SNAP Review – EXIT: The Enchanted Forest

How did we get stuck in the Enchanted Forest – and why are we talking to a royal frog?

The Enchanted Forest is another family-friendly EXIT box from Inka & Markus Brand, published by KOSMOS. It’s rated a difficulty level of 2 on a 1-5 scale. Listen to our spoiler-free review of this EXIT puzzle box, or read on below.

EXIT boxes are destructible, one-time-use puzzle boxes that can be fun for the whole family. They range in price from $10 to $15 and usually last between 1-2 hours. The boxes contain almost everything you need; just add a few writing implements, a piece of paper for notes, a ruler, and a pair of scissors.

We’ve previously reviewed EXIT: The Haunted Rollercoaster and EXIT: The House of Riddles.

Art

The art is well done in the fairy tale theme, while avoiding most of the scary parts. It fits well with the name “Enchanted Forest”.

You’ll meet various friendly characters along the way (our favorites are the talking frog and Mrs Crawly the snail).

One feature in this box: as you meet each character, you’ll draw them on the back of the instruction book.

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Mechanics

This EXIT adventure plays much like the other boxes we’ve tried at the 2-out-of-5 difficulty. The Enchanted Forest is a pretty straight ahead story. Solve the puzzle (or puzzles) on one page, then move ahead to the next page.

Your goal is to find a bridge so you can cross the river and get back out of the forest. Along the way, you’ll meet several familiar characters and a few unfamiliar ones.

Most puzzles were based on rhyming riddles, adding to the fairy tale theme, and only one tripped us up.

Expectations

We’ve done several of these easier EXIT boxes before, so we had two main expectations.

First, we hoped there wouldn’t be any references that our kids couldn’t understand. (True!)

Just like House of Riddles, we also expected Enchanted Forest to be a very directed experience. With other, harder EXITs we’ve done in the past, there are several puzzles going on at once, with nothing to dictate what to focus on next. That’s not happening here; instead it’s sequential, with just one puzzle at a time. This is very helpful when working together with younger players.

Our youngest (age 6) sat down to try it with us, too. We expected that he wouldn’t have the patience or the knowledge to participate fully. He wandered in and out, but did get more out of this than in the past.

There was one puzzle that seemed a lot harder than the rest, which seems to happen with most EXIT boxes in our experience; some piece of information we’re missing to figure out the puzzle.

Surprises (No Spoilers!)

We were surprised that this particular adventure had more cutting and more drawing than we usually see in EXIT. Both were great ways to keep our older kids (12 & 9) involved with hands-on work instead of just mental puzzles.

There were a few puzzles that even our 6 year old could easily be involved in, which was really nice, especially a tactile puzzle that he could poke holes in and set up for everyone else to decode.

Anitra was pleasantly surprised that there was nothing truly scary or creepy. Even the Big Bad Wolf only makes low-key threats (something about being stuck in the forest permanently). There were some passing references to Hansel & Gretel that probably went over our kids’ heads.

Rating

What would we rate The Enchanted Forest?

I think it’s a great introduction to EXIT boxes and a step up from mysteries designed for kids. Perfect for adults who have never done an escape room before, or for a family to do together.

Find EXIT: The Enchanted Forest on Amazon, directly from KOSMOS, or ask for it at your local game store.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of EXIT: The Enchanted Forest from KOSMOS for this review.

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