Photo above is property of Thames & Kosmos
Company: Thames & Kosmos
Game: Exit The Game: Advent Calendar - The Silent Storm
Country: USA 🇺🇸
Language: English
Type of Game: Tabletop Games 📬
Genre: Christmas, Adventure
Date Played: September 24, 2023
Difficulty (based on 1 player): 4/10
Size of Team: 1+ Players (Ages 10+)
Time: Approximately 10-15 Mins/ per day (for 24 days)
Price: $48.52
🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈
Santa’s workshop is a bustling place, and like all the employees there, you typically spend your days busily making toys for all the nice children. But December 1st isn’t like every other day, and while crafting a beautiful wooden rocking horse, an earthquake suddenly rocks your world! The violent storm disrupts everything and engulfs the workshop in a blizzard of snow! The winter storm also triggered the automatic security system. Now everything is on lockdown! As a long-standing employee, you have the dubious distinction of being named Safety Officer so it’s your job to make sure everyone is safe. You have to find Santa Claus and figure out what is going on! With all the doors looked and Santa nowhere in sight, you’re going to need to be clever to figure a way out of this predicament.
🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞
The advent calendar comes in a large box (approximately 2"x13"x18") with a lid that opens to reveal the 24 little doors that comprise the game board. The box features illustrations of things found on your workbench, and as you peek behind each door you’ll discover a new room in Santa’s workshop!
Photos above are property of Thames & Kosmos
🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈
Each day brings a new puzzle to solve. Begin each day by reading the page in the story book for that day. It will explain where you are on your journey and what you’ve discovered. And it will instruct you on exactly when you should open the next door. Behind the door you’ll find clue cards or small items that you’ll need to combine with the clues peppered in the story, the room itself, and sometimes other things you’ve found along the way to solve that day’s puzzle.
The provided instructions are clear and straightforward to follow, and you’ll easily fall into a daily ritual as you count down to Christmas. Along the way, you’ll need a few supplies. You’ll want to have pen/pencil, scissors, and a flashlight on hand. The flashlight feature on your phone works great for seeing into the corners of each little room! Some elements are damaged or destroyed during game play. I abandoned my usual approach of preserving the game for reuse and was happy to have that freedom.
The game’s narrative begins with an introductory story to read at the start, then each day more of the story line is revealed in the context of the puzzle you solve, and a conclusion to the story is provided at the end. The amount of reading never feels overwhelming, and the story line has a surprising amount of depth and interest.
Photo above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂
The puzzles in The Silent Storm are a fun mix of escape-room style puzzles appropriate for age 10 and up. When you do get stuck on a puzzle (some require some out of the box thinking, so it may happen), hints are provided in one of the booklets. Each puzzle has two hints and the solution given. The layout of the hints allows you to fold the page to see a first hint that will tell you what you need to solve the puzzle and give you a push in the right direction. The second hint is more direct. And the solution gives a wonderfully full explanation of the puzzle and answer along with pictures, so you are never left confused.
Solving a puzzle will provide directions to the next day’s door (the doors aren’t numbered as you’d find in a standard advent calendar). Once you solve the day’s riddle, you’ll get a three digit code that points you to the next day’s door using a decoder. The game’s designers have cleverly used the three-step directions to find the door to also provide confirmation that you’ve correctly identified the next door, which allows you to feel victorious and confident about proceeding.
Photos above are property of Thames & Kosmos
🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂
I love advent calendars (Who wouldn’t? You get a treat everyday in December as you count down to Christmas! What’s not to love?!). And when that treat is a delightful little puzzle, I love it even more.
"The Silent Storm" is the third Advent Calendar game from Thames & Kosmos (although it’s the first I’ve played). If you’ve played their “The Hunt for The Golden Book” or “The Mystery of the Ice Cave,” the format will be familiar and you can expect the level of polish and quality of experience that you’ll find in any of their EXIT games.
I found that the format and game mechanisms were well considered and effective, the puzzles were satisfying, and the story was compelling. The Silent Storm is a lovely way to brighten each day and get you excited for the holiday—assuming you manage to solve the mystery and save Christmas!
Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of the game:
Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)
Disclosure: We thank Thames & Kosmos for providing us with samples of the game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.