Exit: The House of Riddles – Escape Room Game Review

Exit games are tough to review.  How do you review an escape room game without giving away some clues and riddles?  I can tell you that this is very fun co-op game, and that I will keep my review spoiler free.  

Exit Games are one-time use!  They can only be played one single time.  You will not be able give them to someone else when you are done.  Why not?  Because you will have to cut, fold, tear, and/or write on the game materials inside the box to solve the puzzles presented to you.  

There are over a dozen “Exit: The Game” escape room games available from Kosmos Games.  And Exit: The House of Riddles is a great jumping in point for newbies.  All of the Exit games are ranked in difficulty from 1 to 5 stars (1 is for novices to Exit games, and 5 is for Experts).  The House of Riddles is rated a “2” on the difficulty scale.  Although, compared to other Exit games I have played, I consider House of Riddles to be the easiest I have solved so far.  So, I would rank it a “1”.  

Below is a list of all the Exit Games and their corresponding difficulties. I have also provided links to Amazon in case you want to read more reviews from fans who have played each game.  Note – These are difficulty ratings, not review ratings.  Most fans really enjoy these games.  😉

• Exit: The Abandoned Cabin (2.5 stars)
• EXIT: The Catacombs of Horror – This is a 2-Part game (4.5 stars)
• EXIT: Dead Man on the Orient Express (4 stars)
• Exit: The Forbidden Castle (4 stars)
• Exit: The Forgotten Island (3 stars)
• Exit: The The House of Riddles (2 stars)
• Exit: The House of Riddles (2 stars)
• EXIT: The Mysterious Museum (2 stars)
• Exit: The Pharaoh’s Tomb (4 stars)
• Exit: The Polar Station (3 stars)
• Exit: The Secret Lab (3.5 stars)
• EXIT: The Sinister Mansion (3 stars)
• EXIT: The Sunken Treasure (2 stars)

What is an Exit Escape Room game?

EXIT: The Game is a series of escape room games for playing at home. Players must solve riddles and puzzles and crack codes in order to escape from an imaginary room or environment.  Each time you solve a riddle or puzzle, you will be one step closer to exiting the game.  Games typically have about 10 unique puzzles to solve. 

The Exit games play with 1 to 4 players.  The players work together trying to solve riddles and puzzles to escape the room.  We have actually played Exit Games with more than 4 players, and I think they play fine with 5 or 6 players if you have a larger group.  5 or 6 players might be “too many cooks in the kitchen” for some people, but I think it works fine if you all get along.  

Each game has its own unique setting. Everything you need to “escape” is usually included in the game box.  And each game will take 1-2 hours to solve.

If you get stuck along the way, there are 3 hints for each riddle/puzzle you encounter.  

What is Exit: The House of Riddles?

“A mysterious invitation from three detectives leads you to a house of riddles. But when you arrive, you find everything looks abandoned. With a bang, the front door slams behind you. You are trapped! What’s going on here? Where are Sandra, Mario, and Tom? Will you be able to crack the case and find your way out of the house? Difficulty Level: 2 of 5.”

This Exit Game is recommended for players ages 10 and up.  Playtime is 1-2 hours long.

What’s in the box?

The box is about 5 inches x 7 inches x 1.5 inches.  As the box is fairly small, I think this game would make a great stocking stuffer.

The box contains:

87 Cards:

• 30 Help Cards
• 30 Answer Cards
• 19 Riddle Cards
• 8 “Odd Cards”

1 Book
1 Decoder Disk
3 Strange Items

• 1 Magnifying Glass
• 1 Ball
• 1 Calling Card with slits

You will have to provide your own writing implements, scissors, and paper. 

For added enjoyment, you can download the Kosmos Helper App from Google Play or the Apple App Store.  The Kosmos Helper App will enhance The House of Riddles with a Tutorial, soundtrack, a timer, and a creepy voiced guy setting up the scenario for you.  The Helper App also tells you how to set up the game on your table. The tutorial goes into a lot of detail explaining the game if this is your first time playing an Exit game.  

This is the same story you can read in the guide book, but the guy in the app will probably do it with a little more style than you can.  The soundtrack here is supposed to sound like a creaking house I guess, but it sounds more like a hotel floor elevator lobby to me.  It’s like you hear the hum of the elevators going by.  I guess it helps set the mood for the game.  The App will also tally a final score based on the time it took you to complete the game, and how many clues you needed along the way.  

What are the puzzles like?  How does the House of Riddles Play?

You and your gaming group will have to progress sequentially through 10 riddles and puzzles to escape the House of Riddles.  The puzzles are: logic puzzles; word puzzles, picture puzzles; riddles; and crafting puzzles.  Crafting puzzles might include cutting cards and rearranging the pieces.  I don’t want to give much away, but the puzzles are fun to solve.

If you are having any trouble solving a puzzle, each of the 10 riddles give you 3 clues to help you get back on track.  So, if you are really stuck on a puzzles, you can get a hint or 2 or 3!  The 3rd clue will essentially solve that particular riddle so you can move on.  

As you are playing the game, you will use the decoder disk to point you to an Answer Card.  The Answer Card will tell you if: 1) you can advance your way out of the House, or 2) if you are still stuck in that section.  

When the game is over, you will be given a score from 1-10 stars based on: 1) How long it took you to Exit the House of Riddles, and 2) how many clue cards you used.  The overall score does not really affect how much fun you will have playing the game.  

Likes, Dislikes and Final Thoughts

Likes

I like the variety of puzzles in the game.  Sometimes you are solving simple riddles.  Sometimes you are playing with clues in drawings.  Sometimes you are solving logic puzzles.  Sometimes a player is doing Yoga poses while the other players watch.  Sometimes you are cutting up the clue cards.  Sometimes you are drawing pictures.

This is great co-op game.  Everyone gets a chance to contribute their ideas to solving clues and riddles.  And even though the game says 1-4 players, you could even bring in a couple of more players if you want.  We played this game with 5 players and it was still enjoyable for everyone.  

The Kosmos Helper App is very effective.  The Tutorial is very well done!  And the App sets up the environment for you, and will act as a timer.  We also opted to play The House of Riddles with the soundtrack/timer on to “set the mood”.

If you get stuck there are 3 tiers of hints that will help you get back on track.  You probably won’t need all 3 of the hints.

You get a nice sense of accomplishment escaping the The House of Riddles … even if you need to look at clues along the way.

Dislikes

Exit games are good for only one play-through.  This particular Exit game might be too easy for seasoned Escape Room Puzzlers.  

Final Thoughts on Exit: The House of Riddles.

This is a game you might dedicate a game night to.  You invite over a few friends, and set aside to 1-2 hours trying to escape The House of Riddles.  We played this game in a hotel lobby over the Christmas Holiday Season.  We actually had 5 people playing, and the game took us about 55 minutes, and all 5 players thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  The House of Riddles was fun to solve, but maybe a bit on the “easy” side.  

There is one strange riddle in this game that actually requires a household item.  If you are playing at home, you will have the item.  We actually had to ask the hotel clerk to fetch the item for us.  But if you are playing in a game store (or somewhere else away from home), you might not have this item on hand.  I don’t recommend playing this particular Exit game away from home.  I’d say we got lucky here that the Hotel Clerk was able to help us fetch the household item we needed.   

The House of Riddles difficulty is Level 2 out of 5.  And if you look at the difficulty of all the Exit games above, there are no games with a difficulty of Level 1.  So this actually is really one of the easier Exit Games.  The House of Riddles is a good beginner game, and a great introduction into the series.  

Sure, the game retails for $14.95, and the The House of Riddles is only good for one 1 play-though, but the experience is worth it.  Most physical Escape Rooms will cost about $25 per player.  So 4 players will be spending $100.  The House of Riddles will only cost 4 players about $3 – $4 each if people chip in.  

Exit: The House of Riddles is available on Amazon where it has an average score of 4.6/5.0 from buyers. 

This would make a nice gift for most gamers.