OVERALL PRODUCT RATING:  5 Keys

Step back into the golden age of horror on the silver screen, prove your wits against a nefarious dragon, and become the world’s greatest secret agent… all from the comfort of home!

We’re starting with the OVERALL section, which typically closes out each of our reviews in order to provide the big picture information about this product. From there, we’ll bounce to one general SCENIC section for the entire product – as all three games have equal quality materials and graphics used. In place of the traditional STORY and PUZZLES sections, we will be replacing them with three mini-reviews – one for each included game.

Unlock! Epic Adventures is Space Cowboy’s seventh edition of the series – packing not one but three different home games – each of varying length – inside one box. 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.

Previously, Unlock! releases could be purchased in one of two ways – individually per game, or as a package set housed in a single themed series box. Interestingly, we’ve found that in those instances, it almost always proved cheaper to purchase each single game one by one on Amazon. It would appear as though Unlock! has since moved away from the individual games with newer releases, as Unlock! Heroic Adventures, Unlock! Timeless Adventures, and Unlock! Epic Adventures are each only available as single-boxed three packs.

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.

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.

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.

For this box set, our team played them together, remotely. That is to say that one of us was in Orlando while the other was video conferencing in from Philadelphia. While this inflated out escape times slightly, with a little creativity it is entirely doable option for groups who want to share these experiences with friends and family while remaining socially distanced.

Although the Unlock! Epic Adventures Box does indeed hold three unique stand alone games, we’ll be presenting them as one single review simply because they cannot be purchased separately. You’ll notice there is one “OVERALL PRODUCT RATING” – which we’ve combined together to give an average score. Each individual game within the box will also get its own rating below.

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.

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 and background music scores – often cued to specific puzzles allowing the soundtrack to evolve over time – to transport the adventure off the cards and bring it to life all around players.

The Seventh Screening

RATING: 5 Keys          RESULT: Win          REMAINING: +21:01

The poster for the latest horror movie released this week is tantalizing. A mysterious ghost frightens the residents of an old house.

You and your friends decide to experience this cinematic nugget with your own eyes. You have arrived at the doors of the cinema.

It’s a tale as old as time. Full moon. Slightly creepy massive manor. A faint howling off in the distance.

But before adventurers can become immersed in the storyworld of Tumbledown Manor, they must first settle into the comfort of their plush seats at the local cinema. You see, this is all just a hokey horror film… right?

The Seventh Screening transports movie goers back and forth between present day reality and the golden era of black and white movies, for a spooky romp with a hungry werewolf. This aspect of the game introduces an entirely new twist to the Unlock! style of puzzles in that a majority of the game is literally played with no color. Where typically adventurers have the use of red, blue, and green icons to help them solve their way through a game, The Seventh Screening will require them to be a bit more creative in determining just how each aspect of the experience weaves together.

Another new and exciting component of this game is the use of splitting the group up for a portion of the adventure. While this will make it difficult to play The Seventh Screening solo, it adds an entirely new element that emphasizes the need to communicate and coordinate effectively.

Some Unlock! games include supplementary materials in addition to the game cards. Fittingly for a story about a classic horror film, a large size movie poster for “The Werewolf’s Final Night” plays a role in this adventure. The game cards themselves also become a supplementary scenic element in a very creative and fun way that may just make movie goers totally flip out!

Lastly, while The Seventh Screening more closely lines up with Halloween, there are several awesome Easter eggs for horror fans to keep an eye out for. Iconic aspects of multiple films including The Shining and A Nightmare on Elm Street, among others, innocuously pop up through the game in a subtle way that only true fans will notice.

The Dragon’s Seven Tests

RATING: 4 Keys          RESULT: Win          REMAINING: +0:42

MISSION #07

RATING: 5 Keys          RESULT: Win          REMAINING: +3:55

Before trying our first Unlock! game way back when, we’re not afraid to admit that we thought there was no way a simple deck of cards could ever evoke the flavor of being in an actual, highly themed physical space. We’re happy to say that Space Cowboy has consistently proven us wrong.

Unlock! has become the one home series that we find ourselves constantly checking online in hopes of finding a new release – and the moment one is available, we order ours immediately. The Unlock! series has consistently proven to be a breath of fresh air in the home game setting – providing experiences that are always clever, fun, story driven and set in a wide variety of unique themes – with the one consistent constant being their ability to inspire the feeling of playing a genuine escape game without ever leaving the comfort of our own home.

In it’s seventh commercial release, Unlock! continues to push the boundaries of what can be expected from a card based home escape game. With several moments that require truly outside the box thinking, these games will have some surprise “ah ha!” moments even for the most seasoned escape game enthusiasts. Space Cowboys consistently makes an effort to be different, and while that at times falls a bit flat on delivery, the big picture stands to show how refreshing these moments truly are.

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Venue:  Space Cowboys

Location: At Home Game

Number of Games: 29 (3 games + 1 tutorial included in Epic Adventures)

GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:

Duration: Varies (60 to 90 minutes – optional to turn the timer off)

Capacity: 2-6 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): $29.99