RATING: 3 Keys          RESULT: Win           REMAINING: 15:01

Sorry mom, I won’t be home for dinner. We… uhhh… got a little Thai’d up.

One of your group members tried to smuggle illegal substance through the Bangkok International Airport. The Thailand authorities have a zero-tolerance policy for drug dealers, and they put you in holding to await your transportation to prison. While detained, a riot breaks out, and the police officers are too busy to keep track of everyone.

Now is your chance, do YOU have what it takes to escape?

Locked up abroad. It’s a nightmare scenario. It’s even worse when all the blame falls squarely on an acquaintance, yet the entire group faces a long prison sentence inside the unwelcoming walls of a Thai prison.

The building of the storyworld begins even before the game starts. A prison guard pulls smugglers from the lobby, marches them to the entrance of the jail, handcuffs them, and leads them to their cells.

Luckily, fortunate timing is on the travelers side as a riot breaks out, creating the perfect distraction to cover a hasty escape!

The scenic in Thai prison has some really strong points that create an immersive environment. Those are unfortunately paired with a few set flaws that detract from the realistic nature of the prison.

The smugglers sentence begins in the actual jail cells. This space is as believable as it gets. While on the one hand the minimalistic nature of a real world holding cell should be easy to recreate, it’s the attention to detail that can make or break the authenticity. Every detail here is on point, from the steel toilet to the well worn, cold concrete floor.

An audio soundtrack provides background noise that helps to further build upon the environment. Quiet whimpers from other inmates, metal clanging, and the general lack of quietness keep detainees reminded that they are not in a friendly situation.

The scenic falters slightly as potential escapees move beyond the jail cells. Another accused criminal is found locked up in an interrogation room. This is the first instance of the set working against the immersiveness of the game. The person being questioned is a very clearly fake mannequin, limply chained to the table. He provides no clues and does not play a part outside of being a set piece, so it would better benefit the game if this prisoner was more realistic in nature, or less prominently examinable by escapees.

Thai prison, like plenty of other jail themed escape games, kicks off with a split start. Inmates are divided, locked in two adjacent cells, and must first work on reuniting before moving closer to escape.

This blind separation creates a built in need to communicate clearly and effectively as each room cannot be seen from the other. The first half of Thai Prison is very reminiscent of the classic point-and-click online escape games. There are some clever hiding places for tools that will help prisoners break free as well as some super creative uses for everyday objects.

The puzzles are heavy on exploration and manipulation of the surrounding environment, inducing a couple nice “ah ha!” realizations. All of the tasks are congruent with the storyworld, making this actually play more like an actual prion break than an escape game.

Once free from the jail cells, the quality of the challenges starts to slip away. In the second half of this prison break, several points in particular stood out as requiring leaps in logic. Each such instance could be easily fixed with more built in clues on the props or in the game space. The first of these involves and overlay puzzle that very clearly needs to be placed somewhere, but it there was no direction that led to the proper place without a hint.

The second hang up is the mechanism used to move from the interrogation room to the final space. Prior knowledge of a technique to unlock doors is immensely helpful here, otherwise clueing will be needed to advance. The final big logic leap comes in the form of a hiding place that would be very difficult to find without hints or more built in clues somewhere in the game. There is one additional small but important step that is unintuitive to figure out for those unfamiliar with what polarized lenses are.

The puzzle flow starts off really well, and while it doesn’t completely fall flat later in the game it does slow to a less exciting pace as time ticks away.

Thai Prison is certainly a fun escape that utilizes lots of inventive techniques. Old school point-and-click games came to mind more than once while working to break free from the cells, which brought about smiles and appreciative nods. While a few points later in the game led to slightly frustrated eye rolls, those design flaws do not outweigh the positives.

MindEscape has taken a unique spin on a popular theme, and in doing so has created a game that plays differently than many other jail break escapes. Thai Prison is a very solid 3 Key game. Fixing the several logic leaps would help lift this experience to a higher rating, but it still provides an entertaining and exciting challenge even in its current form.

Venue: MindEscape

Location: Philadelphia, PA

Number of Games: 3

GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:

Duration: 60 minutes

Capacity: 12 people

Group Type: Private  / You will not be paired with strangers for any weekday bookings or weekend bookings of 8 or more people..

Cost: $29 per person

We thank MindEscape for inviting us to play this game. Although discounted admission was generously provided, that in no way impacts the opinion included within this review.