Room-in-a-box, Apr 2017
See the Escape Room The Game: Prison Break review for general comments about the Escape Room The Game bundle – this scenario is only available as part of the set.
The plot is as flimsy as in the other scenarios, though also oddly detailed in the intro text. The puzzles are of a par with the rest of the series, some nice ideas with a few more tenuous leaps of logic required.
The hint system for this scenario, as for the others, consists of a pack of cards with obfuscated text plus a viewer device that allows them to be read clearly. The hint cards are not very consistent, and for some puzzles give a gradual progression from cryptic hints to clearer clues to an outright solution; whereas others give the solution immediately, or stop at the cryptic hint level. (If really stuck, you can check the walkthroughs available on the website.)
Of the four scenarios, this one felt lightest on the content. What’s there is good, and though in places the solution seems a bit of a reach from the clues given, in hindsight none of them appeared unfair. But an experienced team that doesn’t get stuck could finish this game in twenty minutes.
Of the 4 games by Escape Room the Game, Temple of the Aztec was the game that seemed to have the fewest flaws. We giggled once at the accidental conflation of two significantly different ancient cultures but apart from that the game seemed to make sense and had some flow to it.
As a result, we sped through it and for all its shortness it was fun. Personally I have to admit that without a hint I would never have solved the final puzzle, but equally it’s fair to say that in a diverse team someone will probably have the right insight.