Review: The Adventures of Oz

RATING: 5 Keys RESULT: Win REMAINING: +23:12

We’re off to see the Wizard in a wonderful adventure that left us shouting,

“There’s no place like home game! There’s no place like home game! There’s no place like home game!“

Story

Your eyelids are heavy, you briefly fall asleep, when all of a sudden, you are woken by the barking of your dog, Toto. The walls of your house are shaking; no doubt, Dorothy, you are in the eye of a tornado and you fly away, far, far away from Kansas!

Rediscover the Wonderful Land of Oz! Visit its Wizard and challenge the Wicked Witch of the West!

The Adventures of Oz is a wonderfully story-driven journey based on the classic 1900 book that started it all. Dorothy, Toto, the Scarecrow, Tinman, and Cowardly Lion are all here, as are the witches of the North, South, East and West. The Journey down the Yellow Brick Road makes stops in every classic Ozian locale, like the Munchkin Village, Morpheus’ Poppy Field, The Forbidden Forest, The Castle of Mirrors and of course, the shimmering City of Emeralds. And naturally, it begins, like a dream, with Dorothy’s House getting spun up in the center of a twister.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – the book – has become a public domain property – which means any company can freely make use of its classic and recognizable characters. And if you’re wondering why Unlock! gave Dorothy silver shoes instead of her iconic ruby slippers – well, that’s because it’s exactly how she was depicted in the original novel (and using the red ones from the film would actually constitute copyright infringement.)

The Adventures of Oz is not just Unlock!’s most story-driven adventure – it’s one of the best flowing narratives to be found in any at home escape game. The journey back home to Kansas traverses every corner of The Land of Oz, and along the way, Dorothy and her friends will stop to directly interact with each character they pass. The adventure culminates, appropriately, in a battle with the Wicked Witch of the West, leaving Dorothy to make the choice on how to vanquish her from the land once and for all.

Scenic

As we’ve touched on previously, being a home game, we define “Scenic,” from a graphic design perspective, as well as the quality, weight and feel of print materials inside the box.

We mentioned that Space Cowboys goes the route of fully card-based escape home games. Each edition is produced to the highest levels of quality – with thick, glossy textures that have the feel of a upscale deck of playing cards. Unlock!’s decks, however, are larger than a traditional card – measuring in at nearly 4.5″ tall by 2.5″ wide.

The Adventures of Oz adds multiple layers not traditionally found in other Unlock! sets. A large, colorful glossy-textured map of The Land of Oz will take up a decent amount of table space. A thick, satiny-textured Mirror of Truth will draw reflection multiple times throughout the journey back home to Kansas. There’s even additional deck cards beyond the standard set used for the main quest itself.

Something we’ve always enjoyed about Space Cowboys is their use of multiple different artists for each Unlock! box set. What results is a distinctly different animation style, evoking unique moods that help bring each storyworld to life. No two decks within a set will ever feel the same, or even slightly similar, for that matter.

Each game’s respective page within the Unlock! app fully compliments the theme of its storyworld, with unique buttons, sound effects enhance the experience. In The Adventure of Oz, Space Cowboys ass the layer of triggered background music scores – changing depending on where Dorothy is in her quest back home in a way that genuinely transports the adventure off the cards and brings it to life all around players.

Puzzles

The Adventures of Oz features a very different gameplay from a standard Unlock! title. Consistent to the others, it will lead players to either a number or letter – and if correct, this will indicate the next card(s) to draw from the deck. This wonderful journey adds the layer of character cards – one each for Dorothy, The Scarecrow, The Tinman, and the Lion. At times throughout the adventure, items collected will directly interact with these cards to further both the narrative and the puzzleflow.

Each character also has their own quest line assigned by the Wizard. Dorothy’s acts as the main quest which must be completed to win the game, but the other three’s objects – naturally to find a brain, a heart, and courage respectively – serve as optional bonus puzzles. Upon defeating the Wicked Witch of the West, Dorothy is given a choice to either return home to Kansas, or stay a bit longer to help her friends.

Another new layer is the inclusion of medals of honor – some freely hidden throughout The Land of Oz, and others obtained through quests along the way. These medals will be important to the completion of the Wizard’s three bonus quests.

Upon meeting the good Witch of the North, Dorothy gains the powers of the Mirror of Truth – a thick cardboard game piece that will completely transform the play structure moving forward for the remainder of The Adventures of Oz. The Mirror of Truth can be used to reveal hidden secrets or find the reflection of the things Dorothy needs most.

Even the standard card gameplay in The Adventures of Oz is clever, original, and entirely intuitive. At several points, Dorothy and her friends will need to pick the next destination in their journey, with the help of branching symbol options on their character cards. Different from other Unlock! games – some cards may contain items that serve multiple purposes – each logical to both the action and narrative at hand. A final encounter with The Wizard of Oz requires each character to interact one at a time, looking deep inside their personal experiences to reveal a truth they never knew was there all along.

Each Unlock! game is run through a free app, available in the Apple iTunes and Google Play stores. Through it, you’ll not only manage time limits and receive hints, but also enter various codes and even solve some of the puzzles in tech-driven, digital setting. As an added bonus, the Unlock! app also includes themed background music that helps bring the storyworld of each game to life, sometimes even triggering sound effects to further enhance specific puzzles.

The app allows games to be played either with or without penalties for incorrect answers. We prefer playing without penalties, as we feel it more truly mimics a physical escape game experience where you may try a code in a lock when you’re uncertain. Although the penalty free mode is activated (in the app’s Settings) by turning off the timer, rest assured you will still receive your escape time at the end. In fact, turning off the timer is the only way to receive an accurate escape time, as penalties add multiple minutes to your overall duration.

No matter which branching path Dorothy and her friends choose, it all ends, appropriately, with clicking her heels together three times.

Overall

The Adventures of Oz is the hard difficulty game released as apart of Unlock! Secret Adventures – Space Cowboy’s third commercial outing. This series may be purchased either individually or as a complete set, packing not one but three different full length home games inside the box. Interestingly, at the time we ordered ours, we’ve found it’s almost always proven cheaper to purchase each single game one by one on Amazon. We advise you to price your options to find the most cost effective way to add Unlock! games to your own collection. It would appear as though Unlock! has since moved away from the individual games with newer releases, instead making them only available as single-boxed three packs.

As with each Unlock! offering, a playable Tutorial is included. It should be noted that the Tutorial is the same in every Unlock! series, so once you’ve played it, there’s not much benefit in revisiting it.

Space Cowboys also has a series of free, downloadable games – called Unlock! Demo Adventures – available through their website, which you can find by clicking here. They range in length, although several are full 60 minute games. To play them, it’s best if you have access to a printer and several sheets of cardstock, as well as a scissors to cut out each individual card. Just for fun, we did try playing one game “fully digital,” with the help of Photoshop to lay out each of the cards on our virtual desktop – and while it did work, and we still were able to enjoy the Unlock! experience, we found this to be far more time consuming than just taking a few minutes and a few sheets of paper to print them out as intended.

We’ve been fans of the Unlock! series from the start – and while nearly all of their games are great, The Adventures of Oz is far and beyond their crown jewel. This narrative-based adventure has such a unique game flow, with such original – but always intuitive – mechanics, that as is, with little to no modification, it could easily be translated into one of the best brick and mortar escape rooms ever built. Dorothy may spend her time wishing to find a way home, but we spent ours hoping The Adventures of Oz would never end.