Description
A classic tale of murder on the Orient express, reimagined. The culprit of a grisly crime is still on board your train. It’s a race against time to piece the clues together before the train reaches its destination. The case is perplexing, and you must solve it quickly so the assailant does not escape. Difficulty level: 4 of 5.
From the manufacturer
EXIT: The Game
EXIT: The Game is a series of escape room games for the home. Players must solve riddles and puzzles and crack codes to escape from an imaginary room or environment. But the clock is ticking! Can you escape?
- Escape room in a box: Bring the excitement and intensity of an escape room to your living room!
- Teamwork: Up to 4 players work together to solve the clues and escape.
- Unique themes: Each game has a different setting with clues and puzzles integrated into the storyline.
- Unplugged: App not required! Everything needed is included in the box.
- One-time use: Each game can only be played once, because you must mark up, fold, and tear the game materials to crack the codes.
EXIT: Dead Man on the Orient Express
A classic tale of murder on the Orient Express, reimagined. The culprit of a grisly crime is still on board your train. The case is perplexing, and you must work together to solve it before the train reaches its destination and the assailant can escape.
Difficulty Level: 4 of 5.
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Important information
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Danielle –
Background of the reviewer: Middle-aged mom with years of experience in the Pokemon TCG competitive community. I am a casual gamer who mostly plays with my family (Catan, Ticket to Ride, Fluxx, Pandemic) or Solo Marvel Legendary. Always looking for new gaming opportunities.Experience with Escape Room Games: This is my first purchase of and experience with a table-top escape room game. I purchased this after reading multiple BGG reviews of all of the currently available escape room games. I have not done any live escape room experiences.Out of the box: The instructions are super explicit about not examining the included materials. The box contains a plastic wrapped set of cards, a cardboard decoder, three “strange” items, a book and a rule book. The instructions are very clear in guiding players through setting up the game without accidentally revealing any information that would ruin the experience. Everything is very well-constructed and a good value for the price. It was very easy to get the game started. The other suggested materials were pencils with erasers, a pair of scissors and some paper.How hard is this to play? The directions are very clear and easy to understand, and we quickly got the hang of trying different things, talking things over, and thinking outside of the box as much as we could. The game is very well constructed and all of the components work well together. My wife and I found the puzzles extraordinarily challenging. The suggested playing time is 60-90 minutes and after two hours we were not even halfway done. We got the first riddle, but then had to use one clue on the second riddle, 2 clues on the third and could not solve the fourth. Despite how hard this was for us, it was still fun as we had some “ah-ha we got it” moments, only to realize we did not. The clues we did reveal showed us that were on the right track multiple times, but just couldn’t quite bring it home. Interestingly, each time the clue showed us how close we had come, we eagerly moved to the next riddle thinking that it would be the turning point for us. (it never was) We are clearly not of the ilk that finds success at games like this, and in hindsight, neither one of us is into puzzle-solving. We don’t do Suduku, anagrams, or other logic puzzles. I think if we had more brain-stretching experiences like this we would have fared better. We boxed it back up, but fully intend to pull it out again when are refreshed, and maybe have a third person to join in. Even though we have decided this game probably isn’t for us, we will be buying the next one in the series for our 14-year-old son who definitely loves puzzles and challenges like this.What, exactly, are you doing when you play? You are using the provided materials to solve riddles. All of the information you need to solve the puzzles is there, you just need to figure it out. Each riddle you solve “unlocks” the next set of riddles. At first you are solving one riddle, but then move on and have multiple riddles involved. You and the other player(s) are working together to brainstorm ideas of what might work. Each time you think you have it solved, you use the cardboard decoder to check your answer. If you are wrong, you go back to the drawing board. The decoder is very well made and a clever way of guiding you without revealing anything.Recommended number of players: The box says 1-4 players but I think 4 is on the high end. There is not, in my opinion, enough to keep 4 people occupied. I think this would be a great date night activity (if the couple are a lot more logical than my wife and are), or maybe for three people. I think this could also be played by six people if you used two copies (or photocopied a second set of the book) and agreed to not work ahead of the other players but worked side by side. The book that you are referring to is hard to share with two people, let alone 4, and it’s a crucial part of figuring things out. I also question the 12+ age rating. I am not sure a group of 12-year-olds could figure this out without an adult involved, but others may disagree. Once my 14 year old plays the next one in the series (after Christmas) I can update my thoughts.Replayability: This is a consumable game — components of the game are marked or destroyed as part of the play. Also, once you solve the riddles there is no point in re-playing it. When my wife realized it was not re-playable she was at first confused. Why did I buy a game that we would just throw away when we were done with it. Once I explained that it cost less than a movie ticket (I got it on sale for $10), and this was our date night activity, it made more sense to her.Final thoughts: Although this ended up not being the type of game I think we would play again (we’ll stick to Pandemic and Marvel), I do not regret the purchase in the least. I would highly recommend this to those who: enjoy logic puzzles; are creative problem solvers; have a fairly high frustration tolerance; are interested in stretching their mental muscles. It is extremely well-made, clever (at least as far as we were able to proceed), and a great experience for a good price-point. If you are considering purchasing an escape room table top game (or dropping the big bucks for a live experience), I would suggest this as a good entry game. If you enjoy it, you can consider the more expensive options out there. If, like us, it’s not your cup of tea you are out less than $15.
Dennis A. Pascale –
This is my first Exit escape game and I played it solo. I have played other company’s escape games but so far this is the best one at least for me. I am a big mystery fan so the title appealed to me. However, I would recommend you playing a different Exit scenario first. This game was very challenging. I should have headed that advice from the other reviews. Still I had a great time.In the end I failed to solve the crime. I took almost 2 hours to complete the game and I achieved sadly 2 stars. But I really enjoyed the game.I’m not sure large groups would have fun with this. It’s a great solo puzzle or perhaps a 2 player challenge. I see many reviewers play with their kids so that makes sense but I usually play games with 5 adults and based on other Escape games, I can tell you only one or two people seem to take over and the rest of us watch and contribute here or there. Since the price for this game was cheaper I wanted to experience it on my own. I took my mug of coffee went down into the man cave and spread everything out on the table. It was a fun if frustrating ride.I would also like to say I loved the ap for this game. The timer and ambient sounds were great to help me immerse myself in the game. And I recommend watching the tutorial in the ap. It’s the same as the rule book but watching the examples made it easier to understand how to play.Please heed the follow tips:First off, this is a one shot game. I thought if I cut everything neatly or tried to be careful I could conserve the game so others could play it. I was also hoping maybe I could use the game as the basis for a murder mystery party. Because I tried to be too careful I blew the first set of puzzles. I had to resort to the hint cards. I saw the lines where it said to cut a certain card but tried to do it without cutting. Big mistake. One I realized you will cut tear write on and bend almost everything in the game I had an easier time of it. So be warned you will do things you never would do in a normal board game.Second. Make sure you give yourself a few hours to play and you have a big table. You will be laying out a few piles of cards and need space to take notes and brain storm. I also started late in the evening and I actually had to pause the game and finish it the next day. (This is another reason why I love the ap it saves the time that you paused the game and you can pick up where you left off. (Yes I played fair and didn’t look at anything when I stopped for the night).Also when I say give yourself time I mean it especially with this game. At the end for the last puzzle you actually have to attempt to solve the crime and check alibis and clues. I will admit I didn’t really take the time and kind of rushed it. That wasn’t the way to do it. WARNING: once you give your answer in the final puzzle the game ends so you only get one shot to identify the culprit. Unlike the rest of the puzzles in the game you can’t go back and rethink so make sure you’re 100% confident in your answer. I will admit I rushed it but the real solution was fair play and all the clues are in the game.A final tip. Yes you will mark up fold and cut all these pretty things in the box however Do NOT cut anything until you are 100% sure you have to. There is once puzzle in the game that seems to need to be cut out but actually only certain parts are cut. Remember your grammar school training and only cut on the dotted lines. I cut up pieces to one puzzle and couldn’t solve it and had to rely on the hint cards. Don’t get me wrong, they warned me in the clue itself but I think I was over eager.The plot is a fun puzzle game take on Muder on the Orient Express. The game materials are well designed and the puzzles excellent.A lot of the negative reviews seem to state how the solutions don’t make sense but trust me from someone who didn’t solve the case when I went back over the hints and solutions I was able to see clearly where I made my mistakes.All in all this is a great puzzle challenge. It can only be used once but I thought the price tag was more reasonable than some of the other games out there like this. I’m going to start another Exit game today and I’ve order 4 more. These games are great if you like puzzles and actually give yourself time to sit enjoy it and immerse yourself in the story.
Tonja Drecker –
I first need to admit that I didn’t realize this was a one-play only when I picked it up, which is completely my oversight. I’ll also admit that I wouldn’t have been willing to buy it if I had realized that. So, that isn’t included in my star rating.This is a escape room game and is very obviously influenced by Agatha Christie’s novel, which is one reason I picked it up. The directions do take a little time to read through and understand, but this isn’t too difficult, either. The set-up is fun as the mystery uses a main booklet for certain ‘settings’ and clues, while smaller ones open up to each individual’s train car and the clues inside. There are a few extra items, which will need to be used to piece things together as well as cards, a dial, and such. Scissors, pen and paper will be needed to be used as well.There’s a short story at the beginning, and then, things get underway. The difficulty of the clues varies, which gave each of us a chance to shine (family play). We were frustrated by one or two clues, since those solutions were a bit wide-reached. There is also a character, who is listed and given a background but forgotten in the rest of the game.The game setup was quite in depth with a lot to do and held several more difficult challenges, but it just wasn’t our favorite Escape Room game.
Amazon Customer –
Boyfriend and I LOVE escape rooms so we decided to buy this and a triple-game box of Unlock! series as our first introduction to escape room board games. We played the three Unlock! games first (pretty much in a row) and while they were fun to an extent, we found ourselves pretty disappointed as a whole. The hints didn’t make sense, puzzles were a stretch, and timer was WAY too short (and distracting).THIS series, however, was. a. BLAST! The puzzles are so varied and unique! The story is AWESOME and makes the game so enjoyable (and story is not something I normally pay attention to). It’s difficult enough to keep you engaged; challenging but not to the extent where it’s no fun. The puzzles all make sense and can be reasonably thought out (i.e. even though we didn’t successfully solve them all without hints, and even needed a full answer to one, we were generally on the right track and the logic made sense once we checked the hints/answer).Yes, it’s a one-time use but, 1. It’s more expensive for a single movie ticket than this game, and 2. If you’ve ever played one of the “reusable” escape board games, you’ll definitely understand how much more satisfying this one is.I will say I wasn’t paying attention to difficulty level when I bought this game (in the Exit series) and it was our first Exit game. I can understand why it’s rated high on the scale. It took us over two hours (after the Unlock! game timer stress, we really took our time with this one–had a lot more fun that way), had to use a hints a few times, and did ultimately “fail” (but sooooo close and we could see where we went wrong) but it was still SOOO much fun!!Advice: Take your time! There is a scoring system for super escape room geeks that really want to test their skills (and have the appropriate number of people), but if you’re new to the games or have just two or three of you, don’t rush it. I promise, it’s SO much more fun to meander through it than it is using a bunch of hints to try to hit the best time.I just bought five more Exit games, haha! I’m HOOKED!
Graham R. –
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
JW –
The Sunken Treasure is the second game in the EXIT series that my wife and I have played, the other being The House of Riddles (THOR). Both games are rated at Level 2 difficulty, but The Sunken Treasure is SIGNIFICANTLY more difficult than THOR… to the point where either this should be a ‘3’ or THOR should be a ‘1’.Here’s a paradox: Although I’m rating The Sunken Treasure lower than THOR (3 vs 4), my wife and I enjoyed playing it more. I personally liked that the decoder disc was keyed by either numbers or sea creatures. I thought that was a fun twist (though everything was kind of small, requiring a magnifying glass to read). In general, the riddles were more fun to solve and more rewarding (i.e. challenging). In fact, if it weren’t for two riddles in particular that were ridiculously lame and/or incomprehensible, this game would have received a much higher rating.WARNING: The next few paragraphs contain spoilers. I’m not going to be giving out answers or describing methodology–that’s what the Help Cards are for–but you will gain a distinct advantage through this insight that you wouldn’t normally have during the course of play, and it may detract from your experience. [Actually, it might help contribute to your enjoyment; but it’s still insight you wouldn’t normally have.]============= Begin spoiler section. =============Between The Sunken Treasure and THOR, there is a trend that I consider detrimental to the game. The packaging (box, rule book, etc) is considered part of the playing pieces. First of all, in the game setup instructions they tell you to put the special objects off to the side, to be used later in the game as we “discover” them. Then why not tell us up front that the packaging is considered part of the special objects, too, and tell us when we discover those? But my biggest beef with the use of packaging in the game is the basic premise of the game. We’re supposed to be trapped in a room (or in this case a sunken wreck) and need to find a way out. How does a game box, for example, fit into the theme of being trapped in a wreck? Did there just happen to be an EXIT game box in the wreck (that didn’t disintegrate after being waterlogged for hundreds of years)? This is a fundamental disconnect from the basic premise of the game, and in my opinion detracts significantly from the experience. One such riddle in The Sunken Treasure took my wife and me 45 minutes to solve (we do try to use brainpower first before resorting to Help Cards)… and we’d still be trying to solve it if we hadn’t used a Help Card which directed us to the packaging. That’s unbelievably frustrating.There was another riddle that also took us 45 minutes to solve… and actually, we never solved it. We had to look at the solution card. We knew the methodology to use, we did everything we should have done, but making the leap from the method’s output to the actual solution, well, that was really a stretch. “Thinking outside the box” is one thing–and that’s just fine–but this was way beyond the box, and I still contend that there was no reasonable connection.============= End of spoiler section. =============So two riddles alone took us 90 minutes. In and of itself, I really don’t mind that. It merely means I get to enjoy more time with my wife engaging in a fun activity; but I’m not lying when I say that I had a headache by the time the game ended.Part of the reason for that was because of the two riddles, for sure, but the main contributor was the poor quality printing on the cards and story book. They chose a very bad background color & texture, and the writing was barely perceptible. Lots of glare, too. We didn’t have these problems with THOR, but it was bad with The Sunken Treasure.There are some things in the story line that don’t make sense (to me), but it’s just a story. A game. It doesn’t have to be 100% cohesive to be enjoyable.Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the waste from the “once and done” game materials. This game can’t be passed on to other family members or friends, or even a thrift store, when you’re finished with it.Overall, it was fun playing The Sunken Treasure. There are some frustrating moments–at least there were for me–but it was an entertaining way to spend an evening with my wife. There is no way this particular EXIT game could be enjoyed by more than two players, though (IMO). Everything is just too small. For a couple, though… go for it!
Chris O –
My family and I have had fun in a mini “brick and mortar” escape room at a recent convention but the price to take 5 of us into an escape room is pricey so it’s not something we’re going to do much. Even as a date night for just my wife and I, the cost is up there. So this new trend of escape room games at home has me excited. Having the “Exit” series also win the German Spiel des Jahres award this year also means that the trend will likely continue to give us fun new offerings.I ordered a copy of the Egypt themed “Exit” escape room game “The Pharaoh’s Tomb”. My daughter wasn’t super excited for it so it was just my two boys, my wife and I. We sat down, not knowing exactly what to expect, and opened the box. I’ll work to avoid spoilers while also letting you know what’s in there and what we experienced.The contents of the box are simple…basically you get a bunch of cards, a decoder disk, two “strange items” (paper strips with hieroglyphs), an instruction book and a diary/notebook from a previous explorer. (It’s not a spoiler but I enjoyed the nods to pop culture in that the notebook was from “Dr. Ford” and there are some hidden images that remind you of a certain whip toting, snake hating adventurer)The instructions outline how to play the game and then give an introductory story to get you started. You are part of a tour group touring the Egyptian Pyramids. You’ve been separated from your group and find your way into an impressive burial chamber. Through some accident you triggered a trap of some kind that rolled a massive stone door closed. You spy the notebook of Dr. Ford, an explorer who was searching the pyramid earlier and has discovered some clues that he hopes may lead to escape and/or greater treasure. Using his clues (and your imagination that the images from his notebook and the deck of cards represent an ancient pyramid in which you are now trapped) you must try to escape or be entombed wth the ancient pharaohs. You start a timer (not included) and work your way to escape, hoping not only to escape but to achieve a good score to brag about your exploits.Even though we obviously weren’t trapped in a pyramid (which is good since my wife is a bit claustrophobic which can cause anxiety in small escape rooms) the art, storytelling and puzzles helped draw us in and feel like we were part of an actual adventure.The first couple of puzzles were tricky but were good to help us get a feel for the way the game was meant to be played and what we were expected to do. Or so we thought…as we continued working through the puzzles and opening up new passageways we found ourselves stumped. Fortunately this game system includes a series of “help” cards that can be used to nudge you in the right direction (for a score penalty of course). We used one hint early on to just help keep the group from getting frustrated too early. Then we used additional hints later on when we felt like there was nothing else to do…and boy were we surprised at the results. I won’t spoil anything but I will applaud the creativity and the way this game really makes you try to think differently. Thematically it required a little imagination but once applied it really worked and I really enjoyed the tricky bits.It took us 88 minutes to escape and we used 6 help cards which scored us 4 stars (out of 10). Probably not a great score but definitely a great experience and I look forward to trying out the other Exit games (as well as other escape room home games).The one problem I have with the game is that it really is a “play once” game. I know that I personally probably couldn’t/shouldn’t play it again (because I now know all the puzzles) but I would have loved to have an Escape Room game day and let family and friends try this one out while perhaps I played a different one. Due to some of the things you have to do to the game pieces it really can’t be replayed (unless you plan ahead of time to not cut up pieces but instead make photocopies/etc…it would be tricky even then for some of the puzzles). Really I can’t fault the company too much. Making it repayable means people would play once and then pass it to a friend rather than having to buy a new copy for the friend. And really the price of the game is reasonable when you consider it is the same (or less) than the price for one person to attend a “brick and mortar” escape room.*********9 out of 10 stars
Puzz Lehrman –
I got a couple of these. Despite this one being three stars, I found it pretty tricky in parts and very easy in others. I wouldn’t say it’s a consistent “three stars” across every puzzle, but I think that’s a fair cumulative score for it.I got the app because I thought it would help with the ambiance. It does 🙂 Would recommend!Also, if you make copies of all the book pages as well as some of the cards (you’ll know which ones when you start playing), you can preserve the game for re-use or re-gifting.
Susan Jones –
We got both “The Mystery Museum” and “The Polar Station” for Christmas. I’m writing the same review for both games, but rating them differently.We’re no strangers to escape rooms. We’ve done several in-person and several at-home versions. In the past, we’ve done the “Escape the Room” brand, but switched to “Exit the Game” this year. In reviewing, I’ll also be comparing the two brands as well as the two games.When playing the “Escape” brand, you have a timer that goes down, similar to a real escape room. With the “Exit” brand, you start a stopwatch to keep track of your time and can take as long as you want. The “Escape” brand has a decoder where you put keys in at the end of the game to get you “out.” The “Exit” games have codes you figure out as you go along, and there can be several in each game. We never had any problems, but other reviewers of the “Escape” games said they had problems with the decoder not working. There will be no problems with “Exit” games having similar issues. With the “Escape” games, if you put in the wrong code you lose time, whereas with the “Exit” games, you can try the code over and over with no penalty. Trust me–you’ll want to have at least tried working out the code and not just guess random numbers. With “Escape” games, you wait for a set time to be able to use the clue cards, which may or may not help you, but there is no penalty to use them. With “Escape” games, you can use the clue cards any time you want, although there will be a penalty depending on if it helped or not. With “Escape” games, you can erase anything you’ve written on and give the game to someone else to play. With “Exit” games, you’re destroying things so one game and you’re done. No one else will be able to play it. Overall, I liked the setup of the “Exit” games better, but it’s a personal preference.As to the two games we got–We played “The Mysterious Museum” first, thank goodness. It has an intermediate rating. It was challenging, but not too difficult. While it may have taken a while with some clues, we could eventually figure them out and they made sense. It was fun to play. I therefore give it 4 stars.On the other hand, “The Polar Station” was not so fun. It has an advanced rating, having one more “dot” on the difficulty scale. It was way harder. We were surprised it was only one dot higher and not two. “The Mysterious Museum” was linear, but this was all over the place. We found ourselves using the clue cards often. There were times we had to go all the way to the solution (there are three cards per code, with the last having the solution) and could see how to get to that conclusion, although it took great leaps to get there. In one case, even after we saw the solution and the explanation, it still didn’t make sense. We’re no dummies, but we all ended up feeling frustrated instead of having fun. Therefore, only a 2 star rating on this one.
idlework –
This was our first Exit Game. We are experienced in Room escape challenges in person, so we thought we would give this a try for home date night. Since we have done multiple rooms in person I thought we should jump in with a challenging game rating, not the “simple” 2 star ones. Sigh.Took us 4 hours to complete, so I clearly should have went with an easier rating. I did learn a lot, with the most basic being my husband is bull headed and simply refuses to walk away when he is going no where with a theory. In person, he will let it go…mainly because of the limited time and more people involved than just us. At home, he had all the time in the world and he was sure he could get the clue to pan out when it was evident to me it was a dead end. It was exhausting. However, it’s past his return period and now I’m stuck with him for life. We will try and easier level next time. One clue card was a visual effect that took us forever to decipher. We knew once we “saw it” we wouldnt be able to unsee it, but even after using the Clue Help card, we still didnt see it. Easily 20 mins just on that card. All in all, it was enjoyable…just too long for the 2 of us to solve readily.