Game Review: Exit The Game: The Deserted Lighthouse

Exit: The Game--The Deserted Lighthouse designed by Inka and Markus Brand and published by KOSMOS

Walking along a lonely and rainy coastland, you come across a lighthouse. Eager for shelter from the storm, you head to the lighthouse just as it blinks out. Walking up, you see the lighthouse is locked with a combination lock. Also, out in the sea is a boat that is headed for the rocks. To save the day, you need to get into the lighthouse and get the light on again!

This game follows the usual Exit: The Game model of solving a lot of puzzles on your way to the final goal. Players have to assemble the decoder that confirms solutions to the puzzles. Players also have to assemble four different jigsaw puzzles which have clues and other information needed. Some "journals" are included, so the game doesn't have the typical deck of cards like the first Exit games.

The first puzzle, some journals, and the decoder

The game runs a bit longer than the typical Exit: The Game scenario, especially depending on your jigsaw skills. Those jigsaws are not big but the pictures are dark and murky, so putting them together is not as easy. Each puzzle opens up one of the journals which provides more information and further puzzles (and the occasional instruction to build another jigsaw). 

The game has a higher difficulty rating. We had a couple of puzzles that were inexplicable to us. One was, quite frankly, unsolvable without the hint. The final puzzle had two parts, one of which, while interesting, did not really seem to serve any purpose--the solution was already obvious from the other part. The rule book has hints in the back, so players can get some help if they get stuck. The puzzles move in order so checking for a hint won't spoil a future puzzle unless your eyes wander very far. We enjoyed this game and would play another one of these jigsaw-style games.

Mildly recommended--The Sacred Temple was a better implementation of the jigsaw puzzle system.