Thames & Kosmos - "Exit The Game: The Abandoned Cabin"

Photo above is property of Thames & Kosmos

Company: Thames & Kosmos

Game: The Abandoned Cabin

Country: USA 🇺🇸

Language: English

Type of Game: Puzzles By Mail 📬

Genre: Thriller

Date Played: October 30, 2021

Difficulty (based on 2 players): 4/10

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

Time: Unlimited (Suggested 1-2hours)

Price: $14.95

🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈

After your car breaks down near the edge of the woods, rain begins to pour down. You and your friends head into the woods to find shelter for the night. Luckily, you discover what seems to be an abandoned cabin. Spending the night, you wake up in the morning and find that you cannot leave. There is a combination lock on the door with some items on the table. Looking at these items may be your only way out.

🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞

Opening the box, you will find game instructions, the solution wheel, the game book, and a deck of cards that can be split into 3 decks, Riddles, Hints and Solutions. These are all pretty typical for a "Exit The Game" games. In addition, you will find 3 different colored rectangular tiles with a hole in each of them.

🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈

If you are not familiar with how Exit games are played, each puzzle will correspond to a symbol whether it be a star, circle, moon, etc. When you solve the puzzle, you should get three numbers (or colors in this game). Using the solution wheel, match up the symbol and the three numbers or colors and it will reveal a number in the middle. Take that card in the solutions deck. If you are correct, it will tell you which Riddle cards to reveal next.

This flow of the game was fairly straightforward. This game in particular has less stuff to sift through which did making puzzle solving a little easier. There was not a lot of depth to the story but throughout the game, different areas of the cabin were revealed which gave us a more immersive sense of what it would be like in there.

Exit games were designed to be destroyed and altered which some people may or may not be a fan of. This game in particular has some easy work arounds if you would like to preserve the game and pass it along.

🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂

There were some fun, easier puzzles in this game. There were a few “Aha” ones mixed with some good logic puzzles that had us spreading stuff everywhere. Part of the challenge was trying to determine if we had all the pieces to solve the puzzle or not. At any given time, there should only be enough information to solve one puzzle. Once together, the flavor text was quite clear and straightforward on what you needed to do.

The hint cards were layered nicely because the first hint will always tell you what cards/items were needed to solve the puzzle before going deeper. Another thing Exit is good at is creating ways of using everything available to them so if the solution leads you to something unconventional, give it a try anyways.

🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂

Having played a few Exit games, this was one of their easier games. This is the perfect game for people who are new to puzzle experiences or if you are an enthusiast, a more relaxing evening. We played with 2 people and as experienced puzzle solvers we found this to be a good number as there was not a lot to hand around. Even with new players, we would not recommend more than 4 people as there will not be enough for everyone to do. One tip we have is if you do not feel you have enough to solve a puzzle, make sure to review every page in the game book. There were a few times, we forgot about a message in the book that we had not used yet. Another thing we liked about this game was that it was completely self-contained. There is no outside knowledge or online presence required to complete. Everything you need is right in the box. If you cannot make it out to a physical escape room or need an escape game to take on a holiday trip, this is one that we would recommend.

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

Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

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(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 Thames & Kosmos for providing us with samples of the game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.

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