Asmodee Unlock! The Formula

This is a cool experience, but it's not clear really what the format is trying to achieve. There are escape room games for tablet, that provide a similar experience, but I was excited to try a physical version of it. However, the game requires an app. Therefore, you wonder what the point is of the cards. The puzzles were fun, but the thing about hidden objects should be explain much better. We wasted half an hour just being stuck, and I wish the rules specified more clearly that some letters/numbers may be written very faintly on some of the cards. I think the app could do a better job at giving hints when you're stuck, because in the end we had to go through the unread cards, look at the top to see what we were missing to get them, which of course is a complete violation of the rules.

The "Unlock" series of games does an exceptional job of helping you feel immersed in an escape room through a simple series of cards, and The Formula is the best of the series at creating a well-rounded experience to introduce you to the play style. The game doesn't rely as heavily on hidden numbers as Squeak and Sausage, and doesn't rely on introducing as many complicated game mechanics as The Island of Doctor Goorse (which is a great game for people already familiar with the Unlock format).One or two of the puzzles in this experience are a bit too open-ended so your group may get frustrated if you don't luck your way into approaching a problem the same way as the game's designers (even with the game's in-app hint system), but if you "host" additional groups through the game that challenge can be resolved.

I really enjoy playing anything from the Unlock! series, honestly. My boyfriend and I make nights out of it, and we liked this one a lot as it had the most "Escape Room" feel to it as opposed to some of the other unlock games. I recommend only playing with 2 to maybe 3 people as it could leave people feeling left out and chaos could ensue with everyone trying to read each scene/card. 5/5 on this one for me. If you're just starting out playing escape room games, and are OK with interacting with an app, I definitely recommend this game.

The first group that attempted this was a smart group of 7 people, all over 50. We couldn't finish it because we didn't know that we were supposed to find tiny clues on the card. We had to hunt down a magnifying glass.The second group did better because it had me as a moderator. This was a group of 7 that was around the age of 20. Even with a magnifying glass, they used up most of their time hunting on the cards.A moderator, who already knows how the adventures work, was absolutely necessary to keep the game moving. No clues, just a little steering and coaching was required.It works well in conjunction with the App on your phone.

Another great unlock game added to my collectionSeriously cannot get enough of theseI take them over friends house and have gotten them addicted to them tooTo think it all started with getting the original 3 at Gamestop

My coworkers and I had a good time with this game. Unfortunately we hit a bottle neck when we missed one clue. The hints helped but wish there had been another way to get at the clue without the hint. Anyways, still a lot of fun. Will be ordering the next one!

These games are super fun, but not for the first time escape room player. They are designed for a more experienced player. Even their easiest ones can helplessly stump a novice, but if you have done even one escape room, these are a low-cost alternative to the real deal. My fiancee and I ended up buying the whole series, and we look forward to the new ones coming out in March.

Very fun game! There were two times during the game where I got really stuck and had to rely on a "hint." The hint surprised me and left me with the thought, "how would i have ever figured that out."Overall, very fun and I hope that the developer creates more!

We’ve done several ‘escape the room’ but this was our first unlock game. I really enjoyed interacting with the app (which you can download for free), every now and then hints would pop up on it and you can use it to ask for hints as well as enter codes needed to progress the game.We found this relatively hard and got totally stuck about half way through the game when we couldn’t figure out what to do next and thought we might have discarded a card in error (we hadn’t as it turned out - solving that particular clue meant doing something different to the rest of the game).We’ll definitely be buying other unlock games in the future.

Great for games nights

Buen juego, muy recomendable.