Spending the evening solving an escape room with friends is a great night out, in my opinion. Even if the puzzles are pretty easy to solve, it’s still a fun experience. But how is a so called “escape room in a box” compared to the real thing? I recently gave a puzzle game from Puzzling Pursuits called Blackbrim a try and I wasn’t disappointed.

Blackbrim is a two-part puzzle game that takes place in Victorian era England. In the game, a small town’s police force was kidnapped and held hostage. In order to free them, you have to solve a series of puzzles that are broken into two parts. The first part leads you to where the police are being held, and the second helps you break them free.

Puzzling Pursuits says that the game takes people an average 2-4 hours, and I definitely fell in that range. You’re not timed, so you can obviously take as long or as short as you need to finish the game. All that matters is that you’re enjoying your time.

Solving the puzzles

In the guide you read before playing the actual game, they mention that you’ll need clues here and there and that’s definitely the case. There were some puzzles that I opened up and had absolutely no idea how to begin at first. But once I read a hint or two, it all made perfect sense and was easy to move forward to solve them.

Something that I appreciated was there were stages of hints. You could get a couple of hints and an explanation of how to solve the puzzle if you’re truly stumped. Though, I will say some of them pretty much give you the answer without outrightly saying what the answer is at times. So, if you’re the type to get let down by that, keep it in mind.

Setting the scene

Another thing I enjoyed about this game is that the company provides some great recommendations for establishing a nice mood for the game. They have a series of YouTube links with background music that you can play in the background, as well as a list of recipe ideas for drinks and food. This is such a simple touch, but I did end up following it the night I played and it made a huge different.

I ordered an afternoon tea service from a nearby restaurant, served up a gin-based cocktail and enjoyed some soothing music as I set up the game. Because I was taking my sweet time with everything, it did end up taking me around 3-4 hours to complete the entire thing. And I appreciated being able to do it in my own time and take breaks to make a new pot of tea or eat a finger sandwich.

Is it worth playing?

If you like playing games and solving riddles in escape rooms, I think you’ll really like this. It was challenge in a good way and you have the option to really make this a fun evening in. There are a few options on their website, so if Blackbrim doesn’t necessarily sound like the right fit for you, there are other games that may be more your speed.