Autor-Archive: escapethereview

Unlock!: In The Clutches of Hades

Room-in-a-box, Apr 2021

Rated between 2.5 and 3 out of 5
Where I’ve disliked Unlock games before, it’s pretty much always been due to confusing puzzles or overly harsh penalty-giving. In The Clutches Of Hades doesn’t particularly suffer from either of those problems, but managed to put me off it through th… (more)

66 Minuten: Showdown

Online, Mar 2021

Rated between 4 and 4.5 out of 5
The list of avatar games that have actually been created for that format, rather than built for physical play then converted through necessity, is exceedingly short; but the release of Showdown extends that list by one. And like some of the others on… (more)

KW Escapes: Twister

Online, Feb 2021

Rated 4 out of 5
Canadian company KW Escapes were one of the early pioneers of the avatar format, and although they switched back to in-person games only for a while, ongoing lockdowns mean another chance to play their games remotely, including the newly adapted Twis… (more)

Immersia: The Piccadilly Cabaret

Online, Jan 2021

Rated 3.5 out of 5
To the extent that the still very young genre of avatar escape rooms has settled on a ‘standard, recommended’ approach, Immersia are following that approach closely: Zoom for the video call, an initial orientation to make sure players know what they’… (more)

The Panic Room: Panic Room

Room-in-a-box, Feb 2021

Rated 3.5 out of 5
The Panic Room’s original eponymous game was about alien conspiracy theories, and this puzzle book follows the same theme, though I don’t believe there’s any cross-over in puzzle content with the physical room. As with the company’s other books, it’s… (more)

Unlock!: Mission #07

Room-in-a-box, Mar 2021

Rated 4 out of 5
In Unlock box sets the third game is normally the hardest; while it’s not always the best of the three it often is, and I’d say Mission #07 is the strongest of the Epic Adventures set. The deck of cards for this game is split into two halves with dif… (more)

Unlock!: The Dragon’s Seven Tests

Room-in-a-box, Mar 2021

Rated between 3 and 3.5 out of 5
Once every seven years the famous Master Li accepts new disciples to the Temple of the Gold Dragons – and that premise should give you an idea of this game’s theming, layered with absolutely every oriental stereotype you can think of, where inscrutab… (more)

Unlock!: The Seventh Screening

Room-in-a-box, Mar 2021

Rated 3 out of 5
The Seventh Screening – name chosen purely to shoehorn in the number ‚7‘, to celebrate this being Unlock’s seventh box – is a tribute to the classic age of Hammer horror movies, and jumps between you as a cinema-goer and you as the movie’s protagonis… (more)