Escape room card games are traditional game decks that bring escape room excitement into your living room. These games use the puzzle-solving dynamics from actual escape rooms in a card format that tests players’ logic and reasoning skills. As with physical escape rooms, each game presents a mission or a goal that players must achieve by decrypting codes and gathering clues. With the vibrant storytelling and mental challenges of popular escape motifs adapted in a portable card game format, you can turn escape room fun into a workplace activity or a family game night adventure without leaving the house.
These games are similar to escape room board games, and are an alternative to escape rooms.
This list includes:
- virtual escape room card games
- escape room card games for kids
- escape room card games for adults
Here is the list!
List of 20 Best Escape Room Card Games
1. Exit: Kidnapped in Fortune City
Crime rules the streets of frontier town Fortune City. With the sheriff taken by kidnappers, your team is hot on the trail of the culprits. Your investigation will take you through each locale along the strip as you search for clues to the sheriff’s whereabouts. You must interview townsfolk to solve the mystery and bring the varmints to justice, but time is short, and you have only your powers of deduction to lead you.
This escape game card title lets you choose the order of your adventure, with each location leading you to characters who can help you solve the crime. Advanced players will love the immersive Old West setting and imagery, with teams of up to four players on deck for a 60- to 120-minute crime-solving caper.
Learn more about Exit: Kidnapped in Fortune City.
2. Exit: Cemetery of the Knight
Cemetery of the Knight presents a quest for a fabled ruby in the tomb of Sir Reginald Wreston. You can only unseal the tomb when the moon’s angle is just right, a phenomenon that only happens once every 87 years. Your team must set out on a perilous journey to open the crypt before the moment is gone, and all hope disappears for another 87 years!
Up to four players aged 12 and up can combine their strategic skills to reach the treasure in this card-based adventure for intermediate gamers. The deck includes clue cards to help guide players past the more difficult puzzles.
Learn more about Exit: Cemetery of the Knight.
3. Unlock! Heroic Adventures
This multipack includes three heart-pounding hour-long games that capture the exhilaration of real escape rooms. The Nautilus Trap pits players against a sea monster, with oxygen levels running dangerously low. The House on the Hill presents a haunted mansion and a curse that players must break. Captain Smith’s valuable bounty is on the line in the Tonopal Treasures. Strategy is key as escape artists work their way through a 60-card deck of puzzles, riddles, and cryptic challenges that will test their brain power.
These games function best with teams of up to six players, aged ten and older. To accommodate less skilled players, you can adjust the difficulty level of each as needed.
Learn more about Unlock! Mystery Adventures.
4. There’s Been a Murder
You can put your detective skills to work to solve a murder in a game where the murderer is one of the players. This game combines the puzzle play of an escape room, the strategy of Werewolf, and a classic Clue-like storyline. Players use cooperative sleuthing and deductive reasoning to figure out who has the murderer card before the killer makes their escape. Though included with family games, There’s Been a Murder comes with an age recommendation of 14 years and up, making it a better fit among escape room card games for adults and teens.
Learn more about There’s Been a Murder.
5. Deckscape: Test Time
The diabolical Dr. Thyme has sealed you and your friends in a mysterious room, leaving you to figure the way out. But, unfortunately, the clock is ticking, and escape depends on your combined cleverness and ingenuity to decrypt the doctor’s riddles before time runs out.
This fast-paced deck is ideal for teams of up to six players, ages 12 years and up, although solo players can enjoy the game. Hints printed on the back of each card will help keep gameplay flowing during the more difficult challenges.
Learn more about Deckscape: Test Time.
6. Exit: Shadow Over Middle Earth
Lord of the Rings fans will flip for this licensed escape room card game, with a storyline taking place in the high-fantasy world of J.R.R. Tolkien. Frodo and his crew embark on their journey to Mordor on a quest to destroy the Ring of Power. But the Wizard Gandalf has left encrypted tasks for the Fellowship to complete, and time is running out. Even players without knowledge of the stories will enjoy exciting escape room-style gameplay and collaborating to solve puzzles with a fellowship of their own!
Learn more about Exit: Shadow Over Middle Earth.
7. Doctor Esker’s Notebook
A notebook filled with handwritten puzzles was the only thing Doctor Esker left behind when he disappeared, and none who have tried have solved them. Players must solve these diabolical challenges. This game features nine interconnected puzzles for players to solve, spread out over a 73-card deck. Though gameplay works in an escape room fashion, there is no narrative to follow, which means these cards also work separately as individual challenges.
Learn more about Doctor Esker’s Notebook.
8. Unlock! Star Wars Escape Room Card Game
Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the most popular science fiction franchise in the world became an escape room card game! This multipack includes three Star Wars-themed adventures featuring droids, ships, and intergalactic creatures for immersive escape game fun. Teams of up to six players take on the roles of smugglers, imperial agents, and rebels as they strategize their way across the empire.
Adding a digital element to the experience, players can download a companion app to expand gameplay and request hints if their excursions run aground.
Learn more about Unlock! Star Wars Escape Room Card Game.
9. Back to the Future: A Letter from the Past
Players become Marty McFly in this escape room card game version of the popular Back to the Future film franchise. The game tells an entirely new story that sends Marty traveling back in time to save Doc Brown after receiving a cryptic letter. With only 90 minutes to complete the mission, plus a time decoder and sports almanac to help solve puzzles along the way, players are in for a fast-paced escape game that turns time travel into child’s play.
Learn more about Back to the Future: A Letter From the Past.
10. Unlock! Squeek and Sausage
This cartoonish escape room card game centers around a plot to destroy the world, set in motion by the evil Professor Noside. Only you can disrupt his plan, but first, you must work your way out of his devious trap. The whimsical illustrations make this title an ideal 60-minute game night adventure for family and friends to enjoy together. The target audience includes players aged ten and up. With tutorial cards included to help clarify the rules, this playful title stands out among the Unlock! collection of escape room card games for kids.
Learn more about Unlock! Squeek and Sausage.
11. Exit: Dead Man on the Orient Express
Taking its cues from the popular Agatha Christie novel, Dead Man on the Orient Express puts players on a train with a murder mystery to solve. The murderer could be any suspect, and only the truly clever can work their way through the riddles to solve the mystery before the train pulls into the station.
Fans of cozy mysteries will find Dead Man on the Orient Express familiar. Teams of up to four players can assume detective roles to determine the killer’s identity, and the relatively high difficulty level will provide enough twists to keep the gameplay challenging.
Learn more about Exit: Dead Man on the Orient Express.
12. Unlock! Mythic Adventures
Players with a taste for fantasy tales will adore Unlock! Mythic Adventures. Three separate games bring a variety of escape room activities to the table, the Greek epic In the Clutches of Hades, the Looney Tune antics of Professor Noside’s Animal-O-Matic, and a global voyage in the Jules Verne-themed Around the World in 80 Minutes. Each game accommodates up to six players for 60 minutes of antics and adventures with mind-bending puzzle-solving action at every turn.
Learn more about Unlock! Mythic Adventures.
13. Exit: The Secret Lab
When you and your friends volunteered for a secret medical study, you never realized you would be in for an escape adventure. But now you are all trapped in the facility with only a mysterious notebook and a cryptic disk to guide you. You have one hour to decode the riddles and solve the puzzles that lead to your escape.
With a moderate difficulty rating, this escape room card game offers teams of up to four players challenging science-themed gameplay for home-based escape room adventures.
Learn more about Exit: The Secret Lab.
14. Unlock! Timeless Adventures
Players can enjoy a trio of thrilling escape room card games in this variety of adventures, all geared toward players ten years and older. You can stop the dastardly Professor Noside from wreaking havoc at the circus in the Noside Show, race thieves to the site of a jewel heist in Arsene Lupin and the Great White Diamond, and restore historical order to a broken timeline in Lost in the Timewarp!
Each game takes approximately 60 minutes to complete, and all three titles contain enough surprises to keep players on their toes.
Learn more about Unlock! Timeless Adventures.
15. Exit: The House of Riddles
After arriving at an abandoned mansion, you and your team of ace sleuths become locked inside, with nothing but your wits to help you escape. The crew will need to work together to crack the codes and figure out a path to freedom before the timer runs down and seals your doom. Try not to let the screams you hear distract you!
The low difficulty rating for The House of Riddles makes this title an excellent introduction to escape room dynamics for novice players. Experienced teams may find the 60- to 120-minute time limit too generous, which might make this a great warm-up to a more complex escape room card game.
Learn more about Exit: The House of Riddles.
16. Unlock! Tombstone Express
Teams can return to the Wild West for this steam-powered escape room card game excursion. Players must safely escort a train filled with precious cargo to its destination. Great rewards await if you can complete the journey without meeting an untimely and unfortunate fate.
Up to six players can wrangle clues to solve the puzzles and guide the Tombstone Express safely to the station. The story-based games include visual cues hidden in scenes on the cards for additional challenges.
Learn more about Unlock! Tombstone Express.
17. Exit: The Pharoah’s Tomb
As part of a spectacular vacation, your crew has trekked to the Valley of the Kings. But as you wander, you become separated from the group and find yourselves trapped in a chamber with a notebook and a mysterious disk as your only tools to escape. But, of course, you have your brain power too. Good thing you have a team to help you solve the riddles and find your way out.
Teams of up to four players can immerse themselves in this ancient Egyptian escape room game. With a relatively high difficulty level of four out of five, it will take all the cleverness you can muster to make it through in the 60- to 120-minute time limit.
Learn more about Exit: The Pharoah’s Tomb.
18. Unlock! Exotic Adventures
A variety of clever escape room card games await eager teams in this boxed collection. In Night of the Boogeymen, a child’s dreams are under the influence of a sinister figure. Scheherazade’s Last Tale finds players helping the fabled storyteller escape from an evil sultan. And Expedition: Challenger takes teams into the heart of dinosaur country in a mission to save a wayward professor.
These games include access to a free app that helps guide gameplay and brings a digital dimension that converts them into virtual escape room card games. Each game accommodates teams of up to six players and lasts an average of 60 minutes.
Learn more about Unlock! Exotic Adventures.
19. Exit: The Enchanted Forest
A walk through the woods becomes a mystical fairytale fantasy in The Enchanted Forest. Once you cross the bridge, the world behind you disappears, and imaginary characters and creatures become all too real. Your quest to solve the riddles will lead you out of the woods.
This title is a great escape room card game for beginners, filled with fun imagery and a low difficulty rating of two out of five. A group of up to four new players can get their bearings on how escape games work, while a team of younger players may find the challenge difficult enough for a fulfilling game night adventure.
Learn more about Exit: The Enchanted Forest.
20. Exit: The Polar Station
Chills and thrills await adventurous teams in The Polar Station, a deep freeze escape room card game that takes players to the North Pole. Your research into climate change has brought you to the top of the world, with no information regarding your fellow research teams’s former findings. As your colleagues flee the site and head for warmer climes, you find yourself locked in an abandoned laboratory as the temperature drops. Now you must uncover the codes to unlock the doors and free yourself before it is too late.
The Polar Station is a title for advanced players of up to four players to tackle. Though the theme is family-friendly, the recommended age limit of this game is 12 years and up. However, older children and adults can take up the task of retreating from the arctic desert in the 60-minute time limit.
Learn more about Exit: The Polar Station.
Conclusion
By simplifying escape rooms into a traditional game-based adventure format, escape room card games let players focus on the puzzle-solving aspects without the theatrical distractions included in physical escape rooms. This adaptation makes escape room card games ideal for all audiences and environments. Gamers with escape room experience can enjoy familiar mental challenges, while players who are new to escape room dynamics can learn the format in a relaxed environment. With a bit of practice, novice players may find themselves ready to tackle an actual escape room!
Next, check out this list of escape room books and these escape games on iPad.
FAQ: Escape room card games
Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about escape room card games.
What are escape room card games?
Escape room card games are gaming decks that capture the escape room excitement in a traditional game-playing format. Teams work to solve puzzles and decrypt clues to figure out their path to escape while the time ticks down. In addition, some games include apps that provide an added dimension of gameplay, with hints and tutorials available to help novice players.
What are some good escape room card games for teams?
Some good escape room card games for teams are Unlock! Star Wars Escape Room Card Game, which applies escape room logic to the popular space opera franchise, Exit: Shadow Over Middle Earth, a hobbit-themed card game that brings the fellowshipping adventures to the home gaming space, and Deckscape: Test Time, a time-traveling excursion that gets a deluxe escape room treatment.
How do you play escape room card games?
To play escape room card games, players follow rules that resemble actual escape rooms. As in physical escape games, each card game centers around an adventurous theme, like an investigation at a haunted house or a jewel heist in progress. With a 60- to 120-minute time limit to find answers to the puzzles shown on the cards, players must combine their brain power to collaborate on solutions that lead them to their escape or help them achieve their goal.