Escape Room The Game: The Little Girl – Forget the terrors, the clock is your true enemy

The concept of escape rooms is simple: a mystery, a timer, and lots of panicking. In Escape Room The Game by Identity Games the players are given these same elements but instead of an actual room, the players only need a little box and all the materials inside it so it’s possible to play it everywhere – it’s like a board game version of escape rooms. It’s also notable that buying the original version of Escape Room The Game includes a physical Chrono Decoder -code cracker, but since we didn’t have it, we used a companion app that works as a code cracker as well.

The adventure we played was called The Little Girl. It’s a horror-themed game, where the two players need to work as detectives to solve a haunting mystery in 60 minutes. The story focuses on the Mortician, a serial killer, who has been arrested five years ago. Now it seems that the same type of murders could start happening again and as Chris, the father of the fictional detective in the game, disappears in the same circumstances as previous victims from years ago, the players need the Mortician’s help to reach Chris in time. The main question is who is the mysterious Mortician copycat?

This was my first escape room experience ever so I had no idea how escape rooms work in practice. However, soon it was obvious that the objective is to crack codes to gain progress and finally finish before the timer. Getting the right code is done by solving puzzles, which could vary from map interpretation to riddles. We even had to play hangman, connect four and have an ear for music. After the right code is entered, the players can move on to the next “room”. There were three rooms in total so three right codes are required to complete the game. Palms were sweaty, knees weak and arms were heavy as we desperately tried to solve the mystery by using our own reasoning with the help of clues from the materials and hints which were possible to check after certain amounts of time. A nice little feature was the thrilling music which was possible to add to the background of our session via the companion app. Other than that, the horror theme was very banal and didn’t really add much to the experience.

It also truly surprised me, how the player must notice each little detail. That’s why it’s recommendable to have a paper and a pen right next to you for making notes. Even though at first the mystery even with the help of hints could feel impossible to solve, believing in yourself and never giving up are the right mentalities for a challenge like this. Finding good communication with your fellow player is also a crucial part of the game because it does need a lot of co-operation and both players’ little grey cells. With good chemistry, communicative and challenging games like this are a great way to spend an evening.

The horror theme of the game was very mainstream, and actually, the clock is what makes the player sweat. The worst part is that every time the code is entered incorrectly, one minute will be taken out of the time. This is what makes the adventure stressful, but if finished in time, very rewarding. Of course, the mystery is possible to solve after the timer has run out but that won’t give nearly as good satisfaction as solving it in time. That’s why the ticking clock is your true enemy.

Designer: Identity Games

Publisher: Identity Games

Release date: 2020

Number of players: two

Playing time: 60 minutes

Age: 16+

All photos are taken by the author.

 

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