Now lets be honest, who doesn't love something for nothing?! When I spotted that Access Escape where bringing out a free escape room subscription game, I jumped at the chance! 

​

So here's how it works!... The subscription service is called Escape the Mailbox. Every month a puzzle will be sent directly to your email inbox, based on various themes. Try and complete the puzzle and reply via email with your answer. This will subsequently auto-reply advising if you are correct or whether you need to try again. If correct, another puzzle will be sent, repeatedly until the mission is completed. A really simple method, yet really effective way of creating a unique experience. 

​

The first in the series is called The Diamond Detective. Setting the scene, you receive a call in the early hours advising that £10m of jewellery has been stolen. As the Chief Detective, its your job to work out what has happened. You have managed to infiltrate a series of emails which the criminal used to plan his escape with his accomplice. Can you work out what these emails mean so you can track him down?! My initial thought - What a great use of theme which coincides with the manner in which the gameplay works. Clearly making a set of emails believable is difficult, however the story sits alongside this really well. 

​

Given the story structure, don't expect pretty pictures. Simplicity remains the key to this game. The emails containing the puzzles are simply typed messages from the criminal to his accomplice. 

 

The puzzles that match are very cleverly put together. All are achievable but don't expect all of them to be an easy ride - think outside the box of what you may normally do within a self-contained online game, and let Google be your best friend! The puzzles may not be traditional in nature, however we found that really refreshing. This certainly wasn't a "copy and paste" game. Four or five puzzles later and the mission was completed, giving a really nice bitesize escape room puzzle fix.  

​

We found this a very pleasant, quick fix experience which gave a nice warm fuzzy feeling given its simplistic approach and unique gameplay style. Looking forward to seeing if we can Escape the Mailbox again next month! A free monthly game in such uncertain times, is just what the doctor ordered, so a massive thank you to the Access Escape team!