Photo above is property of The Curious Correspondence Club Company: The Curious Correspondence Club Game: Chapter XIII: Chamber of Trials Country: Canada 🇨🇦 Language: English Type of Game: Tabletop Games 📬 Genre: Mystery Date Played: January 22, 2022 Difficulty (based on 2 players): 7/10 Size of Team: Unlimited (Age 12+) Time: Unlimited (Suggested: 60-90 Minutes) Price : $21.95 (free shipping in North America); Monthly Subscription: $19.95/Yearly Subscription: $179 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 You are following in the footsteps of an intrepid adventurer, Liarea. She had previously explored a temple containing five idols and a large altar before becoming trapped and meeting her untimely end. Fortunately, she documented her progress and her journal is your guide. You must retrace her steps to discover what she missed. She had recovered five idols - each resting in a different room, protected by a different trap - rolling spiked log, snake pit, etc. This is a true Indiana Jones-style adventure, and you will need courage and creativity to overcome the five obstacles and discover how to escape. Only with this knowledge can you discern the proper path to escape the temple after order has been restored. 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ This game has an impressive amount of collateral in the form of printed layouts - at least one for each trial and several for the final altar as well. Many of them are also double-sided, providing more puzzling material for the amount of items! They share a common look and feel, which contributes to the feeling of being immersed in the temple itself, especially when they are covering your kitchen table! There is also some construction to be done and we enjoyed the exploration and experimentation required to build the components themselves. We had to do some refining after our initial attempts at assembly; when they were properly assembled, it was clear we had done so correctly. Once everything is assembled and laid out, it's hard to believe it all came from a single envelope! The journal is written in small, cursive font on weathered pages, giving it an authentic look but also making it a bit hard to read. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 It's purely linear - solve each puzzle to determine how Liarea obtained the idol from that chamber. In the course of solving each puzzle, you also discover a set of three runes that will be necessary in the final meta puzzle. So, it's important to note which runes came from which room and keep them associated with the proper idol. The runes are used to determine the proper path to follow around the final altar. We enjoyed coming up with silly names for the runes (bear backpack, three-dot octopus) as we worked together. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 They are primarily spatial and logic-based. Each one involved some level of manipulation of the collateral provided. There was one straight-up assembly puzzle (fit the shapes into this area), but most of them involved first determining the proper mechanic, and then repeating it a number of times. There was some uncertainty regarding exactly how to apply the mechanic in some of the puzzles, leading to a lack of confidence in the answer generated. We struggled with these puzzles, for a couple of reasons. First, there is no way to verify that you are solving any puzzle correctly along the way (and no real A-ha moments). So, it's possible to get answers for all five, reach the end, follow the path, fail, but not have any idea where you went awry or which puzzle(s) were solved incorrectly. Secondly, the hint system is underdeveloped; the first hint for each puzzle was virtually identical and the second didn't provide much direction. (Although, we did find patterns after the fact that would've made for helpful clues.) We also experienced some confusion as to whether the journal was written from an omnipotent/overhead point of view or that of Liarea, which made it more difficult to understand the rules of engagement. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 We loved the look and concept of this envelope and its contents. Idols and ancient temples are wonderful source material for challenges like this, and it’s amazing how much material they packed in! We did have some frustrations with actual execution of the puzzles, and we often carried with us the uncertainty of whether we had solved them correctly. Curious Correspondence Club has done many wonderful things for the puzzling world. (If you missed Puzzletember, go back and check out @curiouscorrespondence on Instagram!) We also adore their tree-planting initiative! Despite the well-developed look and feel, this particular chapter missed the mark for us in terms of providing a satisfying puzzling challenge sprinkled with the moments of triumph that we crave when attempting to escape ancient temples. As each chapter tells one part of a continuing story, subscribers or fans of CCC may still enjoy having this one in their collection and we look forward to a new chapter to explore in the future! (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 The Curious Correspondence Club for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #DaveBristol #AtHomeGames #TabletopGames #PuzzlesByMail #SubscriptionGames #Mystery #Canada #TheCuriousCorrespondenceClub

Photo above is property of The Curious Correspondence Club Company: The Curious Correspondence Club Game: Chapter XIV: Below Zero Country: Canada 🇨🇦 Language: English Type of Game: Tabletop Game 📬 Genre: Mystery Date Played: February 7, 2022 Difficulty (based on 2 players): 6/10 Size of Team: Unlimited (Age 12+) Time: Unlimited (Suggested: 60-90 Minutes) Price : $21.95 (free shipping in North America); Monthly Subscription: $19.95/Yearly Subscription: $179 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Chartering an expedition through the frozen ocean, you find yourself at the hull of a ship that has been buried in the snow for who knows how long. Making your way onboard and into the captain’s quarters, you find the remnants of many instruments that make up a rudimentary laboratory. You also encounter an old safe that hides what you are looking for but as you try to open the safe, the ship begins to shift in the ice. Can you obtain the contents of the safe before the ship is lost to the icy sea forever? 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ Unfolding the envelope, the story of this chapter is printed on the envelope. The envelope also has a checklist of the items you should have as well as a QR code to the hint and solutions page. Laid out in the envelope are multiple high-quality looking papers and paper items. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 Going through the different papers, our jaws dropped when we found ourselves building a tangible object with some of the papers given to us which ended up looking really impressive. Not only was the overall story from the envelope well written and detailed but we found the story embedded in the puzzles and other items written with great quality as well. The look and feel of the paper was high quality that ranged from weathered paper and old looking sketches. The hint section offered a leveled hint system. We found the hint system could have been labelled better since we had trouble with the descriptions they gave them. We had to click through each of the hint titles before we found the one we needed. Once the game is completed, the ending did have a great quality video that progressed the story and got us excited for the next Curious Correspondence game. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The puzzles were set up in a non-linear fashion so we were able to divide and conquer a little bit. At first glance, some of the puzzles were not very clear but once you read into the associated text, we got our aha moment and discovered how to solve them. One thing we liked was that the main pieces of each puzzle was marked out so that there was no confusion in wondering what pieces you need to solve them. There was a good mix of difficulty on the puzzles. Some we were able to solve and get right away while some we had to go over it a few times before realizing what needed to be done. There were some sneaky ones too that were fun to solve as they were not what they seemed. One thing we did find lacking was a confirmation through the game that you have the correct answer as you progress. There is a confirmation on the website for the final answer which will then reveal the final video but if you check your final answer and it is wrong, you may need to go through all the work you did through the other puzzles to see where a mistake could have been made. That being said, the solutions can be found on the hint pages if required. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 Overall, we were very impressed with the amount of puzzling and story that could fit into one regular sized envelope. The fact that we could even build a tangible item from this game got us excited right from the start. Even though there was only 2 of us playing, the non-linear puzzle stream was nice to allow us to split things up and puzzle through, which would allow for a few more players if needed. The immersiveness that they were able to provide through the story telling really stuck with us as this was our first Curious Correspondence game. Even not having played any of their previous game, we did not feel lost or lacking any information to play. We are definitely going to have to try out some more. (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 The Curious Correspondence Club for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #MatthewLui #AtHomeGames #TabletopGames #PuzzlesByMail #SubscriptionGames #Mystery #Canada #TheCuriousCorrespondenceClub

Photo above is property of The Curious Correspondence Club Company: The Curious Correspondence Club Game: Chapter XV: Safekeeping Country: Canada 🇨🇦 Language: English Type of Game: Tabletop Game 📬 Genre: Mystery Date Played: March 23, 2022 Difficulty (based on 1 player): 7/10 Size of Team: Unlimited (Age 12+) Time: Unlimited (Suggested: 60-90 Minutes) Price : $21.95 (free shipping in North America); Monthly Subscription: $19.95/Yearly Subscription: $179 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Next stop, the Banca Bernascont! As you approach the bank, you notice that a robbery has taken place. Ushered in by the manager, Oskar Bernasconi III, he debriefs you on the situation. It seems that Starfall has come looking for a particular item in the safety deposit boxes. The problem is, that no one, not even Oskar himself knows which safety deposit box that item is kept in. The only way to find the correct box is by solving and combining the clues of six different safety deposit boxes, all of which have been ransacked by Starfall. Can you unravel the puzzles of the six boxes, find the crucial one and determine if the item has fallen into the wrong hands? 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ Opening the envelope, the inside has a beautiful illustration and design to help set the mood of the game. As you start to set up the game, the envelope also contains the story. After reading that, you can begin to check out the rest of the contents which contains safety deposit boxes, a steel bullion cart, a locket and other well-designed paper items. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 After reading the in-depth story from inside the envelope, there is a decisive nudge at the end to tell you where to start. The story is impressive in how detailed and well written it is to engulf you into the game. Going through the papers and items, I am always impressed with what CCC is able to replicate with just paper. Using papers that fit into an envelope, I was able to feel like I was rifling through 6 safety deposit boxes as well as working with a diamond and a locket. In this game, I felt there was some good cryptic directions on how to proceed and navigate the items and puzzles. Make sure to take your time to go through everything thoroughly. I also recommend having enough space to spread everything out. It would be easier to see everything and help make certain connections. Once you finish the game, the quality of the end video is a pleasure to watch which is a still shot narration. This game also has some subtle confirmation of the answers along the way which was nice to see. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 There was a large swing in difficulty in the puzzles as there were some that I was able to solve right away to some that after a significant amount of time spent, I had to refer to the hints. Make sure to read everything and go over it carefully. There were a couple of puzzles where I missed what it needed me to do. The puzzles played out in a non-linear order which let me bounce around and take some breaks on some of the more difficult ones. CCC has a good hint system set up in case you do get stuck. I did have to use it a few times and it was well organized. One thing was that there were a few hints and solutions that did require some in-depth explanation and I had to reread it over a few times to understand what was required. Those ones could have used some pictures or diagrams to help guide you. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 " Safekeeping " felt like a pleasant twist to a bank heist escape room. Even though everything was made out of paper, I felt like a detective trying to discover the mystery of many boxes. Since this is a non-linear game, this would be a good game for up to 4 or 5 people since everyone can be checking different things out together. Depending on your solving skills, there are some puzzles that are quick to get but some that you may have trouble interpreting what to do. Do not be afraid to check out the hints when you need them to ensure that you have a great puzzling time with this game. (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 The Curious Correspondence Club for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #MatthewLui #AtHomeGames #TabletopGames #PuzzlesByMail #SubscriptionGames #Mystery #Canada #TheCuriousCorrespondenceClub

Photo above is property of The Curious Correspondence Club Company: The Curious Correspondence Club Game: Chapter XVI: Endangered Species Country: Canada 🇨🇦 Language: English Type of Game: Tabletop Game 📬 Genre: Mystery Date Played: April 21, 2022 Difficulty (based on 1 player): 7/10 Size of Team: Unlimited (Age 12+) Time: Unlimited (Suggested: 60-90 Minutes) Price : $21.95 (free shipping in North America); Monthly Subscription: $19.95/Yearly Subscription: $179 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Our adventure led us to the mysterious home of Mr. Whitlock. Sadly, he passed away but we were greeted by his granddaughter Louise. You wouldn't be able to tell from the outside, but this cottage even has a museum inside! Looks like we'll be helping Louise with sorting out some of the works left behind by her famous entomologist grandfather Batholemew Whitlock... 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ In this envelope, you'll receive your backstory printed on the envelope with contents (see above for the list) on the left flap and hint QR code on the right. They use to have these items on separate papers but it's great to see them able to consolidate and save more on paper usage (since they already utilize every paper you see in a double sided fashion within the envelope). Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 If you read our previous reviews on the games by CCC before, they haven't changed much in terms of the play style. But, they have definitely improved on clarity and game flow throughout the years. In this game, it would be beneficial to read the "last testament" first as it serves as a check list for things you'll need to complete in the game. From there, you'll need to pair together which information is relevant to which task. Of course there might be details printed on different pages. Remember they are double-sided, so make sure to search carefully! As always if you are stuck, there's always nudging hints you can check on their website. We still hope that the hint page could be improved for this game. It would be helpful to see some completed pictures as examples of solutions as some gadgets in this game are really cool to assemble. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 CCC never makes their games too easy for the players and we usually block off a few hours when we start a new one. In this game, we were surprised as a few puzzles were not as difficult where as others definitely took multiple steps to complete. I really enjoyed the variations. I'm also an animal lover, so the different types of specimen and how we're able to maneuver them made the puzzles come to "life" as well! Every time we're able to complete a CCC puzzle without the hints, it's an accomplishment for sure. But we love the challenge! Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 The creative minds at CCC is insane and has surprised us every single time that we received an envelope. I'm always wondering, what else can they do this month? I feel like they've done every scenario already? It was as if we're changing careers every time and of course this time we got to be an entomologist. There are less things that we're able to build this time, but the props that they've come up with were still very unique and complimented the storyline really well. At one point, the butterfly felt 3D on our table and I almost thought it was real! If you haven't done a chapter yet, definitely give it a go! (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 The Curious Correspondence Club for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #CiciCao #AtHomeGames #TabletopGames #PuzzlesByMail #SubscriptionGames #Mystery #Canada #TheCuriousCorrespondenceClub

Photo above is property of The Curious Correspondence Club Company: The Curious Correspondence Club Game: Chapter XVII: Protege Country: Canada 🇨🇦 Language: English Type of Game: Tabletop Game 📬 Genre: Mystery Date Played: June 17, 2022 Difficulty (based on 2 players): 6/10 Size of Team: Unlimited (Age 12+) Time: Unlimited (Suggested: 60-90 Minutes) Price : $21.95 (free shipping in North America); Monthly Subscription: $19.95/Yearly Subscription: $179.00 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Inside the Dupont gallery, a cultural heritage foundation, you begin to learn more about Sylvester Dupont, a painter, sculptor and wartime codebreaker. Sneaking into the forthcoming exhibit, you find yourself in Sylvester Dupont’s final studio, where many believe that his final works may have contained a secret message, ready to be deciphered by the keenest of eyes and sharpest of minds. Can you look through the artwork, learn about Dupont himself and find the message that he has hidden away in his final works? 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ Unfolding the envelope that this game comes in, you are greeted with Curious Correspondence Club’s standard set up where the story is written on the envelope with a checklist of what should be included on the right and the QR code on the left for the hint page. In this particular game, the key items are (5) pieces of artwork, a gallery brochure, a paintbrush, artist palette and a pigment shelf. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 As usual, the story writing for Curious Correspondence Club was top tier. The narrative always feels like it was taken out of a novel. This game specifically though, did have a lot more reading in it than the other CCC games we have played and we found it easy to read and truly believable. The information and pamphlet about the artist felt very realistic and did make us contemplate looking them up to see if they were real or not. With this theme especially, the story and puzzles made sense and worked together quite well. Much like all the other CCC games, we're always impressed with everything that they can fit into the envelope. The flow of the game revolves around non-linear puzzles that will lead you to a meta-puzzle. This allows you to tackle each of them as you please or can be played with a larger group of friends. The hint page was useful for our play. There are 2 layered hints that will slowly give you more before the solution, which gives you a full explanation on how to solve the puzzle. Some include a picture which helps a lot as well. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 There is a nice range of puzzles in "Chapter XVII: Protege" , difficulty and diversity-wise. Reading into the flavor text, some we were able to understand and solve right away, some we had to ponder what needed to be done and a few we knew what the end goal was but then needed to complete them. All the paper items were also fun to play with. One issue we had in this game, each puzzle would reveal a set of numbers but unfortunately, there is no way to self-confirm the answer if they are correct a not. A couple of puzzles were also a little ambiguous on how to extract the numbers once you solved the puzzle and could be misinterpreted. This was where we leaned into the hints and solutions. When we think we got the answer, we would use the solutions to confirm if it was correct. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 "Chapter XVII: Protégé" gives you a history and art lesson (though not a real one) through the amazing writing of the story and background of Sylvester Dupont. Throughout the game, I was completely convinced that he was a real person which made for an even more immersive experience. The flow of puzzles also made for a nice game where you could divide and conquer with a larger group of friends. CCC provides a video at the end too which gives a satisfying conclusion to the game. We find CCC continues to provide solid games and have enjoyed all the ones we have played so far. (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 The Curious Correspondence Club for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #MatthewLui #AtHomeGames #TabletopGames #PuzzlesByMail #SubscriptionGames #Mystery #Canada #TheCuriousCorrespondenceClub

Photo above is property of The Curious Correspondence Club Company: The Curious Correspondence Club Game: Chapter XVIII: Calling Card Country: Canada 🇨🇦 Language: English Type of Game: Tabletop Game 📬 Genre: Mystery Date Played: August 9, 2022 Difficulty (based on 1 player): 5/10 Size of Team: Unlimited (Age 12+) Time: Unlimited (Suggested: 60-90 Minutes) Price : $21.95 (free shipping in North America); Monthly Subscription: $19.95/Yearly Subscription: $179.00 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Moving through the streets and alleys of London, you finally discover what you were looking for. Draped in caution tape, you find an old red phone booth that looks like it hasn’t been entered in ages. Stepping under the tape and into the phone booth, you find a mix of items scattered around the booth including a directory of names and numbers. This confirms that this is where you need to be but who do you have to contact? Short on both, time and pocket change, you only have one shot to figure out who’s number to dial and where you need to head to next. 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ Opening up the classic Curious Correspondence Club envelope, you are greeted with the novel-like story on the envelope and the checklist of items off to the side. In this mailing, some of the key items you will get to play with are a subway map and ticket, drink coasters, coins, a postcard, and more. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 After reading the story on the envelope, you are nothing but immersed in the narrative and objective of the game. Having played a few of their previous games, this one felt the smoothest to me. The signposting on how to start, how to progress, and what you needed to do was straightforward. With what was packed in this envelope and being able to solve the puzzles with no online material required always catches me off guard. If you are looking for hints and the final video once you solve everything though, you will need to access them on the internet. One of the other standard things you can find in most CCC games is being able to make something tangible to work with in the game and there is no exception here as we were able to interact with a telephone booth and rotary phone. One of the feedback with some of the CCC games is that you are typically looking for a set of numbers and there is not a way to confirm your progress without looking at the solutions. For Calling Card, I found that most of the puzzles were self-confirming. As I solved them, I knew for sure I had the correct answers and they stood out as being more obvious than some of their previous games. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 " Calling Card " can be played non-linearly so there can be a few people working on different puzzles at one time. If you follow the order laid out for you, though, the puzzles ramped up quite nicely. The puzzles required you to read into the instructions and figure out what needed to be completed. The final puzzle was also the right amount of challenging and satisfying once you realized what needed to be done. There was one puzzle though that did stick out a little bit where I needed to use the hint system and could have been better as you need to be familiar with words and the word discovery did seem a little random. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 Curious Correspondence Club knocks it out of the park with their high-quality game that fits into an envelope. This one is definitely one of my favorite CCC games. From the well-written story at the start to the final video to finish the experience, I was engaged and immersed the entire time. The puzzles were just the right amount of difficulty where I did not feel frustrated but challenged along the way. All the puzzles fit well into the story including the memorable final puzzle. If you have been waiting to play a game with a few beginner or veteran puzzle friends and introduce them to Curious Correspondence Club, this is the one to do it. (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 The Curious Correspondence Club for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #MatthewLui #AtHomeGames #TabletopGames #PuzzlesByMail #SubscriptionGames #Mystery #Canada #TheCuriousCorrespondenceClub

Photo above is property of The Curious Correspondence Club Company: The Curious Correspondence Club Game: Chapter XIX: Foretold Country: Canada 🇨🇦 Language: English Type of Game: Tabletop Game 📬 Genre: Mystery Date Played: August 24, 2022 Difficulty (based on 2 players): 6/10 Size of Team: Unlimited (Age 12+) Time: Unlimited (Suggested: 60-90 Minutes) Price : $21.95 (free shipping in North America); Monthly Subscription: $19.95/Yearly Subscription: $179.00 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Entering under the flashing lights, you get a whiff of popcorn in the open air as you navigate through the loud and busy crowds of "Zambini’s Circus"! This is where the Nexus brings you to find the next item. You make your way into the big top and find the main attraction of the circus. A grand, antique organ that legends says holds a secret, waiting to be found. Can you tune the right key and figure out what the secret is? 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ Opening the Curious Correspondence Club envelope, you are greeted with the high-quality story and graphics to immerse you into the game. On the right is the QR code to take you to the hints and the conclusion when you are done. On the left is a checklist of the contents which includes a Circus poster, Tarot cards, a Duck game, Acrobats and other high-quality items. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 The story is high quality and a pleasure to read. It feels like a novel when going through it which completely immerses you into the game. Looking at the items, you can separate the different items needed to solve each of the puzzles. One tip that we learned in the past is the front of a sheet and the back of the sheet typically are not part of the same puzzle so do not look for connections there. The art and design also look like something from an old fashion circus which we loved. In most CCC games, there are some tangible items that can be built to add to the experience. In this game, there were more tangible items than normal but the standout one was the pipe organ. It was absolutely a highlight in the game as well as the puzzle surrounding it was a lot of fun to solve. For this CCC game, there were a couple of times we solved a puzzle and there was no way to confirm the solutions you were getting until you get to the meta puzzle at the end, which will only confirm the solution if the final answer makes sense. The only other way to confirm your solution is going to their tiered hint system and looking up the solution. A way to check your solution along the way would be helpful. Once you finish the game, another highlight of all CCC games is the concluding video that ties together with the beginning story and the overall season story. They are always a pleasure to watch and makes for a very satisfying end to the game. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The puzzle themes worked great with the story and blended in effortlessly which we really liked. There is an order that the puzzles need to be arranged for the meta puzzle at the end, but with the non-linear style, these were solid puzzles to divide and conquer. The puzzles consisted of a few logic puzzles that we knew what to do and had to figure out how to do it while there were a few that we had to determine what needed to be done to solve the puzzle. The latter ones were well done and had us pondering for a bit but not enough to make us feel frustrated. There was one puzzle that required manipulation to solve which the intended method did not really work but we were able to come up with our own method to solve it. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 "Chapter XVII: Foretold" was exceptionally written and enjoyable to play. Though having to check the solutions to verify your answers, the puzzles were fun to go through and tied in with the narration to reach a rewarding climax at the end. If you are a fan of circuses, well written stories or logic puzzles, this is one to pick up. We loved the non-linear style of the game that allows you to play with more people. We played with 2 people but feel that up to 5 could play this together and still not be over each other and still have a great time. (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 The Curious Correspondence Club for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #MatthewLui #AtHomeGames #TabletopGames #PuzzlesByMail #SubscriptionGames #Mystery #Canada #TheCuriousCorrespondenceClub

Photo above is property of The Curious Correspondence Club Company: The Curious Correspondence Club Game: Chapter XX: Ludwig's Legacy Country: Canada 🇨🇦 Language: English Type of Game: Tabletop Game 📬 Genre: Mystery Date Played: October 18, 2022 Difficulty (based on 1 player): 7/10 Size of Team: Unlimited (Age 12+) Time: Unlimited (Suggested: 60-90 Minutes) Price : $21.95 (free shipping in North America); Monthly Subscription: $19.95/Yearly Subscription: $179.00 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Pulling your boat ashore, you and the Nexus arrive at the coordinates that were given to you by the Fortune Teller in your last adventure. Digging into the sand, sure enough you find what you were hoping for; a tin box full of materials. Sigrid of Brightstar has collected information on Captain Ludwig, a notorious pirate in these waters. Sigrid believed that a medallion had fallen into the hands of Captain Ludwig and we are now looking to retrieve it. To keep his stash of treasures safe, Captain Ludwig hid it away on an island nearby but only by discovering the associated islands will the final location be revealed. Heading back to the boat with the tin box, can you discover the islands and make your way to the final destination? 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ Opening the envelope, you are greeted with the in-depth story to introduce you to the game as well as a QR code that will take you to the hints and an inventory list. Inside, you will find some high-quality items including a portolan chart, a traverse board and a sea chart. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 Investigating all the items, the game was signposted well. I was able to figure out where to start and where to head after that. This game also had more onboarding and story notes than some of the previous CCC games, which I thoroughly enjoyed and found it drew me into the game. Though the game was all paper, CCC was able to hide some fun secrets all around and set the game up for some interesting discoveries and different way to use the paper items. CCC normally includes a tangible item that could be built out of paper in their games and this time around it was a chalice which fit perfectly into the theme and story. Later in the game, there were a few more difficult puzzles which I felt could have used a little more cluing in the text or possibly used a little more tiers in the hint system, which only includes 2 clues before providing the solution. There was one puzzle that could have used a way to confirm the solution as it did seem ambiguous how to determine that answer. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The first couple of puzzles were simpler which started the game off on a high note. The later ones were a little more difficult and a little vague on what I was supposed to do. This left me trying different things out for quite some time. Sometimes after my initial attempt on a couple of the puzzles, things weren’t matching up correctly but after looking at the hints, I was doing the right process and just needed to finish to see the big picture. A tip would be to do your process right to the end if you are confident about it because there is a chance you might be solving the puzzle correctly. There were some visual puzzles that made for some great eureka moments and a clever meta puzzle that was fun to solve and had a satisfying ending. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 Exploring the myth of "Chapter XX: Ludwig’s Legacy" and puzzling to find his lost treasure made for a grand adventure. The story was well told with lots of narrative and some clever manipulation of the items to make you feel like a treasure hunter. The puzzles did range largely with the difficulty level but were all themed within the story. They were all a pleasure to navigate especially the final puzzle. Pirate lovers, puzzle manipulators and people who love a good narrative would enjoy this game. CCC also wraps the game up beautifully with their outro and if you have been following along with the other CCC games, makes me excited to see how season 2 will be wrapping up. (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 The Curious Correspondence Club for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #MatthewLui #AtHomeGames #TabletopGames #PuzzlesByMail #SubscriptionGames #Mystery #Canada #TheCuriousCorrespondenceClub

Photo above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers Company: The Curious Correspondence Club Game: Chapter XXI: The Fountain Country: Canada 🇨🇦 Language: English Type of Game: Tabletop Game 📬 Genre: Mystery Date Played: February 11, 2023 Difficulty (based on 2 players): 8/10 Size of Team: Unlimited (Age 12+) Time: Unlimited (Suggested: 60-90 Minutes) Price: $21.95 (free shipping in North America); Monthly Subscription: $19.95/Yearly Subscription: $179.00 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Navigating the streets, you and the Nexus continue to pass by many archways leading into the catacombs. Each one you pass has nothing distinguishing about itself from the previous or next one. Reaching an archway, the Nexus notices a crack in the wall that gives way to a journal inside. Looking at the journal, it seems to come from a previous Guardian, searching for the Fountain of Youth. Believing that the Fountain of Youth contains what you are looking for, can you decipher the journal notes to navigate the different levels of the catacombs and find the next medallion? 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ Opening the CCC envelope, you find the story written on the envelope as well as a checklist of the contents and a link to the hint page. You also find many interesting contents that include a journal, some map pieces, and different archways. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 Reading the highly detailed story and checking out the beautiful drawings on the envelope, you are immediately drawn into the story. Going through the contents, we found this game was laid out straight forward with the cluing and directions with what needed to be done. One of the things that CCC does well is intertwine the story and the clues together seamlessly. This requires you to make sure you read the text carefully to find what you need to solve the puzzles. Each CCC game usually comes with a tangible object that can be built from the contents and the one included in this game was one of my favorite ones in the series so far, a replica of the tunnels. We are also a huge fan of the outro that you are rewarded with once you make it to the end and it will get you excited for the next chapter in the game. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The puzzle setup in this game was slightly different than other CCC games. Rather than 5 puzzles leading into a meta puzzle, this game offered 4 more difficult puzzles leading into the meta puzzle. The bulk of the puzzles were made up of logic puzzles. CCC also ensures all sides of the paper are used and relevant to the game. In this game, the puzzles were printed in a well thought out manner that the bulk of the solving could be done easily without interfering with other puzzles. This made it easy for us to work on separate puzzles without getting in each other’s way. The hint system for this game requires you to go to their website and for each puzzle, there are 2 hints before providing you with the solution. We found for this game, the solutions were easier to confirm once the puzzles were solved and you knew it was correct once you got there. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 "The Fountain" was a great continuation of the ongoing Brightstar story. It also had a magnificent tangible item to play with and some high-quality print items. The puzzles could have used more variety, especially if you are not a fan of logic puzzles but was set up easily to divide and conquer. We played with 2 people but this one could work easily with up to 4 people. This was a little more difficult of a game but another solid chapter as season 2 makes its way towards the ending. (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 The Curious Correspondence Club for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #MatthewLui #AtHomeGames #TabletopGames #PuzzlesByMail #SubscriptionGames #Mystery #Canada #TheCuriousCorrespondenceClub

Photo above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers Company: The Curious Correspondence Club Game: Chapter XXII: Crossroads Country: Canada 🇨🇦 Language: English Type of Game: Tabletop Game 📬 Genre: Mystery Date Played: January 1, 2023 Difficulty (based on 3 players): 8/10 Size of Team: Unlimited (Age 12+) Time: Unlimited (Suggested: 60-90 Minutes) Price: $21.95 (free shipping in North America); Monthly Subscription: $19.95/Yearly Subscription: $179.00 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Journeying through the mountainous terrain and climbing along the rocky trail, you reach the Great Valleys. Surrounded by the breathtaking landscape of mountains, trees and rock, the Nexus confirms that you are in the right place. As you enter the nearby village of Luska, a man recognizes you right away and pulls you aside. Handing you a package left by his great aunt, he tells you that she travelled and roamed these lands her entire life and if she hid something here, all the information you need to find the next disc are in this package. 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ Opening up the CCC envelope, you find many curious items including a pamphlet similar to the one you would find at a national park, wooden signs, a translator wheel for the local language, a language board and more. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 After reading the novel-quality introduction and checking out the beautiful sketches on the envelope, the tone was set to play the game. The set up for CCC games is that there are 5 puzzles and the solutions of the 5 puzzles will help you solve the final meta puzzle. For this game, there is a lot of information that you will have to read. One tip is to pay attention to the details of the text. There is always a clue there to help you along to solve the puzzles no matter how cleverly blended into the text it is. There were a few puzzles that after rereading a few times, the eureka moment hit us. One of the things I always love with CCC is once you know the final answer and head to the website, you can input the final answer and if you are correct, you are rewarded with an outro video to close off the chapter of the adventure. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The range of puzzles were a mix of logic, ciphers, and some that required some eureka moments. We found this game to ramp up nicely as there were a couple of puzzles we recognized and were able to solve right away with a few others that required some reading and rereading to get us to that eureka moment. One complaint we did have with this game was that one of the puzzles was based around a cipher but the text we were looking to translate had a different style than the decoder, which made for some difficulty in matching them up. The hint system for this game requires you to go to their website and for each puzzle, there are 2 hints before providing you with the solution. For this game, we found the solutions to be more straight forward than their other games. Since the introduction stated that the solutions were to be 6 letter words, it was easier to tell if we had gotten to the correct solution or not. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 "Crossroads" was another fantastic chapter in the CCC universe. There were some nice eureka moments in the game with the clever cluing in the text. The pamphlet and translator wheel were things I could imagine picking up in a National Park as well as the 3D signpost really brought the game to life. This time around, there were 3 of us playing together and found that there was a lot of overlapping information, so it was difficult to solve things separately. A tip here was to have your camera phone on hand so you could easily snap a picture of what you need to solve your puzzle and hand off the information. Any puzzling nature lovers would easily get on board with this game. With the season 2 ending coming up fast, the story started to take an exciting turn and we cannot wait to see how the story continues. (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 The Curious Correspondence Club for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #MatthewLui #AtHomeGames #TabletopGames #PuzzlesByMail #SubscriptionGames #Mystery #Canada #TheCuriousCorrespondenceClub

Photo above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers Company: The Curious Correspondence Club Game: Chapter XXIII: Destination Pt. 1 Country: Canada 🇨🇦 Language: English Type of Game: Tabletop Game 📬 Genre: Mystery Date Played: February 7, 2023 Difficulty (based on 1 player): 7/10 Size of Team: Unlimited (Age 12+) Time: Unlimited (Suggested: 60-90 Minutes) Price: $21.95 (free shipping in North America); Monthly Subscription: $19.95/Yearly Subscription: $179.00 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 As you race up the steps, you can barely recognize the place due to all the chaos; M.B. Franklin Museum of Natural History. As you reach the top, you run into a familiar friend, Arjun, who debriefs you quickly as he leads you down the hall. Starfall agents have converged here, believing that the last dial is hidden in the museum somewhere as well as discovering a secret lab underneath for unknown purposes. With many Brightstar agents trying to fight them off, Arjun leads you to the surveillance room. Sitting you down in front of the CCTV screens, he needs you to dispatch the Brightstar agents to the appropriate locations to take down the Starfall operatives and get their keycards to access the underground lab. 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ Unsealing the envelope, I was greeted with the story written on the envelope with a list of the contents on one side and a QR code to the hints on the other side. Investigating the contents, I find some interesting paper items that include security screens, trading cards and pieces of a pamphlet. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 After reading the narrative, I was immediately sucked into the urgency and struggle of the story. The narrative is fantastic. If you have been following along for all of Season 2, you will not be disappointed. You do not need to know the story to play but you will exponentially get much more out of the game if you do. This game was a little different from CCC’s standard flow from previous games as there were additional puzzles on the front end before leading to the non-linear puzzles that lead to the meta puzzle. There was a lot of great content packed into this envelope. Though there was no 3D item to be built, this game did have the standard CCC feel in the game with a “card scanner”. One new addition in this game were the trading cards of key characters from previous chapters. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 As a big fan of trading cards, I loved that some of the puzzles revolved around something similar to a collectable card game (CCG). The overarching story and goal of the game was clued well but I did find that some of the more detailed signposting lacking with the puzzles. Once I read one or 2 hints for the first puzzle though, the entire game fell into place. There were a nice variety of puzzles that ranged from logic to eureka to matching. The puzzles were set up to be played non-linearly which would help with a big group but I found that with CCC’s use of all the sides of the paper, coordination is key. The back of a puzzle someone would be working could be required for a different puzzle. One tip would be to have people bring their phones so they can take a picture of the text to read and hand the paper off to others. The hint system for this game requires you to go to their website and for each puzzle, there are 2 hints before providing you with the solution. For this game, I found the solutions were only obvious once you completed all the puzzles and noticed the pattern, but I was not sure if I had the solution correct looking at each puzzle individually. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 "Chapter XXIII: Destination Pt. 1" was an absolute blast to go through. This game had the right amount of difficulty, and they were able to translate the feel of an action movie into the puzzles. As a big fan of trading cards, I really enjoyed how they were able to make some fun puzzles with them and incorporate them into the game. This would be a good game for a small handful of veteran solvers. This would not be the first CCC game I would dive into but one that rewards you if you have been following along season 2. This penultimate chapter had me on the edge of my seat and has me anticipating the final chapter. (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 The Curious Correspondence Club for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #MatthewLui #AtHomeGames #TabletopGames #PuzzlesByMail #SubscriptionGames #Mystery #Canada #TheCuriousCorrespondenceClub

Photo above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers Company: The Curious Correspondence Club Game: Chapter XXIV: Destination Pt. 2 Country: Canada 🇨🇦 Language: English Type of Game: Tabletop Game 📬 Genre: Mystery, Adventure Date Played: March 2, 2023 Difficulty (based on 1 player): 6/10 Size of Team: Unlimited (Age 12+) Time: Unlimited (Suggested: 60-90 Minutes) Price: $21.95 (free shipping in North America); Monthly Subscription: $19.95/Yearly Subscription: $179.00 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 As the elevator comes to a halt and the doors open, you step into the darkness and make your way forward. Reaching a chamber, you are taken aback by the sight in front of you; a pedestal with the Nexus subdued upon it covered in wires and cords, all hooked up to a briefcase. Coming out from the shadows reveals a familiar face with sinister motives. Telling you their plans for the Nexus and thanking you for bringing everything together, they move to complete the final assembly. Just as they touch the Nexus, a surge of energy erupts out of it and throws your nemesis back. Running to the briefcase, you survey the device inside just as the Nexus utters a warning, “Defense Protocol Activated”. 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ Written on the envelope you can find the exceptionally written story, a list of the contents, the QR code leading to the hints and the final outro video. Going through the contents, there were many paper items that included a paper briefcase, a dossier with protocols inside and a piece of the Nexus. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 If you have been following along, then you know that each chapter of season 2 included the dial that you found after each adventure. Now is the time to pull them all out and use them. Finally, being able to use the dials from all the previous chapters made it much more rewarding to come this far. One thing I do wish that was prefaced prior was not only did I need all the dials, but I also needed the Nexus from Chapter 12 in the previous season so make sure you still have that around. Reading the season finale story, I was immediately drawn to the entire game and excitement of it all. The flow of the game followed the typical set up of CCC games. There were multiple puzzles that could be done out of order, which would work nicely with a larger group. The dossier also clued how to proceed through the game, but they blended it impeccably into the story. Of the contents, the “briefcase” that was used was a nice touch to bring some realism to the game and some creative assembly make for an amusing tangible experience. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 There were different puzzles to go through including some logic, math and word puzzles, all with their own eureka moment to solve. One thing I noticed was that the difficulty level fit perfectly for this game. I was able to progress forward, sometimes at a slower pace but I found that I never got frustrated because I hit a point that I did not know where to look. The hint system for this game requires you to go to their website and for each puzzle, there are 2 hints before providing you with the solution. For this game, I found the hints to be straightforward. The nature of some of the puzzles did have me know what needed to done but I had to figure out how to do it. This game specifically could have benefited from an answer checker but I did find most of the puzzles were quite clear on the solution. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 "Chapter XXIV: Destination Pt. 2" was the ultimate wrap up to season 2 of Curious Correspondence Club. This was an amazing season finale game that hit all the high notes. The puzzle difficulty and flow were on point. All the puzzles eased seamlessly into the game and everything came together perfectly. As with the story introduction and the outro video, all of it was the same great quality as we have seen throughout. As someone who followed all of season 2, CCC played the long game with the dials in each envelope, and it paid off with an amazing experience. This is not a game you want to miss having come this far into the season. Being able to rest now, I am excited to see what CCC has in store for the future. (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 The Curious Correspondence Club for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #MatthewLui #AtHomeGames #TabletopGames #PuzzlesByMail #SubscriptionGames #Mystery #Canada #TheCuriousCorrespondenceClub

LOCATION: Wharton, New Jersey, USA Photo above is property of 13th Hour Escape Rooms 📝    ETR DECODER 🔑 GAME : The Wonderful Wizard of Oz 📅 DATE PLAYED : August 10, 2022 🎬 GENRE : Fantasy, Adventure 🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 2 ppl) : 6/10 👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS : Up To 8 ppl 🕒 LENGTH OF TIME : 60 Mins 💰 PRICE : $35.00/ pp ☎️ BOOKING TYPE : Private 🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED? : Yes 📖 THE STORY Dorothy needs your help! A tornado ripped through and... "Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore"! We must help Dorothy get to the great and powerful Oz in 60 minutes before it's too late! Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🎯 HIT THE BULLSEYE Wow, Wow, Wow!! The set design was phenomenal! Starting off with a monochromatic color scheme which transports us onto a farm in Kansas to something even more spectacular later on (not giving away anything, you guys will have to go experience this yourselves). " The Wonderful Wizard of Oz " is truly an immersive experience. The sound of a tornado coming really built up the suspense of the storyline. Because " The Wonderful Wizard of Oz " is a familiar story to most, you really needed to implement all the details from the story. This game was based from the book and we were truly impressed by the way the game designer was able to capture the characters, props and the entire experience. 13th Hour Escape Rooms spared no expense on the props. What we already thought was big, was made even bigger. The puzzles were not extremely difficult, but fit perfectly with the storyline. Everything that we received or had to use was somehow associated with what happened to a certain character. There was a jaw-dropping moment in this room that we had the pleasure of seeing how it operated after the game. After playing 700+ rooms, we probably only seem 1 other game that was able to complete this transition. 🧩 MISSED THE MARK There was just one puzzle that we wish had a little more indication on what it was operating on when we pressed it. Since there's no sound or light, we actually thought it was broken until we got the hint. It would be cool if the hint allowed the player to discover this fun reveal themselves. 🏹 TAKE A SHOT? " The Wonderful Wizard of Oz " has something for everyone to enjoy whether you're a fan of the classic story or just looking to immerse yourself into another world. 13th Hour Escape Rooms did an amazing job at providing a perfect balance of an escape room and an immersive experience (although I would say this definitely feels more like an adventure). This company continuous to surprise us with high quality games and innovative ideas. Every time when we're there, we only have one question: when will you release your next game? ℹ️ ADDITIONAL INFO Free parking lot right in front Located in Warehouse "B" door 11 Lobby area with seating available Photos above are 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 13th Hour Escape Rooms for comping our tickets for this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #CiciCao #IRLescaperoom #EscapeRooms #Fantasy #Adventure #TheWizardOfOz #13thHourEscapeRooms #USA #NewJersey

LOCATION: Wharton, New Jersey, USA Photo above is property of 13th Hour Escape Rooms 📝    ETR DECODER 🔑 GAME : The Campground 📅 DATE PLAYED : July 27, 2025 🎬 GENRE : Mystery 🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 6 ppl) : /10 👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS : Up To 8 ppl 🕒 LENGTH OF TIME : 90 Mins 💰 PRICE : $49.00/ pp ☎️ BOOKING TYPE : Private 🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED? : Yes 📖 THE STORY One of your friends has vanished from a mysterious campsite at Whispering Oaks State Forest, and it's your mission to find them before time runs out. Decipher clues by the campfire and uncover secrets beneath the moonlit forest... 🎯 HIT THE BULLSEYE When the GM gathered our team for the rescue mission of a missing person, we were eager to enter into the mysterious Whispering Oaks State Forest. The GM's concise and clear message pumped us up for the mission ahead. We appreciated how the creator used TV news as a narrative tool to convey the storyline and provide a sense of progression without relying on an actual timer. The set design, as expected, was outstanding! From the ranger's office to the forest and the cabin, every detail, from props to clues, was perfectly aligned. The special effects, sounds, and ambient lighting truly immersed us in the woods, creating a sense of impending danger. This experience is packed with puzzles. It starts with simpler visual puzzles and progresses to multi-step challenges, keeping us engaged nonstop. The teamwork required made the experience even more enjoyable. 13th Hour excels at incorporating personalization, which we thoroughly enjoyed. It made us feel like characters in a real-life adventure. There were no moments of confusion about what opened or where. Everything was clear, and the reveals were truly "magical". Our favorite puzzles involved associating certain props with clues, leading to those satisfying "ohhhh, it's for that" moments we loved. The puzzle solutions were not too difficult, yet they weren't handed to us either. The logic behind the placement of clues was impeccable. The game concluded with a "bang." It felt so authentic that some players momentarily forgot it was a game and reacted as if it were real, trying to run away. It was an exhilarating to see. 🧩 MISSED THE MARK We absolutely loved everything about this game. It would be even better if the forest space were a bit larger, especially if you have played their other games. 🏹 TAKE A SHOT? 13th Hour has been our absolute favorite NJ escape company since our first visit in 2019! Whenever they announce a new game, we can't contain our excitement because we know they're going to deliver with their incredible set designs and mind-blowing puzzles. Each experience is better than the last, and this time was no different! We loved the captivating storyline and how they whisked us away from reality into a haunting forest for 90 thrilling minutes. Surprisingly, this game isn't as "scary" as some of their others, given their haunt background, so it's perfect for families and large groups. If you're seeking a more "magical" adventure, " The Wonderful Wizard of Oz " remains our top pick, so be sure to book that next! ℹ️ ADDITIONAL INFO Free parking lot right in front Located in Warehouse "B" door 11 Lobby area with seating available It's important to note that the game uses fake snow; if your team has any allergies to it, you can have the GM turn it off immediately. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers Check out our YouTube video for a sneak peek of the location, an interview with the owner, the room(s) (no puzzle spoilers) and more: 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 13th Hour Escape Rooms for comping our tickets for this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #CiciCao #IRLescaperoom #EscapeRooms #Mystery #Eerie #13thHourEscapeRooms #USA #NewJersey

LOCATION: Phoenix, Arizona, USA Photo above is property of The Nemesis Club Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 📝   ETR DECODER 🔑 GAME : Mogollon Monster 📅 DATE PLAYED : August 22, 2022 🎬 GENRE : Survival, Adventure 🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 2 ppl) : 6.5/10 👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS : 4-8 ppl 🕒 LENGTH OF TIME : 60 Mins. 💰 PRICE : $35.00/ pp ☎️ BOOKING TYPE : Private 🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED? : Yes 📖 THE STORY You've just arrived as a new trainee at the Monster Rangers campsite and already you've been tasked with an extremely difficult job. They want you to lure the Mogollon Monster onto the campsite and take a photo of it as proof of the monster's existence before the camp gets shut down within an hour. Are you up for the challenge? Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🎯 HIT THE BULLSEYE We absolutely loved the intro for this game. Besides the game master being an excellent ranger, the way they set the scene gave us goosebumps before we even started. We definitely felt the fear of being in the middle of the woods and the only protection between us and the monster is a flimsy old tent. Just like in " EVIL Robots ", the creator thought of a clever way for us to figure out a way in. The mission for this adventure was very clear. We had to come up with ways to lure the monster to the camp. I loved the puzzles that they came up with in order to prepare the lure. All the props in the game would be something you'd find at a campsite and surprisingly they were all used in someway or another. When in camp, there are always silly moments that might happen around the campfire and we definitely experienced a few in this game. The set design had a little bit of a horror movie scene vibe especially when paired with the lightning and sound effects. I honestly thought the game master wore a monster outfit and came into the room at one point. But there's no live actors in this game, it's all in my imagination (I'm very good at scaring myself). The conclusion was spectacular. It totally rocked my world (you'll get my pun after playing this game). 🧩 MISSED THE MARK Absolutely nothing. We loved everything about the game. 🏹 TAKE A SHOT? The moment we entered that tent, we no longer felt like we were in an escape room. We had been transported into the world of Steam Crow's Monster Rangers, Mogollon Monster: Scouting for Arizona’s Bigfoot . The puzzles felt a bit more difficult in this room than in " EVIL Robots " mainly because there were a few more logic and deduction types and a little more "search and find". Everything was spot-on from beginning to end. Both games were amazing in their own ways. So if you ever make it to Phoenix, AZ, this is a location that you will have to carve out time for. But you'll have to find the way into the club first (check out our YouTube video for some guidance). Word of advice, don't get distracted by the yummy milkshakes (that's your first challenge)! Photo above is property of The Nemesis Club ℹ️ ADDITIONAL INFO Free parking right in front. Soda Jerk Co. Milkshake Bar attached to the escape room. Lobby with seating areas Merchandise available for sale. (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 The Nemesis Club for comping our tickets for this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #CiciCao #IRLescaperoom #EscapeRooms #Survival #UrbanLegend #TheNemesisClub #USA #Arizona