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Tis the season to be………PUZZLED! Haha Nope, we at Zatu aren’t inventing a new holiday (although how cool would Board Gamesmas be?!). We are risking the naughty list and taking a sneaky peek at the Hunt for the Golden Book Advent Calendar devised by KOSMOS who shall henceforth be known as Father Enigmas! Haha Okay, so probably only in my mind, but still………
Is It Time Yet
Although we are still a little way off Christmas yet, it is never too soon to plan. And after the pumpkins of Halloween have been turfed on to the compost heap, and the fireworks have finished, it’s a straight run to the most wonderful time of the year!
And nobody can resist an advent calendar. Whether you grew up eating cheap choccies before school, or building a manger piece by piece, 1 December marks a routine change that is always a treat!
So when we saw that Father Enigmas (sorry, KOSMOS!) had come up with 2 advent calendars full of mind bending puzzles and riddles, we couldn’t help ourselves! In fact we couldn’t even wait until 1 December to crack into it! September became our Board Gamesmas and the first window was hungrily devoured without delay.
And we couldn’t resist trying to help save the real Christmas in Exit: The Game - The Hunt for the Golden Book! So we launched ourselves head first into the 24 part adventure and I can now absolutely NOT tell you how we got on! Haha
Seasonal Spoilers
Whaaaat? Well, you see, I am under strict instructions not to reveal any spoilers. And I definitely do not want to be the Games Grinch! So, I can’t tell you exactly what we did each day. But I can tell you that we had a blast! And it was full of more surprises than I even thought possible.
For example, and this won’t come as a surprise to Exit fans, knowing which window to open next can only be determined by correctly solving the puzzle from the day before! So, when they say “hunt”, they really mean it! When you solve a puzzle, you’ll reveal a code, and it is this code that gives directions to the next window’s location! Meta mind bendiness or what?!
Selection Box
Just like deliciously tasty treats that stack up under trees and get stuffed into stockings, this advent calendar is choc full of different types of puzzles. A few are sweetly simple strawberry creams, whereas others are as hard as Brazil nuts! And besides a pen, scissors and some glue, everything you need comes inside the box – including the decoder to help work out which window comes next!
And (think of this as a Christmas gift rather than a spoiler) the box is an essential part of the puzzle! So don’t be thinking you can solve this special hunt with only what is inside each window! If you do, you’ll be waiting forever to find out where the Golden Book has gone! And nobody wants that because whose book is it? That’s right! It belongs to Santa Claus. And you don’t want to be the agent of Christmas disappointment for all the children, now do you??!
Father Enigmas’ Little Helper
Thankfully, for us at least, the box also comes with a book of hints (and solutions!). Cleverly, as with the Exit games, you can sneak a look at one or two clues to help you along without revealing the entire solution. And I am woman enough to admit that we did have to get Father Enigmas’s little helper to see us on our way to one or two (ok 5 but who’s counting?!).
Final Thoughts
This advent calendar is right up our gaming street. We love puzzles, we love Christmas, and we love Exit games, so it was a triple win for us! Now, I am not going to say it’s easy. You are going to have to work to get closer and closer to the Golden Book’s whereabouts. I don’t have the lateral thinking power that many escape puzzles demand. And many escape room apps and online games put my brain firmly on pause. Indeed, a few of these left me clueless, literally! Luckily for me, however, my husband has a ridder’s mind. And what I lack in skills, I make up for in enthusiasm. Together we found our way to the final window reveal through 24 different and engaging challenges. Musical, visual, arty crafty and all clever in their own ways. A few times, after checking our answer, we realised we got the correct code by a different route. But that was definitely more luck than judgement.
We have been really impressed by the variety of puzzles and difficulty levels across the Hunt for the Golden Book and there’s no comparison with the cheap choccy offerings of old. Thanks to Exit this has been the best first Board Gamesmas ever and we can’t wait for 1 December when we get to start the other Exit Advent Calendar – The Mystery of the Ice Cave!
We would definitely recommend this as a brilliant way for escape puzzle and gaming fans to get every day of the holiday started the best possible way – with a puzzle!
