Looking for something new and exciting to do at home? Put on your thinking caps! Here’s an activity that is both fun and puzzling. This is part of our things to do at home series, this at home escape room is exactly what you’ve been looking for.
It’s no secret we love escape rooms around here.
The puzzles, the adventure, the pressure! We love ‘em!
In fact, every year for our first day of school, I set-up a different escape room scenario for my kids to work through. It’s a great way to ease them into a learning mindset and they have a fun time working as a team to solve a puzzle.
Most of the escape rooms we have used have been designed with explicit learning standards or a specific school subject in mind.
Not today!
The folks over at Escape Kit asked us to try out their escape room kits and of course, we couldn’t resist!
This post includes affiliate links. I am not however being paid for this review and all opinions are my own.
What is an At Home Escape Room?
An Escape Room is a game where a team of players progresses through a series of clues, puzzles, and tasks in order to advance towards a specific goal, finding the key to escaping the room, all within a limited amount of time.
So basically, your team is given a goal that must be completed within a certain timeframe, usually 60 minutes.
The ultimate goal is to escape the room you are trapped within. Players reach that goal by figuring out all the clues.
A goal can be anything really, discovering how to diffuse a bomb, tracking down a missing child, or even finding a lost treasure. The possibilities are endless!
Once the scene is set, the players work through clues one at a time gaining the knowledge needed to reach the goal.
Once all the clues have been found or figured out, the team must solve the main goal and see if they are successful. Usually, you are only given one chance to solve it, so it’s an immediate win or lose situation, no retries.
You can read all about the concept over on their website, they do a great job of explaining it.
What does Escape Kit offer?
Escape Kit.com offers kits for purchase that include everything you need to run an escape room scenario yourself. You can do them at home just for fun, or as a group such as at a party.
They have 6 different escape room scenarios to choose from depending on either age or skill level. Here are the choices:
- The Sleeping Curse(Magic Adventure) – ages 6-10
- Superheros Against Doctor Villain(Superhero Adventure) – ages 7-11
- The Cursed Treasure(Pirate Adventure) – ages 8 -14
- Panic In Space(Space Adventure) – ages 10+
- The Mysterious Murder(Investigation Adventure) – ages 12+
- The Heist of the Century(Burgler’s Adventure) – ages teen/adult
All the materials are delivered digitally as PDFs. You just download, print, and cut them out, then you’re ready to go.
There is also an app or website link for a Detective’s Guide that is what you will use throughout the gameplay. It gives you the scenario, brief instructions, hints for each clue, as well as the solutions to each one.
When you have solved all the clues, there is a link where you will enter your guess to see if you are right!
What’s the cost?
The cost for each escape room kit is $22.00
Or…
They also have bundle boxes which include 3 escape room kits for one lower price of $43
Or if you really love escape rooms…
You can get all 6 escape room kits for only $65
Plus, right now we can offer you a discount code good for 10% off any Escape Kit! Just use code EK2020 at checkout.
What did we think?
We decided to try out the Murder Mystery Escape Room Kit, which if you know me at all shouldn’t be a surprise(My oldest daughter and I are obsessed with true crime and all things murder mystery).
My first impression of the kit upon downloading it was that there was quite a bit of content and the graphics we really cute.
I printed everything out, although truth be told since my printer doesn’t duplex print(print on both sides automatically) it was quite challenging to get it all printed correctly. In fact, for some pages, I gave up and printed them on separate sheets then glued them together before cutting them out.
It took a bit of time to print, cut out, and set everything up, I’d say about 45 minutes thanks to my gluing fiasco, so be sure to plan ahead.
We chose to just stay in one room(the instructions say place certain items in other rooms, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom) to keep the whole stuck in one room feel. You can do either depending on what you’re going for.
To get started we read the scenario from the app then just worked through the first set of clues.
Once we solved one we moved on to the next, working through all 7 clues.
Some of the clues were straightforward while others took a bit more brainpower. Overall, we felt like the clues were just challenging enough to make you think while still being fun.
We did experience one problem though.
For our 3rd clue, there was a mistake in the directions which caused us to have to take the answer in the app in order to progress. We let them know about the mistake so hopefully, it’s been taken care of.
Even with this small issue, we were able to reach our goal with 5 minutes to spare!
Overall we really enjoyed playing this escape kit!
Pros
- All the planning is done for you
- Engaging storyline
- Clue difficulty levels were spot on
- Super fun to play
Cons
- Uses a lot of ink
- Requires double-sided printing
Overall, we would recommend trying out Escape Kit for your next party or family game night. If you really enjoy escape rooms as much as we do, then grab one of the bundled kits for big savings.
Don’t forget!
Right now we can offer you a discount code good for 10% off any Escape Kit! Just use code EK2020 at checkout.
Looking for more Things To Do At Home?
For kids: Kids Stuck At Home? 10 Ways to Keep Them Happy and Learning
For adults: 65 Ways To Keep Busy At Home: You’re Welcome
Have you tried an at home escape room from Escape Kit? Leave a comment below to share with us what you thought about it.
Want another fun game idea that also keeps your kids learning? Check this out: 10 Lessons Learned From Playing Monopoly
Remember to take some time out to connect and have fun with your family. Playing games together is a fantastic way to engage without it feeling forced. A family that plays together, stays together!
Happy Gaming!
