ThinkFun Escape The Room Secret of Dr. Gravely's Retreat - an Escape Room Experience in a Box for Age 13 and Up

My family loves escape rooms, we have done many. We decided to give a couple of the escape room games a go. They are play once and optionally pass it on. I figured for the price it was like going to see a movie, but something we could do together.The game play was very linear, you could really only work on 1 or 2 puzzles at a time. That said, my family liked this better than all scattering to work on different puzzles like the other one we played. We felt we had to work more together. The puzzles were challenging and fun but not real hard, probably intermediate level. The game recommend 2 hours for 4 people, but we finished in 1 hour. One thing we really liked in the game is the solution wheel, it basically lets you confirm your answer before you move on to next step. The game says it is for up to 8 people but more than 4 with the linear play of puzzles would be hard.Another big plus is the online material. It was cool that they had music play lists to set the mood. The hint guide was nice and easy to use. We used it once. I like that you can get partial hints. And they had a very nice online guide for repacking if you do want to pass the game on.We liked the game enough I bought the other two from this publisher. Would definitely recommend for up to 4 players.

My wife and I have quickly become huge fans of ThinkFun's Escape The Room series. Stargazer's Manor was awesome, albeit super-easy. Dr. Gravely is just as good, perhaps even better; but just like Stargazer, it was on the easy side for an intermediate difficulty level game. However, the game had its share of challenges and "aha" moments.The puzzles were once again straightforward and the clues not vague. No giant leaps of logic. There was less hand-holding this time than in Stargazer's Manor, but I still felt like the game flow was curated to some degree.There is no concurrent puzzling to be had in this game. That is, although you may have clues/pieces to several different puzzles in front of you at any point during the game, there's only one puzzle that can be solved at a time. However, sometimes figuring out which puzzle _can_ be solved is half the challenge. There were certainly times during the game when my wife and I looked at each other and said, "Well what do we do now?"The story line in the two Escape The Room games we've played thus far seems to have a better flow to it than in other escape game series, and the puzzles are well-integrated into the theme.We've really enjoyed the two Escape The Room titles we've played. Next up is The Cursed Dollhouse.

I just received this today and 72 minutes later I have it solved playing solo.The quality of the product is extremely high and should be able to be passed on with no issues as long as you are careful opening taped envelopes. This set did have several puzzles where I could see someone tearing a puzzle by accident being a bit overzealous, but I will say I liked the variety of those puzzles. Definitely on the high end of like minded products for quality / durability.As far as game play, I liked the concept, I enjoyed the variety of puzzles, but I found the clues to be a little too apparent and obvious. It was very linear and no doubt on a). that you found a clue and b). where that clue was going to be used. I would have appreciated a less linear approach with more trying to "fit the pieces together".Overall good play, but still not as good as Deadbolt Mystery Society. With ability to reuse (and their awesome instructions on repacking) it is worth the money if you have friends / family to pass on to. Especially if you are new to Escape / Mystery games.

My family and I have played probably 10 or so "Exit the Game" games, and probably 9 "Unlock!" scenerios, but this was our first "Escape the Room" game and it was amazing!The puzzles weren't too challenging, but had this been our first game of this style, I imagine they would have been perfect. I really loved the physical puzzles you solve, (prisoner puzzles.)I also really appreciated that think fun had instructions on their website for repacking up the game so we could lend it to friends or play it again, that was a really nice touch.I highly recommend this game, it was super clever and loads of fun. The story was immersive, and the puzzles were great.

This would be a good escape room for beginner players. For my husband and I (we play escape rooms all of the time) it wasn’t challenging enough. Depending on the number of players, you get a certain amount of time to complete the game (ours was 2 hrs). The game says 3 or more players but we felt it was more suited to 2 players, as there isn’t much to delegate out for other people to do. The puzzles go in order, one at a time, so you can’t have multiple people working on different things. Any more than 3 I think would be tedious. The most time sucking parts of this game are the physical puzzles (if you’ve played you know what I’m talking about). It was still a lot of fun and we escaped, but for us it could have been tougher. The materials are all very high quality and you get a lot in the box. You can only really play this game once, but we are used to that with escape room games. Honestly though just play it if you like escape rooms, it’s still fun.

These are always well-designed and constructed. The images and concept for this one were a bit too spooky for my middle schoolers. The o e about the astronomer was more appropriate for this age and well-received by the class.

This was a great escape room in a box. Our kids have done actual escape rooms and we were skeptical about a game in a box. But so glad we got it. It was for our boys party. We had 12 kids, ages 13-14, playing it. I do think a smaller group would be more ideal but they worked well together. It was not easy, but not too hard. It was perfect for their age group. My husband and I played it before hand, and for adults it was easy, but for kids, it was perfect. They needed guidance in two areas but did all the rest on their own and finished in about 40 mins. They all talked about it for days. Plan to buy another for our family for a raining night.

I played this game with my 12-year-old niece and we really enjoyed ourselves. This was better than other escape-room-in-a-box games I’ve tried because the setting and story were well integrated throughout, adding to the immersion factor. Like other reviewers, I don’t see how more than 2-3 players could enjoy this together - there’s just not enough to do to keep everyone occupied. I also liked the fact that we were able to repack the game: the ability to pass this on to a friend adds to the value for me.I’ve played online escape games and done many escape rooms. Nothing compares with escaping a real room with your friends, but if you don’t have access to one, this is a fun way to pass a couple of hours.

This was better than I expected. Took about 2 hours, and kept the 4 of us entertained. The first puzzle was nice and easy to give you an idea of what you're doing, then they got progressively harder. The final puzzle was poorly done in my opinion. The solution could have been a lot more elegant and logical.

c'est super comme jeu. les commentaires que j'ai lu disaient que c'était assez facile. Pour nous c'etait pas si simple. On a réussi à le faire mais pas en 90 mins. Il faut quand meme réflechir en groupe chacun donne ses idées. Je le recommande !

Poca rejugabilidad, predecible.Por el precio está bien.

We bought this game for our New Year's party with family - it was an absolute treat. The puzzles were intriguing and it was a lot of fun to play. It was really something that we all worked together on.There were some easy puzzles and then some quite tricky puzzles, tricky enough to make sure even the most astute sleuths are challenged. We managed to escape the room in just under an hour. We chose to play the extended game because we were having a lot of fun and managed to complete the extension in about 15 minutes.It's a shame that you can only play it once but I guess paying £1.75 per person to entertain 8 people for a couple of hours its pretty good value. We'll definitely try the other games in the series.

We had a lot of fun completing this. 4 adults, took us 90 minutes, plus an additional 30 mins to do the ‘extra part’ at the end.It was fun to do after dinner, all of us helped with the clues, we did have to use the online hint at one stage as we were stumped on one of the clues but overall would happily purchase another game.