Thames & Kosmos - "Exit The Game: The Sacred Temple"

Photo above is property of Thames & Kosmos

Company: Thames & Kosmos

Game: The Sacred Temple

Country: USA 🇺🇸

Language: English

Type of Game: Puzzles By Mail 📬

Genre: Adventure

Date Played: August 5, 2021

Difficulty (based on 2 players): 7/10

Size of Team: Unlimited (Recommended 1-4 Players)

Time: Unlimited (Suggested 2-3 hours)

Price: $22.83

🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈

You discovered that someone kidnapped the professor at the Archeology Department of the university. It's probably the treasure hunters looking for the hidden temple. The professor left you a coordinate which led you to the middle of the Indian Ocean. Maybe you'll be able to find the treasure and the professor before the treasure hunters do?

🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞

"The Sacred Temple" came in a cardboard box with a beautiful illustration of a mysterious statue on its cover. Inside you'll find 4 puzzles with 88 pieces each, 12 riddle documents, 3 strange items, 4 decoder disks, two-piece snap fastener, and a rule/hints/solutions book.

Photos above are properties of ESCAPETHEROOMers

🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈

If you've played "Exit the Game" series before, you should be quite familiar with the decoder wheel and how to operate it. In this game, we really liked several new implementations they've installed. As always you can play the game in a leisure or play it with a timer and calculate the amount of hints and wrong answer inputs in order to get a final score.

Your first step is to use the snapbacks and assemble the decoder wheel. Your game boards will be the 4 jigsaw puzzles. You'll know when to piece those together according to the instructions that you'll receive through the riddle documents. After you've completed the jigsaw board, you'll see various colored locks on the image. Once you think you've solved the combination, check the code on the decoder wheel. If it's correct, you'll get the same color lock image at the back of the wheel. Look at the front of the wheel for three symbols to move on to the next riddle document. This was a really clever way to utilize the decoder in two ways.

The instructions in the riddle documents were really easy to follow as well. If you need assistance with the riddles, the hints and solutions are printed as mirror images on the back of the rule book. I love that they also included illustrations to certain puzzle solutions as it made it much clearer for the players to follow.

Photos above are properties of ESCAPETHEROOMers

🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂

We are pretty impressed by the creativity of how the jigsaw puzzles were utilized in this game. We had to use a hint to make sure our thought process was correct when we first encountered the concept. And when we had confirmation, it was really satisfying. Thereafter, we saw a few more incidence of the same usage format but each time it gave a different reveal. This were our favorite moments in this game.

The 4 jigsaw boards really bought out that escape room vibe as we went through one area of the sacred temple to another. The vivid illustrations with hidden clues were really exciting to look at every time. We love the use of the strange items in ways that we wouldn't think of. At one point you'll need to use a scissor. Since we're in a tropical place, you'll encounter various exotic animals. It's great to see the creators actually incorporated items that were relevant to the storyline.

Photos above are properties of ESCAPETHEROOMers

🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂

This game is pretty solid. The fact that we're able to play through 4 jigsaw puzzles along with over 10+ puzzles in one game speaks value. "Exit the Game" series likes to utilize the artwork to hide a lot of clues/solutions which requires a good amount of "search and find". It's similar to playing an dim lit escape room. This game took the game play to another level. It was like playing a high tech escape room with upgraded special effects. During the game, you actually felt the danger of passing through a wabbly bridge, running away from burning flames and avoiding dangerous animals along the way. You won't be disappointed with this adventure. Its a great game for friends and family to collaborate their "puzzling powers" as some players can work on the jigsaw while the others can solve the riddles. It'll will be a great time for everyone!

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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