Exit: The Forbidden Castle

By | March 20, 2019
0 Comment

by Exit (website)

📦play at home
Finally, a vacation! This year, you’re going to an idyllic village in the mountains. Instead of driving, you decide to take the train this time. After a three hour delay, you arrive in your vacation rental, where you find various brochures for local events and attractions — including an impressive castle. The flyer looks quite amateur and self-printed, but you’re a sucker for medieval castles!
The next day, you get up and go to the castle. There’s no ticket booth. No one else appears to be around. Well, at least you can explore the place in peace! You enter the castle and find yourself in a magnificent throne room. Suddenly the big, wooden door locks behind you and you realize that maybe (again) this was not such a good idea ...
The castle is full of mysteries. Only if you can solve all of the puzzles together in time will you escape. If not, your creepy host will probably never let you leave again ...
This game can be played only one time because you must markup, fold, and tear the game materials to solve the riddles and escape.
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Overall rating

Rated between 3 and 4 out of 5

based on ratings from 14 users
combined with 2 pro reviews

Your review

Player reviews

Jordan Brown experienced rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Played: 26 Nov 2023 Team size: 2 Time taken: 107:18 (3 stars) Outcome: Successful escape!

Neither here nor there really, some ridiculously easy puzzles and some very difficult puzzles.

Lise expert rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Jemileh experienced rated this:Rated between 4 and 4 out of 5
Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!
Jakob Frederiksen experienced rated this:Rated between 2 and 2 out of 5
Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!
jakea256 expert rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
quite difficult
magicalbacons expert rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Charly expert rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Anonymous rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5

My partner bought this game after we had the original Cabin in the Woods. I really enjoyed Cabin in the woods and found it challenging but fun and wanted more of a challenge. 

I am not so sure my partner wanted more of a challenge. She found Cabin in the Woods challenging enough and although I stepped back at multiple points during Cabin to let her play a bit, this wasn't happening during Forbidden Castle due to the challenge. I got the first challenge/key code right away, then got very stuck about how to continue and so we spent about 30 minutes sat there trying to work something out. My aversion to using the cheat cards combined with her aversion to the game ment that after 45 minutes and no closer to the answer - I ended up going solo (date night turned into MeVs.EscapeRoom night). 

I did eventually relent and use a cheat card but I found that the two cheat cards didn't actually always help me get closer to the answer as it was info I had already worked out. Some of the puzzles game number combinations which weren't clear (is it a 2 or a 7, a 6 or an 8, or a 3) which led to a lot of frustration. 

I did eventually escape - it took me 3 hours and 4 cheat cards. Some of the puzzles were excellent - I was frustrated that I didn't get to do both of the challenges in the middle (it forces you to choose one and although I wanted to, I was 2 hours into a game and couldn't be bothered to copy it out) and it would have been nice for it to be a bit clearer when you achieved the numbers on some of the puzzles. 

Would I recommend? Probably not unless you and your friends are 100% avid escape room artists and there are multiple of you. I'll defo go back to easier difficulty and do another. 

Anonymous rated this:Rated between 3 and 3 out of 5
Anonymous rated this:Rated between 2 and 2 out of 5
Dan Mircea Suciu experienced rated this:Rated between 4.5 and 4.5 out of 5
Played: 2-08-2020 Team size: 4 Time taken: 2:30 hours Outcome: Failed 🙁
Wesley Mead expert rated this:Rated between 4.5 and 4.5 out of 5
PurpleB expert rated this:Rated between 4 and 4 out of 5
Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!
Anonymous rated this:Rated between 4 and 4 out of 5

Reviews by escape room review sites

Last of the Exit games until they finish translating the next four in the series, Forbidden Castle is marked as a harder game (4/5 difficulty, where Polar Station and Forgotten Island are marked as 3/5) and is my favourite so far. It follows the usual format but does so particularly well, with a set of challenging, original and inventive puzzles that seemed to me to be entirely fair - at least in retrospect.

All the Exit game codewheels provide a way of verifying a three digit code. Some of the...

The Forbidden Castle followed the format we’ve come to expect from Exit: The Game, with some added twists. It offered more challenge than the original releases from Exit: The Game and these were generally fair and fun. It built toward a silly conclusion, but also a culmination that felt bigger than the sum of its card-stock parts.

‘The Forbidden Castle’ was another Thames & Kosmos Escape Game in a box that I purchased having enjoyed ‘The Abandoned Cabin’. We opted for ‘The Forbidden Castle’ as it was self rated as a 4/5 difficulty.

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