The game I played this week was EXIT: The House of Riddles, published by Thames & Kosmos. It is only available as a physical game. I liked this game a lot, and it was actually one of the only games I played all the way through during a Monday Board Game night. The entire game is a puzzle to figure out what happened to three detectives: Sandra, Mario, and Tom. Within this, a series of puzzles push forward the narrative to form a linear, single-play experience that unravels the overarching mystery of where the detectives are. As the puzzle experience is the entirety of the escape-room-esque game, it plays a central role in the challenge-based type of fun.
The mechanics of this game were intricately crafted, well-themed, and emphasized the strategic fun of the overall game. The main way the game is communicated is through a flip-through book. As you read through, it references certain riddle cards and game tools that you “unlock” to solve the mystery puzzle associated with each page. You are only allowed to retrieve items in the box when they are referenced in the booklet. Every single puzzle is solved via a 3-number code that you input into a decoder disc based on the mission tile. The decoder disc then spins to reveal your inputted number’s corresponding output. You retrieve the answer card with the output number, and that provides additional clues if you’re wrong and confirmation if you are correct. Only when you achieve the correct answer for your current puzzle are you allowed to flip to the next page. There is a storyline on one half of the page detailing what is going on in the narrative (which references pieces to use to start the puzzle), and a puzzle on the other side of the page. The game weaves narrative naturally into the puzzle, as you go through the escape room to find out what happened to the detectives. It properly amplifies the theme of the game (escaping, puzzle-solving), with all the puzzles of the game being about exploring the detectives’ rooms and figuring out what clue they’re leaving behind for you to find. Thus it’s also natural and self-contained. At no point did we have to reference outside knowledge or needed specific socio-economic background to know, only common sense was required (see below). And importantly, just like any good puzzle, there were more “aha!”s than frustration at almost all points in the game. If we needed help at any point, there were 3 clue cards per puzzle to guide the user so they don’t feel confused for too long.
As puzzles are so central to the game, one downside is that the moment you solve all of them, the game is essentially completed. It’s single-run. This created a problem for us. We couldn’t afford to cut certain pieces out of the gamebook as instructed because this game still needed to be played by future classmates. As such, we tried drawing the design on a piece of paper and cutting that instead, but it also wasn’t done that well because we didn’t have scissors on hand and could only get an approximate sketch. We had to skip that puzzle in the end because it required a very precise cutting, coloring, and folding of the game book.
The puzzle was central to the game and well made, just the decoding wheel and answer cards alone were impressive as a feat because of how detailed they were. It was like using a choose-your-own-adventure book but there’s right and wrong and you have to account for all the puzzles happening at the same time. Overall, it was pretty cool, I enjoyed the puzzles they were fun to speed through with friends. The final story wasn’t too dramatic of a finish though, so I guess the main narrative went into the escape room which is fine. All in all a strong puzzle game, only downside is can only play once 🙁
