Review: Conundrum Escape Rooms - Intergalactic Countdown

RATING: 3 Keys RESULT: Loss REMAINING: X:XX

Come in Star Command! We are running out of oxygen, Star Command!

Story

You and your crew have damaged your spaceship by hitting an asteroid. You have one hour left of oxygen supply. Can you escape before you run out?

Your crew made the mistake of only packing one spacesuit onto the ship. Only a single astronaut can exit the spaceship at a time in order to fix the damage. Hopefully, we do not run out of oxygen.

Intergalactic Countdown never quite gives us a fully immersive spaceship experience. We did not always feel like we were taking an active role in repairing the ship. However, the game still follows through making a memorable experience due to a unique twist that was well executed.

Scenic

This “spaceship” looks more like a space-themed office space. The walls are white, and there is a drop-ceiling. The constellation poster on the wall does not exactly look like a window into space. There’s a desk fitted with several buttons and toggle switches. Presumably, these are the controls to fly the “ship.” The white dryer hoses around the room are clearly meant to evoke the mood of spaceship. Meant to.

The exit door to space looks more like a bank vault door than it does a spaceship door. Outer space is a dark hallway with several puzzle stations lined in a row. A spotlight illuminates the first station. Much like the inside of the ship itself, needless to say, the outer space area did not quite look the part.

Puzzles

All of the activities in Intergalactic Countdown do relate to the overarching space theme. There is a constellation puzzle, a task requiring careful manipulation of rare space material, and actions required outside of the spaceship. Unfortunately, not all the actions taken felt like we were actively repairing the ship. Most of them felt like puzzles for puzzles’ sake.

Outside the ship there were several puzzles stations that lit up one at a time as we successfully solved them. There was also a unique twist where only one of us could be in space at a time. It was fun and worked well for us, however, it may not work for all teams. If more than one of us was in space at a time, the countdown timer goes into ludicrous mode.

There was one finicky puzzle that required several slider switches to be set EXACTLY. We had the correct solution, but the game master let us know that a couple of the switches were just a hair off. This caused us to waste a considerable amount time that could have been prevented with a little bit of maintenance.

There was also a latch near the end that was supposed to open pneumatically, but it didn’t correctly work. The game master told us to “open it from the corner”. We were never able to open it even though we properly unlocked it from a previous action.

Overall

Intergalactic Countdown does some things well and has a unique twist in the game. All of the puzzles related to the space theme, but not all of the steps feel like we were taking an active role in repairing the ship.

Ultimately, the scenic is not convincing as a spaceship. There were also a few frustrations along the way due to technological issues and finicky puzzle design. Despite the negatives, Conundrum Escape Rooms has still designed an enjoyable family-fun experience.