Society of Curiosities:
This was a good game, however, we did get frustrated with the method of communication/entering codes. You have to type what you want to do into a text box, but you have to say it exactly the right way at exactly the right time. We spent a lot of time knowing exactly what we needed to do, but unable to word it in the way that the game wanted us too. Or, on one occasion, BEFORE the game wanted us to. So this took away a bit of the joy from the puzzles. Lovely story, though.
laceyd87 experienced reviewed Questionable Ethics by Hounds Escape:
Played: 11 Sep 2021 Team size: 4 Outcome: Successful escape!
hi-techclever
Preferred this room due to the puzzles and non linear nature. Great team work needed. Some funny moments too!
abooth experienced reviewed The Betrayal of Cluetankhamun by Clue HQ Wirral:
I liked it - lovely theming - good hosting - some original twists.
😺Lianne experienced reviewed Nethercott Manor by Tulleys Escape Rooms & Games:
Played: 16 Jan 2022 Team size: 6 Time taken: 61m Outcome: Successful escape!
immersivegreat hosting👻scary
We went into Nethercott with some trepidation about the difficulty, even though we had booked a 90 minute slot and were a large-ish team of mostly experienced players.
The theming and set design were great, on par with Tulleys' usual quality - with some small jump scares. Atmospheric music and sound effects help keep the spooky feeling. There are some sections with lots of flashing lights, so be aware if you're sensitive to that (I don't think they mention it before booking!).
We felt that the main reason for longer game times seems to be the sheer volume of things going on. A larger team is definitely better if you want to complete it first time. Aside from the amount of puzzles, only a couple of puzzles were particularly difficult to work out.
The GM was great, offering us the option of hints at the perfect time, when needed.
A solid room, though not my personal favourite at Tulleys.
Team Tonks reviewed Operation H.E.R.O. by Can You Escape York:
Played: 16 Oct 2021 Team size: 5 Time taken: 40.34 Outcome: Successful escape!
hi-techcleverepic
We wanted to find a room suitable to do as a larger group and this one ticked the box. There was so much to do in this room I wonder if we'd have finished in time as our normal team size of 2. There is a large variety of different types of puzzles to keep the whole team engaged, there's something for everyone.
Great use of tech too.