Unlock!: Star Wars Escape Game Review

The Unlock series is a group of escape room inspired games, and now, and with much excitement, Space Cowboys have offered a Star Wars version, so you can match the cold weather outside with the icy planet of Hoth – though thankfully no Tauntaun sleeping bags are necessary.

The game comes in three adventures, with an introductory one to give you an idea. You’ll need to download the associated app in order to play, and then you’re given a stack of numbered cards. The introductory adventure is a brilliant start to the game, and we barely needed to glimpse at the instructions before we were away, discovering codes, firing our blasters, and swearing at needing to use the hint button. 

Though a great deal of the adventure is sifting through cards, the games do get really tense, with ongoing timer, potential penalties – a minute lost for doing the wrong thing – and that moment of staring at the cards before realising the outcome. Sure, sometimes the puzzles are a little convoluted, and tricky for the sake of being tricky – plus you have to learn, for example, to not just use the blaster at every opportunity – but the hint button is succinct enough to get you moving once again. 

That’s typical of Unlock games though, and it’s the Star Wars theming that sets this game apart. As a fan of the franchise, it was great to adventure through Hoth, Jeddha and the Outer Rim. There is a little poetic license here as you might expect, but not in a way that detracts from the game play. The downside, as ever with this style of game, is that there’s really no re-playability to them, making it a three-and-a-bit-hour game in total, before it becomes a fancy book end. A book end though, that was fun while it lasted. 

Charlie Pettit

PLAY IT? YES

Designer: Cyril Demaegd & Jason Little

Publisher: Space Cowboys

Time: 60-90 minutes

Players: 1-6

Age: 10+

Price: £34

Like Star Wars? On Star Wars Day, we put together two videos, one of which is below – which games would you recommend?

This article originally appeared in issue 48 of Tabletop Gaming. Pick up the latest issue of the UK's fastest-growing gaming magazine in print or digital here or subscribe to make sure you never miss another issue.

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