Board & Dice Release New Escape Room Board Game

September 6, 2018 by cassn

In Escape Tales: The Awakening, players take on the role of Sam, a grieving father whose daughter has been in an unexplained coma for the last two months.

Sam is desperate and looks for answers everywhere he can, which leads to a weird meeting with Mark. Mark's son was once in a similar situation, and his father was able to help wake the boy up. He has given Sam a scary-looking book and said that inside this book he will find a ritual called "The Awakening".

Escape Tales: The Awakening is a narrative-driven escape room board game. Guided by the vast storybook, players explore different rooms using six action tokens, finding puzzles and furthering the storyline.

The game works in tandem with an app which allows players to know if they have successfully solved their puzzles. However, interestingly, the app also tells players whether they have all the information they need to attempt to solve the puzzle, and offers hints for those needing a helping hand.

However, the mechanic which differentiates Escape Tales: The Awakening from other escape room board games is the fact that it provides untimed play. This means you are not racing against a clock to solve puzzles, and that freedom of time allows players to really enjoy the unique narrative on offer here.

There are only six actions to spend, however, before a Doom card is lifted and a penalty levied against the players. This could be a simple warning or an instruction to use the mysterious 'essence' tokens as actions - creating a plot point later in the game.

Indeed, there are five possible endings to Escape Tales: The Awakening, so players have a diversity of choice in their gaming narrative. Options like this are what elevate this game, in my mind, from a simple puzzle-solving game to an escape room game with RPG elements and quality narrative development.

I'm looking forward to adding this to my Halloween collection. It's available for pre-order now and will be shipped in tandem with Essen at the end of October.

Do you have a favourite 'spooky' game? Let us know below!