It’s all logical
Take on the role as one of Scotland Yard’s finest detectives as you hunt down the suspects behind the world’s most audacious heist!
Five priceless treasures have been stolen across London and the five dastardly thieves have escaped the police’s clutches once more. But intelligence has it that they will strike again soon. Can you work your way through the evidence and reveal which thief stole which item and where they’ll strike next?
Escape Hunt have been running live escape games since 2013, and have branches across the globe, but Gord and I have never actually played a live game at any of their venues. But the joy of these new Play at Home games from so many escape room companies is that I can now get an escape room-esque, puzzle filled experience while wearing my pyjamas. And as an added bonus, snacks are actively encouraged while playing, unlike in a live escape game.
CONCEPT/EXECUTION
The pack contains approximately ten or 11 pages, although it is very heavy on the ink, but you can also get away with only printing two or three of the pages, and viewing the rest on your device. However, if you’re playing with more than one person physically in the same space and print all of the material, you will be able to tackle different pieces of evidence, simultaneously, giving Stolen a feeling more akin to a traditional escape room, where your team can all split off to explore independently, coming together later with the information and analysing it as a group. This is particularly helpful when playing with a larger team, as everyone can feel as though they are involved. The structure of the game also lends itself well to playing remotely via video call, as you can each explore the materials and come together to discuss.
Stolen fell a little bit flat at the end, and that’s simply because there wasn’t an ending. As we finished filling out the last of the puzzle grid, I turned to Gord and said, “Now what do we do with this?” We finished the game in roughly 41 minutes, having taken no clues, and ultimately, we ended up going through the clue system at the end to verify that we had filled out the puzzle grid correctly, but the lack of definite conclusion and subsequent confusion left us feeling just a bit deflated upon completion of the game.
PUZZLES
Stolen was essentially one big logic puzzle, and we used the information presented to us to determine who stole what, from where, on what day and when. In order to do this, your observational skills will need to be on point, but also, your deductive reasoning will get a bit of a workout. Many of the tasks relied on one’s ability to analyse the information in front of you, and use that to either eliminate, or confirm a possibility.
Outside of the observational/searching aspect and the main objective puzzle, we came across a few instances of more thought provoking puzzles requiring a variety of skills: decoding, spatial awareness, and requires one or two moments of lateral thinking, but the highlight of the game for me was the one moment of real world interaction. We’ve come across this before, done to various degrees of success, and I would have loved to see more instances of things like this that pulled us into the world that Escape Hunt have tried to create.
CLUE SYSTEM
When you purchase Stolen, you receive a link to a part of Escape Hunt’s website with a few clues for each piece of evidence/puzzle, and finally the solution, or the information you should have been able to deduce from the evidence. While there are certainly ways to improve upon this, perhaps by integrating it into the story, there are worse clue systems out there, and this one is at least functional.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I have loved logic puzzles for as long as I can remember and that love allowed me to enjoy Stolen a bit more than I might have otherwise. It’s not a bad game, but it was let down by the lack of a clear, or really any form of, conclusion.
TOOLS REQUIRED
- Printer
- 3-11 pages of paper (depending on how much you choose to print)
- Scissors
- Device (Laptop/desktop/phone/tablet)
- Internet connection
Final Rating:
Puzzles | |
Concept/Execution | |
Clue System | |
Value for Money | |
Enjoyment |
Team: 2 players
Time Taken: 41:00
Website: https://escapehunt.com/uk/play-at-home-games/
*Disclaimer: we weren’t charged for this experience, but this has not influenced our review.
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