You are smugglers in the Outer Rim, facing danger and the unexpected every day. Today, while transporting expensive cargo belonging to Jabba the Hutt, you are intercepted by an Imperial Star Destroyer! Imperial operatives impound your ship and confiscate everything in your cargo bay. You know it is only a matter of time before they take a close look and discover Jabba‘s hidden illegal goods. There‘s no time to waste. You need to break out of your cell, rescue your astromech and get hold off the cargo. Then all you need to do is recover your ship and escape!
Rating: Exciting!
Completion Time: 35:36
Date Played: 26th February 2021
Party Size: 2
Recommended For: Star Wars Fans, people who love an adventure
An Unforseen Delay is the second boxed game in the Star Wars Unlock! series, after Escape from Hoth and part two in my effort to find a play at home escape game my Player 2 loves as much as I do. This time round we’re playing ‘grey area’ smugglers, arrested and locked away by the bad guys (the Imperials – see, I’m learning). In all sense of the word, it’s a true escape room. You must escape!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m not really a Star Wars fan, so consider this review a bit of an ‘outsider’ perspective, with more of a focus on whether the game is fun for non-Star Wars folks. I reckon the vast majority of people picking up this game will be into Star Wars but just in case you’re not – you can still have fun! There’s one or two moments in which context is important. For example, if you recognise R2D2 as an astromech droid you’ll know what they can (and can’t) fix. But if you didn’t have the context, you’d probably trip up and make a couple of mistakes before getting it correct.
So how did we get on?
In this team of 2, I think we smashed it at 35 minutes! Maybe one of the fastest Unlock! game times I’ve managed – but don’t quote me on that. We used 4 hints, which in hindsight we probably didn’t need to use – but I’m very much a “just ask for a hint” person, no shame.
Unlock! games have pretty cool gameplay mechanics, and as part of the Star Wars franchise this one was delightfully high tech. The game is essentially composed of a deck of cards and a mobile app. Each card has a number on it and only when you ‘discover’ the number (for example by spotting it hidden in an image, by adding two cards together, or by being told to) can you draw it from the deck. When you come across code or machine cards (yellow and green) you must head to the app and do something there. This ranges from entering a simple 4 digit code, to super cool augmented reality graphics and complex manoeuvres to perform on the screen.
An added bonus in Unlock! Star Wars is that you get “help”. At the start of the game you get to draw a number of helper cards which give you hints to use at particular moments in the game, for example a clue to solving a puzzle or a reminder to do something *cough* which despite the warning I actually failed to do during the game.
An Unforseen Delay is the 2nd hardest in the Star Wars series (or 2nd easiest, depending how you look at it). Ironically though, we found it about the same as Escape from Hoth, if not possibly slightly easier. But this massively depends on what you want in a game. I’ve played a lot of Unlock! and so expected certain puzzles not present in Escape from Hoth but that were present in An Unforseen Delay. So take that however you like!
However, just like Escape from Hoth, this game makes excellent use of the app! In particular, the ‘end game’ puzzle once you finally do break out of your prison cell, rescue your cargo and go to fly out of the base. All at once the game became like an actual video game and despite a few mistakes made early on, we managed to ace it in true Disney / Star Wars “woohoo we saved the day” style.
Overall, we really enjoyed it. Honestly, I tend to enjoy a game a lot more if my Player 2 enjoys it and as a Star Wars fan, all the boxes were ticked. It wasn’t the hardest game, nor the easiest, and I’m still not sure who is who in the Star Wars universe. But there’s something extra fun about being able to geek out, put on the music, make a themed cocktail, and immerse yourself in a sci-fi world.
Star Wars Unlock! can be purchased from most major online retailers for around £35 GBP
[…] we begin, you can check out my review for the two earlier parts of this boxed trilogy, An Unforseen Delay and Escape from Hoth here. Since each story in this game is a whole hour-long standalone game, […]
[…] experience with other series, such as Unlock!’s Star Wars games, official IP games tend to err on the side of easy as they target a more mass market audience, but […]