Escape the room at home! – The Secret of Dr Gravely’s Retreat

A few months ago I took part in one of those Escape the room challenges with some of my family. I knew it would be right up my street as I love solving puzzles and thinking outside of the box. The challenge was great fun but trying to get a large group together on a set date and book a venue took a lot of effort. Thankfully because of the popularity of those types of challenges you can now get Escape The Room board games which means you get the chance to solve the same sort of puzzles but from the comfort of your own home.

I was sent Escape The Room – Secret of Dr Gravely’s Retreat from Paul Lamond. It is recommended for 3 to 8 players and for ages 13+. We played it with three children aged 8 and 9, a teenager and two adults. Although some of the puzzles were too complex for the children they were able and willing to help on some of the puzzles and were surprisingly good.

In the box you received 4 location envelopes, some instructions, the starting story card and a solution wheel. You are only allowed to open an envelope when the solution wheel tells you that you have the correct answer.

 

Inside the location envelopes you find more envelopes or items which you need to solve. The puzzles were really good and required attention to detail, a good memory and even some knot skills which I was rubbish at. If you do get stuck at any point there is a website where you can get clues to help you solve a puzzle and I have to admit that we used that to undo some of the rope puzzles.

We really enjoyed solving this Escape The Room puzzle, it was great fun and definitely something we would recommend. The only downside is you can only play it once as otherwise you will know the answers but with an Escape The Room experience costing more per person than this game it is easier and cheaper just to buy a new one when you want to play again and you could always pass this game on to someone else. Just make sure you put everything back in the right envelopes to allow the next players to solve the puzzle and escape the room as well.