Dead Man on The Orient Express | Exit: The Game - A Kosmos Game | Family-Friendly, Card-Based at-Home Escape Room Experience for 1 to 4 Players, Ages 12+

My family and I have had fun in a mini "brick and mortar" escape room at a recent convention but the price to take 5 of us into an escape room is pricey so it's not something we're going to do much. Even as a date night for just my wife and I, the cost is up there. So this new trend of escape room games at home has me excited. Having the "Exit" series also win the German Spiel des Jahres award this year also means that the trend will likely continue to give us fun new offerings.I ordered a copy of the Egypt themed "Exit" escape room game "The Pharaoh's Tomb". My daughter wasn't super excited for it so it was just my two boys, my wife and I. We sat down, not knowing exactly what to expect, and opened the box. I'll work to avoid spoilers while also letting you know what's in there and what we experienced.The contents of the box are simple...basically you get a bunch of cards, a decoder disk, two "strange items" (paper strips with hieroglyphs), an instruction book and a diary/notebook from a previous explorer. (It's not a spoiler but I enjoyed the nods to pop culture in that the notebook was from "Dr. Ford" and there are some hidden images that remind you of a certain whip toting, snake hating adventurer)The instructions outline how to play the game and then give an introductory story to get you started. You are part of a tour group touring the Egyptian Pyramids. You've been separated from your group and find your way into an impressive burial chamber. Through some accident you triggered a trap of some kind that rolled a massive stone door closed. You spy the notebook of Dr. Ford, an explorer who was searching the pyramid earlier and has discovered some clues that he hopes may lead to escape and/or greater treasure. Using his clues (and your imagination that the images from his notebook and the deck of cards represent an ancient pyramid in which you are now trapped) you must try to escape or be entombed wth the ancient pharaohs. You start a timer (not included) and work your way to escape, hoping not only to escape but to achieve a good score to brag about your exploits.Even though we obviously weren't trapped in a pyramid (which is good since my wife is a bit claustrophobic which can cause anxiety in small escape rooms) the art, storytelling and puzzles helped draw us in and feel like we were part of an actual adventure.The first couple of puzzles were tricky but were good to help us get a feel for the way the game was meant to be played and what we were expected to do. Or so we thought...as we continued working through the puzzles and opening up new passageways we found ourselves stumped. Fortunately this game system includes a series of "help" cards that can be used to nudge you in the right direction (for a score penalty of course). We used one hint early on to just help keep the group from getting frustrated too early. Then we used additional hints later on when we felt like there was nothing else to do...and boy were we surprised at the results. I won't spoil anything but I will applaud the creativity and the way this game really makes you try to think differently. Thematically it required a little imagination but once applied it really worked and I really enjoyed the tricky bits.It took us 88 minutes to escape and we used 6 help cards which scored us 4 stars (out of 10). Probably not a great score but definitely a great experience and I look forward to trying out the other Exit games (as well as other escape room home games).The one problem I have with the game is that it really is a "play once" game. I know that I personally probably couldn't/shouldn't play it again (because I now know all the puzzles) but I would have loved to have an Escape Room game day and let family and friends try this one out while perhaps I played a different one. Due to some of the things you have to do to the game pieces it really can't be replayed (unless you plan ahead of time to not cut up pieces but instead make photocopies/etc...it would be tricky even then for some of the puzzles). Really I can't fault the company too much. Making it repayable means people would play once and then pass it to a friend rather than having to buy a new copy for the friend. And really the price of the game is reasonable when you consider it is the same (or less) than the price for one person to attend a "brick and mortar" escape room.*********9 out of 10 stars

Background of the reviewer: Middle-aged mom with years of experience in the Pokemon TCG competitive community. I am a casual gamer who mostly plays with my family (Catan, Ticket to Ride, Fluxx, Pandemic) or Solo Marvel Legendary. Always looking for new gaming opportunities.Experience with Escape Room Games: This is my first purchase of and experience with a table-top escape room game. I purchased this after reading multiple BGG reviews of all of the currently available escape room games. I have not done any live escape room experiences.Out of the box: The instructions are super explicit about not examining the included materials. The box contains a plastic wrapped set of cards, a cardboard decoder, three “strange” items, a book and a rule book. The instructions are very clear in guiding players through setting up the game without accidentally revealing any information that would ruin the experience. Everything is very well-constructed and a good value for the price. It was very easy to get the game started. The other suggested materials were pencils with erasers, a pair of scissors and some paper.How hard is this to play? The directions are very clear and easy to understand, and we quickly got the hang of trying different things, talking things over, and thinking outside of the box as much as we could. The game is very well constructed and all of the components work well together. My wife and I found the puzzles extraordinarily challenging. The suggested playing time is 60-90 minutes and after two hours we were not even halfway done. We got the first riddle, but then had to use one clue on the second riddle, 2 clues on the third and could not solve the fourth. Despite how hard this was for us, it was still fun as we had some “ah-ha we got it” moments, only to realize we did not. The clues we did reveal showed us that were on the right track multiple times, but just couldn’t quite bring it home. Interestingly, each time the clue showed us how close we had come, we eagerly moved to the next riddle thinking that it would be the turning point for us. (it never was) We are clearly not of the ilk that finds success at games like this, and in hindsight, neither one of us is into puzzle-solving. We don’t do Suduku, anagrams, or other logic puzzles. I think if we had more brain-stretching experiences like this we would have fared better. We boxed it back up, but fully intend to pull it out again when are refreshed, and maybe have a third person to join in. Even though we have decided this game probably isn’t for us, we will be buying the next one in the series for our 14-year-old son who definitely loves puzzles and challenges like this.What, exactly, are you doing when you play? You are using the provided materials to solve riddles. All of the information you need to solve the puzzles is there, you just need to figure it out. Each riddle you solve “unlocks” the next set of riddles. At first you are solving one riddle, but then move on and have multiple riddles involved. You and the other player(s) are working together to brainstorm ideas of what might work. Each time you think you have it solved, you use the cardboard decoder to check your answer. If you are wrong, you go back to the drawing board. The decoder is very well made and a clever way of guiding you without revealing anything.Recommended number of players: The box says 1-4 players but I think 4 is on the high end. There is not, in my opinion, enough to keep 4 people occupied. I think this would be a great date night activity (if the couple are a lot more logical than my wife and are), or maybe for three people. I think this could also be played by six people if you used two copies (or photocopied a second set of the book) and agreed to not work ahead of the other players but worked side by side. The book that you are referring to is hard to share with two people, let alone 4, and it’s a crucial part of figuring things out. I also question the 12+ age rating. I am not sure a group of 12-year-olds could figure this out without an adult involved, but others may disagree. Once my 14 year old plays the next one in the series (after Christmas) I can update my thoughts.Replayability: This is a consumable game -- components of the game are marked or destroyed as part of the play. Also, once you solve the riddles there is no point in re-playing it. When my wife realized it was not re-playable she was at first confused. Why did I buy a game that we would just throw away when we were done with it. Once I explained that it cost less than a movie ticket (I got it on sale for $10), and this was our date night activity, it made more sense to her.Final thoughts: Although this ended up not being the type of game I think we would play again (we’ll stick to Pandemic and Marvel), I do not regret the purchase in the least. I would highly recommend this to those who: enjoy logic puzzles; are creative problem solvers; have a fairly high frustration tolerance; are interested in stretching their mental muscles. It is extremely well-made, clever (at least as far as we were able to proceed), and a great experience for a good price-point. If you are considering purchasing an escape room table top game (or dropping the big bucks for a live experience), I would suggest this as a good entry game. If you enjoy it, you can consider the more expensive options out there. If, like us, it’s not your cup of tea you are out less than $15.

This was our first "escape room" and I played it with my family, not known for handling new complex games well. It started out a bit ominous as we read through the slightly confusing instructions and struggled executing through the first obstacle (which was a bit flawed and probably tougher than the first one should have been!) and overcame the "we have to destroy our puzzle pieces?!?" fear! (one-time play game) Also, the way the hints were ordered was randomized and a bit confusing. For these reasons, I knocked it down a star because there is room for improvement here!BUT we powered through all that and by the 3rd puzzle, we had the hang of it and it really started to click. By the end of the night, we were solving much harder puzzles with ease and we escaped the museum with almost no hints! A couple of the puzzles were pretty fun & quirky too, including one with a cool arts & crafts project and another we had to solve with a cooperative floor map. We had trouble with one other puzzle that involved a game-external "advertising flyer", which I'm still not sure what that was - but the majority were solvable without hints.By the end, we went from a dysfunctioning arguing trio to a symphonic puzzle-destructing team. The story was reasonably fun and engaging too! Good job Exit - our first experience ended up great and we will play more of them.