Game Review: Unlock! Mythic Adventures by Space Cowboys

Unlock! Mythic Adventures published by Space Cowboys 

This box of three adventures in the Unlock! system (a deck of cards plus an app, sometimes some extra materials that fit in the box) provides some more of that "escape room at home" fun.

In the Clutches of Hades 

Players are Alix, a young slave whose friend has been kidnapped by Hades. Living on a Greek island near a major temple, it's easy to find help from the gods and other clever people (see Icarus below). Getting to the underworld is not as easy as it may seem, if you want to come back alive!

The puzzles run the usual assortment from easy to inexplicable. Our team of three had a good time deciphering them even if it took us too long (twenty minutes over the usual hour limit!). We brought a variety of skills and insights, complimenting each other. This adventure was supposed to be the easiest one in the set which gave us some foreboding about the next two adventures. We really liked the theme, though detailed knowledge of Greek mythology is not required. Such knowledge does increase appreciation for the art and characters.

Professor Noside's Animal-O-Matic

Professor Noside, a recurring character in Unlock! games and a generally disreputable character, has invented a gun that will transfer your brain into an animal temporarily, if you use the left trigger on the gun. Well, you're a bit of a butterfingers and shot yourself into the cat with the right trigger, giving you an hour to get back into your right body. The trick is, the gun needs to be fully charged to reverse the situation. A spare battery is in the attic but you are locked in the kitchen. It's time to get creative (and get into some other animal bodies) to get that battery!

The puzzles were very imaginative in a good way. This game has a lot of "cartoon logic" that is fun and creative. We hit the usual one or two problems that mystified us but the game comes with a "walk-through" book in case players get stuck. We only consulted it twice. We had a lot of fun cycling through Professor Noside's whole menagerie. Our time was less over than the last puzzle, so that's good!

Around the World in Eighty Minutes

Based on the Jules Verne classic, this game recreates the adventures of Phileas Fogg who accepted a ridiculous challenge to travel around the world in eighty day. He lives in 1872, when the fastest transportation was a steam locomotive, so it's a lot harder to go quickly around the world than today. 

The game has a lot of compass- and map-related puzzles. The game even includes a foldout map with clues on it. This game was rated three locks, the most difficult. We did run up on more puzzles where we could not figure out what they wanted us to do. The printed walk-through was helpful here. We took a break in the middle of the game, pausing the app. When we returned, the app had gone back to the main screen, so a lot of our slow progress was lost. Thus, we wound up with a four-star rating on our solution, though we really did run overtime and had a few more penalties than was recorded. We enjoyed the theme a lot.

Overall, this is a good set of Unlock! puzzles and we'd recommend it to others. Some of the problems were too difficult even for adults, so your kids might (like ours) get bored and wander off. You know your family (or game group) the best.

Recommended.