Escape Team brings affordable escape room thrills to mobile

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#1

Originally published at: http://statelyplay.com/2017/12/08/escape-team-brings-affordable-escape-room-thrills-to-mobile/

iOS, Android, Tabletop •


Tabletop games that emulate escape rooms are all the rage these days, with one version even winning this year’s Kennerspiel des Jahres award. These games tend to be $10-15 and are one-time deals. Once you’ve played through the puzzle, the game is useless to you. Some folks have an issue with board games they can’t replay, but spending $10-15 to get a group of your friends together for a fairly authentic escape room experience is way cheaper than paying $25+ per person for the real thing.

Escape Team is a new escape room title that uses your phone as its centerpiece while getting rid of that pesky $10-15 bill you had to pay for EXIT or Unlock. Intriguing, isn’t it?

Escape Team gets away with being so cheap because you’ll be supplying your own game materials, namely some printouts, scissors, pens, and whatnot. Similar to the Unlock series, it uses an app as its centerpiece, but you won’t need to pay for a deck of cards from Asmodee, thank you very much. Printouts need to be single-sided because you’ll be marking them up, cutting and folding them as you try to work your way to each solution.

The game comes with one mission unlocked for free, with the other four missions available via IAP for $1/each. You can freely download the required files here for zilch, meaning the only cost you’ll incur for each puzzle is a buck. Hell, even if the puzzles aren’t that difficult, $1 for 30-60 minutes isn’t a bad deal.

Currently there are five missions available, but they’re promising more to be released in the future. Considering that my kids love escape room games and I happen to have a couple bucks burning a hole in my pocket, I think I know what I’ll be doing this weekend.

https://youtu.be/i90EvaylDHc
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#2

I have yet to play an escape room game of any kind, whether tabletop or otherwise. I am certainly intrigued by this app, but while we are on the topic, do any of you have any recommendations for an escape-room-in-a-box? I’m in complete agreement with Dave that the money is a small price to pay for a good experience with friends.

#3

I you do play these this weekend, it would be great to hear about how it was–what the experience and quality was like. I mean, for a dollar, I’m not expecting much–it’s more about Was it worth the time?

And like Mirefox, I too would appreciate recommendations.

#4

Not played them but Unlock seems to be ranked better than the Exits on BGG, for what it’s worth which is not very much.

#5

I’ve only played two of the Exit games, and they’ve both satisfied the Escape Room experience. Every review I’ve read has said that the Exit games are the best of the escape room genre.

#6

I’ve played both the EXIT games and the Unlock games and I liked the EXIT games better. They were both fun, but the EXIT games felt more like a real escape room due to having to cut up cards and such. The Unlock games felt a little more gamey and we had a few issues with the app where we weren’t sure if we were doing everything right until we got a little bit into it.

Both were fun, though and I’d happily play one from either series.

#7

Havent played the unlock and exit games, but played the “tutorial” and first free mission from Escape Team together with my wife and it certainly was a nice experience.
We are gonna play the other missions another time for sure. Really worth the money!

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