RATING: 5 Keys RESULT: Win REMAINING: 10:31
Don’t worry kids! That Boogeyman under your bed isn’t real. But the ones in your closet, hiding in that shadow and lurking outside your window totally want to eat you. And that big one in your nightmares? Yeah – he’s the worst Boogeyman of them all.
Little William has been having restless nights recently. The poor child has been attacked by nightmarish monsters: the Boogeymen. Under the cloak of darkness, you open William’s door to look for the monsters. Be careful; the child is sleeping and it would be unfortunate to wake him up.
The Boogymen have invaded William’s dreams! Unite your forces to chase them and soothe the little boy.
Poor little William’s nightmares have come to life – literally. There’s not just one Boogeyman; there’s four – and they’re all stalking him while he sleeps at night. The One That Crawls in the Dark, The One That Pops Up, The One That Pulls The Strings, and worst of all, The One That Eats Dreams are all loose in William’s bedroom. It’s time to grab the trusty teddy bear, gather up every bit of bravery and defeat these monsters once and for all!
Despite being “just a deck of cards,” The Night of the Boogeymen proves to be one of the most story-driven escape home games on the market. The story of William’s terrible night quite literally unfolds across the deck, with unexpected twists and surprise attacks changing the course of the narrative multiple times.
It all builds toward a climatic, physical battle with the head Boogeyman – literally – thanks to a new-found bravery brought on by items William has collected along the way.
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 an 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.
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. The Night of the Boogeyman evokes a deviously delightful Tim Burton-esque flavor, with monsters that are certainly sinister, but not too scary for younger players.
Each game’s respective page within the Unlock! app fully compliments the theme of its storyworld, with unique buttons, sound effects and background music scored in the tune of a whimsical-but-menacing soundtrack to transport the adventure off the cards and bring it to life all around players.
The Night of the Boogemen also includes printed supplement material that will ultimately come together in an unexpected way to further advance both the puzzles and storyworld.
Progressing through an Unlock! game will lead players to either a number or letter – and if correct, this will indicate the next card(s) to draw from the deck.
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.
Highly unique to this game, at multiple times throughout the adventure, action unexpectedly comes to a grinding halt as one of four menacing Boogeyman make their attack. Each monster has its own weakness to be discovered, as well as a constraint it puts upon the kids who dare do battle with it. Some constraints negatively impact overall gameplay, while others actually create physical limitations that impact on all who look upon them in real life!
Each Boogeyman acts as a sort of “boss battle,” so to speak, leading to a final climatic conflict that takes a common trope of home games and uses it in the most clever, storyworld sensible way we’ve ever seen.
The Night of the Boogeymen is the easy difficulty game released as apart of Unlock! Exotic Adventures – Space Cowboy’s fourth 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.
There’s a lot of positive to mention in any conversation about an Unlock! branded home game – but The Night of the Boogeymen is unquestionably among the best of them. This epic battle filed with childlike whimsy is simply so clever, different, and fun that it ranks as one of our favorite escape home games, period. The Boogeymen may bring nightmares to kids across the globe, but this home game is the total package we dream to encounter.
*Montu, Escape Authority’s VP, Dog Business™ and lead home game correspondent endorses the opinions found within this review.
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Venue: Space Cowboys
Location: At Home Game
Number of Games: 29 (1 + 1 Tutorial game included in this box)
GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:
Duration: 60 minutes
Capacity: 1-6 people
Group Type: Private / You will not be paired with strangers (but if you are, call 911 immediately to report a home invasion.)
Cost (at Publish Time): $13.99 (Amazon.com) / or purchase the complete Unlock! Exotic Adventures box set for $35.27 (Amazon.com)