Game Review: Escape Room – The Game

Age: 16+
Playing Time: 60 min
Players: 3-5

Okay. I don’t mean to keep reviewing escape rooms, but I just love them so much. Whether it was Unlock – The Formula, Unlock – The House on the Hill, or the Stargazer’s Manor, there is a clear pattern of behaviour that I will not apologize for.

Escape rooms teach you to think laterally, solve problems, and look outside the box for answers. Every one I’ve done has been different in how to solve. I’ve heard rumours that there are ways to get them done quickly and efficiently as describe by Wilfred Laurier professor, Scott Nicholson. In attempt to sneakily control my friends, I attempted to use tips from Beat Any Escape Room from Mark Roper’s YouTube. Next time I’ll need to lay out the ground rules instead of being sneaky.

This game comes with four different scenarios. Unfortunately, they don’t have much repeatability.

The Escape Room is unlike the ones I’ve previous mentioned as it needs an external piece of hardware and uses keys supplied. As with my other escape room reviews, I won’t be showing any pieces. However, I will show you the decoder because it’s pretty awesome.

It checks your answers AND keeps track of how much time you don’t have. It also penalizes you for wrong answers. I love and hate the Chronodecoder.

I’ve played half the games in here, and have loved each one. I would say that this is my second favourite escape room game right after the Stargazer’s Manor if only for the coolness of the decoder.

For more information, please ask your local game venue!

Review: Mystery at the Stargazer’s Manor

Players: 3 to 8
Estimated Game Time: 90 min to 2 hours
Recommend Ages: 10+

I love a good escape room. The only thing I like more is a great escape room. This game falls under the latter for the sheer quality they put into there games.

The story unfolds that you’re a caretaker for an astronomer’s mansion when he unexpectedly lets you and the cook go. You return with some concerned townsfolk to help you discover the mysterious sounds and smells coming from the mansion.

This game features a decoder ring style turn system that you use to open envelopes. These envelopes help you progress through the adventure. Each box comes with recommendations on background music, invitations, and the like so you can make a night of the adventure.

Out of the escape rooms that we have played so far, this comes the closest to being an escape room without having to pay admission to pay for one.

Game Review: Fortune and Glory

Players: 1-8
Age: 12+
Playing time: 60-180 minutes

Grab your news cap, and put on your best old timey news golden voice because Fortune and Glory will launch you into the pulp adventure of your dreams as you battle to find relics, fight Nazis, and unearth tombs to gather the most fortune and glory.

Fortune and Glory cover from BoardGameGeek.com

I originally saw this played on Tabletop a long while ago and I knew I had to play it. My love of character voicing meant that I could bring this game to the next level. Pair into this my love of antiquities, mythology, and Indiana Jones, and you get a fanboy of epic proportions.

The game has two modes to play: cooperative and competitive. Our review will focus on a two-player competitive game using quick start rules.

My partner and I randomly picked our characters and it was the Russian scientist against a New York journalist. From the get go, it had a story of epic proportions. Communist versus Democracy, Science versus Art, Man versus Woman, there were plenty of themes that made this an epic confrontation.

Fortune and Glory near the end of our game.

As we got started, there was a lot of rules looking up, but it felt light and fun the more we played. Even my partner who doesn’t enjoy strategy loved the narrative that this game provided. Most adventures have a bit of chance to them, so the dice rolling felt exciting to see if we would end of a cliffhanger or continue throughout our adventure.

With lots of cards, tokens, dice, and miniatures, this game is huge. The box itself had considerable heft and is bursting out the seams with fun. I am definitely putting this on my must have list.