Room Escape Artist

Pharaoh! Let my teammates go!

Location: New York, NY

Date played: August 15, 2016

Team size: 4-8; we recommend 4-6

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $29 per ticket

Story & setting

In the Egyptian Tomb, we found ourselves trapped inside the puzzle chamber of a dead pharaoh. Beyond the staging and setup, the story didn’t factor heavily into the game.

The set, however, contributed a lot. Clue Chase constructed a beautiful, detailed, and solid tomb environment for this room escape.

Puzzles

This was a puzzler’s escape room.

Clue Chase has whittled away a lot of the frustrations from The Lost Spy  and zeroed in on a clear thread of gameplay composed of puzzles that count.

Be prepared for puzzles that layer as you work your way through this archeological exploration.

Standouts

The puzzles in the The Egyptian Tomb presented a fair, fun challenge.

The set included some incredible props and excellent, original construction. Clue Chase’s hard work delivered some great moments.

Our gamemaster delivered a light-hearted introduction about not “angering the gods” by destroying game elements and the like.

The ancient Egyptians created the first locks and Clue Chase built a brilliant homage to this.

Shortcomings

There were many locks in this tomb with similar digit structures. At times, there were a lot of possible places to input a potentially correct answer.

In some ways, the Egyptian Tomb felt uneven. While much of the design and decor created the stellar atmosphere, other locks and props didn’t seem to belong in the space. Some of the environment and game components could use additional refinement to bring them to the level of the rest of the experience.

Should I play Clue Chase’s The Egyptian Tomb?

In the months since we last visited Clue Chase, they’ve come a long way. They removed the tedium and extraneous material and refined their game mechanics.

We brought a highly experienced team to this game and powered through in record time, while still enjoying ourselves. That said, this isn’t an easy game. The puzzles will present a challenging obstacle to newer players.

As Clue Chase continues to refine their designs, we hope to feel more of a narrative from their future puzzle adventures.

Clue Chase is learning and iterating rapidly and we’re excited to see what they produce next.

Book your hour with Clue Chase’s The Egyptian Tomb, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.