Author Archives: escapethereview

Locked In Home: Relive The Moments

Online, Feb 2021

The name of this game is a big clue to its play style and target audience. It’s a Harry Potter story where the framing device is looking back via Dumbledore’s Pensieve at the events narrated in the books; and if you have no idea what a Pensieve is, t… (more)

Mythologic Escape Rooms: The Island

Online, Feb 2021

The premise of The Island is that you’re sole survivor of a plane crash, stranded on a mysterious tropical island and trying to contact rescuers. The setting has a resemblance to the show Lost, even if right now the idea of being on a plane in the tr… (more)

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)

Unlock!: Secret Mission On Jedha

Room-in-a-box, Apr 2021

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)

Unlock!: An Unforeseen Delay

Room-in-a-box, Apr 2021

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

Room-in-a-box, Apr 2021

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

Room-in-a-box, Apr 2021

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

Room-in-a-box, Apr 2021

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)

Unlock!: In The Clutches of Hades

Room-in-a-box, Apr 2021

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

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)