Location: Your Home!
Players: We recommend 2-4
Price: $29.99 per box
It’s an Escape in a Box!
Theme:
Queen Elizabeth I has been poisoned, and the man most capable of brewing an antidote, John Dee, is out of the country! Historically, Queen Elizabeth isn’t supposed to die this soon, so someone has been messing with the timeline! As an agent of E.M.I.T., (Emergency Mediation In Time,) the world’s only time travelling institution, it is up to you to set the timeline back into order. This will be no easy task, however, as the poison acts fast and should Elizabeth die, the temporal anomaly could prove catastrophic!
First Impressions:
Escape the Queen’s Curse arrived in a lovely box which we couldn’t wait to crack open! Once we did, there were quite a few envelopes and props that already grabbed our attention immediately. From the outset, it was obvious that there was a lot more included in this box than any other subscription boxes we had done before, and we were excited to start working through the many puzzles included!
So many locations to open and puzzles to find!
High Points:
Escape the Crate encapsulates the escape room experience as perfectly as you can without actually leaving the house! I was consistently amazed as we opened up new locations, triggering new story bits, which you could listen to online using the magnificent audio clips or read at your own pace. Speaking of the online portion, this is where you’ll enter your answers to puzzles and progress through the story, and it worked seamlessly! The props themselves are top notch, and each one is of high quality. We were continually impressed every time we solved a puzzle and opened an envelope to a new surprise! The experience is linear, as only one puzzle will be fully solvable at any time, but puzzles are involved and layered, providing enough for a small group to enjoy solving at any point. The story is exciting and integrated into the game flow expertly, providing an immersive narrative experience as well as a puzzling adventure that doesn’t let up until the supremely satisfying conclusion!
As a side note, there is so much included within this box, which is awesome, but since we usually play at the relatively small coffee table, we were so very disorganized! I definitely recommend using a larger play area, as we have resolved to use the dining room table from here on out when we work on Escape the Crate boxes! I mean, just look at the carnage wrought after we had completed the box:
No place to put all this fun stuff!
Low Points:
There were only a couple things we saw as low points, one of which is personal taste and won’t apply to everyone. The first was that a certain puzzle gave a specific direction that we could completely ignore and still obtain the correct answer. We know this because we were unable to find the correct method of solving, but the positioning that was apparently incorrect still yielded the correct answer. Our point of personal taste is that we found that the box was a lot more fun when we shut off the timer. I know this is probably heresy to some, but we like to keep a more relaxed pace when enjoying a subscription box, especially since we’re on a timer more often than not during our escape adventures!
Verdict:
Escape the Crate is phenomenal. There are no ifs ands or buts about that, and for $30, this is an amazing deal, especially since the box can be easily reset! Just look at all the fantastic escaping items included:
So many puzzles! And the little plastic horse we were I was obsessed with!
Sign up for Escape the Crate. Do it now. There’s no reason not to if you have even a passing interest in escape rooms! And the best part is that you can purchase retired boxes as well! I know I’m eyeing Escape the Lost Colony, being a North Carolina native! Join E.M.I.T. here! You won’t regret it!
9.5/10 (Excellent)
Full Disclosure: Escape the Crate provided a complementary box.
Escape Room Adventurer 