Basic information
Type: escape room, immersive story, no timing, replayable
Players: 1-4
Playtime: 3-5 h
Age: 12+
Designers: Jakub Caban, Matt Dembek, Bartosz Idzikowski
Artists: Jakub Fajtanowski, Magdalena Klepacz, Paweł Niziołek

Escape Tales: The Awakening is a card game based on the escape room concept, but here you’re not limited by time. The game is focused on the story and your exploration of it while engaging in the puzzles within and making choices that will immerse you deeply. As for the story, here’s the set-up:

Players take on the role of Sam, whose daughter has been in a coma for over two months and whose doctors still cannot explain how this happened or what caused it. According to them, everything is fine with the girl; she’s healthy and shouldn’t be in this condition. Sam is desperate and looks for answers everywhere he can, which leads to a weird meeting with Mark.

Mark’s son was once in a similar situation, and his father was able to help wake the boy up. He has given Sam a scary-looking book and said that inside this book he would find a ritual called “The Awakening.” But Mark warned Sam that he needs to prepare himself mentally since this ritual will transfer him into another dimension, where he should be able to find his daughter and understand what the cause of this state is. If Sam’s lucky enough, then he will be able to wake her up as well. Sam has held onto the book for more than a week. Finally, he’s ready to go into the basement and perform a ritual. Are you ready, too?

What is unique in this game:

Open exploration
Every location is open, meaning that players will be free to explore however they feel like. It is up to them which areas of the location they will visit and in what order. Through these decisions, a different puzzle will be revealed to them to solve. There are several ways to leave a location and depending on these choices – the impact on the entire story will be different.

High replay value
Thanks to the open exploration and possibility to leave a location in more than one way. Players won’t gain access to every puzzle in the game and all available locations during a single playthrough. Everything we do will impact the result of the game – which means the game can be played over several times with a different approach.

Engaging story
Here we are putting significant pressure on the story, a story that would engage players and draw them into the game for several hours of playtime. A story is so engaging that it will stick with players for a couple of days to make them come for more, as soon as possible. Its structure and content will deliver many emotions and will immerse players so deeply to be mindful of everything they meet and see. Like a great thriller movie, that will keep players in suspense until the very end.

Multiple endings
Since every choice has a different impact on the story, we have several different endings for the story as well. Puzzles we solve; paths we take; decisions we make; interactions within games characters we do; all of the above will shape our story differently and will have an impact on the ending that will be unraveled. We hope that players will be thrilled to reveal all of them!

Do you need to check some reviews? Here they are:

1. Rahdo Runs Through
2. Cracking Chelf
3. Slickerdrips
4. Behind the Box
5. Game Pit Podcast (12:03 min)
6. BoardgameMeetings