SPACE Cowboys / Asmodee Group - "Unlock! Expedition: Challenger"

Photo above is property of Space Cowboys

Company: SPACE Cowboys / Asmodee Group

Game: Unlock! Expedition: Challenger

Country: France 🇫🇷

Language: English

Type of Game: Tabletop Games 📬

Genre: Adventure, Dinosaurs

Date Played: July 9, 2022

Difficulty (based on 1 player): 7/10

Size of Team: Unlimited (Recommend 1-6 Players)

Time: Unlimited (Approximately 60 Mins.)

Price: $14.99 (Single Game), $29.99 (Unlock! Exotic Adventures 3-Pack)

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A woman has come to your Private Investigator firm asking for your help. Her friend, Ned Malone, has been missing for days. He was last seen coming back from an adventure in the Lost Valley with the eccentric Professor Challenger. She has his notebook and an old message which she hands to you in hopes you can find him.

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Having the "Unlock! Exotic Adventures" (3-Pack), the box is themed for each adventure. Inside, you can find each deck separated, with "Expedition: Challenger" rated the hardest of the three. All the backs of the deck have a large number in the middle with smaller numbers on the corner to place them in order. The back of this deck is also themed in dinosaur skin.

Photo above is property of Space Cowboys

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If you have not played the Unlock! series, the basic way the game works is that you get different cards and try to solve the puzzles and combine items. Most of the answers you get will be numbers. Using the number, you find the card with the corresponding number on it and flip it over to continue the story. You will need to download a free app to play the game. Some of the key cards you will encounter are the red and blue ones that allow you to combine items, the green machine cards that you use with the app which will let you interact with something and the yellow code cards that will require you to put a code into the app to unlock a lock. If this explanation does not make sense, do not worry. Every Unlock! game has a quick 10-minute tutorial game that will teach you how to use the cards and app.

Now if you have played the Unlock! series, this one specifically is a little different than the other ones. Rather than just going through the cards and having the narrative play out linearly, a map will open up in the app and you will have you explore it through the game. This offers a different dynamic where you can solve puzzles in a non-linear order as you explore all the areas. There also was not a time limit to this one but more of a health bar depending on how many steps it takes you to discover the key elements of the map.

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This was ranked 3/3 on their difficulty scale and it was a challenging game. Some of the puzzles were fairly challenging, especially if you are not familiar with the type of puzzles that you may encounter in Unlock! games. Some I felt were a little bit of a stretch and could either have been clued a little bit more or the card design could have been clearer in what we were looking at. One tip to offer would be to make sure you read everything carefully and do not be afraid to try different things.

The hint system for these are progressive and straightforward. I did find they helped on the ones I did get stuck on as well as they do provide you solutions at the end. There is also a walkthrough on the Space Cowboys website you can check out post-game if something did not make sense or you fear you missed something.

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"Unlock! Expedition: Challenger" was fun to play with the story and map exploration working well together but the game was exactly what the name says it was... challenging. If you are familiar with the Unlock! games, you will know what to look for in solving the puzzles and will enjoy diving into this one. However, I would not recommend this game if this is your first time with Unlock!. Luckily, in all the 3-packs that they offer, each is a different level of difficulty and you can work your up to this game.

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(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"!)

#MatthewLui #AtHomeGames #TabletopGames #PuzzlesByMail #OneOffs #Adventure #Dinosaurs #SpaceCowboy #France