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I’m stuck at home for a while, so I decided to tackle an EXIT game solo: Polar Station. It took me 3 hours and 15 minutes, and I used 6 hint cards, which gave me a score of two stars. This is the lowest score I’ve seen in any EXIT game I’ve played so far.

Even though I solved some tricky puzzles on my own, there were at least three “C’mon, you’ve got to be kidding!” puzzles whose solutions I never would have gotten without the hint cards. One was a puzzle for which I didn’t realize I needed to have solved other riddles first; it looked self-contained with the materials I had. In another puzzle, I was forced to pull a hint card because I couldn’t tell a one from a nine in a card’s artwork.

It wasn’t all bad. I did have have several “AHA!” moments. But when I compare my first EXIT experience with my second one, and consider that Polar Station was supposed to be easier than Forbidden Castle, my enthusiasm for these games is waning.

Of course, I can’t tell if the score would have been better if other people were playing with me. Sometimes a different perspective is all you need.

I’ll play the last two I’ve got, hopefully with friends. After that, I think I’ll let my escape-room board-game experience rest for a good long while.