Thames & Kosmos EXIT: The Pharaoh's Tomb - Kennerspiel des Jahres Winner-2017

So much fun. Love the imagination that goes into making these.

We've now done 5 of these (Castle, island, catacombs, lab & finally this one) so are fully in the swing of how these work. Playing with our 3 kids (11, 13, 19) on a Sunday afternoon with snacks has become a really nice routine. This was our favourite so far, everything seemed to fall into place & it takes a slightly different angle with the solution compared to the others (I agree with a prev reviewer to put Card P aside at the start). It also had the nicest background sounds on the companion app. Are they easy? Not particularly though they do work in a certain way so each subsequent game gets easier to work through though they are never easy in themselves. I'd recommend starting on the 1 or 2 'circle' difficulty (as shown at the bottom of the box as pictured) so you can get to grips with how the creators think. We started on a 4 & it was a little frustrating at times esp working as a group of five. All in all these are, frankly, bloody brilliant & I'll be disappointed when we've worked our way through them all - which we will.

3 x exit games that get more tricksy. Brilliant

This was our first time playing these type of games, and so the concept was quite new to me and my friends. It took us quite some time just to understand how it was supposed to work, as the instructions weren't clear enough; that in itself was a puzzle! But once we got the hang of it, we had a great time! It kept us entertained for 2 hours. Some puzzles unraveled as the game went on which is great because sometimes it would throw you off, keeping you trying to solve other puzzles for longer!! The final puzzle was the toughest! The only downside is the main booklet. Sharing a tiny booklet between 5 isn't actually great - if there were 2 copies of the booklet, to share around, it would've been better! Especially since some of the puzzles are in the book, you have to wait til friends are done looking at it to look at it yourself. The tiny size requires you to have good eyesight too, it should've been printed bigger as I think some people will struggle with it.

This game was difficult! I've done a number of escape rooms, both virtually and in person, and this one was one of the most difficult ones I've done. Granted, I'd had about 2/3rds of a bottle of prosecco at the time, but I had to use almost all of the clues. It also took me 3 hours to complete. My husband gave up after 45 minutes. Determined as always, I persevered and made it to the end. It was good fun though, and definitely worth purchasing. Probably better with more people though! I don't think I'll be joining MI5 anytime soon.

Excellent game

We enjoyed playing this game visiting the various train carriages. Vaguely reminiscent of Agatha Christie. As with all of these games: A couple of the clues were too obscure for us to get, but we skipped using the help cards. The help clues occasionally to jump from telling you what you already know to the solution. The actual hint needed is that numbers aren't very clearly defined sometimes, you need to get exactly the right angle or distance plus a healthy dose of imagination to see that it's a number 6 not a 5 for example. Orient Express is a great game though one of the best in the series.

Was really excited when I ordered this game. When we went to play it turns out to be quite tricky to set up and understand how the game works. Disappointed to say the least. As I had opened it I assume it would of been non refundable, so I dropped it off to my local charity shop

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

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

I absolutely loved this Exit game! My boyfriend and I solved it together in about two hours, and it was such a great experience. It’s hour first exit game, so that’s why it probably took us so long. The clues were well thought out, and the difficulty level felt just right, engaging but not frustrating (considering we solve puzzles quite frequently). Perfect for a cozy game night! We’ll definitely be trying more from this series.

En escape-room-upplevelse som kan spelas vart som helst. Roligt koncept, dock synd att man bara kan spela igenom varje spel en gång. Notera även att denna versionen av spelet är på engelska men att det finns en svensk version.

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.