Escape the Castle of Horrors 9+

The puzzles in this game remind me of hidden-object-puzzle-adventure games (HOPA). Quite a few are ones I’ve seen before in those games. Which means they have a sort of universal logic to them, making them easier than the ones where you have to try to crawl into the mind of the developer to solve them. I prefer my puzzles a bit harder, but the game was still enjoyable. Not much of a storyline, but that’s okay. Nice graphics for a free escape game. I found it odd that they mixed cultural antiques so much. For example, you’re rescuing a cleopatra type victim and there’s ancient Egyptian statues (Horus, etc.), but then Mayan calendar disks are there too, sometimes Thai statues as well. Just kinda weird. Fairly long game, too. Well worth playing! Check out Haiku games Adventure Escape series, they are phenomenal!

The game is really fun except for some of the puzzles. Some of them seem impossible, and I would not be surprised if they are stacked against you. Frankly, some are more pure luck and not a puzzle at all. This is especially true with the werewolf and end “puzzles”. You gain points, but there are much more points that go to the opponent, and the opponent locks certain blocks until it is literally impossible to keep playing. The worst part is this is a fun game, but it is such wasted potential when it has these rigged games or impossible puzzles (some are actual puzzles that are just extremely difficult, but some people like that challenge, so that’s more of a side note). Not to mention how difficult it is to get more than 2 free hints per day. Don’t get me wrong: it shouldn’t be easy, and the game has to make money somehow. I just think that 2 hints per day (and the clearly rigged ad wheel) is a bit too conservative, especially with some of the puzzles. Another minor issue is some of the items aren’t labeled, which makes it difficult to figure out what to do with them. I thought a glue stick was a battery for far too long haha. But again, it’s a minor issue that doesn’t affect the game’s quality too much.

Some of the puzzles make no sense and there is no way to find out how to do the puzzle or what the end objective is. I love escape games and am really good at them and so are my friends but we all have had problems trying to figure out what to do on some of the puzzles. It’s so frustrating you just want to quit. Then it takes 3 hints if you want to pass a puzzle if you get stuck for hours and can’t pass it. Getting hints is ridiculous. You spin the wheel and then if it lands in ad you watch the ad and still don’t get a hint. You only get it if you land in the free hint which seems to never happen. I understand having to watch the ads that’s not my problem. The problem is you still don’t get a hint after watching them. Then you have to wait so long before you can spin again and if you land in ad again it starts all over again. Very frustrating. I’d rather pay for the game and be able to get hints by doing things like most games. I def don’t recommend this one because it’s so frustrating and instead of having a good time you will get frustrated and want to throw your device out the window after watching 20 ads trying to get one hint.