Exit the Game: The Pharaoh’s Tomb

This is the second of the three (now six) currently available Exit: The Game sets which I and my wife have played; the first one being The Secret Lab. We just finished it a few minutes ago and I had such a blast playing it I had to try and get my thoughts down for you all ASAP.

First, some basics in case you’re not familiar with Exit: The Game. These games are play-at-home escape rooms. That is to say, there will be a scenario—such as being stuck in an Egyptian Tomb behind a large stone door which has just sealed behind you—and you will need to solve a series of riddles/puzzles in order to “escape”. Technically, there is also a time limit placed on you, but the Exit games are flexible on this point; just do your best and solve all the riddles and get out; regardless of how much time it takes you, you WILL feel a sense of accomplishment when you “escape”.

The box comes with a small instruction booklet which will give you a general overview of how the parts—notebook, “decoder” wheel, and riddle, answer and clue cards—are used in the course of play in addition to the actual parts needed to play. In this case, a notebook, the riddle and answer cards, and two “mysterious items” which you will be instructed to get out as you “find” them by solving the various riddles of the game. It also comes with a set of hint/clue cards which you can use if you get stuck on any of the various riddles; these cards are symbol coded to match the riddles, so you’ll know which set of clues to refer to for each riddle.

The game states it is for 1-6 players, but both sets we have played we have played with just my wife and I, and it has worked out well for us. It might be helpful to have more sets of eyes and brains (i.e.- more players) working on things, but I can also see how more hands might just get in each other’s way. So far, we usually have enough to be able to keep us both engaged with the game at all times and neither of us have felt left out in the solution(s) to any of the riddles.

Exit isn’t the only play-at-home escape room game out there right now. There are at least 3 others—Unlock (from Asmodee), Escape the Room (from ThinkFun), and Escape Room: The Game (from Spin Master Games). I haven’t tried any of the other types yet, but we do have one of the Unlocks here at home waiting its turn to be played.

Here’s the one big downside (for some folks) to the Exit games: you destroy them when you play them.

I’ll let that sink in.

If it helps, think of the Exit games as legacy games with only one scenario; so Pandemic Legacy with one game instead of twelve, and you either win or don’t.

DO NOT let that dissuade you from playing any of the Exit games. Having now played two of them (and we already have the third set—The Abandoned Cabin—waiting in the wings) I cannot recommend them enough. Once I played the Secret Lab, I rated it a 9/10. I gave this one a 10/10.

That said, this one did seem more challenging to us than the first one we played. We played through Secret Lab in around 90-120 minutes (give or take). Pharaoh’s Tomb took us almost 3 hours(!) to play. But we really felt a huge sense of accomplishment when we “broke out”.

And that’s how I’ll wind up. These games have left us both feeling immensely satisfied. Yes, we can only play each set once. Yes, it took us around 3 hours to play (this one). But we both felt that those were three hours well spent—doing something engaging and fun together vs watching television for the same amount of time—and we both really want to play more of these games. With a price point of just $14.95 (less than it would cost for us both to go to the movies) it’s one of the best expenditures of money we have made this year.

When the next three Exit sets come out later this year, we will definitely be buying them all (we did). You should too.

‘nuf said.