Thames & Kosmos - "Exit The Game: Adventures on Catan"
- Matthew Lui
- Dec 14, 2025
- 3 min read
Photo above is property of Thames & Kosmos
Company: Thames & Kosmos
Game: Adventures on Catan
Country: USA 🇺🇸
Language: English
Type of Game: Tabletop Games 📬
Genre: Adventure
Date Played: December 1, 2025
Difficulty (based on 2 players): 5/10
Size of Team: 1-4 Players (Ages 10+)
Time: Approx. 1-2 Hrs.
Price: $21.99
🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈
Life in your village has become rough and it doesn’t look to be getting any better. One day, some seafarers tell you a tale of a rich, beautiful island called Catan. The place is lush with an abundance of resources. Inspired by the stories and hoping for a better life, you and a few friends set out to explore this new land and see if you can make a home of it.
Video above is property of Thames & Kosmos
🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞
Opening up the box, we find some Exit familiar items like the answer wheel as well as the Riddle, Hint and Solution cards. We also find some Catan familiar items like some terrain hexagons, square punch-outs with resources on them, some road pieces, a scenery card and more.
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈
We began by going through the instructions, which did a great job of welcoming both newbies and veterans of the Exit games. If you are new to these games, you can read the whole instruction booklet but returning players only need to read the blue text for new concepts to the game.
For those not familiar with the format of Exit games, each puzzle is tied to a symbol whether it be a star, circle, moon, etc. Solving each puzzle will get three numbers. Using the solution wheel, align the symbol and the three numbers together and it will reveal a number in the middle. The number will tell you which card to pull from the Solution cards. If you are correct, it will tell you how to proceed to the next puzzles. There was a nice Catan themed twist that was added to the solution wheel and encountering certain numbers. As someone who knows the Catan board game well, I was impressed with how they integrated all the story and lore into a puzzle game. There were plenty of references and little easter eggs that made us grin.
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂
There was a nice variety of puzzles from matching, logic and identifying the right pieces of information to some clever ones that required folding, ripping and cutting as well as everything seemed to align properly. Exit games are meant to be destroyed and this one we found was satisfying in its destruction.
We did run into one issue on one puzzle though. There was a misprint that left out some key information. Hopefully this will be fixed in future printings.
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂
Thames and Kosmos did an impressive job capturing the feel of the Catan board game and turning it into an engaging puzzle driven narrative. Even if you are not familiar with Catan, they held your hand going through it but you are well rewarded if you know the game. Despite the amount of Exit games that are available, the puzzles felt fresh, never repetitive and well integrated into the story. There were two of us playing which let us both dive in and experience the whole game but even up to the recommended 4, we feel it would still be a good time for everyone. This is an excellent gift for anyone who is obviously into Catan or board games in general or even someone looking for a strong entry point into the Exit games.
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.
Just read about this Catan-inspired escape room game—sounds like a fun twist on the classic! Reminds me of how fish eat fish in the ocean, but here it's about building a new home. Definitely adding it to my wishlist.
I really liked the point about how the Catan-themed twist on the solution wheel made the puzzles feel more connected to the original board game, especially with all the little references and easter eggs worked into the story. I’ve been putting together a fan resource called Everything is Crab Wiki, and reading reviews like this makes me appreciate how much a well-organized guide or reference can deepen the experience of a game world. Did you have a favorite puzzle or moment from this one?
This review of Adventures on Catan is perfectly detailed—great for both Catan fans and newcomers. If you enjoy solving puzzles like these, you’ll also love the <a href="https://arrowpuzzle.org/">arrow puzzle</a>.
One girl recounted that she and her boyfriend almost argued over Granny 1 when he kept grabbing the mouse to escape, while she said they needed to stay calm to get through the third day.
Thanks for stopping by. Arty's Ice Cream & Grill is a great spot to enjoy delicious ice cream while exploring Iowa, and I’m happy you liked the post. pips midi