Escape room board games are a new twist on the hugely popular home escape room game. If you have to sit with your family on your own four wa...
The Best Escape Room Board Games
What is the character and gameplay of Escape Room board games? Just like with escape rooms, in reality, the following aspects are particularly important and can be found in principle in all such games:
the players have to solve the puzzles and tasks together
The aim is to escape from a (here: fictional) room
it is only available for a limited time
usually, it is between one hour and 90 minutes
A small drawback of such escape games is often that they can only be played once. Once you have solved the puzzles contained therein, a second round of the same game is of no interest.
But some providers counter this minor problem with escape games by supplying different puzzles for several passes with one order.
However, this is not the rule for escape room board games. Nevertheless, they are extremely popular, not least because they are still relatively new and have really stirred up the board game market.
But what are the best escape games that you can play at home as a board or parlor game? Here is the list of the versions of this successful form of entertainment that are generally considered to be the best and most exciting.
Escape Room - The Game
Noris – Escape Room Mega Pack incl. 6 cases, 2 mini-games, and Chrono Decoder
from 16 years
Fortunately, four different scenarios are included in this first suggestion for a good escape room board game.
There is also an electronic decoder as an aid to evaluating the solutions to the puzzles. Again, as with almost all escape games, you are given 60 minutes for each puzzle, and the time ticks inexorably from the start of the game.
You also get a nice wealth of material. Maps and pictures of the rooms and other utensils are included in the delivery.
However, the puzzles are usually tough and are by no means easy to crack for those who are inexperienced in this genre.
In return, you also get long-lasting fun with this escape game, and an extension as virtual reality was recently released.
You use an app on your smartphone that lets the players look into the room or rooms that you have to escape from, almost like in real life.
The newly released "Escape Room Megapack" includes the base game with Chrono Decoder, VR glasses, and 6 adventures. There are now also several expansions, all of which can be played with the Chrono Decoder from the base game.
Unlock!
Unlock! – Timeless Adventures | Set incl. deck of cards
Ages 12 and up
This is a nice example of an escape game that you can play more than once even after you buy it. More specifically, three different scenarios are included in the Unlock! package.
In addition, there is a "mini-game" at the beginning, which serves as a tutorial for a successful introduction to principles and gameplay.
The creators came up with a good idea because not everyone is familiar with the very specific way of thinking that is needed to solve the puzzles in an escape game.
As with many home escape games, Unlock! also has an app as part of the game. So you need at least one smartphone at hand to be able to play the game in your own four walls.
This app serves on the one hand as a timekeeper, on the other hand as an aid if you get stuck somewhere.
It remains to be seen whether the tips offered there really help, but at least there is a chance of finding a way out of tricky situations.
In addition, it serves as a simulator for "machines" occurring in the course of the game or other things on which you have to move or adjust something.
Then you can even hear the right sounds for what's going on in the game. Whether you hear a creaking door or start a rusted engine.
These sounds set the mood and help the imagination soar when trying to imagine being actually trapped in a room (or other scenarios).
The merciless timekeeper in the form of the app puts a lot of pressure on the players here, which would be no different in a real escape room.
Very positive: Two different versions, each with three scenarios, are available. So if you liked the first purchase, that's not the end of it, and three more scenarios are waiting for you to escape from them.
Another plus: The cases are not quite as serious and grim as in most competing products. Everything here is designed to be a little more comic-like, which is sure to please younger players.
Exit - The Game
Perhaps the best-known version of an escape game as a board game: Exit - the game. Here the tiresome circumstance has been counteracted particularly intensively, that once a puzzle or scenario has been solved it cannot be played a second time.
There are no fewer than sixteen (!) different settings from this manufacturer, Kosmos Verlag, from which you have to find your way.
These sixteen variants also differ from each other in terms of difficulty.
A real hit on the home escape game market, even if the gameplay itself is very similar in all sixteen variants. Why should you change anything if it leaves so many players enthusiastic?
Here is the list of the sixteen variants, with more to come.
The Abandoned Hut - Level: Advanced
The Secret Laboratory - Level: Advanced
The Tomb of the Pharaoh - Level: Professional
The Forgotten Island - Level: Advanced
The Station in the Perpetual Ice - Level: Advanced
The Forbidden Castle - Level: Professionals
The Dead Man on the Orient Express - Level: Professionals
The Sunken Treasure – Level: Beginner
The Spooky Mansion - Level: Advanced
The Mississippi Heist - Level: Advanced
The Mysterious Museum – Level: Beginner
The Ghost Train of Terror – Level: Beginner
The Dread Catacombs – Level: Advanced
The Flight into the Unknown – Level: Beginner
The Kangaroo Escapades - Level: Advanced
The three ??? and the House of Puzzles - Level: Beginner
In the last variant, you can even experience part of the atmosphere of the radio play classic "The Three Question Marks".
This then also fits in well with the fact that the target group for this escape game, according to the manufacturer, starts at 10 years and up.
Some people will have just met Justus Jonas and his companions.
Overall, it is true for all escape games that you will always get stuck on a puzzle at one point in the game. Stuck longer than originally intended.
That's why the time information for "Exit - the game" of about 60 minutes per round is really only a guide. If you need more time, you can at least have more puzzle fun - whether in the perpetual ice or on the Orient Express.
With the current purchase price of 10-13 euros per scenario and a suggested number of three to five players per escape game, the costs for this fun at home are also limited.
Unlike other games of this type, there is no app for "Exit - the game". So you really only play in a classic way with the existing playing cards - and of course with your own brain cells.
As always with escape games, it pays to think outside the box a little. Anyone with a talent for this may also have escaped from a room quickly after the specified 60 minutes ...
Over 3 million copies of this game have been distributed worldwide, making it the best-selling escape game. So a hot tip because it's so popular.
Deck Scape
Fourth in the list of the best board games among escape games is the game "Deckscape". Here, too, the makers have made sure that it doesn't have to end up in the garbage or on eBay after just one game.
The creatives came up with six different scenarios. So you can experience puzzle fun with your friends six times here.
In addition, all puzzles are already completely solved during the game on the supplied cards.
However, you get a time penalty if you haven't found the right solution. Speaking of the included cards: “Deckscape” completely dispenses with any new media accessories.
Everything you need to play here comes in the Abacusspiele box. Because here all tasks and puzzles, as well as the solutions on the cards, are available.
With a price of around 10 euros, it is also quite affordable with six scenarios. According to the manufacturer, the game is played in teams of up to 6 players, but of course, you can also try the individual “Deckscape” scenarios on your own.
The Best Online Escape Games
Of course, there are also a number of variants of this game principle as an online game. Some are even free. But in the following, it should be less about the price and more about the fun of the game. So here are the most recommended online escape games. As above, the same applies here: the order does not represent an evaluation.
The biggest difference apart from the fact that you don't play with physical cards but on a computer or smartphone: Most of the time you play this variant of escape games alone.
Of course, this is not necessarily the case. You can make an appointment online for such an escape attempt and then try to solve the puzzles together.
NOX Escape Room
Here you are in an old mansion full of mysteries. All objects, furniture, etc. can be examined and may contain help or tips.
In addition to the successful storytelling, this game is characterized by very convincing graphics.
At the same time, the puzzles are not too difficult, so it might be too easy to solve for experienced escape game players.
But that is also an important tip: NOX Escape Room is a good game for beginners, which is also available free of charge.
Curfew
A game by the provider Mission Accepted, which also operates real escape rooms. So you will be familiar with how to design such games.
In the case of "curfew", the following applies: you have several topics and levels of difficulty on offer. Up to 6 players can play here.
However, it is less of a real escape game and more of a crime mystery to be solved, which by the way also applies to some scenarios of the games mentioned above.
A lot of teamwork and good deduction skills are required to solve this case in the game "curfew". The good thing is that apart from a computer, all you need is a piece of paper and a pen and you can start right away. No installation is necessary, because it is actually played completely online.
Psycho Escape
Last tip for the best escape games that you can also play at home: the online game "Psycho Escape".
Unlike most other games, in which this stylistic device is avoided so that the focus is on fun and not fear, things are quite scary here. After all, quite a few like this too.
Here you are pursued by a villain who has it in for you. So the time pressure is quite real here.
In this respect, the part with the "escape" is vital here. Lots of puzzles, but not unsolvable. A successful atmosphere makes for entertainment, although this game is less suitable as a game in a group.
The Best Escape Room Board Games: Our Conclusion
The selection of escape room board games for your own four walls is much larger than the games presented here can convey.
Which in turn means that even after playing through all these escape games mentioned here, you will still encounter something new.
In times when a lot of time has to be spent at home, welcome fun for the whole family or for the members of a flatshare.
And if you want to avoid visits, but still don't want to miss out on the fun of solving puzzles together, you will definitely get your money's worth in one of the online escape games.
The absolute hit of all the games mentioned here is "Exit - the game", but the alternatives are also a lot of fun.
They, too, usually find the right mix of fun and challenge in the puzzles.
What all these games have in common as a group experience: You wouldn't believe how much it bonds you to work together and, ideally, successfully on a task at the end.
These Escape Room board games are therefore ideally suited to strengthen the cohesion among the participants far beyond the actual games.
If you are also interested in regular board games to play at home, then we recommend 7 Wonders by Asmodee.
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