One for the family, maybe? Not enthusiasts
Inside the bank is the most precious and valuable jewel in the world, the Grand Diamond. You’ve been recruited as part of a crack team to break into the bank and steal the diamond without getting caught. Can you do it?
Our second game of the night from Escape at Home, after playing ‘History Re-written’ was to be the Grand Diamond Heist, a game that I must confess we knew nothing about. The title of the game was pretty explanatory but what we didn’t expect was to have to do so much printing, 19 pages in total, but fortunately, it was set up so we could save some ink by printing in grayscale.
When you purchase this game you receive around five files in total; the game file in greyscale, the same file but in colour (prettier), a clue file, a cheat sheet, and a printable certificate for if/when you complete it.
After waiting what felt like an eternity for our clunky old printer to chuck out the required pages, we finally had them ready and our heist began.
CONCEPT/EXECUTION
We’ve done a fair number of print and play games now so we have a good idea of what to expect. What kind of threw us with this game was that there was no way to verify our solutions to the puzzle. This meant that we worked out what we thought it was and then just moved on. Often there will be some tie in with a website so you know what you’ve done is right but really all you can do is check the cheat sheet which ruined it a bit.
We found ourselves just moving from one puzzle to the next without really knowing if we had the correct answer, just knowing that we’d need our solution again at a later point.
This game is a pure print and play so literally expect to only interact with the paper in front of you. The good thing though is that you get all the files in one go so you can print everything before you start and then play the game through.
PUZZLES
The puzzles as you may expect were more tangible and involved a fair amount of cutting and manipulation to solve. There was a math puzzle (a small one), and then just some general puzzles that all resulted in numerical codes once solved.
This game was definitely on the easier side and wouldn’t keep hardcore puzzlers entertained for long, but it looks like it is more geared towards the family market so do bear that in mind.
Most of the puzzles were quite quick and straight forward but we found one puzzle lacked clarity on how to complete it and another went on far, far too long. One positive was the last puzzle as that gave a fun and tangible reminder of physical escape rooms.
CLUE SYSTEM
In order for us to rank well on the clue system, it really needs to feel part of the game, or at least easily accessible. In our Diamond Heist if we needed a clue we had to turn to the computer to see the hints file – unless of course we had already printed it (which we weren’t going to do). So the process of getting help felt very clunky and didn’t work for us.
With there being a document containing all the answers this game felt like a good option for families to play together. You can print as many copies as you like and make teams compete against each other, with one overlord watching over and guiding everyone – that would be a better way to play this.
FINAL THOUGHTS
As an escape room, this isn’t good, but as a game for a family activity then it’s probably not too bad. We enjoyed one puzzle, but only one.
TOOLS REQUIRED
- Internet Connection (we used Chrome just to be safe)
- Search Engine of choice
- Printer (ink and paper)
- Pen and Paper for note taking
Final Rating:
Puzzles Concept/Execution Clue System Value for Money Enjoyment
Team: 2 players
Time Taken: 36 minutes
Website: https://www.escapefromhome.co.uk
*Disclaimer: we weren’t charged for this experience, but this has not influenced our review.
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