A decent escape room experience for those that prefer logical puzzles



Table of Contents

Location: Home

Date Played: Jan 2023

Team size: 1; we recommend 1-4

Duration: 4-6 hours

Price: ~S$25 on Carousell, second hand

Premise

A narrative-driven escape room board game, it takes players on a captivating journey filled with mystery, suspense, and thought-provoking puzzles. Players assume the role Sam, whose daughter has been in a coma for over two months and whose doctors still cannot explain how this happened or what caused it. Driven by determination, Sam acquires a book that contains the ritual "The Awakening" to enter another dimension and save his daughter.

Components

The components provided are of excellent quality and enhance the immersive experience. The game includes a detailed rulebook, a deck of story cards, location tiles, character cards, and numerous tokens and markers. The artwork is visually appealing and helps bring the game's atmosphere to life, immersing players in the mysterious world they are exploring. The high production value adds to the overall enjoyment and immersion of the game.

Gameplay

When you start, you are given two location cards to place on the board. You have a set number of action token you can play to explore the place and figure out a way to progress. Placing an action card on the location will allow you to pick up a card based on the row and column it is at. There are puzzle cards and clue cards. The clues cards are there to assist you in solving the puzzle. Once you've figured out the solution, you're required to enter it through their app or website to see if you're correct. If you are, they'll give you some instructions on what to do next.

If you run out of action tokens, you are required to pick up the "doom" cards to gain more action tokens. You repeat the cycle until you have solved all the puzzles required to enter the next location.

The game encourages players to think critically, make meaningful choices, and pay close attention to details as they navigate through the various locations and interact with the story cards. The nonlinear nature of the game allows for multiple paths and endings, adding replayability and making each playthrough a unique experience.

Puzzles/Thoughts

➕Puzzles are logical and varied. Lots of the puzzles required logical thinking and took a while to solve. The puzzles were all different as well and did not feel repetitive.
 
➕Easy to reset and pass it on. Nothing is torn or written on so you can easily repack it and pass it to someone else.
 
➖Puzzle difficulties fluctuates. Some puzzles were simple to solve while others were difficult and required me to look up the hints or solutions.
 
✖️Puzzles did not capture the Escape Room experience. Many of the puzzles did not require lateral thinking or thinking outside of the box that you would need from an actual escape room.

Verdict

I had some fun playing this and if you managed to get it for cheap then I would recommend it. While the puzzles weren't really the type I enjoy, I can see those who heavily enjoy logical puzzles getting a lot of satisfaction from playing this.

Rating: 3/5

★★★✩✩ 

You can buy it on Amazon here.