Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of this product in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.
In this review anything that might be considered a spoiler is hidden in a collapsible window with a spoiler alert on it. In all other ways, this review is spoiler-free.
Escape Room: The Game is a cooperative escape room experience for three to five players which can be purchased at many big-box stores. Once you have played through the adventures in the Escape Room: The Game base box, you can further challenge yourself with one of these expansion packs: Welcome To Funland and Murder Mystery.
This article only reviews the expansion packs and won’t go into detail on how to play Escape Room: The Game. If you’re unfamiliar with this escape room game, read our review of the base game to learn how to play and get the most out of your Escape Room experience.
For each expansion, the base game (Escape Room: The Game) is required because you need the Chrono Decoder, the Keys, and the Hint Decoder. There are also two other components which are needed from the base game, but unfortunately these are only found in the first version of Escape Room: The Game—the one in which there are four scenarios: Prison Break, Virus, Nuclear Countdown, and Temple of the Aztec. However, the items are common enough that if you have the newer version, Escape Room: The Game (Escape Rooms II), then you can still play like I did.
Welcome To Funland
This scenario is surprisingly terrifying; you are at an amusement park when you and your friends are captured by a deranged clown and trapped in his dressing room. He threatens to take your lives after he performs his 60-minute show. Welcome To Funland also alludes to this not being the first time this clown has taken a life—a little girl disappeared years ago, presumably at the hands of this clown.
With the exception of Escape Tales: The Awakening, this scenario is the creepiest escape room board game I have played. As the story progresses, it gets more messed up. That said, the puzzles in Welcome To Funland are just the right amount of challenging and, if it weren’t for the theme, it would be one I would suggest as an introduction to Escape Room: The Game. However, I did find the use of a word in the final puzzle a little misleading, but the cheeky solution made up for this momentary annoyance.
Murder Mystery
Murder Mystery begins with the murder of a wealthy and powerful man, the heir to the largest steel company in Great Britain. You are tasked with solving the murder: who among the long list of suspects killed the man, why, and with what.
This was a very difficult scenario even though it only has a 3 out of 5 star difficulty. I’m not sure if it was because Murder Mystery itself is tricky or because I waited too long in between my plays of the Escape Room: The Game base game and this expansion, but it was a struggle. Not every puzzle was difficult, but the main puzzles for each part were hard. Nonetheless, it was a welcome challenge and not one that was so frustrating that it ruined our gameplay experience.
Closing Thoughts
If you had fun with the Escape Room: The Game base game and are looking for more challenging escape room scenarios, the Welcome To Funland and Murder Mystery expansion packs are both excellent choices, just bear in mind that each are designed for an older audience.
Thematic Music for Playing Escape Room: The Game Expansion Packs
Welcome To Funland
Rollercoaster (Original Film Score) by Lalo Schifrin
Songs to check out include: Prologue/Montage, Reflections in the Window, Calliope of Death, and Magic Carousel (End Title).
Murder Mystery
Clue: The Movie (Original Motion Picture Score) by John Morris
Songs to check out include: Main Title/Trees To Dogs, Miss Scarlet/Car In Progress, Gun, Cupboard, Doorbell/Cop Panics and Ending C: Top To You Were/Peacock At Door.
See my comment from the base game (ERII). This is an excellent review, but for a game I will be avoiding.
Before reading this article, I did not know that Escape Room: The Game is a collective escape room experience for three to five players. I am thinking of playing it very soon and see how it works.