Explore a valley full of dinosaurs and save the members of Professor Challenger’s latest expedition! In the second game, “Arsene lupin and the Great White diamond”, players are a group of orphans racing to find a diamond which has been hidden. The treasure hunt has been commissioned by Arsene Lupin and whoever find the diamond first will work with him and would not have to worry about their future. The scenario has a twist as there are some false leads in the game that could cost you precious time.

Standing blinking in the daylight, thrilled, breathing gradually returning to normal, the last hour – a dizzy rush of triumph and frustration, immediately wanting to talk through a detailed post-mortem then to do it all again. That is my recollection of completing an escape room. A ‘real’ escape room. If you’ve played an escape room game before, we recommend The Werewolf Experiment. This game specifically is the new gold standard for escape room games in our opinion. It has the best puzzles, components and story line of any escape room game we played. At points in the evening the scenario can become somewhat strained, a little like when the dining guests start running out of conversation. Rather than just turning to a discussion about the caviar, players can choose to use the app. This will allow a hint function for any card. This comes at a cost [in the form of time penalties] but at least this will move the game forward. With the awkwardness and frustration of silence avoided, and the embarrassment of the hosts removed, so the game moves to a new phase. Each box contains a series of three formal challenges, a starter, main course and desert, but with a tutorial as an hors d’oeuvres. The game consists of a series of cards, numbered on one side and containing information about the puzzling situation on the reverse. The introduction card is displayed, a little like the maitre d’ presenting the evening’s menu. Within a minute of reading the information you take your seats at the table and start the app.You are all the residents of a Parisian orphanage. Your days are dull and most often, your stomach growls. However, all could change. Today, one of you has found a mysterious letter nailed to the door… The game itself states that it’s appropriate for teens. We think this is fair, although children that are slightly younger can still enjoy the experience, given that the adults at the table leave them some room to play as well. You know for yourself whether your family members are up to this task! Robin Hood: Dead or Alive (difficulty 2 out of 3) – Robin has fallen into the clutches of the Sheriff of Nottingham. Call upon his companions to free him from the dungeon; I’m looking right now at the Mystery Adventures box, which is lovely. Three scenes, beautifully rendered, give us a flavour of what’s inside but reveal no spoilers. A giant squid-like Kraken wrestles a submarine. A classic spooky house on a dark night. A desert island with parrot, treasure, and human skull. Mmmm! Atmospheric. The box contains three adventures with wildly different themes and with a choice of three difficulty levels. They are for one or more players – which means that, yes, you can it play it solo.

Professor Alcibiades Tempus’ time machine works erratically. You must return the timeline to normal! Each element is numbered so that players can take the corresponding cards revealing a story, a character, an objects, or a piece of a puzzle to be solved. A mobile app will provide players with a timer and will be used to simulate those cards that correspond to equipments. The app will also be used to enter the codes the players will find and to provide hints and penalties as needed. Get it wrong? You can ask the app for clues (kind of like how a regular escape room drip- feeds bamboozled players information), but beware… Each clue will remove precious minutes from your remaining time – so you’d better make sure taking a clue is worth the sacrifice! Pandemic: An epidemic threatens humankind! Everyone's future depends on you and your team of medical experts (virologist, medic, dispatcher...) as you face a global health crisis.There’s three editions of Escape the Room: Mystery at Stargazer’s Manor, Secret of Dr. Gravely’s Retreat and The Cursed Dollhouse. Physical components like the chrono decoder also center the group and make sure everyone can always see the timer. This isn’t quite true when the timer is on someone’s phone. So although it may not seem so important, in our experience the physical components really help to promote team work and player interaction as well. Echo Base, an important Rebel stronghold, has managed to remain hidden on the ice planet Hoth for some time. The hostile climate provides excellent cover and protection from the Empire- but you must always remain vigilant! I didn’t fall as hard for Scheherazade’s Last Tale as I did The Night of the Boogeymen, but I did still enjoy the scenario. From the start I was impressed: there was great music, funny elements, and a new, ingenious means of “traveling” around to various locations. The puzzles were relatively simple and, in spite of a few ambiguous moments, there wasn’t anything too difficult to solve (even if it meant doing so through trial-and-error). The master of detectives has a peculiar case ahead of him. Can you help him find his way through this investigation?

So how does the whole thing compare to real escape rooms or the card-butchering Exit games? I mean, nothing compares to the feeling of tearing apart a games room looking for a clue that does not exist for a puzzle that isn’t there and being asked politely but firmly by the host to leave (I’m a dichotomy – deal with it) but it does have that ‘ohhhh I get it’ element when you do… get it.Obviously, a good balanced set may not be always an option for you, either because you have already played some of them or because you are looking for something different. In this case, I would recommend considering a thematic set. Every seven years, Master Li opens the gates of the temple of the Gold Dragons for one day to accept new disciples. His teachings are famous and the Master forges the most brilliant souls of the Empire. But rare are those who are accepted for they first must pass the tests of the disciples. Today is the big day! You climb the mountain, your hearts pounding, and you reach the gates of the legendary temple of the Gold Dragons. One or two of the puzzles are very “left field”. I would even describe them as being obscure. In these we had to use the hint and on one occasion even the second hint to get the solution. In retrospect I can see where the designers were coming from. It just had not crossed my mind to use the clues in that way. Others, with more lateral thinking minds, may have seen the solution with more ease than my wife and I but for the “average Joe” I think many will have struggled. The Diosen Circus is coming to town but Professor Noside has prepared a great sabotage act! Stop him. The show must go on!