Escape from The Starline Express

Escape from the Starline Express sees you exploring the many cars of the train uncovering the mystery behind the theft of the black widow diamond. This is yet another great game to start your at home escape puzzle journey. With a straight forward clue system and easy to follow progression this is great for beginners. As you work your way through the train you go into a variety of different rooms and you physically open these rooms up inside of each room you will be met with a internal display of the room and puzzle pieces to solve. This element of opening actual mini rooms and being able to explore while receiving physical puzzles makes this game all the more immersive. As mentioned at the start this is beginner friendly but I'd certainly say the puzzles are more difficult than those in the Grand Hotel. Should you need a clue each room has a secret compartment with a clue inside. The game also comes with a solutions envelope should you be really struggling. My team personally got hooked up on 3 specific puzzles; two of which maths based (not my strong suit) and a tactile cardboard version of those metal entanglement puzzles. Each of the puzzles in this game winds perfectly with the storyline and helps to progress the story further. Although you can only play this game once this envelope also contains instructions for resetting the game to then give to others to play. This box has a solid mix of puzzles ranging from tactile in hand puzzles and real brainteasers. Great box for beginners / intermediate players! Difficulty - 3 / 5 Puzzles - 3.5 / 5 Theming - 3.5 / 5 Creativity - 4.5 / 5 Enjoyment - 3 / 5 Value For Money - 4 / 5 Overall Score - 3.25 / 5

Decent introduction to the “escape room in a box” category. The puzzles were just okay. As some others mentioned, some are too easy and others are too difficult or just plain unsatisfying. I enjoyed the storyline and finding the next correct envelope to open. It’s a fine game to play if you’ve got a spare 90 min. However, this wouldn’t be my first pick to recommend to someone else.

All the puzzles were either extremely easy or extremely complicated. The whole box was put together nicely; just the puzzles let it down.

Overall I liked the layout of this experience and the art design was done very well. However, some of puzzles were way to easy, then other puzzles were way to hard. Hardly any felt satisfying to complete. You are essentially paying for 9 puzzles and a half baked story that wouldn’t pass a first year creative writing class, so thats why Im giving it a thumbs down.