ThinkFun Escape the Room

thinkfun.com

ThinkFun, founded in 1985 and part of Ravensburger since 2016, treats the genre as a boxed party game. Each title is built from sealed envelopes, printed boards and a paper answer wheel that confirms a solution before you open the next envelope. The catalogue includes Mystery at Stargazer's Manor, Secret of Dr. Gravely's Retreat and The Cursed Dollhouse, for three to eight players, ages ten and up, at roughly 90 minutes a sitting.

Puzzles sit on the gentle side, which is the point: this is the line to hand a family or a group of colleagues who have never done an escape room. Nothing has to be cut, so a careful group can reset the box and pass it on. Seasoned puzzlers will find the difficulty low and the story thin, and the answer wheel makes brute forcing a code far too tempting.