A Holiday Advent-ure
Location: at home
Date Played: November, 2023
Team size: 1+; we recommend 1-2
Duration: Average 10 minutes per day for 24 days
Price: about $49.99
REA Reaction
If you've never played an Advent calendar from Exit: The Game, you are really missing out. Having played The Hunt for The Golden Book and The Mystery of the Ice Cave in previous years, I was ready to start counting down to Christmas way before December 1. Sure, you won't find chocolate behind any of the sealed doors, but you will find clever, unique, Exit: The Game-style puzzles that can be solved in 5-10 minutes per day.
Similar in style and structure to the previous calendars, The Silent Storm offered a whimsical Christmas narrative and 24 thematic puzzles that often required out-of-the-box thinking to solve. While some were straightforward and simple, a few were less obvious and had us reaching for a hint in the help book. Though there were a couple of puzzles with solutions that were kind of awkward or a bit of a stretch to get to the intended answer, puzzling was strong overall.
The story of our journey through Santa's workshop during a natural disaster provided reasons for the puzzles; it was engaging and less repetitive than prior Advent calendars. The nifty decoder table allowed us to easily confirm our solution and locate the next day's door. For such a simple tool, it worked really well. Fanciful artwork and miniature Riddle Cards gave a nod to the tabletop series, as was the part where everything we saw was – or could be – in play. Yes, everything!
There are many different varieties of Advent calendars out there, all of which will help you count the days until Christmas. But if you love the Exit: The Game series, or just want a daily dose of inventive puzzles and a jolly Christmas story, you can't go wrong with Exit: The Game's The Silent Storm, which I consider the best of the 3. For what this game is trying to be, they really nailed it. I bet you won't even miss the chocolate.
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