We first saw Escape Room The Game by Goliath Toys at the UKGames Expo earlier in the year. They had a quick version of the game that you could play. And even though it’s aged 16+, my twins Love Ro&Ra sat down and had a go. Although they found it hard and needed a little help, they loved it so much it was put on their Christmas wish list.
So being asked if we wanted to review the game was a no brainer and we obviously said yes.
This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases but it won’t cost you a penny more.
If you like this review then you may also like my review of Mystery At Stargazer’s Manor
What’s In The Escape Room The Game Box?
Inside the Escape Room The Game box you’ll find…
- A Chrono Detector
- Hint Decoder
- 16 Keys
- 3x Hint Card Packs (eight cards in each pack)
- 3 different escape room adventures: Prison Break, Virus, Nuclear Countdown.
- There is also an app you can download that plays thematic background music and takes theme photo’s
The Chrono Decoder
The Chrono Decoder and keys are what really raise the excitement and tension in the escape room games. It acts as your count down machine counting backward from 60 minutes whilst playing and eery soundtrack that includes chirping crickets, tweeting birds, wind, metal banging metal etc. It reminds me of the sound you’d get when playing a Lara Croft game and your character isn’t moving. It’s covered in ciphers that you sometimes have to use within the game. This is indicated by an ER symbol within the specific game pieces.
How To Play Escape Room
The aim of each game is to work out three key code combinations to eventually escape the room. Each game has three parts and you can only move onto the next part when you successfully work out a Key Code. When you’ve worked out the key code from the clues you place the four keys into the Chrono Decoder, in the correct order. You will either hear a confirmation sound, and be able to open the next part of your particular game, or you will get an error sound, and the decoder will deduct a minute off your remaining time!
Once the third successful code has been entered you will hear victory music and the timer will stop.
Throughout the game, you will occasionally hear a beep beep sound which is a signal you can use a hint card (you don’t have to). the hint cards give you clues if you are stuck or will let you know you are on the right track.
The first game you’re recommended to play is Prison Break which we played with my three girls (13,13 & 14) and we succeeded in escaping the room with just under 4 minutes to go!
Without giving too much away, it’s a mixture of basic maths, crosswords, suduko, observation, and code-breaking. There seemed to be more than one way to solve each part of the puzzle to work out the code as well, which I liked as we all saw things slightly differently. All three of my girls seemed to have a different way of approaching the puzzle to both myself and my OH. In fact, in many ways, we took longer sometimes, because we were overcomplicating and over analysing the clues. Whereas the girls were much more black and white with their approach.
We all really loved it and shrieked with relief when we managed to complete the game within time.
The box says it’s suitable for 3-5 people; we had a team of five and it was a bit chaotic if I’m honest. But that may have been because it was the first game we’d played and weren’t as organised as we could have been. We seemed to gravitate into two pairs and a lone ranger which resulted in three groups kind of working independently. When we play the next game “Virus” I’ll split us into two pairs and a controller/game master (that’ll be me) who will make sure each pair is working on a different part of the puzzle.
I love that each game is an hour-long, so you can plan when you’re going to play. It’s full of tension and excitement and you really do work hard to try and beat the clock (the chrono decoder countdown is brilliant). And we’re all really looking forward to playing the next game!
Leave a Reply