Streamline Design + BlueMatter Games (Manufactured by PlayMonster) - "Break In Area 51"

Videos/ Photos provided by Streamline Design/ BlueMatter Games & PlayMonster

Company: Streamline Design/ BlueMatter Games (Manufactured by PlayMonster)

Game: Break In Area 51

Country: USA 🇺🇸

Language: English

Type of Game: Puzzles By Mail 📬

Genre: Sci-Fi

Date Played: 4/28/21

Difficulty (based on 2 players): 8/10

Size of Team: Unlimited (Recommended 1-6 Players, ages 12+)

Time: Unlimited

Price: $19.99

🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈

Your ship has been captured and locked up in Area 51. You are a stranded alien on Earth. Your only hope is to break into Area 51 to retrieve the ship so you can return back to your motherland. Of course there are many challenges ahead.

Check out our spoiler free unboxing video below:

🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞

"Break In Area 51" came in a hexagon shaped cardboard box. Inside you'll find an expandable 3D game board, 39 cards, 8 solution sticks, 3-piece cow puzzle, 3-piece power drive puzzle, and a Quiss Ar-may knife.

🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈

The game play is identical to their other game "Break in Alcatraz". If you rather watch a tutorial video over reading the written instructions, you can find it here. There are various symbols to be discovered throughout the box. It's not difficult to spot them since there is a lime green glow around the symbols just like the ones on the clue cards. Once you find the matching symbol from the box, you can then look at the clue cards for further directions. Some will just be narratives and others will be puzzles that you'll need to solve. Once you think you have the right answer, use the solution sticks with the correct symbol, color and number in order to reveal the answer. The answer will be a symbol as well and you'll need to confirm that in the clue cards. One thing that I'm not a fan of is the fact that the cards are placed in sequence of game play so if you're not careful, you might actually see the solution when picking up the previous card. If you want to play it in "hard" mode, I would suggest mixing up the numbers. You can always reorder them by the small numbers on the bottom corners.

Nudging hint cards are available for each puzzle. I like the use of the red filter on the Quiss Ar-may knife prop in order to prevent spoilers. If you want an in depth explanation on the puzzles, you can go to their website.

🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂

The puzzles were pretty tough comparing to the first game release. We started using hints to get through the game right after the first few puzzles. A lot of it felt abstract and was hard to understand. You'll probably get it after reading the clues but it was difficult to interpret from the wording. Some images really needed you to search carefully on the box itself and were quite hard to find. I would advise having a magnifying glass with the game play. Pending on your liking, this game also had more reading type of clues versus images. A good amount of logic puzzles were used throughout the game. We really enjoyed the puzzles we were able to use the props with. They felt more in line with the "Break In" theme.

🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂

I've been a fan of the design aspect of the "Break In" series. It's so much fun to "peel" down each layer as we play through the game. My favorite saying to Brandon during the game is: "Are we ready to peel yet?" This could be a lovely activity to do family, especially kids. The puzzles felt too difficult though and sometimes took away from that gratification. I think my favorite puzzle was probably the cow one. It stuck to the theme, slid in some humor and was quite easy to "spot" but gave us a cool reveal moment. I love to see some adjustment on the difficulty level for puzzles to cover a wider range of audience as this is definitely a cool concept that we haven't seen used anywhere before.

Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of these game:

---

BUY NOW

(If you do decide to try this experience, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)

Disclosure: We thank Streamline Design/BlueMatter Games & PlayMonster 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.

#ESCAPETHEROOMers #StreamlineDesign #BlueMatterGames #PlayMonster #EscapeTheRoom #BreakInArea51 #DIY #Area51 #Aliens #XFiles #UFO #puzzlesathome #PuzzlesByMail #Adventure #3d