• Designers: David Yahos, Nicholas Cravotta, Rebecca Bleau
• Publisher: Play Monster
• Ages: 10+
• Time: 2hrs on box, 64 minutes in reality for our group
• Players: 1-6
• Times played: 1, with review copy provided by Play Monster
• Affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3i4f9gj

To be clear – there are no spoilers in my review – but there are a number of strong cautions (EASILY FOUND IN SHOUTY CAPS) included below to help you avoid possible spoilers!

Break In: Alcatraz is part of a new series of escape room games – but this one has a slightly different take on the usual story.  Instead of trying to break out or escape, in these games, you’re trying to break in!  The box and components here are a huge part of the game.  The box is a slanted hexagon that contains a 3D diorama of what you’re trying to break into… in this case, the island prison of Alcatraz.

Your team works together to solve the puzzles in front of you to learn the secrets of the box.  As you will learn on the box and the publisher’s website – “Soon, you will be told to open the game board and unfold it, expanding your board and revealing the next layer of puzzles you have to explore to uncover clues that will lead you further inside! Along the way, you see wonderful sites, meet interesting characters, and do amazing things! “

When you first open the box, you will find a bunch of components taped to the lid of the box and a short instruction manual.  The rest of the box is the start of the game – you will see the prison on the top.  There are other scenes depicted on the sides of the box, and there are two numbered slots in the outer border of the hexagon.

There is a deck of cards – which you’ll have to put together – AND IT IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW that all the cards form a single deck.  Interestingly enough, there isn’t a card on the bottom of the deck to prevent you from mistakenly reading the backs of the cards.  The rules weren’t 100% clear on how the cards would work, and we may have read the backs of three or four cards before we realized that we weren’t supposed to do that. (The contents just tell you there are 54 cards – and I would have liked slightly more info on how the deck was supposed to be set up to prevent spoilers…)

You will also get 7 solution sticks – these are double sided with two columns of icons all over them, each somehow subdivided by colored lines.  Finally, you’ll also get a radio decoder.  This has one of those red film strips embedded in it – you don’t have anything to decode just yet, but surely you will.  I WOULD ALSO CAUTION YOU not to look for things on the parts manifest.  Interestingly enough, there are some things in the box that you don’t yet have access to… and it felt to me to be slightly spoiler-ish to tell me on the back of the box and in the rules that I’m going to have a 4-piece raft puzzle in the box.  Why not just keep it all secret?

Anyways, once you get things set up, you have a letter to read in the rules which gives you the outline of the story.  Essentially, you have to break into Alcatraz so that you can help your buddies break out.  Easy as pie!    ONE MORE BIG CAUTION – there are 4 cards at the top of the deck marked #1, #2, #3, and #4.  The bottom of card #1 actually says: “New to Break In games or need some help getting started?”.  DON’T READ THESE CARDS UNLESS YOU ARE REALLY STUCK.  These cards are pretty spoiler-y, and it could seriously reduce the amount of fun you will have with the game if you accidentally read a play-through of the first puzzles by reading the back of this card.  These cards really should have had a stronger warning that what you get with them.

There are two types of puzzle solutions that you’ll encounter.  The first is a card symbol – this will be a symbol in a golden yellow circle.  In fact, a few of these are seen on the hexagon when your first unveil it.  Any time that you see one of these yellow circles, you can look thru the deck to find the card with a matching symbol and then read that card.  The way the game is set up, you shouldn’t have to look far.  Generally speaking, whenever you find one of these symbols, the needed card should be the top card on the deck.

The other kind of puzzle is location based, and you will these icons with a box around them.  The icon in a box will direct you to a specific solution stick – you’ll need to figure out which decoder slot to put the stick in, and which color line to drop the stick to.  Many of the puzzles are these three-part affairs where you need a number, a color and an icon to get to the solution.  You put the solution stick into the right slot and then look at the hole in the box to see an icon.  If you see one that matches the top card of the deck; you’ve solved the puzzle and can reveal the matching card.  If it directs you to a hint card (almost every puzzle comes with a hint card).  These puzzles are well constructed – or well defined.  When you have a puzzle of this sort, the card often explicitly reminds you what you need to figure out, and it usually refers you to get a hint card out of the deck.

When you use the solution sticks and get an incorrect answer – you are almost always referred to the hint card.  The hint card is broken up into a few different labeled areas – number, symbol, color and overall solution at the bottom.  If you feel like you need to read some hints, use the red film on your radio to reveal the necessary portion of the hint card.

Oh, and while I was preparing this review, I did stumble upon this webpage which is filled with some updated hints and errata – https://www.playmonster.com/alcatraz-clues/

Just remember it in case you need it.  We have both misprinted cards in our game, but neither was a game-breaker… So, you may not even need the clarifications at all…  But, in case the hint cards aren’t enough for you, there are even more detailed pictoral solutions on this webpage.  BUT DON’T GO LOOK AT THIS PAGE NOW.  It’s easy to accidentally click on an answer, and if you’re reading this review, you’re likely not at a stage in your life where it’s appropriate to read the answer to a puzzle for an escape room game you’re still trying to learn more information about.

OK, well, back to the game.  It’s a neat physical setup where the box and its components become part of the experience… and I’ll admit, it’s pretty darn neat to see the thing unfold and have the next scene come to life – that is one of the big strengths of this game.  The panels of the box are held on with some pretty tight plastic pegs… you might think that you’re going to rip the box, but just be patient and wiggle the sides carefully until you can release the panels.  It’s a good system and the tightness helps hold everything back together again when you put it back together.

There’s not much else I can tell you about the box that doesn’t spoil it. So, let’s move onto the puzzles.  In general, the puzzles here are mid-range.  None of them were super complex, but there were a few which took all three of us to figure out.  We did not require any hints to solve any puzzles, though we were close to breaking down on two occasions.  The solution stick is a clever and elegant way to auto-check your answer.  Sure, you could just jam the stick into all the available holes at all the available depths, but there’s no fun/joy/honor in that.  Anyways, the puzzles are well constructed, and there are ample hints available if you need – so you should just take your time and work through the puzzles as you come across them.

For the most part, the story is linear; you have  to work through the current puzzle card before further cards are revealed.  Most of the puzzles are fairly complex, and while there might only be one active puzzle, it usually takes some teamwork to get to the solution.  In the end, the three of us felt like we were engaged in the solving and pretty much busy during the duration of the game.  Solve enough of these puzzles, and you’ll likely get a change in scenery.  It’s a pretty neat trick how they managed to get all this stuff in the box!  You’ll have a few things to look forward to – remember, they tell you that you’re gonna get a raft puzzle; but where/when remains a surprise…

Once you’re done with the game, you’ll find that you haven’t destroyed anything.  You can carefully pack things back up and then share this great experience with someone else.  I did manage to wrap a piece of paper around the card deck to hide the bottom card…

On the whole, I really liked the experience.  It seems that the company is new to the escape room genre, and there are some rough edges – all noted above – but none of them were gamebreaking.  We were able to avoid unintentional spoilers (for the most part), and we got to the final solution in just over an hour.  The 3D box is fantastic, and the puzzles are of the right level for families and casual gamers.  This game is part of an initial set of three games – the other two are Break In: Chichen Itza and Break In: Area 51.  Based on our initial experience with this one, I’m definitely looking forward to trying out the other two games in the series.

Alcatraz and Chichen Itza are rated 2/4 in difficulty, and Area 51 is rated 3/4 in difficulty.

My rating: I like it!

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