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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2022
I picked this up for my son's 5th birthday present since my wife and I love doing the Unlock! games together and he's often watching, but unable to participate. I was thrilled when I saw this version for kids on the shelf at my FLGS. We gave it to him two days ago and we've already played through four of the six stories and we absolutely love it! It's very similar to the adult Unlock! games - card-driven puzzles and mysteries to solve - but doesn't require any app. There are also numerous thick, good quality tokens for each story. There's an ingenious method of combining two halves of a symbol, comparing the created symbol to a chart (that's unique for each story), and then gaining the corresponding card. If you solved the puzzle correctly and made the correct symbol then you'll continue on with your story. If not then you'll get an error card (and sometimes a penalty card if you really messed up). Along the way there are hidden numbers that will send you on small side puzzles that will earn you stars if you complete them. Once you solve the story and reach the end you'll score points based on how many stars you earn (minus any penalties). I absolutely love this system and hope to see it in some adult-level Unlock! games in the future.
As for the difficulty, most of the puzzles are pretty straightforward. They do require some lateral thinking but my 5yo son is able to figure out most of them with some prompts and guidance. If left to his own devices he'd just start matching symbols until he found cards that matched, but with a bit of a nudge in the right direction he's able to figure out most of the puzzles and it's awesome to see him start making connections. A few of the puzzles are a little more challenging and even had me scratching my head for a couple of minutes.
Each game takes about 45 minutes and both he and I have been fully engaged the whole time, and he's ready to jump into the next mystery as soon as one ends - I'm having to pace him!
Anyway, I noticed this didn't have any reviews and I've been super impressed with the game, so I wanted to share. We love escape room and puzzle games and as far as I'm concerned this is right up there with the best of them!
As for the difficulty, most of the puzzles are pretty straightforward. They do require some lateral thinking but my 5yo son is able to figure out most of them with some prompts and guidance. If left to his own devices he'd just start matching symbols until he found cards that matched, but with a bit of a nudge in the right direction he's able to figure out most of the puzzles and it's awesome to see him start making connections. A few of the puzzles are a little more challenging and even had me scratching my head for a couple of minutes.
Each game takes about 45 minutes and both he and I have been fully engaged the whole time, and he's ready to jump into the next mystery as soon as one ends - I'm having to pace him!
Anyway, I noticed this didn't have any reviews and I've been super impressed with the game, so I wanted to share. We love escape room and puzzle games and as far as I'm concerned this is right up there with the best of them!
