Jumbo, Escape Quests, Itzamna's Eye - Jonathan Eaton's Houses of Treasure, Escape Room Puzzle Game, 1-4 Players, Ages 16+

I've got some mixed feelings whilst writing this review.I love puzzles, quizzes and escape rooms (and I'm not bad at them) so I thought this would be right up my street.The positives:It really is a beautifully made game. It's very good quality and has lovely features like the sealed up envelopes with each section of clues and riddles in there which keeps the game going at a good pace.I've not seen jigsaws in a mystery "escape room" style game and this was a fabulous feature.The negativesWith a heavy heart I must score this 3/5. The story line and solving of clues is a bit mixed up and difficult to follow. I say this because I managed to correctly guess (and I say "guess" because I looked at the walkthrough on line afterwards and it appears I was walking in a totally different direction!) The shape and colour of Itzamna's eye. I also somehow fluked getting half of the final part of the puzzle right at the end.Having said that, if another one of the games in this line became available I would probably give it a go.Also the price of over £20 is a bit high because it's more competitively priced elsewhere.

Great game

This is an escape room game with a twist - using puzzles and riddles to discover which shape and colour gem you need to take to open the temple.The game starts with a large sheet of paper to make your first, large, puzzle on. It has newspaper articles to give you a little background and you have a notebook with different notes and information scattered though it.You first make the puzzle which has 2 holes in it for future envelopes in the game, and then use the information to determine which gems are not ones you are looking for. We could get the information from the puzzle/book but at this point it wasn't entirely clear to us what we needed to do now, or if we had completed this section. The next parts of the games are in sealed envelopes. Hints are hidden behind a red cover and a hint revealer comes with it so that you can reveal the clues when you are ready. We found that throughout the game the hints only revealed what we had already worked out. Solutions are not contained within the game, if you've used the hints for a puzzle and still aren't sure then you have to go to the website where a walkthrough is provided. This walk through is very clear and you are easily able to follow what you needed to do/check your understanding.There was one puzzle in particular (the first) where we knew what we thought we needed to do but some of the images didn't find were specific/clear enough for us to determine the information. (Sorry if this sounds vague, I don't want to spoil the game for anyone.)There is only one part you need to draw on and this sheet is contained on the website so you can reprint to play again or pass it on. The envelopes have a contents list to help you reset.This escape room is very jigsaw heavy with most puzzles related to it. There weren't lots of puzzles to complete this, lots of the time was used with making the jigsaw. We played this with 2 players and there probably isn't enough involved for more than 2 people to do.We enjoyed our experience, however we wouldn't buy more in the range and have enjoyed the mental aspect of other escape rooms more.The resources are of a good quality and well made and the website support for the game was very helpful.

First off, I should state my puzzle solving credentials! I am a champion cryptic crossword solver. I am a member of a puzzle hunt team who invariably score very well in the annual puzzle hunts, and I am also an experienced and successful armchair treasure hunter. I've yet to enter an escape room we didn't beat in the time. In other words, puzzles - especially tricky puzzles - are my main hobby.With that in mind, here's my take on this puzzle. It's basically unsolvable, even with the hints. Without the hints, it's completely incomprehensible.In puzzling, there is a type of puzzle which really annoys solvers - the GWIT, which stands for "guess what I'm thinking". In other words, unless you can guess what the puzzle setter was intending, you don't have a prayer of solving it through any means other than blind luck. This puzzle is the GWIT to end all GWITS.After assembling the three jigsaws, you are supposed to fit the two smaller puzzles into holes in the larger one, and work out from the clues how they are supposed to be oriented. But you get absolutely no instruction in how to do this - you are just supposed to work out from a massively complex book of vague clues some mysterious symbolism which reveals the secret. Well, after reading all the enclosed hint cards, I literally did not have a clue where to start. You are supposed to work out a colour and shape of a gem stone, which is somehow the key, but I defy anyone to do so. The hints refer to components of the game, and it isn't even obvious which components they are referring to - lord alone knows how you are supposed to solve this without the hints, as I found it impossible even with the hints. After a couple of hours of staring blindly at it, I decided life was too short.As above - I am a very experienced puzzle solver. I am very good at cracking logical puzzles. This is not a logical puzzle - it is a blind attempt to guess what was going through the head of the person who set it. I'd be very interested to read a solution to it to see if it was actually in any way fair, but I cannot find one online anywhere.One thing - this is apparently the second game in a series. It is possible that things make more sense if you have played the first game, but there was no indication that you had to have done so. But actually, I suspect it wouldn't make any difference. This is just a stupidly frustrating puzzle which makes little or no sense.Two stars because the jigsaws are quite fun, and the components are of reasonable quality, but seriously - if I can't solve this, 99% of the world will be even more baffled than I was. Save your money.