Tag Archives: Unlock!

Unlock!: Arsène Lupin and the Great White Diamond

Room-in-a-box, Jan 2020

Arsène Lupin is another totem of French culture almost completely unknown to me, but who seems to be a mysterious but gallant master thief. In Unlock!’s game you are not the legendary criminal himself but a group of street urchins to whom Lupin has s… (more)

Unlock!: The Noside Show

Room-in-a-box, Jan 2020

While each Unlock! game is a stand-alone story, fully half the boxed sets have included an episode featuring the closest thing the series has to a recurring villain. The Noside Show is the third of these, and its cartoonish style of illustration and … (more)

Unlock!: In Pursuit of the White Rabbit

Room-in-a-box, Aug 2019

If there’s a theme to Unlock!’s Heroic Adventures box, it’s superb potential that just doesn’t quite come together. White Rabbit is clearly intended as the flagship game in the box, with an extended 90 min play time and the maximum difficulty rating,… (more)

Unlock!: Sherlock Holmes – The Scarlet Thread of Murder

Room-in-a-box, Aug 2019

The Scarlet Thread of Murder is an ambitious concept for a game – perhaps too much so for its own good. Unlock!’s Sherlock game does well at capturing a genuine feeling of investigating a murder mystery, but the result makes for a game that can leave… (more)

Unlock!: Insert Coin

Room-in-a-box, Aug 2019

As a matter of policy, Unlock! box sets seem to each contain one game that’s more tailored for younger players, in both theming and difficulty level; in the Heroic set, that game is Insert Coin.

It’s themed for retro 80s arcade gaming, and that’s re… (more)

Unlock!: Scheherazade’s Last Tale

Room-in-a-box, Jun 2019

Second in Unlock!’s Exotic Adventures set, Scheherazade’s Last Tale dives into the mythology of Arabian nights, with the premise that Scheherazade has run out of inspiration on her final night, and needs you to save her. It’s a romantic and distincti… (more)

Unlock!: Expedition: Challenger

Room-in-a-box, Jun 2019

In each set of games Unlock! releases, the third game has always been the one rated with the highest difficulty, has been the most innovative and ambitious in design, and – so far – has been my favourite of the box. Expedition: Challenger continues t… (more)

Unlock!: The Night of the Boogeymen

Room-in-a-box, Jun 2019

Unlock! are nothing if not experimental. I imagine it’s due to the variety of designers involved, typically a different designer for each game, but the way each game is distinctive not just in presentation but in gameplay is one of the series’s parti… (more)

Unlock!: The Adventurers Of Oz

Room-in-a-box, Jul 2018

The Unlock! series of escape games is now up to nine games, with another three about to be released, plus various mini demo games. In Europe the main games are sold as boxed sets of three, and in each such set I’ve found the third game in the box to … (more)

Unlock!: Tombstone Express

Room-in-a-box, Jul 2018

It is very much to Unlock!’s credit that they keep experimenting with their format. Having established a game system that works, they could have easily settled into churning out identikit games. Instead, each new release seems to push the format in a… (more)