Thames & Kosmos - "Exit The Game: The Lord of the Rings™ - Shadows Over Middle-earth"

Photo above is property of Thames & Kosmos

Company: Thames & Kosmos

Game: Exit The Game: The Lord of the Rings™ - Shadows Over Middle-earth

Country: USA 🇺🇸

Language: English

Type of Game: Tabletop Games 📬

Genre: Fantasy, Adventure

Date Played: July 30, 2022

Difficulty (based on 2 players): 7/10

Size of Team: 1-4 Players (Ages 10+)

Time: Approximately 1-2 Hrs.

Price: $19.95

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If you’re thinking about buying this game, you’re probably already fairly familiar with the core story of The Lord of the Rings™ (LOTR)! While knowing the story isn't necessary to enjoy the box and solve the puzzles, fans will appreciate how it follows some of the larger beats of the trilogy and incorporates some favorite characters. You take on the role of hobbits enlisted by Gandalf to aid Frodo, Sam, and the rest of the crew behind the scenes. Your objective? Buy Frodo and Sam sufficient time (and help them survive!) to complete their critical mission.

Video above is property of Thames & Kosmos

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As with other games in this series, LOTR is paper-based. There is an instruction booklet, game booklet (with some story and puzzles), deck of cards (consisting of “riddle”, “answer”, and “help” cards), a decoder disk, and some supplementary items, most of which you are punching out and some that become 3D. The quality feels really good for the price point, with good weight to each of the items, vibrant art that captures some of the LOTR feel, and an appealing finish. The box itself is only ~5x7”, making it easy to transport, though you will need a bit of table space to actually play. (Though, in a pinch, you probably could manage it on something like an airplane tray table, at least if there were no turbulence!)

Photo above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

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This game plays similarly to others in the EXIT series. You are presented with a riddle or puzzle, which might use pages in the booklet, cards from the riddle deck, and/or some of the other items. Each riddle is represented by a symbol and solves to 3 characters, typically 3 numbers. Entering your solution into the decoder disk yields a card number that you draw from the “Answer” deck, to see if your solution was correct. When it is, you are typically given a bit of story, along with the cards, pages, and/or items to get for the next puzzle. It's clear when to advance through the booklet, and when to use the additional materials.

If you get stuck, the Help deck has a 1st hint, 2nd hint, and solution card for each puzzle to help you along. At the end, if desired, you can see how you did, based on length of play and number of hints taken. No internet connection is required, unless you want to use the Kosmos Helper App. (We haven’t tried this, but the instruction booklet indicates this offers a digital timer and atmospheric soundtrack.)

As with all Exit games, this game has components that are meant to be permanently altered during gameplay. For the “full” experience, you may wish to enthusiastically cut and draw! In this particular game, we found that by using some photocopies, transparencies, and dry erase markers, it was fairly easy to avoid altering anything so that we could pass it along as a giveaway to friends at our upcoming wedding. You progress through the puzzles sequentially, making it easier to play if table space is limited.

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EXIT rates this as a ⅖ on the novice to expert scale. We ended up requiring hints for two of the ten puzzles, so we found it perhaps a bit harder than 2 stars! One of these gave us the fantastic rewarding “Ahhh - of course!! They’re so clever!” reaction, which is always what you hope for when you take a hint, though there was a bit of an unnecessary red herring that threw us off a little bit. The other we felt was rather ambiguous (and actually counter-intuitive), and clearly we are not the only ones, as they prepare for the possibility that people will do it wrong. Overall, however, we found the majority of the puzzles satisfying and well-designed, with the majority of them being closer to that novice side. They recommend this for ages 10+, and certainly many of the puzzles would be accessible to some of those younger solvers or others new to puzzling. As is typical with EXIT games, we loved the way they were able to incorporate many elements of physical object manipulation and 3D play, even in a paper-based game.

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We got to play out our hobbit dreams, receive a mission from Gandalf, and help Frodo, Sam, Aragorn, and the rest of the crew on their journey! As big LOTR fans, it was fabulous to see how some of the major story points were incorporated into the puzzles, not just as background imagery but as components of the puzzles themselves. This game is a no-brainer for LOTR fans, but no knowledge of the books/movies is required to play. With 1-2+ hours of gameplay (it took us 1:45, plus 10 minutes of initial setup), we think it’s a great value and accessible to many different players. So, whether you’re a fan of LOTR, EXIT games, or are thinking of trying one for the first time, this is a great way to spend an evening (or two)!

Hint: In EXIT games, ANYTHING you get is fair play to be included…

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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 game, 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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