more plays of Exit: The Game

By now I have played 9 games in the Exit: The Game series. I like them well enough, but I'm not a particularly big fan (I know, after 9 games, that doesn't sound convincing). Exit is a good family activity. I played all nine with my wife and children. These three - The Mysterious Museum, The Sinister Mansion and Dead Man on the Orient Express - were bought in Sep 2019. They were unplayed for a rather long time. I only played them in May 2020, all three of them. The COVID-19 Movement Control Order in Malaysia started mid March. I had plenty of opportunities since then to play the games, since everybody was stuck home almost all the time. Maybe the games were out of sight and thus out of mind, so it was only in May that we brought them out to play.

The Mysterious Museum is of difficulty level 2 (of 5). The difficulty levels of the three games in this batch are 2, 3 and 4, so naturally I started with 2 and progressed from there. I wanted to build up to a climax. Level 2 was indeed easy, especially since we had played 6 other Exit games before. We already had a grasp of the styles of the puzzles and the typical tricks. We managed to complete The Mysterious Mansion within 1 hour without much difficulty.

The background stories in the Exit series are somewhat linked. They are written in such a way that they assume you have played previous games in the series (which is true for me). So you have experienced many dangerous situations from which you needed to escape. You keep getting yourself into such situations. The story writer pokes fun at that - why do you keep getting yourself into trouble? For people who have indeed played previous games, the references to those previous games are relatable and humourous. For people playing a game in the series for the first time, no harm done.

When I play I prefer to use the timer in the official app, because of the background sound effects. It's quite atmospheric. Younger daughter Chen Rui finds the background sound effects scary and asks me to lower the volume.

The Sinister Mansion (Level 3) took us more than an hour. I had thought with our experience we would complete it within an hours, since Level 3 is medium difficulty.

Dead Man on the Orient Express (Level 4) was of course inspired by Agatha Christie's detective novel Murder on the Orient Express. This Exit game has something a little different from others in the series. There really is a crime you have to solve based on clues you collect throughout the game, e.g. accounts given by the suspects, objects you collect, details you observe. In usual Exit games you are basically solving ten puzzles. There are logic puzzles, word puzzles, puzzles based on patterns and shapes, and mathematical puzzles. In Dead Man on the Orient Express, you get these puzzles too, but they all build up to an overarching crime you need to solve. When you solve certain puzzles, you gain access to the cabins of specific passengers, in which you will find more clues to help you solve the crime. This is a nice thematic touch.

If you have read the original story, don't fret. It wouldn't spoil this game for you. You get a very similar setting, but the story and the details are different.

If you are a casual Exit games player and do not intend to play every single one, then I recommend this, because it's something a little different, and it's challenging enough. I think as a general rule, if you have played games in the series and already have some familiarity, don't go for games at Level 1 or 2. They would be too easy for experienced players.

Dead Man on the Orient Express despite being a Level 4 game did not feel as hard as I expected. It was about the same difficulty as The Sinister Mansion (Level 3). It still took us about an hour and a half to complete, and we did need to use hints.

Daughters Shee Yun and Chen Rui now play the Exit games with Michelle and I as equals. It is no longer two adults leading two children. In fact sometimes they take the lead, and we are happy to let them do so. Often they are the ones who come up with the solutions.