Halloween with Asmodee – Unlocked! Escape Adventure

Right before the pandemic hit, Escape Rooms were all the rage in North America. Whether an official escape room by a professional company, or a home made experience, folks love to work together to piece together clues to escape their surroundings. Many companies have taken this concept and adapted it for board games, but as far as we know, only one will allow you to play a game, and pass it along to a friend afterwards. Today, our first Halloween With Asmodee article will be focusing on Unlocked! Escape Adventure.

The Unlocked! Escape Adventure board game features three games within: The Formula, Squeek and Sausage, and The Island of Doctor Soorse. Let’s quickly reference what each is about:

The Formula – Enter a secret laboratory to recover a mysterious serum that has been developed by a scientist…

Squeek & Sausage – Thwart the plans of the despicable Professor Noside in this cartoon-style adventure!

The Island of Doctor Soorse – Visit the island of an eccentric antique collector billionaire and overcome its traps!

Unlocked! games all feature a similar setup and play structure. You will download the application from the Android or iOS app store, locate the scenario that you are playing, and begin the timer. The app is where you will solve numerical or mechanical puzzles, ask for hints, and of course, keeps track of your time – generally about 60 minutes. The cards themselves are a mixture of look-and-find scenarios and combination scenarios.

Often, a card will have letters and numbers hidden within the artwork – these are cards you need to grab from the stack (without looking at the other cards). Combination cards will have puzzle pieces in the top corner (either a right piece or a left piece) which denotes that these cards can be combined with something else to create a specific item you need. As you proceed, the game will tell you which cards to keep, and which to discard, so you’ll never be overwhelmed with cards you no longer need.

But here is where Unlocked! is unique to other games – you don’t tear the cards up, write on the cards, nothing. So when you are finished, you can put the cards back into the stack, tuck it away, and either play it much later – when you’ve forgotten the solution – or you can even share it with a friend. We’ve done this a few times, and in every situation, those friends opted to buy their own Unlocked! adventures.

Unlocked! games can be purchased as single experiences, or as is the case with Unlocked! Escape Adventure, in a three pack which will save you a few dollars. Specific adventures are NOT available as standalone sets, so it’s generally worth splurging for the package of experiences. While each gives you a set amount of time you need to complete the experience, you are always welcome to blow past that time if required to still uncover the adventure. At a minimum, we assume you’ll need almost all of the allotted time to complete each adventure, and then some.

And these adventures are well written and well thought out. Rarely did we think a conclusion was unfair or unrealistic. While a few times we were stumped and wouldn’t have come to a conclusion ourselves, ultimately we felt the conclusion was still fair at the end of the day. And that’s bound to happen whether you are doing a card game escape room or a real one!

Ultimately, if you are looking for some spooky, exciting adventures this Halloween season, we highly recommend Unlocked!