Boardgame - Spy Code: Operation Escape - Yulu

Publisher:

Yulu

Languages:

No language needed

# of Players:

1+

Age:

6+

Duration:

120 min

BoardGameGeek Reference:

None (Guess it's considered more like a toy than a board game)

Game Design & Mechanics

Picture from the manufacturer's website

• The game is made of 4 main components, each of them being a stand-alone toy in its own right.

• First, there's a "ticking time bomb" belt that you can set to a number of seconds of your choice, lock around your favorite hostage's belly, and set off. From that moment on, you need to insert a small key in order to stop the clock and unlock the belt. (Alright, let's clear that matter right away: the game comes with three keys, and they're all identical. Using the first key to get the two others is just part of the rules.)

• The next toy is a puzzle box with each side shaped like a maze. A key is placed inside it, and a player will try moving it out of the box using two plastic hooks.

• There's also a cryptex of sorts, with 3 dials sporting digits and one with A-B-C-D. It requires a key to operate, and stores another key inside it. To figure out how to open it, players can look a cards of increasing difficulty (green-yellow-red) showing a single, wordless, multiple choice puzzle. You enter the card number on the small dials, you pick your answer on the big one. If you guessed right, the key slides out a bit, but if you made a mistake, it slides fully back in. You'll need 3 consecutive good guesses in order to retrieve that key.

• The final device is a "guessing wheel". You unlock it using a key, give it a spin, and then you're allowed to open 3 of its doors, hoping to find the one with the last key (the one meant to go into the bomb). Some doors will show you an arrow pointing clockwise or counterclockwise, so the game is sort of a visual variant of the classical "high-low" number guessing game. After 3 attempts, the player must close all the doors, and re-spin.
• The game can be played competitively (with every player taking a turn and trying to get the best time) or cooperatively (with players splitting tasks and trying to get out in time).

Pros

• The game is highly customizable, which means you can calibrate its difficulty any way you see fit. An adult could be forced to used to toughest side of the maze box, 3 red cards, and have less time, while a younger child can pick a random side, 2 green cards and 1 yellow, a have more time to proceed, for instance.
• Instead of seeing this item as a game with strict rules, you can treat it just as a set of individual kid-proof components. A couple days after getting the game, my son designed a slightly more complex escape room that used the game parts coupled with some original puzzles and room-searching.
• The components are wordless (the puzzle cards are visual-only), which means even pre-school kids might be able to play the easiest puzzle cards.

Cons

• Even though the game marketing is definitely focused on the "Escape Room" angle (the game was even sold as "Operation Escape Room" at some point), I don't think it really qualifies, hence the infamous "notquite" tag on this entry. If you play the game as-is, there won't be any room searching, nor any "figuring out what needs to be done next", two staples of escape rooms in my mind.
• The game, on its own, won't keep adults entertained for more than 2 or 3 games... which means, in total, less time than most escape rooms.
• The "explosive belt" is rather small, unlikely to fit most adults. Sorry, pops - you likely won't be the one tied down to a chair. (But then, is that really a drawback? 😈)

Boardgame - EXIT: The Game - Kosmos

Publisher:

Kosmos, Thames, Iello

Designers:

Inka & Markus Brand, Ralph Querfurth

Artists:

Silvia Christoph, Franz Vohwinkel, Michael Menzel, Martin Hoffmann

Languages:

German, English, French

# of Players:

1-6

Age:

12+ (10+ in my opinion)

Duration:

120 min

BoardGameGeek References:

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/36963/series-exit-game

Game Design & Mechanics

Picture from the manufacturer's website

• At first glance, you might think that EXIT ripped off some ideas from both ThinkFun's "Escape the Room" and Space Cowboys' "Unlock!", since it features both a code wheel and a deck of cards. Ironically, though, EXIT is the oldest of all 3 games, having been released in Germany 2 years ago.
• Let's start with the cards. They come, in fact, in several types. Riddle cards are pretty straightforward. They're identified by a single letter on their back. If told to "get clue X", you fetch that card. Riddle cards typically show a clue of some sort, but they can also have a picture of game scene, a new room you just got access to, etc.
• The "hidden object" mechanic found in Unlock! isn't present here, although it's possible to see a picture of Riddle card inside another picture (meaning you should pick up that matching card).

• Every "lock" in the game is associated to a pictogram, and it's always "solved" by combining 3 icons found on the code wheel. The wheel then gives you a number, and you check out the matching Answer card. There's an interesting twist, however - the card might simply tell you you're wrong, or it might show you an array of small pictures. You find the image depicting the lock you're trying to open, and you consult the matching card number.
  The neat thing about this gimmick is that, in addition to providing two-tier validation, it prevents the players from opening a lock they haven't found yet. You see, the pictures shown on the Answer cards don't have the logos on them, so even if you figured out how to solve the "star" lock, it can't happen if you haven't got to that lock yet, since you wouldn't know what it looked like.
• Help cards come in sets of 3, one for each lock. The first card tells you what you need in order to solve the lock. The second card gives you pointers as to what needs to be done, and the third gives the solution outright. The more cards you use, the lower your final score.
• When the game starts, all you have is the code wheel and a booklet. Somewhere in that booklet will be a picture of the room you're in, with the first locks you'll have to deal with.
• Once you've read the final Answer card, the time it took you to finish and the number of Help cards used are tallied to give you a score, going from 10 stars (less than an hour, no help) to 1 (over 2 hours, over 10 cards).
• The last but not least of the game's features is the fact that the game is meant to be played once. And I don't mean "once" as in "a player can't play the same scenario twice", but rather as in "the box is meant to go in the garbage". Players are encouraged to write on things, tear them out, cut them off, and so on.

Pros

• These games are especially "meaty". Difficulty-wise, they're on par with their competition, and the 2-hour duration advertised on the box is the real deal. After playing most other escape-room-in-a-box games, I always feel like playing another. With these, I always felt fully sated. 😋
• The price point is pretty good. There are plenty of escape room that cost more for one single player than an EXIT box.
• Using a scoring system means that players can actually choose between taking their time and not taking hints, or using multiple hints to finish quickly.
• The fact that cards and components can (and will) be teared down allow for a number of clever, original puzzles.

Cons

• For people like me, the biggest turn-off is definitely the "single use" angle. In recent years, there have been plenty of "Legacy" board games, which are meant to played by the same group over a few sessions, and eventually thrown away. As much as I can agree on the principle, I find it a lot harder to cope with the destruction of a single-session game. In the past, I've enjoyed lending my games to other people, and even watching them try their best at solving it. Being unable to share that experience with others without buying a brand new box is, to me, a big issue.
  That being said, there are ways to circumvent the single-use aspect - see my notes below.
• Although I didn't notice it at first, it seems the puzzle sequence is pretty linear - you open lock A, then lock B, etc. Nothing in the game mechanics actually prevents concurrent puzzles, but it just happens to be that way.
• According to the scoring system, you can flip through Help cards like crazy, read every single puzzle solution, and still end up with 4 stars...

UPDATE - Spring 2018

• With the second batch of scenarios, two small-but-nice improvements have been made to the series. First, every game now has an official difficulty setting. Second, Kosmos has come up with a companion app that can act as a timer while playing some background music.

Gilles' Guide to Sparing your EXIT box

Alright, so you've decided you'd rather keep your copy of EXIT in a good enough state so you'd be able to have it played more than once, even if that means some of your friends will tease you for being such an obsessive-compulsive freak. (Word up, Marc-Antoine! 😎) Here are my tricks for you:

• Keep an All-in-One printer close by
  Without a doubt, this is the most straightforward way to get quick copies. Many printer/scanner combos have a "Copy" button that makes the device work like a copy machine. If yours doesn't, you can still scan a page then print it back - just make sure you disable any "Fit to Page" setting and print at the exact same size as your originals.
• Snap a picture and doodle over
  A friend of mine took an overhead photo of a page using his tablet, and began doodling directly over the picture. If that's something you have experience with (say, for work), it can get good results pretty fast.
• Keep blank sheets nearby
  Tracing paper can be expensive, but most printer paper is "light" enough to be see-through. You can place one such sheet over the booklet and trace lines on it using a pen or pencil.
• Use baggies/sleeves and fine-point sharpies
  Kudos to my wive for thinking about that one. Another effective way to write over a page or a card without permanent damage.
    

Errata

• In the first printing of The Secret Lab, the 2nd clue of the "six-pointed star" lock could be misleading (the puzzle was simplified but the clue wasn't updated). So if you have an older box, the first paragraph of the card should read:
  
  In the periodic table on Card A, look for the following elements: Li, C, He, N, Ca, N, Be, Lu, C, K, Y.

Currently Out (underline bold titles are those I've played)

• The Secret of the Premiere (Free Print-and-play mini-scenario)
• The Abandoned Cabin
• The Pharaoh's Tomb
• The Secret Lab
• The Forbidden Castle
• The Forgotten Island
• The Polar Station
• The Sunken Treasure
• Dead Man on the Orient Express
• The Mysterious Museum
• The Sinister Mansion
• The House of Riddles
• The Haunted Roller Coaster
• The Catacombs of Horror (double set)
• The Stormy Flight
• Theft on the Mississippi

Boardgame - Unlock! - Space Cowboys

Publisher:

Space Cowboys / Asmodée

Designers:

Alice Carroll, Thomas Cauët, Cyril Demaegd, Arnaud Ladagnous, Fabrice Mazza, Sébastien Pauchon, Billy Stevenson, Arch Stanton

Artist:

Florian de Gesincourt, Arnaud Demaegd, Legruth, Pierre Santamaria, Sergio

Languages:

French, English, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese

# of Players:

2-6

Age:

16+ (10+ in my opinion)

Duration:

60 min (typically)

BoardGameGeek Reference:

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/39442/series-unlock-space-cowboys/linkeditems/boardgamefamily

Game Design & Mechanics

• This game sets itself apart by its mandatory use of an app (made available for free, on iOS and Android, weeks before the game came out). The app knows each of the available scenarios, tracks the time remaining, provide hints on demand, and is also used whenever a numerical combination needs to be entered, or when a card instructs you to do something.
• As for what's in the box, every scenario is made of a single deck of cards - nothing else. Those cards have very different content, however. Some of them will show a puzzle or a lock, others an item (often a key, but not always). Some cards will show you a small map, or an image of an object found in the room itself.
• The cards have a unique code (a number or a letter) on their back. This allows for a number of different mechanics like "combining inventory" (as if you were playing a computer adventure game), visual puzzle solving (reminescent of some gamebooks of yore) and even room searching (if you see a number hidden in a picture, you're allowed to reveal the card of that same number).

Pros

• As others rightly pointed out to me, of all the other boxed games out there, this one is the best at conveying the uncertainty of standing in a real Escape Room. How far have you gone? Is this really the last puzzle? Are those remaining cards red herrings and penalties? You can't know for sure until the app tells you it's over.
• With some non-linear puzzles and all those scenery cards you'll want to pick up and scrutinize, there are plenty of opportunity to "multitask". Your players shouldn't have to fight over cards, unless there really is a lot of you.
• Since each scenario is essentially a deck of cards, this might be one of the cheapest offer out there. And with the English scenarios being sold separately, it's even easier to give in.

Cons

• Well, you know, they're cards. Cards are small, and two people can't really look at the same card at once. Even though I understand the whole rationale, I really, really wish they had included a few foldable maps along with those cards.
• If you're familiar with games like T.I.M.E Stories (also from Space Cowboys) or Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective (a 30 year-old game which has just been reprinted by - guess what - Space Cowboys!)  you might guess what my next complaint will be: the game is hard. And I don't mean "fun hard", where you feel challenged yet encouraged to keep trying your best. I mean "cocky hard", where the game almost seems to take pleasure in making feel inferior. (Then again, those games are among my favorites, so I guess I'm a masochist. 😧)
• After playing most of the available scenarios, I noticed that the game has an "anti-pattern" of sorts. You see, it punishes players harshly for trying, but scolds them lightly for asking for help, which is the downright opposite of pretty much any Escape Room out there. Think about it, when was the last time a real-life room took 5 minutes off your chronometer just because you tried the wrong key on the wrong door? Oh, of course the game will (vehemently) explain that the key clearly wasn't meant to go in there, but many of these cases seemed quite subjective to me. Check out my personal results below. Notice how the same group performed way better in S&S than in The Formula? I believe that's because we learned from our mistakes and became more cautious - but once again, I don't see any fun in that.
• In fact, as I keep thinking about it, I believe that the whole "card matching" mechanic should have been dropped. I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of the very first game mechanic the designers came up with, possibly predating the use of an app.
  But there is an app, and it's a mandatory part of the game, so why not use it to validate all the players' attempts at combining stuff? Why waste all that cardstock just to write "No, these things don't together, you're a moron, lose 5 minutes!"
  I know I'm ranting a bit more than usual here (especially for a game that'll keep getting my money for sure), but I believe a few changes could make a great game even better.

UPDATE - Fall 2017

• A whole category of cards - machines, the cards I mentioned above as "visual puzzle solving" - have been heavily revamped. Instead of showing numbers that you must add up to solve a puzzle, you're now being asked to enter the card number in the app, which lets you play the solving part directly in there. The 2nd wave of scenarios have this from the get-go, and it looks like older ones will be retroactively made that way.

UPDATE - Spring 2018

• The latest series of adventures ("Secret Adventures") starts including some non-card components. For instance, the Oz scenario has a folded map you acquire at some point. I must say I've been impressed at Space Cowboys' talent at making every iteration better than the last.

House Rules & Suggestions

Should you play this and want to compare your performance with friends, I suggest you do the following:

• 5 players max
  Otherwise there's too many of you fighting over a dozen cards.

Currently Out (underline bold titles are those I've played)

• Tutorial (Free Print-and-play mini-scenario, also found in each box)
• The Elite (Free Print-and-play scenario)
• The Formula
• Squeek & Sausage
• The Island of Doctor Goorse
• The 5th Avenue (Free Print-and-play scenario)
• The Temple of RA (Free Print-and-play scenario)
• The Doo-Arann Dungeon (From Ravage magazine - Later released as a Print & Play)
• The House on the Hill
• The Nautilus' Traps
• The Tonipal's Treasure
• A Noside Story
• Tombstone Express
• The Adventurers of Oz
• In Pursuit of Cabrakan (Free Print-and-play scenario)
• The Night of the Boogeymen
• Scheherazade's Last Tale
• Expedition: Challenger
• Insert Coin
• Sherlock Holmes - The Scarlet Thread of Murder
• In Pursuit of the White Rabbit
• The Noside Show
• Arsène Lupin and the Great White Diamond
• Lost in the TimeWarp!
• The Seventh Screening
• The Dragon's Seven Tests
• Mission #07
• Star Wars: Escape From Hoth
• Star Wars: An Unforeseen Delay
• Star Wars: Secret Mission on Jedha
• In the Clutches of Hades
• Professor Noside's Animal-O-Matic
• Around the World in 80 Minutes

Boardgame - Escape Room: The Game - Spin Master

Publisher:

Spin Master (US/Canada)

Designers:

Unknown (boo!)

Artist:

Roland MacDonald

Languages:

English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish & many more

# of Players:

3-5

Age:

16+ (10+ in my opinion)

Duration:

60 min

BoardGameGeek References:

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/204836/escape-room-game/

Game Design & Mechanics

Picture from the manufacturer's website

• The central piece of this game is a custom electronic module called the "Chrono-Decoder". The Chrono-Decoder fills multiple roles. In addition to being a timer, it provides nicely irritating sound effects 😇, it sports multiple code cyphers on its sides, and it only acts as the physical manifestation of every single lock you'll encounter in the game.
• The game also includes a series of plastic keys. They come in 6 different designs, and each of them sports some characteristics (a letter, a digit, a roman numeral, a geometric shape, etc). Depending of the scenario you're playing, one of these characteristics will help you find which 4 keys to put in the Chrono-Decoder. Put in the wrong keys, and 1 minute of your remaining time will be taken away.
• Each scenario (there are 4 included in the game box) is made of envelopes clearly marked "Part 1", "Part 2" and "Part 3". Players read the introductory text, start the timer, then open Part 1. They're not allowed to move on to Part 2 until they've entered the right keys into the Chrono-Decoder. Then it's Part 3, and getting the third set of keys will result in a little victory fanfare.
• At some specific time, the Chrono-Decoder will let out a little chime to let you a new hint card is available to you. Those cards use a classical "red filter" decoder to give a bit a nudge. Be warned, though - if the hint you get is helpful, then you're kinda running late. 😎

Pros

• Let's cut to the chase here: as write this, this game is my favorite. Each scenario does a great job at recreating the same kind of puzzle-solving, visual inspection and logical deductions you see in real-life Escape Rooms. UPDATE: See the Comments section.
• Every part of every scenario is non-linear to some extent. A couple players can easily "search a room" while others work on more menial tasks.
• Speaking of room searches, every scenario includes at least one "room map" that unfolds into something big enough for a few people to inspect simultaneously.
• Some scenarios will include "disposable" clues that meant to be written on / folded / cut off during your playthrough. Replacements can then be printed off the game's website.

Cons

• In many instances, the storyline feels a bit "tacked on", and it becomes hard to feel a connection between the keys we're looking for and the supposed events happening in the background. Then again, that's something that can be said about most of the Escape Rooms I've played...
• The price is pretty steep, especially knowing that this single purchase will provide you with 4 hours of entertainement, at best. As a possible workaround for this, consider reselling / joining a group purchase / renting the game from a boardgame library or club.
• It's not something I personally felt, but a couple fellow players pointed out they didn't like the fact that, due to the game being split into parts, they knew exactly how well they were doing. It's true most escape games will keep you guessing until the last minute.

House Rules & Suggestions

Should you play this and want to compare your performance with friends, I suggest you do the following:

• Every player must pause while hints are being read
  You're encouraged to use the hints (like I said, if they're helpful you're already struggling in my book), but I like the idea of them having a (tiny) cost.
• Alternate hints for "Nuclear Countdown"
  The Nuclear Countdown scenario, while one of the most entertaining, has a few bits I don't find quite fair. When you play that scenario, I suggest you consider the following:
• Replace the 45-minute hint with the following:
  
  During interrogation, William said: "Follow my footsteps to the 5 locations you're still considering at this point. Use the string and see the shape. Remember I visited one location twice."
• At the 35-minute mark, add this extra hint for Part 2:
  
  There is a phone number hidden on the suitcase itself.

Currently Out (underline bold titles are those I've played)

• Prison Break
• Virus
• Nuclear Countdown
• Temple of the Aztec
• Welcome to Funland
• Murder Mystery
• Casino
• Secret Agent
• The Dentist
• The Legend of Redbeard's Gold
• The Magician
• The Basement (Introductory mini-scenario)
• Alice in Wonderland
• Dawn of the Zombies
• Panic on the Titanic
• Another Dimension
• Wild West Express
• The Switch (also known as "The Break-In")

Boardgame - "Escape the Room" series - Thinkfun

Publisher:

ThinkFun

Designers:

Rebecca Bleau, Nicholas Cravotta

Artists:

Erwin Madrid, Victor Pérez Corbella

Languages:

English, French

# of Players:

3-8*

Age:

10+ (13+ for Dr. Gravely's theme)

Duration:

120 min (90 for more than 6 players)*

(*) See "House Rules" below

BoardGameGeek References:

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/193560/escape-room-mystery-stargazers-manor

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/199493/escape-room-secret-dr-gravelys-retreat

Game Design & Mechanics

Picture from the manufacturer's website

• The core mechanic for this series of games revolves around envelopes. After reading the introductory text and starting your (self-provided) timer, you pick up a number of large square envelopes. These envelopes are meant to represent the different furniture and decor pieces found in the room you're currently trapped into. The outside of each envelope (and whatever clue you might find on them) is immediately accessible, while its content can only be accessed once the envelope (aka the object depicted) has been "unlocked". Envelopes can contain all sorts of things (well, flat things 😄), Scene Cards, and even smaller envelopes.
• The game also includes a Solution Wheel that the players use to unlock the envelopes. So even though puzzles can vary in their nature, they always end up yielding a series of colored pictograms. To "unlock" an envelope, you refer to its unique icon shown in its corner. Slide the wheel to match those pictograms, and if you have a match, you're now allowed to open that envelope.
• Scene Cards are clearly marked as such, and tell the story of your ongoing adventure. As soon as a new Scene Card is revealed, players should stop while one of them reads it out loud.

Pros

• If you like your Escape Rooms to have strong themes, you'll appreciate the Scene Cards. As my daughter told me, she often got more involved into these storylines than with most rooms we played.
• If you're trying to introduce people to Escape Rooms without spending a lot of money, these games can make for a great introduction, given that...

Cons

• ...they're really, really easy. Easier than anything I've seen in real life. It's not necessarily a disadvantage if you're aiming at a younger crowd (hence the above point), but I definitely had to point it out.
• Both scenarios are extremely linear. In theory, nothing in the game design itself prevents it from having concurrent puzzles - the designers just didn't do it, perhaps to prolong the experience.
• Although ThinkFun works pretty hard at coming up with varied puzzles, you already know you'll end up finding those same symbols, again & again.

House Rules & Suggestions

Should you play this and want to compare your performance with friends, I suggest you do the following:

• 5 players max 
  More than that will just get boring, as people will fight over the components.
• 45 minutes
  That time frame should make each game as challenging as a typical Escape Room.
• Note (semi-spoiler here) that each game reaches a point where players can decide to "push further" and take an extra challenge. Should your team do that, instead of "resetting the clock to 20 minutes", just add yourself an extra 10 minutes.
• Everyone pauses while Scene Cards are read
  And that time counter of yours can't be stopped until the entire endgame card has been read. 😎
• No hints
  That's right, suck it up!
• Ok, well, if you're playing Dr. Gravely's and getting stuck on the prisoners, it's ok, go ahead and hit Google. 👍

Currently Out (underline bold titles are those I've played)

• Mystery at the Stargazer's Manor
• Secret of Dr. Gravely's Retreat