Escape the Castle of Horrors

The game is really fun except for some of the puzzles. Some of them seem impossible, and I would not be surprised if they are stacked against you. Frankly, some are more pure luck and not a puzzle at all. This is especially true with the werewolf and end “puzzles”. You gain points, but there are much more points that go to the opponent, and the opponent locks certain blocks until it is literally impossible to keep playing. The worst part is this is a fun game, but it is such wasted potential when it has these rigged games or impossible puzzles (some are actual puzzles that are just extremely difficult, but some people like that challenge, so that’s more of a side note). Not to mention how difficult it is to get more than 2 free hints per day. Don’t get me wrong: it shouldn’t be easy, and the game has to make money somehow. I just think that 2 hints per day (and the clearly rigged ad wheel) is a bit too conservative, especially with some of the puzzles. Another minor issue is some of the items aren’t labeled, which makes it difficult to figure out what to do with them. I thought a glue stick was a battery for far too long haha. But again, it’s a minor issue that doesn’t affect the game’s quality too much.

I played only a few minutes when the app interrupted gameplay with a request to be rated. I thought, “Please wait a reasonable time; how could I know yet?” A few minutes later they asked again. About 5 minutes after that they asked a third time if I would give them a review. So I did. I hope they get the message. (After I play a reasonable amount of time, I’ll review my rating.)Update: My rating was one star, I’m raising it to two and then deleting this game. It’s too boring. It has some good points and might have been excellent but has some major flaws. First, I agree with other players about some puzzles which slow down gameplay because they’re so frustrating and must be skipped if you want to move forward at a reasonable pace. The “Werewolf Match Three” game has been mentioned. I’m quite good at match three games but this one is rigged for the player to fail; perhaps they can win if they’re willing to waste time doing it over and over and over. But, if you decide to skip it, you need to watch ads; lots of ads. Second, most of the time you spend tapping, tapping tapping to move back and forth, room to room, over and over. Theres far more tapping than playing. There’s a map, but it’s not very useful. Third, if you take a break from playing, beware, you’ll waste even more time finding your place again, unless you have a great memory. Which mini games did you already complete? Which rooms no longer have clues or activities? Good luck on that! The developers don’t indicate which puzzles have been completed by locking them or show on the map if there’s nothing more to be done in a room, so you’ll tap, tap, tap some more to figure it out. Too much random tapping and not enough playing. I’m bored and my tapping finger is sore. Too bad because it had potential.

The puzzles in this game remind me of hidden-object-puzzle-adventure games (HOPA). Quite a few are ones I’ve seen before in those games. Which means they have a sort of universal logic to them, making them easier than the ones where you have to try to crawl into the mind of the developer to solve them. I prefer my puzzles a bit harder, but the game was still enjoyable. Not much of a storyline, but that’s okay. Nice graphics for a free escape game. I found it odd that they mixed cultural antiques so much. For example, you’re rescuing a cleopatra type victim and there’s ancient Egyptian statues (Horus, etc.), but then Mayan calendar disks are there too, sometimes Thai statues as well. Just kinda weird. Fairly long game, too. Well worth playing! Check out Haiku games Adventure Escape series, they are phenomenal!