Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
Company: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Game: Escape from a Video Game: Mystery on the Starship Crusader (Vol. 2) & The Endgame (Vol. 3)
Country: USA 🇺🇸
Language: English
Type of Game: Kids Book 📬
Genre: Video Games, Action Adventure
Date Played: May 29, 2022
Difficulty (based on 1 adult/ 2 kids): 4/10
Size of Team: Unlimited (Recommended Ages 8-12)
Time: Unlimited
Price:
Vol. 2 - Mystery on the Starship Crusader - $8.39 (Paperback)/ $9.84 (Hardcover)
Vol. 3 - The Endgame - $10.79 (Paperback)/ $10.79 (Hardcover)
🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈
In "Mystery on the Starship Crusader", opening a bizarre book you get in the mail, you are suddenly thrust into a video game. On the Starship Crusader you are the lizard - Doctor Iz, who as part of a team, are ready to battle the aliens. Unfortunately, someone on the team is a traitor and whoever is able to identify them will win $1 million dollar. Can you find out who cannot be trusted, get out of this game, and discover the secrets of this mysterious book?
In "The Endgame", after a strange encounter with a woman at the mall, you find a book stuffed into your backpack. Opening the book up and finding yourself in a video game, you find you are Alpha, one of over 100 supervillains on Grim Island who are looking to battle it out. Be the last person standing at the Endgame and you will become the Greatest Supervillain of all time (both books deal with a bankrupt tech company called Bionosoft, that had the ability to transport players right into the middle of a video game which you learn about in "Vol. 1 - The Secret of Phantom Island". You will be able to follow most of the book without knowledge of Vol. 1, but you should definitely from the beginning).
🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞
Both books are your typical novels that you would find in the young adult section in the bookstore. The covers were colorful with dynamic scenes, representing part of the book. Thumbing through each, there were fun illustrations throughout with certain pages properly marked for the "Choose your own Adventure" style of play.
🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈
If you have ever read those “Choose your own Adventure” books, then this style of play will be very similar to you, where the book is not read front to back. At certain points in the book, you will encounter a choice and from there, it'll direct you to a designated page number. Along the way though, sometimes you may have to solve a puzzle instead that will give you a number and that is the page you will have to flip to.
One of the things that makes this a great book, is that there are different options that will still lead you to the good ending. For example, do you stay with the crew or explore the ship? Both options are correct, but one might give you a clue for a puzzle or just give you a different experience. Playing like an actual video game, there are multiple checkpoints and endings in the book that will give you a letter. If you collect all the letters, you get a phrase that you can use to unlock more of the story that adds to the ending.
The back of the book has the solutions to the puzzles in case you do get stuck. One thing that could be better, is a more layered hint system. There is also a website that will allow you to print out the puzzles as well to use as a checkpoint list to keep track of your letters so you don't need to write them in the book.
Photos above are the property of Andrews McMeel Publishing
🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂
There were less puzzles than we expected and most of them were traditional puzzles such as searching for something in a picture, matching or logic puzzles.
"Mystery on a Starship Cruiser" was more of a mystery, where at the end you had to identify the traitor in the group. As you play though, there are multiple clues that you pick up on if you are paying attention to the hints. Along the way, you will also make decisions and sometimes there will also be clues to help you if you choose the correct option.
Photos above are the property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
"The Endgame" did also try to add some “video game-like” challenges to make it more exciting as well as an interesting way for you to navigate the pages which integrated into the story, which the kids seemed to really enjoy completing.
🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂
The young adult in me loves these books and probably would have binged these books as a teenager. I had no issues reading these to the kids and playing along with them, each taking about an hour and a half to get through one storyline (and not counting checking out the bonus material). As a big video game and choose your own adventure fan, I also love all the checkpoints at all the different endings. Dustin Brady is a fantastic writer that made this book a pleasure to read as an adult and had my kids laughing along the way. At face value, these books are a fun read but diving in deeper, you find a completely different layer with more content and story which makes these books that much better.
"Escape from a Video Game - Vol. 1: The Secret of Phantom Island"
"Escape from a Video Game - Vol. 2: Mystery on the Starship Crusader"
"Escape from a Video Game - Vol. 3: The Endgame"
"Escape from a Video Game - The Complete Series"
(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)
Disclosure: We thank Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.
Comments