Queen Games 60903 - Escape

After playing 4 games this evening, Escape has probably become my new favourite board game. In fact, I'm kicking myself for not buying it sooner.If you didn't already know, Escape is played in REAL TIME. Once the CD is started (tracks are also available online), atmospheric music and sound effects will commence the 10 most stressful minutes of your tabletop-life. Each player will frantically roll their dice in order to explore the temple and solve puzzles, re-rolling as many times as they wish until they get the results needed. The aim of the game is to escape through the exit (which needs to be found) but in order to do so, all of the players have to collectively activate enough of the temple's "gems" (rooms will have individual requirements for activating gems).Over the course of the game, there are three gongs that are played on the CD. After hearing the first or second, all players must rush back to the starting tile before a timer or they will permanently lose a die from the game, making all of their subsequent rolls much harder. After the third gong, all players are reminded that time is nearly up before the temple collapses, forcing them to hurry towards the exit. In addition to this, rolling a black mask on a die locks it and prevents you from re-rolling until you find a golden mask to unlock it. Quite often you will end up locking many of your dice and not be able to do anything until someone else saves you.Escape is stressful. As soon as the music starts, the mood in the room always changes. Suddenly everyone becomes dead serious and concentrates at the task in hand. Players will be moving around the temple and often helping each other to activate gems or unlock each others' dice. In order to win the game, everyone has to escape, meaning that you often have to go out of your way to help each other out - but - every act of generosity is so greatly appreciated making everyone at the table feel a great sense of camaraderie or great loss if something goes badly. Also, because each player is constantly trying to deal with their own dice, this game is not prone to the aggressive leader problem that occurs in many co-op games (where one player knows what's best and tells everyone else what to do).Escape is smart. It's well balanced too, usually putting up a stiff challenge that might take you a few goes to beat. It's hard, but it feels fair and beating the game as a team feels like a genuine achievement, especially when the CD is playing dramatic music for the temple doors closing and you just squeeze through in the last seconds to win the game. It's nerve wracking but incredibly exciting.What's more, it's a really easy and accessible game to play. Good for 1-5 players (but increasingly exciting with more people), it's also guaranteed to finish exactly within 10 minutes - meaning you can play this multiple times in an evening (and people will want to) or slip it in between games for a quick session. It's also pretty easy to explain to new people, with an included audio tutorial and a pretty helpful rulebook. The rules themselves are not very complex, so many different people will be able to understand how to play it - the challenge itself is dealing with the pressure of the dice rolling!If I have any complaints it's that the strategy to winning becomes quite apparent after a while (hint: always work together!) and the game feels highly anticlimactic when you win with lots of time to spare. Luckily you can make the game harder again by adding additional gems and this is how I'll be playing from now on. However it probably would have been nice to have a bit more variety in the base box, some more "meat" for the seasoned gamers.I'm so impressed with Escape though, it's like no other game in my collection. The CD is fantastic and really sets a tangible atmosphere, using decent sound effects to convey information to the players. The game itself is frantic dice rolling, but it's surprising just how engrossed you might become in the adventure, especially with the music, to the point you might just feel like you're actually there in the temple. It's full of great moments, whether you all work together to activate a bunch of gems, save your friend who's locked all his dice or even when you fail to get back to the gong room and lose a die - every event feels important. It sucks you in.The components are great, the artwork is great.. it feels like a well crafted product. There are some included modules that add additional rules and flavour to the game and also two separate boxed expansions I look forward to trying in future, but even in it's basic form the game is a treat. It's hard to really convey in writing just how exciting this game is, but everyone has loved it and I couldn't recommend it highly enough to just about anyone.

*update 28/12/15*I almost forgot all about this game after my first attempt at purchasing it, however my wonderful Girlfriend gifted me a copy for christmas.In short - This is a fun, short and fast paced game of cooperation and suspense that will keep you coming back time and time again. It is a fine addition to any tabletop collection.We have just played half a dozen or more games and we both throughly enjoy it. There are no complicated rules or long setups and after a short test game (without the timer) we were away.The game soundtrack adds to the atmosphere and suspense especially when you are trying to race back to the safe zone before the door closes on you. Additional Fan made soundtracks can also be found.We have not yet tried any of the additional modules that come with the game (Treasure and Curses) however they look to add some nice depth, the curses in particular can force you not to speak or only use 1 hand for dice rolling.I will be looking to add the expansions to my collection, but for now we will continue to push our luck by increasing the difficulty of the base game.*Original Post*This is not a review on the game itself, but more of a warning with the product.The game I received came with several missing components, after doing some research I have found that alot of people have experienced the same issue.Amazon have advised I return the item for a refund and they have logged a request for their staff to check through their current stock for issues. I should get an update within 3 working days to tell me if this was a one off or if they have found several items with the same problem. I will update this review with the information I receive if any.Just beware when ordering the item it may not arrive with all the pieces.*Update 18/05/2013*I have not received any further information of amazon checking their stock, which I thought would be highly unlikely in the first place.I am hesitant to try and order another copy and will wait for an update from Mr. B. J. Hunt

I have just finished my second game of Escape. It took me all of five minutes to set up and explain the concept to one of my colleagues before we were off and frantically rolling. After our fist game my colleague, who had only just heard of the game, was able to quickly explain it to a third party before he joined us in our second game. Quick, fun, and easy to pick up. I highly rccomend this as a game for introducing others to boardgames.

If you're looking for a deep strategy game look elsewhere, this is pure beer and pretzels fodder. For that though it's tremendously good fun, the decisions are simple but the time pressure is enough to wrongfoot you very easily. The major upside is you can learn the rules in ten minutes and be finished with your first game ten minutes later. The components are all extremely high quality well, printed on nice glossy thick card that really feels it can stand up to manhandling.That said I mentioned a drawback. The game plays in real time and several times in the game the CD will sound an alarm supposedly informing you you have 30 seconds to get to the middle of the board, or escape completely to avoid suffering consequences. The problem is that it does this in such a neutral fashion that during the frenetic play it's almost impossible distinguish these alarms from the ambient background noise. The game also comes with an egg timer for if you can't use the CD but this is little better, it's really easy to entirely miss when the sands run out.In the end we ended up playing a few music tracks in the background instead, this worked reasonably well but really the game shouldn't be missing such an integral component. For the next session I've messed about creating remixed soundtracks in Audacity; that I was willing and required to do so probably says everything about this game.

Ich war so glücklich, dass das Spiel wieder verfügbar war. Ich liebe die Atmosphäre, die es beim Spielen schafft und bin sowieso Fan von kooperativen Brettspielen. Ich habe es gleich zum nächsten Spieleabend mitgebracht, dort traf es auf gemischte Gefühle: eine war total begeistert, da es in Echtzeit zu spielen ist, und die Regeln in 5 Minuten erklärt. Ihrem Mann war es viel zu hektisch, bereits in der Proberunde ohne Musik hatte er schon fast nen Herzinfarkt bekommen, weil er schnell agieren musste. Der 9-jährige Sohn hat die Regeln auch schnell verstanden, wollte aber keine zweite Runde spielen, weil es keine Zombies zu bekämpfen gab- nun ja. Und meinem Freund ist die Geschichte etwas zu fad - aber wir haben auch nur die Basisversion gespielt, bereits im Grundspiel sind ja schon kleine "Erweiterungen" wie Flüche und Schätze drin, aber fürs erste Mal Spielen wäre das zu viel gewesen. Ich erinnere mich aber noch, dass mir das Spielen mit Flüchen und Schätzen sehr gut gefallen hat.

todo perfecto. muy buen juego

Nonostante nella descrizione il gioco sia segnalato come in lingua tedesca, arriva con all'interno le istruzioni in svariate lingue. L'italiano non è compreso, ma dall'inglese si capisce tutto molto bene e sono presenti anche istruzioni in tedesco, spagnolo e francese. Il cd che leggevo essere compreso non lo è, ma la musica è facilmente scaricabile dal sito e dunque questo non rappresenta un problema.Quanto al gioco in se', è davvero molto coinvolgente e ben fatto. Velocissime le partite, che possono durare solo fino a dieci minuti l'una, quindi ottimo per chi non ha molto tempo ma non vuole rinunciare al divertimento.

On a tous un set de dés, on decouvre le plateau au fur et à mesure, en retournant des tuiles.Il faut faire des combinaisons de dés pour avancer, pour débloquer des trésors, pour trouver les gemmes nécessaires à l'ouverture finale de la sortie.Chacun dans son coin, on lance les dés à toute vitesse, et le cd fourni avec le jeu vient nous rajouter du stress : j'essaie tout seul d'avoir mes 4 dés pareils, ou je viens débloquer mon ami dans l'autre salle ! Oh trop tard, je dois juste retourner dans la salle en sécurité !!!!!!Mon avis :J'adore jouer, mais on n'a pas toujours autour de soi des joueurs disponibles au meme moment, ou bien les jeux sont trop compliqués à sortir pour une soirée avec des 'non-joueurs'.On n'y a pas beaucoup joué, mais je suis content d'avoir ce jeu, jeu d'après apéro, qui se joue en dix minutes, ou tout le monde peut jouer meme les plus jeunes. Il y a en plus inclus des extensions, pour corser un peu la tâche des super aventuriers qui se balladent trop aisément dans les labyrinthes. Je recommande

Arrivato in 2 giorni. Scatola contiene due espansioni con cui rendere il gioco più difficile o più facile. Giocabilissimo in 2, ma in 5 rendere tutte le dinamiche ancora più interattive. Dal sito si possono scaricare vari MP3 con sottofondi diversi da trasmettere con il cellulare così che il CD non serva più. La qualità dei materiali è molto alta, mi aspettavo delle carte rinforzate e invece é tutto in cartoncino da 3mm (non dico indistruttibile, ma quasi). Il top é la durata della perdita:10 minuti, che permette di giocare in qualsiasi momento. Se imbustato in un sacchetto può essere comodamente portato in spiaggia (attenzione ai dadi).