Exit: The Forbidden Castle | Exit: The Game - A Kosmos Game | Family-Friendly, Card-Based at-Home Escape Room Experience for 1 to 4 Players, Ages 12+

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. !!!

Update: tried a 2 difficulty and it was perfect! Still hard enough we needed a clue and 2 hours to solve, and had to really think on a few of the riddles, but easy enough my 7 year old could solve some without our help too. Such a great series of games. This is excellent. Updating my rating to 5 stars.Original review. I bought this for Christmas for my 7 year old who has been wanting to try an Escape room. Unfortunately I didn’t realize there are different difficulty levels and got a harder one, but our family of 3 eventually solved it after 3 hours, and with quite a bit of help from the clue cards. We already have ordered another one but at a lower difficulty level so hopefully we may be able to solve a little easier. Well thought out game though! Worth the money even though you can only play once (cheaper than a real escape room!)

Reminds me of old school computer adventure games. Puzzles vary in challenge level but are always satisfying when you get em! Fun for family and/or friends.n

I played with my mom and the puzzles were complicated but not too hard to complete. I recommend buying!

This is a more advanced level game. If this is your first time playing an Exit game, I would recommend beginning with one that is a two or less circle level game.

These games are so fun. I want to buy a new one every time I finish one.

My (adult) kids and I got this to play together for Easter. We have done an Escape Room version of this type of game before. We were so completely lost. I am not certain if that is from the level of the game or from our lack of experience with this type of challenge, but we got frustrated about two hours in and quit. I do think it would be a fun challenge for people that like these types of challenges.

My family (2 adults and an 18 and 15 year old) loves escape rooms so I thought this might be fun to do over Christmas break. Great idea, but the clues were very hard to decipher and had to use the clue cards on almost everyone of them. Still took us almost 2 hours to complete and we had pretty much lost interest by the time we did. Luckily it didn't cost very much.