RATING: 5 Keys RESULT: Win REMAINING: 8:37
Stopping Snarf is going to be tough… can you hack it?
Escape Game Adventure is a brand of puzzle books created by Melanie Vives and Remi Prieur available from Schiffer Publishing. These are highly themed, story driven escape rooms in book form. They are designed for kids from ages 8 to 12 years old.
Your mission: Locate and destroy the virus and then escape from the scientific compound before the spatial-temporal portal closes forever! With the help of Dooz, your faithful robot, you have been teleported to the year 2394! In this era, a mad scientist plans to paralyze the entire world using a powerful cyber virus . . . In a few moments, it will be too late! Choose to solve this challenge on your own or with a friend! Either way, let’s go!
There is an overarching storyworld between the several Escape Game Adventure books currently available. Readers are part of Agency Y, a group of specialists at completing high risk missions, regardless of the year. In each adventure, a faithfully helpful robot friend, Dooz, accompanies Agents and offers assistance with many of the challenges they will face.
The mission in The Mad Hacker takes place in the future. The year 2394, to be exact. Snarf, the antagonist, has plans to infect all electronic devices in this futuristic world with a crippling computer virus.
Agency Y must hack into Snarf’s machines to localize and destroy the malicious program. But hurry! Dooz can only keep the time travel portal open for thirty to sixty minutes (depending on your experience), so time is of the utmost importance!
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.
The book itself is very professionally produced, with a high gloss finish on the outer cover and thick, sturdy pages that can take the stress of an excited 12 year old flipping back and forth madly.
Escape Game Adventure books have a fantastic illustrator who brings the storyworld to life in a whimsical, vibrant, and engaging way.
Every page of the book is filled with detailed and colorful imagery. The art enhances and intertwines the narrative with the puzzles in an almost cartoon-meets-computer game fashion. The result is an overall scenic that will be sure to quickly pull in new members of Agency Y as they become engrossed in the adorably believable storyworld.
The Mad Hacker boasts eight puzzles in total, each one continuing down the narrative path and working towards the goal of stopping Snarfs computer virus from unleashing havoc.
Melanie Vies and Remi Prieur, the creators of Escape Game Adventure books, successfully capture the feel of brick and mortar puzzles in this adapted to paper format. Everything from code cracking, to spacial reasoning, to outside the box thinking will be needed to complete the mission. The puzzles are logical and progress in a clear, easy to understand manner.
One defined “ah ha!” moment leads to a satisfying solve that allows Agents to creatively use the tools at their disposal. This particular puzzle mimicked the sensation of discovering the solution to a real escape game challenge.
In general, the tasks will be quite easy for any experienced player. As such, it is important to note that this product was NOT necessarily designed for people in that category. When viewed through the lens of the target audience – kids who are 8 to 12 years old – the puzzles are unquestionably both challenging and completely fair.
Escape Game Adventure books fill a unique and very much needed space in the escape game industry. There are not many games geared towards kids. There are fewer that would be enjoyable to both children and their parents. The Mad Hacker presents an opportunity for the younger generation to develop puzzle solving skills using logic, observation, and deduction abilities.
The book is formatted in clever way, similar to many other at-home escape game products. Upon solving a puzzle, the answer will lead Agents to a page number where they will find the next part of the journey. If help is needed along the way, there is a stepped hint section towards the back of the book. Players can also check their answers before flipping to the next page by cross referencing the page number and the solution they arrived at on an answer grid in the hint section. This mechanic prevents accidentally turning to the incorrect page and spoiling a future puzzle.
While there are some easy improvements that would make this product even better, such as perforating the page of cut-outs that are needed for certain tasks, as it stands it is still a fantastic option for families in search of a fun and rewarding puzzle experience. We at Escape Authority know that had we seen this in a store when we were 12, we’d be BEGGING our parents to buy it for us!
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Venue: Escape Game Adventure – Schiffer Publishing
Location: Atglen, PA
Number of Games: 2 (with 2 more coming out Sept. 2020)
GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:
Duration: 60 minutes Beginner / 45 minutes Intermediate / 30 minutes Expert
Capacity: N/A
Group Type: Private / You will not be paired with strangers.
Cost: $9.99 (Schiffer Publishing, Amazon)
We thank Schiffer Publishing for inviting us to play this game. Although a complimentary copy was generously provided, that in no way impacts the opinion included within this review.