Game Review: Deckscape: Dracula's Castle by dV Games

Deckscape: Dracula's Castle (2021) designed by Martino Chiacchiera and Silvano Sorrentino and published by dV Games

Deckscape is a series of games that imitate escape rooms but only use a deck of cards, not a room full of gadgets, gizmos, and gear. Each card is either a puzzle with a solution on the back or an item that can be used to solve puzzles. Unlike Unlock!, there is no app supporting game play, so only when players are sure they've solved the problem should they check the back of a puzzle card to see if they got it right. If the player is right, they just discard the puzzle card. If they are wrong, they put the card in the box to keep track of their score. At the end, fewer cards mean a better performance. 

This game has Count Vlad D. inviting the players to his castle in Transylvania to deliver a secret tome that he claims is his. The game starts with the invitation delivery and proceeds to the castle and all the surprises inside. Naturally, players don't want to give the book to the Count and must evade all his traps and fight all his minions. Escape from the castle requires a lot of creative thinking and problem solving.

Non-spoiler look at some cards

The puzzles were the typical assortment of easy, fun, difficult, creative, and inexplicable. Using only cards to run the game is okay but limited. Sometimes we were unsure of solving the puzzle but just went ahead and flipped the card anyway because we didn't want to spend more time coming up with new ideas that seemed more off-base than our current solution. So we had a lot of unsatisfying moments. One card does have hints on it but we never used it.

Compared to Exit: The Game or Unlock!, this was lacking. The app in Unlock! is often used creatively and the frustration isn't as bad with tough puzzles. Exit uses a lot of different types of puzzles, with physical manipulation of components in addition to using the cards. The Dracula theme was interesting and well-used but the execution was not our favorite.

Mildly recommended--this wasn't terrible but it didn't sell us on the Deckscape system either.