If you like room escape type puzzle games, like Myst — or more recently The Room series, then get ready for a new adventure. This time, you're traveling to the lost Temple of Khmer to find out what has happened to Professor Antoine LeBlanc. Escape Hunt: The Lost Temples is available now as a free download with a $3.99 in-app purchase to download the full game after you've solved the puzzles in the first room.
- Free with $3.99 in-app purchase - Download now
The adventure begins
Players are greeted at the beginning of the game with information about Professor LeBlanc, who has recently gone missing after discovering what is to believed to be the lost Temple of Khmer. Your job is to find the professor (and maybe discover the lost temple yourself, too).
You're whisked away to Cambodia to the Khmer Kingdom where you first face what appears to be an abandoned temple. You are immediately faced with your first puzzle: How to get across the river. That first puzzle is fairly easy and obvious, but once you get across the river, you must figure out how to open the door and raise the gate to the temple.
My advice: Be observant. Many of the puzzles' solutions are hinted at if you just look around. Symbols mean some things. Pictures represent other things. You get the idea.
Once you've opened the door and the gate to the temple, the free part of the game ends. If you're intrigued, you can purchase the rest of the game for $3.99 and follow the path that Professor LeBlanc took before.
Fans of adventure puzzle games will enjoy Escape Hunt: The Lost Temples
I'm a big fan of adventure puzzle games. They're more intellectually challenging than a simple point-and-click adventure game and less boring than just solving puzzles without any story.
Games like The Witness, Monument Valley, The Room series — these are all puzzle adventure games that are top in their class. Dating back even further, if you are aware of the famous PC game Myst you probably know all about puzzle adventure games.
Escape Hunt: Lost Temples fits perfectly into this genre. It's got great graphics with beautiful imagery and a comfortable point-and-click (or in the case of iOS, tap-to-move) style of gameplay. In each new room, you'll be required to solve between two and four puzzles, some of which must be solved in a particular order. For example, you might have to gather some items before you can use those items to create another item, which is then used to unlock a secret compartment, which holds another item that is used to access a different room. Stuff like that.
"Rooms," in this case are stretching the description a bit. Sometimes, you're at the entrance to a temple. Sometimes, you're inside a temple. Sometimes, you're in a market place. The idea is the same, though. Complete all puzzles in one location before moving on to the next.
It's made by a company that hosts escape room games IRL
Escape Hunt is actually an international live escape room game company with franchises around the globe and has been around since 2013. You might even say Escape Hunt is the company that popularized the real-life escape room trend that's happening across major cities right now.
The company boasts having an "Escape Game Design Academy" where new puzzle adventures are being designed all the time.
The Lost Temples is the company's digital version of their real life escape room games, which is totally meta because real life escape room games are based on escape room video games that have been around since the 1980s.
It's fun, but short
Escape Hunt: The Lost Temples isn't particularly hard. The puzzles are fairly easy to figure out without much effort. They're also not too complex, in comparison to the epic puzzles that you come across in something like The Room 3.
That being said, it's really fun and you get into it pretty fast. It's like a light snack of puzzle games. I completed almost the entire game in about three hours. If you have the time, you can complete it in one night.
Some might scoff at a $3.99 game that is done in just a single night, but it's less than you'd pay for a movie, and in my opinion, more fun in many cases.
In comparison, Monument Valley was short when it first launched, before ustwo games added more puzzles. The first Room game was very simple and definitely not as long as the next two installments.
My point is, The Lost Temples might be short, but it's fun. If your a fan of puzzle adventure games, it's right up your alley. It's not too difficult to get through, but is challenging enough to make you want to keep playing until you beat it. I'd recommend it for anyone that enjoys games like Myst, The Room, Monument Valley, or The Witness. It's fun and simple and keeps you entertained.
Don't you want to know what happens to Professor LeBlanc?
What are your thoughts?
Have you played Escape Hunt: Lost Temples? Tell me what you thought of it. Have you ever played a real-life room escape game? Take me with you next time. They're super fun!
