Escape the Crate
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The escape room business has come into your home thanks to the ever-popular subscription box model. Escape rooms, for those not in the know, are a series of elaborate puzzles that you must solve a room where you’ve been trapped. These games encourage team-building and cooperation. Escape The Crate is a bi-monthly subscription box service that lets you bring these intricate puzzles and intrigue into your home.
Find the clues,
Crack the codes,
Unravel the riddles,
Solve the mysteries,
Escape the Crate
Each box features a different theme, with the puzzles and challenges coordinated to that theme. The boxes feature a series of items that held you with solving the puzzles, and include letters, ciphers, blacklights, maps, and more.
Once you’ve received the box, you go online and visit the corresponding page for that box. You’ll find material related to your quest, like in the case of the Escape the Lost Colony based on the mysterious settlement of Roanoke. To get the online version, you’ll need the password supplied in your box.
Escape The Crate features a heavy historical basis, so it may be a great gift for a history geek. Previous missions included The Trials of Houdini and the Escape the Confederate Spymistress. Upcoming will be Extinction, a mission themed around the Jurassic period. Each game lasts about an hour to an hour and a half after you’ve read the directions and prepared. At the end of each crate is a tool that helps you with the following month’s crate theme, and the crates come with “reset” instructions so you can play it again with a whole new group. For those who want hints, don’t worry, there are hints for times when you’re just absolutely stumped.
If you’re curious, you can do a free online-only mini-escape: The Midnight Express to see how the whole process works. Escape the Crate retails for $29.99 plus s&h and ships out the first week of every other month. You can purchase 2-month, 4-month and 6-month subscriptions. You also have the option to purchase previous mission crates, however, it can take a little while as they must be recreated. Each adventure runs two full months so you have time to go online and enjoy the game.
The creators say that Escape the Crate offers the fun of escape rooms without the hefty ticket price, so if you’ve been looking for a new challenge, this may be it! The subscription box world is really crammed with plenty of themed boxes for geeks, pet owners, and other groups, so this is a certainly something you probably haven’t seen before.