Investigate the Tomb in Unlock! Short Adventures: The Awakening of the Mummy (Spoiler Free Review)

Is there really a living mummy lurking within the pyramid, or is it all just a fanciful tale? There’s only one way to find out: enter the tomb and search for the mummy yourself…

The Awakening of the Mummy is one of a new line of puzzle games from Space Cowboys, which takes the mechanics from their Unlock! games and condenses them down to 30-minute adventures.

Gameplay

The game is played with a deck of cards and a required app (once you have the app downloaded, you do not need to be connected to the internet to make it work).

Each card has a number or letter on its back and shows an image on the front. You keep the cards face-down until you discover within the game the number or letter corresponding to the card, and then you reveal it. Card numbers and letters are usually clearly visible within the artwork on certain cards, but sometimes they will be hidden and you need to search for them.

There are four types of cards in the game. Grey cards, which tend to be locations or places, red or blue cards whose numbers can be combined together to try to use the items depicted on them (if the resulting number matches the number of a card in the deck, you reveal it), and green cards. Green cards are some kind of machine or puzzle, and you must type its number into the app, and you then interact with the puzzle on the app.

The app also deals with the hint system. If you need a hint, you type in the card number you need help with. The hint system will offer you two clues and then the solution. The app also tracks your time. At the end of the game, you get a final score based on your time and the number of clues you used.

Review

Unlock! Short Adventures bring something new to the table that you can’t really find in other tabletop escape room games: a bite-sized adventure. Most puzzle games take at least one hour to complete, oftentimes more — it’s a nice change to find one that only asks for around 30 minutes to play. It’s easier to fit one of these short adventures into a game night, or even a lunch break. The limited number of components in play also means you could easily play one of these at a restaurant.

The Awakening of the Mummy was a fun, light adventure. The puzzles were not too difficult, requiring us to only ask for one hint. In fact, given that this is rated the medium level of difficulty in the Short Adventures line, it seems likely that the easier ones are probably best played with and by children.

There are some fun and clever ways the app is integrated into the game, and it definitely helps to set the atmosphere when playing with the soundtrack. Interacting with some of the puzzles directly on the app feels like it makes the line a bit fuzzy between board game and app game, and probably means you’ll want to play with a smaller group to ensure everyone can easily see the screen during these moments. However, you probably only want to play this with 2-3 people anyway, given the easier nature of the puzzles as well as the number of puzzles you’re actually playing with at any one time. The compact size also makes this an excellent solo experience.

The Awakening of the Mummy is fun, fast, and a nice difficulty if you’re looking for something not too challenging. The length is also ideal for someone interested in trying a puzzle game or if you want to explore the mechanics of the Unlock! series, as the game plays the same, only shortened. We hope to see more of these short adventures and appreciate the more casual approach to the genre.

Pros: Game length, app is easy to use and sets the atmosphere nicely

Cons: Should only be played with a small group or solo, solving puzzles directly on the app

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of these games.