EXIT: The Forbidden Castle - Level: 4/5 - Unique Escape Room Game - 1-4 Players - Puzzle Solving Strategy Board Games for Adults & Kids, Ages 12+ - 692872

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.

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

Escape room puzzle games were all the rage in 2017/18, and Kosmos led the way with these games. I bought this one for my mum (in her 70's) and we played it over a Sunday afternoon. You are given a booklet, a set of puzzle cards and a set of answer cards. You begin locked in a castle and you must find a series of keys that will turn different locks that will eventually free you from the castle. And that's it... you must find the clue to the first puzzle card, then turn that card over. The card gives you further information to enable you to find the next key. There is a code ring included with the game. The code ring shows different key parts of one of three rings. So the key head shapes are on the outer ring, key shafts in the middle ring and then the end part on the smallest ring. Once you have got enough information to find a given key shape, you enter it into the code wheel. A number gets displayed in a small window in the centre of the code wheel. You then pick up the answer card that bears that number and it will tell you if you are correct or not. If you are correct, it leads you to the next clue and so on. The puzzles are excellent and very creative/imaginative, although sometimes we found that a couple of them were a good idea, but fell a bit short when you actually perform them. You have to think cryptically as well as literally. If you get stuck, there are some hint cards you can refer to that will put you on the right track. We downloaded the app which includes a soundtrack to play during play which was fun, but it gets louder as you go and eventually it just became distracting so we turned it off. Point of note: - you will destroy parts of this game in order to progress, so this is a play-once only game. But at under £15, and for the amount of fun in the game, this really isn't an issue. If you love puzzles, then you must get one of these games and give it a go. More players can be a help or hindrance as you can get put down a misleading avenue by someone convinced they know the answer. If you don't like puzzles, then there is nothing here for you. Every once in a while, a new game mechanic comes along that really shakes up the modern board game industry. The escape-room games are one such example. They bring a table-top version of the ever popular real-life escape rooms, and do it very, very well.

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.

3 x exit games that get more tricksy. Brilliant

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.

Excellent game

We played Thames & Kosmos EXIT: The Forbidden Castle as part of our ongoing journey through the EXIT escape room series. While it was still enjoyable overall, it wasn’t one of the best boxes we’ve played. The game is definitely challenging, which matches its 4/5 difficulty level, but some of the riddles felt more confusing than clever. At times it was difficult to understand exactly what the puzzle was asking, which slowed the game down. We also noticed that some hints seemed to refer to the wrong cards, which made a few moments frustrating because it felt like we were following the correct logic but still not progressing. Overall: Still a decent EXIT game, but not the best in the series. The difficulty is there, but a few confusing clues made the experience slightly frustrating.

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.

Okay - I haven’t played this exact one yet, but please read on: 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. !!!

Played this after the Paris Catacombs one. Found it easier than that one, mostly because the Catacombs was a 2-parter and because we had the hang of it now, but still super fun. Played as a duo with my husband as his birthday gift, and we figured out the culprit. A super fun rainy-day activity! Will be looking to do other escape-in-a-box games!

This was definitely a more challenging game, but it still was loads of fun and we were able to figure out what we were supposed to do with all of the clues. The only puzzle I didn't like involved page 9 (or at least I think it was page 9). It was clear what we were supposed to do, there was just no way I could get all the steps to work together to get a solution. However, I am sure if I spent more time on it it would have all come together.