I have a group of friends who love board games, but we’ve really taken to cooperative games. The first time we hung out in person, we played Pandemic for about five hours straight.
Recently, we got together for a weekend, and since one of my friends works in a university residence building, we had access to a whole bunch of games that are sitting around for students to use. This was the perfect set up for us to get our hands on Unlock!
Unlock is a brand of escape rooms in a box, more or less. Each box contains 3 separate games, consisting of game cards and sometimes other small tools and materials to aid in the adventure, and then there’s a free app to download that has a timer and some interactive features. Instead of clues being around the room like in an escape room, they’re on the cards. Secret numbers, hidden phrases, little puzzles, all pointing to new cards and new clues.
My friends and I played three games from two different boxes, and had so much fun. The difficulty level was perfect. We were certainly stumped a few times, used a few hints, but eventually got to the end of the story and solved the mystery, feeling rather proud of ourselves. We worked together well and everybody did their part in it.
I highly, highly recommend Unlock for your next board game night.
There’s another brand of escape room board games called Exit. My friends and I have also played one of these as well. We found it much tougher, but slightly more interactive in terms of what the gameplay consisted of. However, one thing about Exit (or at least the one we played) was that it involved cutting one of the cards in half to solve a clue. This means that the game is kind of single-use. Even if you gave it all to a friend or something, that one clue would come pre-solved to some extent.
That wasn’t the case with Unlock, which I did appreciate. The game is still single-play unless you have a very bad memory, but at least you could give it to another friend or something and have everything be intact for their experience. Borrowing the games from that university’s stock meant it was perfect for us to play and fully return for free!
Real escape rooms are also kind of single-play, so I can’t be too mad about that aspect translating to the at-home play, but I do understand that it could be a barrier to purchase. So unless you also have a friend who works at a university residence and has free access to cool games, maybe try finding a board game cafe nearby? I’ve been to a few, and they’re always a fun time.
My friend who works at the residence says they’re always trying to hype up the collection of Unlock games to the students and dons, but they don’t seem to grasp how cool they are, so this is me doing my part in letting everyone know. They’re fun, they get you thinking, and they’re great for cooperative play.
If you’re looking for a birthday gift idea or have a gift card to use at a place that sells games, I highly recommend any Unlock or Exit game. The concept of escape rooms from home may sound silly or a poor attempt at matching the real experience, but you’ll be impressed at how much fun you can have with some very well-designed cards for a fraction of the real experience price.
That’s all for now!
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Coolbeans4 