Thames & KosmosEXIT: Advent Calendar - The Mystery of the Ice Cave, Escape Room Card Game, Family Games for Game Night, Holiday Season Games for Adults and Kids, For 1+ Players, Age 10+

I was a bit reluctant to pay the full price (lots of "what if"s), but upon opening the box and seeing how much thought went into the design, I was sure the little rooms would be worth it! This is amazingly well designed, in every little detail! Warnings on the little books to let you know which one to read first. Double solution (arrows to find the next door, and a verification code) to make sure you don't open the wrong door. Small things are placed in zip-lock bags so they can't slip out of the room. Contents of the little room listed every day as you start the puzzle, to make sure you'll know if something is missing. They even have a website with instructions on how to re-assemble the box in case it gets crumbled in the post and it arrives broken (which makes the other reviewer that complained about this and almost scared me away from buying COMPLETELY UNFAIR)! Even the decoder flips upwards rather than sideways, to avoid having the strips move as you flip it!So, this is how this works: You have a book with a story, you read the daily page, then open the room. Inside you find a riddle card, and, usually, some items to use (like stickers, or the little rods shown in the video). The story page may also serve as a riddle item (to cut, or to draw on it - this is supposed to be a single-use calendar, but then again, so are the useless-little-trinkets calendars). The solution is always three numbers (no math needed), that you enter in your decoder, then flip it over to find 3 arrows to lead you to the next door, and 3 symbols to verify that you got the correct solution/door.If you get stuck, there is a second book with 3 levels of hints: The first one points out things to pay attention to, the second one provides a push to the right direction, the third level explains how to solve it (you need to fold the page to read each hint, meaning you don't accidentally read things you didn't want to).Even though you are supposed to cut/fold/draw/etc, thus destroying the calendar, I loved it so much I tried to preserve it, and so far I have succeeded, but I really doubt most people will be able to avoid it. I may end up using it as a game for the Christmas gathering (even if not all riddles make it intact that's ok, should still be fun). The only problem I have with it, is mustering the self-control to NOT open the next door! It really does make me start my day in a good mood! If you/the intended recipient love riddles/escape rooms and have the tiniest bit of dexterity, buy it, you won't regret it!

Me and my 10 year old son loved doing this. Such a brilliant idea for an advent calendar and wonderfully executed. We were able to solve the majority of rooms without using the clues but it was comforting to know they were there. The solutions were brilliantly varied and kept us interested the whole month.

I needed and advent calendar for my 11 year old and Amazon features literally hundreds of advent calendars. So I eliminated the ones with alcohol, the ones with jams, the ones with chocolate & sweets (because we all open advent calendars first thing and breakfast is the one meal of the day that I don't think should include extra sugar and tooth rot), the ones with plastic tat and the ones with tiny makeup pots with little content but a lot of wasteful packaging. And behold, hundreds of choices came down to two - the calendar full of flower seeds and this one.The premise is that on Dec 1st you have become trapped in an escape adventure and each day brings a puzzle to get you to the next door (and you don't know which is the next door, only the 1st is labelled). There is a clever little checker that lets you know if you've correctly solved the puzzle, a pad of daily clues plus a pad of daily hints and tips (and, if all else fails, a solution).The box and accompanying booklets are very well made, and almost 100% fully recyclable. You'll need scissors for some days and I recommend a little torch for shining into each day's box to see some of the more subtle clues. There is variety in the nature of the puzzles, my daughter loved pitting her wits each day against the puzzle writers, and we worked as a team so it was a family event. And there was even an entertaining twist in the tale at the end of the calendar. The only note of caution I would sound is don't open that day's window if you need to be out of the door for school in two minutes time.No it isn't particularly Christmassy but my daughter declared it the best advent calendar ever and I agree with her. Would love it if the manufacturers did another one for 2022 - guaranteed customer here.

It’s fun, but I hadn’t considered the time commitment!

In 2022 I did the mystery of the ice cave and found it a challenge and really new and innovative. In 2023 I’ve done the hunt for the golden book and found it a lot easier though a couple of days left me needing to reflect and come back. I can’t quite tell if this is because of experience or the golden book actually being easier to complete, but I had a bit of a sense of the first one hanging together better as a story compared to the golden book. It has still been a lot of fun and a really nice change to normal advent calendars though - particularly for the price compared to multiple escape room games. I’m looking forward to next year’s already!

Updated review - this is an utterly amazing fantastic wonderful escape room advent calendar, truly amazing. Extremely well made, challenging and very very very unique. Totally exceeded my expectations! Don’t want to give anything away but you end up using the whole advent calendar and there are really clever puzzles/props which require some crafting skills! The daily story/scene setter is amusing and the solutions for each are given in three levels so you can just ‘cheat a little bit’. Thoroughly recommend for family advent fun - my tweens found it hard but loved to sit at kitchen table with me to try and crack three puzzles. I hope they bring out a new one for 2022!I love escape games (and have several of tris brand) and this advent looks brilliant. I kept looking for one each year but they were always in German so was thrilled to see this English version. I bought this for me really but I will give it to my husband for advent!

Great fun is being had by the family solving each days clue. The riddles are just challenging enough to make even the adults have to think about it. Will definitely be looking out for one of these for next December!

Très chouette. Assez compliqué. Heureusement il y a les indices.

Muy divertido, como todos los exit te hace querer más y cuesta conformarse con el puzle del día

Bel idée mais en anglais....

Was a bit hesitant when I bought this but it is just the right level of difficulty. I could solve most puzzle after a bit of pondering (spent maybe 5-10 minutes per day on it). Some were difficult (and had to cheat on 2-3 of them) but often when you get it you went "ahhh.... silly me..."But as they all have cheats regardless of you finding them to hard or not you they got you covered.Don't want to spoil anything but the last puzzle was very unexpected and fun!Will for sure buy again if there is a new one next year.

We wanted to get a refund when the product was delivered 5days later than advertised but this advent calendar is so good that we overlooked that fact. Can highly recommend this calendar, it’s creative, challenging (even for some escape room experts) with varied riddles and some good surprises. A great activity for/ to do with your young teen. Would buy it again.