A Labyrinth With No Exit

Base price: $15.
1+ players.
Play time: 1 – 2 hours.
BGG | Board Game Atlas
Buy on Amazon (via What's Eric Playing?)
Logged plays: 1

Full disclosure: A review copy of Get out: The Cursed Labyrinth was provided by KOSMOS.

At that place's something inherently relatable most being trapped in an inescapable maze and forced to wander around indefinitely in hopes of finding an exit. Something something a metaphor for having to work during a pandemic for almost two years something something, simply anyways. We're back with another Get out game to check out! This fourth dimension, KOSMOS is taking us into the Cursed Labyrinth. Wonder what we'll observe there? Allow's find out!

In EXIT: The Cursed Labyrinth, you have evidently wandered into an extremely big and extremely cursed maze. I remain consistently impressed past your ability to specifically navigate into (and consequently, out of) these scenarios, only hither nosotros are. You'll have to solve the gargoyle's riddle, avoid some nasty goblins, and sentry for the legendary minotaurus if you lot desire to brand information technology out in one piece! Will y'all be able to solve some a-maze-ing puzzles? Or volition you exist trapped in the labyrinth forever?

Setup
Gameplay
Thespian Count Differences
Strategy
Pros, Mehs, Cons
Overall

Setup

You've got your usual suspects, in this EXIT game. Get some scissors. Y'all can set bated the Riddle Cards and the Answer Cards, merely split up the Aid Cards into their relevant stacks. Take the Deejay:

And set aside the booklet; only open it when y'all're gear up. Y'all may want to punch out all the other items and gear up them aside, for at present. Whenever y'all're prepare, start a timer and open the booklet to the showtime folio!

Gameplay

It's an EXIT game! If you're reading this, I mean, I've reviewed several others! But here'south the gist:

Y'all're currently trapped in what tin can merely be described as "a state of affairs". You'd like to not exist there, and the just way out is through a series of puzzles, clues, and shenanigans. Completing those puzzles, clues, and shenanigans will usually exit you with a symbol and a set of three numbers. placing those numbers in their specified guild on the disk will give y'all the number of an Answer Card. Check that! It volition either requite you farther instructions or tell you that you're wrong.

Should information technology tell you lot to progress, you volition likely gain more Riddle Cards, new pages in the booklet, or other stuff that's puzzle-relevant. Keep using those to iterate through more puzzles until y'all solve them all!

If y'all ever get stuck, you can utilize a Help Card to assistance you. They're per-puzzle specific, and they offer a "Setup Hint" (exercise you have everything you need for this puzzle?), a "Puzzle Hint" (what is something that you lot should keep in heed or practice to solve this puzzle?"), and the solution, if neither of the outset ii are useful.

Good luck escaping the labyrinth!

Role player Count Differences

I wouldn't say that my EXIT Friend and I were in the best headspace when nosotros were playing this; we both had had days. That said, I think that illuminated that this was, again, an EXIT championship ameliorate suited for the lower end of the player count spectrum. I'd probably say 1 – ii players is roughly ideal for this one. There's a fair scrap of drawing and a few tasks that can be distributed to more people, but fundamentally I would say that's maybe every other puzzle or every 3 puzzles. More oft than not, we split the work and one person handles the disk while the other person deals with the Reply Cards, and that keeps u.s.a. both engaged. When we played this one, we probably both needed a scrap more than of a break, and so nosotros concluded upwards taking the occasional phone break while we were playing and the other person did a bit more work on the puzzle. Considering that still went pretty well (~ 71 minutes to complete?) makes me think that this one didn't crave more 2 people working at optimal efficiency. And that's perfectly okay. But aye, as a result, I'd probably recommend this with two players, maximum. I usually like to have one other person equally a sounding board when I play, only I retrieve with three or four people at that place won't exist enough for everyone to do.

Strategy

You're going to be belongings a lot of things at arms' length. Sometimes you simply need to get a different perspective on a puzzle or view it at a weird angle or simply walk around it for a 2nd, sit down down, and look at it again. It'll help resolve a number of things that don't immediately stand out. And they should pretty immediately stand out, if you lot're not making the puzzle harder than it actually is. On that note, really.
At least one of the puzzles is exactly as simple every bit it looks. Don't overcomplicate things. There's a real temptation to do so, particularly since we were coming in hot off of The Light in the Mist, which could get pretty catchy, just not everything is a Whole Production. That said, some of these puzzles are pretty tricky.
If you're stuck, endeavour using the first Help Card to become your bearings on a puzzle. Thankfully, since this game is fairly linear, you'll normally have everything you need for a puzzle, but if you're not certain, the Assist Card will always clarify that on the beginning i. I usually recommend it as a grounding point if you've been tackling a puzzle for a while and all the same tin can't figure out what to do next. If you lot know you have all the right components, and then y'all can usually figure something out.

Pros, Mehs, and Cons

Pros

I appreciate that information technology has some lore connections to EXIT: The Enchanted Forest. At that place are a few sets of interconnected EXIT games, and I notice that just fun. There are a handful where yous're explicitly playing the same character as they clown their way into all sorts of unsafe traps, and while that seems implausible, I exercise relish the concept that y'all're essentially Forrest Gump by style of Robert Langdon. I as well simply savor interconnected games, and the subtle lore connections between them is pleasant (though I'd hardly call this 1 subtle).
In that location's a couple pretty groovy puzzles with some metagame qualities to them. I commonly am but like, "ah heck, the Brands take washed it again" when they surprise me with some of these puzzles. They're quite enjoyable! My favorite of all fourth dimension was 1 a few EXITs back where the Brands were holding upwards fingers that were the solution code to a puzzle in their author photo. That was a rude i. But it gets me to read the whole rulebook, now! At that place are some similarly fun puzzles that play with my expectations here, also.
The insert looks really cool. Information technology's all labyrinthy! Information technology's a very nice aesthetic.
The game plays fast and loose with mythology, merely I enjoyed the references. Non everything has to be a textbook; sometimes it's just fun to be able to signal at a thing and be like "oh, I recognize that".
One puzzle made us laugh out loud. Nosotros were a bit surprised, simply information technology was pretty unexpected. I like that the EXIT games can all the same surprise me from both a puzzle complexity perspective and an entertainment standpoint.
I remember this is a dandy EXIT for experienced EXIT fans. In that location are, equally I mentioned, a number of fun metagame-y puzzles in here that really advantage folks who take played a lot of Get out games. I do have some worries that Leave will have to increasingly motion in this direction to continue generating new puzzles, just the Brands take managed to prove me wrong with the EXIT jigsaw set, so, nosotros'll see what happens!

Mehs

A picture of a push pin, individually bagged.

Just this entire thing. I understand, logistically, why a single push pin has to exist in a baggie, but it does come off as a little ridiculous. When you imagine the book of games that take these individually-wrapped push button pins in them, yous start to wonder most how sustainable that kind of thing is, and the reply has to be "not very". I am curious what sort of dominion or regulation requires the pins to be bagged up similar this, every bit I assume it'due south something.
I ever prefer the nonlinear EXITs to the linear ones. I remember I like that you gradually get pieces to puzzles you tin can't solve still. It gives me a pleasant sense of foreboding for the next puzzle to solve! That still happens in some EXIT games, only that did non happen here. Pretty much every puzzle we flipped was entirely self-contained to what we had just received. That'due south okay; I just prefer the more expansive ones.

Cons

There are a lot of "this kind of looks like a number" puzzles in this ane, and your mileage may vary on those. I find those kinds of things challenging? Sometimes a flake inscrutable? But that's me. I think one of the puzzles threw me off a bit considering we couldn't actually resolve the number we saw down to an agreed-upon number, but that's how it goes.

Overall: 7.75 / x

Overall, I enjoyed EXIT: The Cursed Labyrinth! It was a pretty middle-of-the-road EXIT for us, compared to the other ones we've played, and that'south perfectly reasonable! I did observe their emphasis on "does this expect similar a number from a set distance" puzzles to be a chip odd, simply, I mean, they were withal interesting to become to! The difficulty was as well pretty nicely tuned. Ironically, the puzzle we were struggling with the most was the first i! Nosotros were very significantly overthinking it, merely, that's liable to happen when you lot've played a whole series of escape room box games. They tin can sneak up on you and mess with you, if you're not expecting it. I wouldn't necessarily call this a significant innovation on the EXIT series, simply I would say it hits that "comfort food" betoken, for me, where I find the game enjoyable and a solid experience from start to finish. If that'due south what they're shooting for with the Exit series, no bug with that! I find the games are piece of cake to become into, fun to mess around with with a friend, and ultimately satisfying when you lot figure the puzzles out. And The Cursed Labyrinth is no exception! If you lot're a big fan of the EXIT serial or you're new to the franchise or you lot just want to try an escape room on a smaller scale, you'll probably savor The Cursed Labyrinth! I did.

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