Exit: The Pharaoh's Tomb | Exit: The Game - A Kosmos Game | Kennerspiel Des Jahres Winner | 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

My husband and I have done 2 real escape rooms and loved them both. During the quarantine I wanted to find something non-electronic that we could do together and a cooperative game sounded like just the thing. We started the EXIT series with the Mysterious Museum (a level 2), then Secret Lab (3 1/2). Since then we’ve also played Pharoah’s Tomb (4) and Sunken Treasure (2) and have Forgotten Island (3) and Forbidden Castle (4) waiting in the wings. Having done four of these games so far, this is what I have to say: We are absolutely AMAZED at the cleverness. I’m particularly amazed that although each game follows the same basic format (i.e. once you’ve played one you will know quickly how to play the rest), each one is completely and utterly different in terms of theme and puzzles to solve. We have seen no duplications of anything, though each game does give you more ideas about how to think for the next one. We time each clue and then enjoy going back over what stumped us. Some puzzles took 1-3 minutes, others took 20-30 minutes or more. On the first game my husband felt we were stuck too long at one point so he went for a clue, but I was sorely disappointed that we did that. Since then we tough it out - NO CLUES! Though after we’ve escaped the room it’s fun to go back and read them. Also - these are one and done games. In other words, once you solve it you won’t want to do that again (unless some time has passed and you have a terribly memory) because it’s one solution - one game. There is no variation if you play it again. BUT... for the price - it’s cheaper than two movie tickets (also one and done) and totally worth it for an evening of entertainment. They say you have to cut/tear/bend and while that’s true we managed to keep each of the games in tact and passed them along to friends. Sometimes it SAYS to cut so we cut and just taped back together. If bending was required we used our imagination so as not to deface the game or give clues to the next players. We were able to make it happen each time. So technically you can pass it along if you want to, but even if you didn’t - like I say - cheaper than going to the movies. How many people? One could do it. Two was perfect for us. MAYBE three, but the caveat is that the pieces are small and can only be looked at by a couple people at a time. If you had a group of 4 or 5, someone will be waiting. Two people is great because the ones I got quickly, he wouldn’t have and visa versa. My only complaint: the writing is quite small on some of the pieces making it really difficult for me to read. My younger-eyed husband didn’t have a problem, but if it were just me the tiny print on some of the cards would have taken away some of the joy. So far we’ve had four great date nights and had a blast. The people who aren’t liking this game obviously just bought the wrong game for them. Go into it understanding and accepting the challenge and you will do just fine. The clues are pretty good and are progressive... so lets say you take a clue and you already had figured that out - it won’t count against you and you have two more progressive clues to check if you’d like. So there is no reason you can’t finish or understand the game. Be patient, clever, and think outside the box (or sometimes inside the box, but I digress...) LOVE.THESE.GAMES. !!!

This is rated on difficulty scale as 4 out of 5, but I think it is easier than that. I’d say it’s more a 3 1/2 out of 5. So don’t let the difficulty scare you off. My family has done many of the Exit games and we all enjoyed this one a lot. It felt fairly linear which is not the case with many of the more advanced difficulty games. One hint without a spoiler - there is one puzzle near the end that doesn’t explain itself correctly. The riddle cards make it seem like things must be in a straight line, but that is not so. You’ll know what I”m talking about once you get to that puzzle. Ultimately one of the best in the series. Not exactly for beginners of Exit games, but if you have done a few of the 3 level games you should be fine to play this one. Don’t let the difficulty level scare you off. It should also not be your first game in the series.

Really hard and challenging but a lot of fun! Especially if you are interested in archeology and Egyptian history, definitely buy

Abbiamo avuto due molte lamentele con questo gioco: le immagini nel manuale stampato da moderato a scadente sono troppo difficili per vedere alcune cose abbastanza chiaramente (un istruttore di YouTube online ha consigliato di usare la torcia del tuo cellulare su di esso, il che aiuta, ma ancora non con grande risultati sufficienti). L'altra nostra difficoltà è stata con i modi oscuri e non del tutto intelligenti ma più che altro "complicati" in cui vengono forniti gli indizi nel libro e le istruzioni passo passo: sembra spesso mancare di logica ed essere più simile a un gioco di fortuna a volte . Le carte "indizio" erano quasi sempre cose che già conoscevamo dal nostro pensiero, quindi a volte avevamo bisogno di un elenco di utenti di fanatici del gioco online passo dopo passo quando rimanevamo bloccati e non riuscivamo a trovare la nostra strada oltre un certo punto. I miei ragazzi di 11 e 15 anni che amano risolvere gli indizi e i giochi MENSA si sono arresi confusi e/o annoiati con questo. A 54 anni mi sono seduto per la prima metà circa, e poi mi sono fermato quando è arrivato al punto in cui avresti dovuto tagliare piccoli pezzi del manuale e iniziare a mettere insieme il tipo di arti e mestieri per risolvere. Ci riproverò un giorno, ma non lo consiglio per la maggior parte delle famiglie. Ma ... leggi altre recensioni: mi è venuto in mente che forse questa è una cosa culturale, e in alcune culture forse giochi come questo sono più tipici e gli utenti più abituati a questo tipo di gioco.

Best of the series Do not start the exit adventures with this one

Just like how I have read online reviews about this one, it’s dripping with a lot of theme… if you like those “escape the pyramid” style themes, you could really pick this one up. It’s a 4 star on the difficulty scale though so make sure if you have at least tried a few other easier ones to ease you in before exploring this one ya.

Excellent game, tons of fun. Very good game to spent a good time with friends and family.