Room Escape Artist

Print + Cut + Escape: Operation E.G.G. is included in our recommendation guide for Play On-Demand Online Escape Games. For more of the best online escape games in this style, check out the recommendation guide.

Print + Cut + Escape: Operation E.G.G. is a print-and-play escape game created by clueQuest in London, England.

Format

Style of Play:

• Online native experience (can NOT be played IRL)
• Play on demand
• Print-and-play

Required Equipment: computer with internet connection, printer, scissors, pen, and paper

Recommended Team Size: 2-4

Play Time: ~90 minutes

Price: £15

Booking: purchase and play at your leisure

Description

First you download and print a PDF. Then you play along with a step-by-step web-based interface. The online interface accompanies the printed and cut pieces, and both work in tandem to advance the story.

Hivemind Review Scale

Cara Mandel’s Reaction

Operation E.G.G. was an EGG-cellent activity game. The puzzles were very clever and reasonably challenging. I appreciated that all of the printable materials were in black and white, though it was still a significant amount of pages to print so be sure you’ve got a good supply of printer ink and paper! I really enjoyed that this game used multimedia. The website provided video, audio, and graphics-based clues that worked in concert with the physical pages of the PDF. The video and audio quality were pretty impressive. I’d say, overall, this is a great, family-friendly EGGtivity that should keep kids busy for a good amount of time. (It was even enjoyable for a couple of jaded old enthusiasts.) As an added bonus, this game is filled with EGGzactly the right amount of egg-related puns. I also appreciated that they offered a couple of fun ways you can customize the EGGxperience beforehand to create a game filled with inside jokes and references. Overall, I thought this was a well-designed, well-produced, and well-EGGxecuted game that I would definitely rEGGcommend. OK, I’ll see myself out…

Tammy McLeod’s Reaction

I enjoyed playing this. The production value was good. The puzzles worked well in the printed format (thankfully black and white only), and were challenging enough to be fun and satisfying to solve. The integration with the website elements was well done too. I played this alone, which worked fine, but it would have been fun with a partner or two at a table.

Fro’s Reaction

I had mixed feelings when playing this game. On the one hand, I absolutely loved the style of the artwork and appreciated the online video accompaniments to the printed pieces. The story and the world were cute and inviting, and there were several puzzles I really enjoyed solving.

On the downside, while the game began and finished strong, it hit a point where it lagged significantly and became frustrating. The answers to several of the puzzles were too easy to figure out without actually solving anything, and we went that route a few times because we were eager to move on. One puzzle in particular seemed unsolvable in the way the creators intended.

This was my first experience with Print + Cut + Escape, and I’m intrigued enough to check out another of their games. The quality of the artwork alone warrants a second look.

Matthew Stein’s Reaction

This game eggs-eeded my eggs-pectations, and I think any-bunny would be hoppy playing it. If you’ve read any of my previous reviews of clueQuest’s Print + Cut + Escape games, you’ll know I’m a devotee of how clueQuest has been creating print-and-play experiences, in large part because they continue to iterate on their structure, presentation, and flow with each new game. These games started out pretty good, and it’s staggering just how much they’ve refined their formula over the past year.

Operation E.G.G. is whimsical in plot and was seasonally themed through an excess of egg and rabbit puns. I enjoyed the pre-game opportunity to lightly customize the digital script, and I could see that feature allowing for some particularly delightful moments for families playing this game. For me, Operation E.G.G. roughly ties with Mechanics of the Heart as the easiest of the clueQuest print-and-play games, though not in a bad way. The game is thoroughly enjoyable with a low barrier to entry. The puzzles were full of lovely little observational ahas and super smooth in process and flow.

I appreciate that clueQuest has streamlined their answer inputs over time; while some of their earlier games included tedious graphical inputs, all their recent games have been a bit more puzzle hunt-like with short words or phrases as answers. If I were to suggest one area for continued improvement, I’d love to see clueQuest experiment a bit more with meta structures, utilizing previous answers and narrative motifs to create a more climactic and cohesive ending through the puzzle structure.

Disclosure: clueQuest provided the Hivemind reviewers with a complimentary play.