The star of the upcoming Hollywood Christmas film is missing! While it wasn’t really what you thought your plans would be today as part of your pizza delivery route, it turns out that it’s up to you to figure out what’s going on across all these famous movie sets. There’s no time to waste – let’s solve this mystery!

What Is It?

An advent calendar (24 days) of escape room puzzles that players will cooperatively work through, opening one door per day until they reach the end. (Of course, players can do more than one per day if they’d like). There is an overarching story, and plenty of different types of puzzles/riddles to try.

Who Is It For?

  • 1 or More Players – I like playing with 2 or maybe 3 maximum, I think it’s the best for the size/scope of the puzzles because most are pretty small
  • Ages 10 & Up – Pretty straightforward rules and gameplay. Some puzzles are harder than others, but since players work together, it’s usually not too bad.
  • Fans of puzzles, escape rooms, and other EXIT games
  • Players who don’t mind “one time plays” (i.e. destroying and writing on things)

PROS

  • A lot of fun movie references
    • A lot of the references worked really well with their puzzles; felt very thematic
  • Neat that you have to solve the codes to see what door is next and they aren’t just numbered like a typical advent calendar
  • Good variety of puzzles – patterns, logic, visual, and more
  • No big spoilers, but I thought the ending was super satisfying and fun
  • Overarching story is interesting and engaging

CONS

  • A few puzzles definitely had some leaps in logic / confusion
  • I thought it was odd that some movies were referenced by name, and some were just more alluded to
  • Hints aren’t always super helpful because they start off pretty vague
  • Sometimes hard to see necessary details because the boxes are pretty small

Final Thoughts

I had a bunch of fun with this! I liked the theme and the story, and I thought it was neat being able to play it over the course of almost a month. It was helpful to break it up, especially after a difficult or frustrating puzzle.

I usually get a little disappointed destroying components in EXIT games, because I’d love to be able to replay them in the future, or pass them on others, but I didn’t really mind it as much in this. I’ve always kind of viewed advent calendars as disposable, and this packed a pretty big experience, which was really cool.

I think it has a lot of fun puzzles, and the variety is great, so I think it’s great for the family around the holidays or really, any time!

Additional Information:
My Final Rating – 7/1o

Designers – Inka Brand, Markus Brand
Artist – Thomas Hussung
Publisher – KOSMOS
MSRP – $49.95
Website

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

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