Unlock! 2 - Mystery Adventures

A cooperative card game inspired by escape rooms

Escape rooms are the rooms you need to escape from in less than 60 minutes. UNLOCK! lets you live these experiences at home around a table.

UNLOCK! Mystery Adventures contains three scenarios:

The House on the Hill

At the beginning of The House on the Hill, strange, paranormal activities have surrounded an abandoned house for the past three days. When an investigation uncovers that these occult occurrences center on an excerpt read from The Book of the Dead, you and your companions are tasked to enter the house, find the book, and stop the curse…

The Nautilus' Traps

Whereas The House on the Hill surrounds you with the trappings of a horror story, The Nautilus’ Traps brings you to the bottom of the sea. When a sea monster attacks your submarine at the outset of the adventure, it’s up to you to make your way through the depths and back to the surface if you’re going to escape… before your oxygen runs out.

The Tonipal's Treasure

The third adventure, The Tonipal’s Treasure, sets you at the start of a hunt for the treasure of Captain Smith, hidden somewhere on Tonipal Island. As your adventure begins, you’ve been arrested by the Governor and thrown into prison—you’ll need to escape quickly, especially since Johnson, a famous treasure hunter, is also on his way to Tonipal in search of the very treasure that you seek.

Unlock! is a series of cooperative card-based escape adventures for up to six players. Each Unlock! game consists of sixty cards depicting objects, maps, and puzzles that can be activated, solved, or combined in an effort to access other cards and areas. The free companion app tracks the time allotted to win the game, while also offering hints and unlocking new, and necessary, elements. When the players believe they have figured out the code to escape each adventure, they will input the number into the app and escape the danger, or lose even more time in finding the real sequence.

The Tools to your Escape

Each Unlock! game begins with a starting card (or two), featuring an introduction to the adventure on one side and your initial location map on the other side. Across this first card will be a series of numbers, indicating which other cards you can access as soon as the clock begins counting down. In order to progress through the deck, you must examine the cards and figure out how they interact with each other and with the app.

Green machines and yellow codes are two card types you'll encounter that require some problem-solving. Machines feature an array of numbers associated with a visual, and determining which numbers are relevant will allow you to assign a value to the card and use it later on. To bypass a yellow cards, you will need to enter a four-digit code into the game app. Solving both codes and machines will require you to locate hidden information or recall clues provided on other cards. It is possible, then, that you will be faced with a code or machine that you cannot solve until the associated cards have been revealed. 

In the deck, you will also come across object cards, both blue and red. In order to move on from these cards, you will have to combine them, adding together the card values in order to access another card in the deck. For example, combining a red card numbered 35 and a blue card numbered 11 will give you access to card 46—if it exists. Sometimes, you will also be able to combine these cards with solved machines and discovered modifiers. Many combinations will be possible throughout each game, but with tricks and traps all over the place, you may not always want to know what's on the other side of the card you've accessed.

Risk and Reward

Combining and solving cards is the only way to progress in the game, but it may not always work out in your favor. Incorrect code guesses and unfortunate card pairings will cause you to take penalties in the app, which will shave off remaining time and lower your final score. However, a bold choice may also be the one thing that gets you out of each sticky situation, so you'll need to keep a close eye on every hidden clue before making any risky moves. 

Once you have cycled through the deck and think you have figured out the ultimate solution, you will have to enter a code into the app to see your score. Your rating will be determined by your use of hints, incorrect guesses, and the duration of your game. Every play of the game will get you closer and closer to that perfect run and a five-star score, so don't dismiss your defeats, for every mistake may be the key to your success the next time around!