Monthly Archives: April 2020

Mobile Escape: Family Secrets

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A mysterious cousin … Who is he? What does he want? Where has he gone?

Rating: Outstanding
Completion Time: 42 minutes
Date Played: 29th of April 2020
Party Size: 2

Mobile Escape NAILED IT! Admittedly, it took us a while to stop giggling about how funny the opening letter is… A long lost cousin who your family have kept secret suddenly wants to give you an enormous fortune. Yep, I’m 99% sure I’ve received spam emails like this – but it’s still utterly charming.

Once we got into the story, I honestly had such a good time and I’m happy to say that this is probably my favourite play-at-home escape room I’ve done during quarantine so far. It’s effortlessly simple. Treasure maps, compasses, mysterious coins, things to cut out, things to measure, things to draw on.

The game DOES rely a lot on slower cipher codes which might not be good for a big group, but it paces the game nicely – and mixes it up with some real nice “aha!” moments too.

More than anything I felt very engaged in the story, it was authentic. What a cool cousin it turns out you have too! Who is he? Where is he (by the accent, I think Canada – haha)? Why was he not at that wedding last summer? Does he want to catch up over some baby photos?

No spoilers, but the ending got to me and I literally CANNOT WAIT for part 2.

Family Secrets can be purchased for $14.99 CAD on Mobile Escape‘s website.

Escape Hunt: Treasure of the Aztecs | Review

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Escape Hunt Treasure of the Aztecs Review | Can you decipher the ancient Aztec clues and find Montezuma’s long lost treasure?

Completion Time: 39 minutes
Date Played: 26th of April 2020
Party Size: 2


This is the second play at home escape room I’ve played since quarantine started, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it! What a brilliant and charming way to bring the escape room genre to your living room. A great way to stay in contact with friends, family, and well… Not lose your mind in lockdown. Haha.

Treasure of the Aztecs is a new game in this genre by Escape Hunt and it didn’t disappoint! The idea being that so long as you have a printer at home, you can play a similar, 1-hour long ‘at home’ escape room. It’s a unique new genre and a pretty exciting way to play if you’re locked at home.

The story goes, split out over two parts, you and your teammates go on a big ole’ treasure hunt across the world. Think: Maps… Codes… Ancient Aztec texts to decipher. It’s exciting, fairly realistic, and exactly what you want in a treasure hunt! You’ll have to find precise locations, uncover hidden clues in historical documents, and really put yourself in the mind of early treasure hunters hot on the trail of one of the world’s most infamous treasure hoards ever.

In this game, one thing I particularly enjoyed was the addition of a chat bot (or should I say… a direct line to the director of the museum *cough*) to help. In the same way you’d have a Games Master monitoring your real life escape room, at any point in Treasure of the Aztecs, you could pick up your phone and ask for a hint. The hints come through conversationally and you must check your answers with the Museum Director as you go.

You’re communicating your treasure hunt progress with a third party, and receiving clues to the next steps along the way. For example, you solve something, he’ll send a team of excavators out to investigate, and the game proceeds. It worked well to keep the story moving along.

Overall, a tricky new genre to nail – but Treasure of the Aztecs definitely holds a candle to ‘real life’ escape rooms, as a fun way to spend an evening at home. The best part, you’re not on a timer. So why not give this a go over a meal, a couple of days, or as a party activity?

The Treasure of the Aztecs can be purchased for £14.99 on Escape Hunt‘s website.

ClueQuest: Stolen IQ | Review

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ClueQuest Stolen IQ Review | Agent Lisa Hammerschmidth has discovered Professor Blacksheep’s evil plan. For some time now, the despicable sheep has secretly been kidnapping top scientists, and forcing them to join his attempts at world domination.

Rating: Brilliant
Completion Time: 70 minutes
Date Played: 12th of April 2020
Party Size: 2

Our second play at home escape room in a week! Maybe being quarantined isn’t quite so bad when you have brilliant adventures like these to play, eh?

clueQuest’s real life games are hugely popular in London, and their print and play experiences are no less high quality than the real life counterpart. Whilst the real life sites remain shut for a while longer, you can keep up with the super spy antics of Mr Q and his troupe of anthropomorphic animals.

Stolen IQ by Cluequest is a long awaited print and play game for me… As someone who has completed every single escape room Cluequest offer, this game couldn’t come fast enough. On receiving my code, I immediately sent it to the printer- alas! No black ink. But I think blue looks just as cool.

In Stolen IQ you play the role of a secret spy on the hunt for Agent Crimson who has gone missing. In typical ClueQuest fashion it has mice, sheep, and theatrical hilarity! All intermixed with brilliant puzzles requiring tactile manipulation, cutting, folding and sticking.

One thing is for sure, and that there’s a lot of cutting out! On each page you print out theres at least one thing to cut – ranging from one or two things that’ll need to be folded, to lots of itty bitty small pieces of paper that will play a biggger role later when you get to solving the puzzles.

In particular we enjoyed the digital aspect of the game. clueQuest provide a simple online interface for inputting your answers as you go. Very satisfying! However – satisfying or not, it was hard! Our completion time came in over 1hr, but I’ll blame that on the breaks we took to top up our drinks.

*nervous sweat*

…That or the time we took to admire al the beautiful illustrations. Of which there are many!

…Overall good fun, and one of the better priced play at home escape rooms on the market at the moment! And if you have as much free time as I do right now you’ve no reason not to give it a go!

Stolen IQ can be purchased for £12 on ClueQuest’s website.