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It has been almost four years since the kick-off and quick demise of our Game On series. In 2022 we hope to revive this series and bring you our thoughts on a variety of board games throughout the year. Each article will start off with an overall breakdown graphic of the game with the review being the thoughts of the article author based on personal experience.
Bringing life back to this series, we start with an escape room in a box game. Many are familiar with the escape rooms where you and a group of people you may or may not know work together to escape a room, typically within an hour or two. While my family hasn’t done one of these on-location experiences, it is something we’d like to check out in the future. In the meantime, we tried the ThinkFun Escape the Room Stargazer’s Manor as our first escape room in a box.
Recommended Age and Number of Players
The manufacturer’s recommended age for this game is 10+ and 3-8 players. Our family of four played with two adults and kids aged 8 and 10. Both kids were able to participate and didn’t find the clues and puzzles to be too difficult, especially with adult help. This is a cooperative game where all players work together.
The game could be played by just one person or more than eight players, however, all participants would need to be able to see the clues in order to help solve them. The game’s instructions also suggested wearing period attire and playing music from the time to help set the mood. This could be fun if the game was to be played at a party or if you’re looking for added atmosphere.
This game is considered a beginner level by the manufacturer.
Game Setup
Setting up for the game is as easy as taking envelopes out of the box. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. One of the participants acts as the “host” and reads scene cards throughout the game. This person can also participate in solving clues. The game starts with a story of how the players are locked in a room and what must be done to get out.
I rated the ease of setup and reading the instructions 10 out of 10. There wasn’t anything hard or confusing.
Gameplay and Duration
Envelopes are opened in a particular order and can only be opened if a code is solved on a solution wheel by matching symbols and colors. Various puzzles are completed in order to determine the correct code on the wheel. Overall the puzzles are different so gameplay does not feel repetitive or get boring.
My kids had fun solving the puzzles and enjoyed working as a team toward solutions. At 8 and 10 they both contributed and neither felt discouraged or left out of the game process.
With the beginner-level designation, the puzzles did feel a bit simple from an adult point of view but not too simplistic. If kids were playing on their own I think they’d find it to be challenging enough. Because this was our family’s first experience with an escape room-type board game it was also nice to be challenged without adding in frustration over puzzles that were too difficult to solve.
The manufacturer says whoever is playing has two hours to escape the room and there’s an additional twist at the end that could add another 30 minutes. Obviously, it’s up to the group playing whether to stick with that time constraint. It took my family about 90 minutes from start to finish to complete the game.
I gave the gameplay a rating of 8 out of 10. It was fun and enjoyable yet the puzzles were pretty simple. While the manufacturer recommends this for kids 10+ I’d say those a little younger who like solving things would also like it especially with help from older kids or adults.
Conclusion
I would definitely recommend this game for anyone looking to check out escape room board games. If you’ve already got experience with them, this particular game may be a bit easy for you. ThinkFun does offer two additional escape room games. Mr. Gravely’s Retreat is said to be intermediate (my family has this but has not played it yet) while The Cursed Dollhouse has an expert difficulty according to the manufacturer.
Even for us, the beginner level was simple but still enjoyable. It took us about half the recommended time to complete the game versus what the instructions called for. And of course, if you play, nothing is stopping you from taking more than the recommended time to escape. There are also online clues that help solve puzzles, but we did not have to use them.
One thing I don’t like about any escape room type of game is that it’s a one-and-done game. Once it’s solved it can’t be played again by the same people as the puzzles do not change. There are some escape room games where elements of the game are destroyed (ie cut up, written on) so the entire game is one play. However, Stargazer’s Manor has the ability to be put back together and played by a different group of people if you search online for how to put the right elements back in the right envelopes. We’ve already loaned out our game to friends a handful of times.
Spending 90 minutes playing this game was a good amount of time for us. We didn’t feel like we rushed and at the same time, we didn’t feel like it took forever. And had we wanted to take a break it would have been easy to leave things out and come back to the game later.
While this was our first experience with an escape room board game it won’t be our last. We already have another by ThinkFun waiting to be played and I’d like to try out some other brands as well. In researching these games, there are also several monthly escape room subscription boxes available. Do you have an escape room board game you’d recommend? Leave a comment to share with others!
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