The Intergalactic Race is the newest advent calendar game made by Exit. The game is set in space, where you are competing in a huge race where the winner gets to decide the Christmas celebrations for the whole galaxy. You are competing in said race with none other than Santa himself! There are 24 doors for the 24 days leading up to Christmas, like any normal advent calendar. However, unlike a normal advent calendar, only the first door is labelled and you have to find out the order of the other doors by solving the many puzzles. As to not spoil it as much as possible, I will only reference things you do on the first day.
What’s in the box:
In the box there is a help book, a story book, and a decoder table. In the story book there is an introduction that explains the race and introduces you to Santa, then, there is a page of story for each day, and on the other side there is something that you need to complete the day’s puzzle. The help book is brilliantly designed, there is a page for each day, with 2 clues and a solution. If you want the first clue, you fold the page up enough to see the first clue and a bit more if you want to see the second, and all the way if you want the solution. This is amazing and very well thought through, because you can get a clue without seeing the answer or skip straight to the answer if you don’t have enough time that day to do the whole puzzle. The last piece in the box is the decoder table. This is used to decode 3 numbers and convert them into directions to the next door.
Doors:
When you open the first door, you are greeted by 2 riddle cards, and a square piece of card. The goal of the first day is to work out what spaceship Santa has just bought so that the two of you can enter, and hopefully win, the Intergalactic Race. To do this you connect two of the cards to form letters which correspond to a specific spaceship on the back of the day 1 story page. The space ship you have just found has 3 coloured letters on it. These each correlate to a number on the phone number on one of the riddle cards which then goes into the decoder table. This might sound like a lot but it doesn’t feel like it when you do it yourself and after getting used to the format you will very quickly solve puzzles in the days to come. There is also another riddle card which has some information that you might need later on in December.
Decoder table:
The decoder table is another thing I love about this game and it is amazingly designed. Each day, you put 3 numbers into the table, when you flip it over, you get directions on where to go for the next door. For example it could tell you to go left, left, up. Each door has 3 symbols, when you get your directions, you also get 3 symbols which are the same as the ones on the next door. This is an ingenuitive way to check if you got the puzzle right without telling you the answer or you opening the wrong door and potentially spoiling things for yourself.
Complexity:
This advent calendar is complex to begin with because you don’t know how to approach the problems they give to you each day. However you get a lot better at this as the month progresses, and if you have done Exit games or escape rooms before you will quickly get the hang of it. The box does say it is a beginner’s difficulty but I think that label is misleading, it is still very difficult when you are not used to the format. When you get used to what you need to look out for, the puzzles become a lot easier, however that doesn’t mean that the rest of the calendar will be a piece of cake, expect to resort to the help book at least once on your 24 day gametime.
Conclusion:
This advent calendar, while not containing any chocolate, is still very fun and leaves you waiting for the next puzzle and instalment to the story. If you like puzzles and enjoy doing escape rooms then this is a worthwhile investment. While you can play this single player, it will be a lot more difficult and won’t be as fun, because a lot of the fun comes simply from each person attacking the puzzle from a different angle from one another. One person might not be of any help on one day but the next, they solve it almost single handedly. The beauty of the long gametime is that it gives each person their own time to shine. The whole calendar is wonderfully designed with beautiful art and genius components. All of this makes it an easy recommendation to anyone who likes puzzles and Christmas.
