Now, On Tour is a game that I’ve only played in app form but one that I’m interested in getting a physical copy of. It’s a roll and write game where you are trying to plan out the best tour for your band across the United States. You can stop once in each state and to do so, you are putting a number of the states and you are trying to create a string of states where the numbers are increasing. That doesn’t sound too bad, but you have limiting factors as to where you can place those numbers, because you have cards that will determine what region that you can place the numbers, north, south, east or west. Along with that, the numbers can be pretty random. They are off of two ten sided dice, so each round those dice are rolled and you’re placing, if it was a 5 and 8 a 58 and 85 on the board. You can get bonus points if you place one of those numbers in on the city from the card that determines the region and it’s part of your route.

So the app itself, how is it. The App is pretty slick, it allows you to zoom on on the game board, so it works on a phone, it does all the end game scoring for you, though I have noticed that be wrong once, though, only once in 50+ games that I’ve played of it. And it gives you the ability to mark your route between places so that you can keep track of where you want to go and what numbers you need there. So I’ve only played this in the stand alone form because that’s what it was when the app launched. I know that there is some online play, but I haven’t dug into that yet. I like it because it’s so fast to play solo.

I don’t have any major negatives for the game. For me the whole game works slick as an app, and possibly better as an app. Now, obviously I said I haven’t played this in person. But with the scoring of the game, figuring out your longest and best route is not going to be easy. Just because this game, you’re going to have a ton of different options, so while you might know how the end route goes or the start, there are going to be spots where you have similar numbers by each other and circled cities that will give you the bonus points, so figuring out your path through that might be tricky. Now, with that said, I do want to get a physical copy of the game because I like the game a lot so I want to play it with more people.

Overall, if you’re looking for a good time filling app, this one fits the bill. On Tour is an enjoyable game that plays fast on the app. I will say, though, if you don’t like luck based games, this might not be the game for you. The dice rolls, while they are the same for everyone, and the card flips, give this game a high amount or randomness, because you might get the perfect roll but not be able to place the number or numbers where you need based off of the region. Since this isn’t a free app, it’s probably worth noting that before you pick it up. Personally, I like it quite well and it’s one that while I won’t play it all the time, I do always come back to it.

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So what’s the crazy Peder talking about? Board Game Battles is going to be a new article series where I or Kristen or a guest poster, writes about two similar board games, compares and contrasts them, and then declares a winner. The games can be similar mechanics wise or theme wise, just something consistent across them that people compare them. The first match is Exit versus Unlock.

The Contenders:

Exit and Unlock are both escape room board games. You’ve probably heard of the trend of escape rooms around the country. These are rooms where you are “locked” in and maybe given a clue of where to start, but then, in a time limit, you need to figure out various puzzles and find clues to get the code or key to unlock the door and escape the escape room. The two games battling are like this, but instead of going to a physical location, paying a chunk of money, these all come in small boxes. I don’t really know what they weigh, I just needed it for the intro. Both of the games come in very small boxes with cards, maybe a book, or possibly a few other things. These are very small games, but there is plenty of game to each of them.

Exit

The Exit game that I’ve played had a booklet that you used for solving your puzzles. You’d look for clues, fold pages, and mess with the box and other odds and ends in the box to try and figure out the puzzles. If they got too tricky for you, you could flip over a card to get a hint depending on what puzzle you were working on. Then once you think you’ve solved the puzzle, you would match the characters of the key to the symbols on a wheel and that would give you a numerical clue. You’d then flip a card with that number and see if you got the right key or not. If you did it would give you more information to solve future puzzles, if you didn’t, you’d know to go back to the drawing board. Once you’ve gotten the whole thing completed you check your time and you get a ranking on how long it took you.

Unlock

Similar to Exit, however, Unlock doesn’t have a booklet and it has an application instead. The application is where you enter in the various keys and codes you need to throughout the game. And instead of counting up, the time counts down. So you’re trying to combine cards, look for clues, and make equipment and figure out the answers confidently. However, if you get it wrong, you have to press the got it wrong button in the app (if a card tells you to) and now you lose time. And suddenly your hour of time to solve everything is getting shorter faster. When the time runs out you “lose” technically, however, you can continue with the time counting up now and you still get a rating at the end.

Compare/Contrast

There are a few big differences. The first being the Exit games booklet. This means that you are all crowding around a booklet and that they can lay out some elaborate puzzles. This was sometimes put to good use in the Exit game that we played, and also allowed you to manipulate the pages to line things up differently to solve puzzles. Beyond that, the Exit games use the whole box. The one that we played, you had to use the box insert to figure out one of the puzzles and really you should have pulled it apart, but we were playing with a store copy, so we couldn’t do that. The other big thing is the timing. While the Exit game counts up and you can play for as long as you want, the Unlock game counts down. In my opinion, I like counting down a whole lot better. This means that you can’t just agonize over a puzzle for a long time, instead you’re feeling the crunch to come up with an answer and get the puzzle solved. And with that, then you are torn between taking a stab at something and solving it quickly or potentially losing time because you got it wrong. Finally, the app is different as well, there was actually an audio clue for the unlock game we were playing, and that was fun. It also has a nicer way of giving hints as you can do that through the app.

Both of them have interesting puzzles though, and they do try and develop a little bit of story as time goes by. For a very small game, both of them pack a ton of content in as well. each of them has a number of puzzles to solve and while you have to solve all of the puzzles to get out in the end, you don’t have to solve them in a certain order. Sometimes there are a couple that you can be working on.

The Results

So, who wins the first board game battle? I’m giving the victory to: Unlock

There are a few main reasons why I think unlock is better. First, while Unlock is more limited on the puzzles it can do, because it’s only using the cards, that makes it easier for more people to be engaged. Some people can be looking at other cards than other people, and you can spread them out more on the table. Even with three people playing the Exit game, it was hard for all of us to be at the book at one time, and that was what was really needed to get a lot of the puzzles completed. Secondly the timing makes a big difference in the game. Counting down and worrying about running out of time is way  more stressful than counting up, and it makes you want to work faster. That pressure is a good thing as it makes the game seem like it means more to complete. The app is also very nice as it allows them a bit more that they can do with puzzles, and it’s less fiddly to get a code entered in than for the Exit games. Finally, the Exit games are not reusable. Yes, I played a store copy, so that means I am technically wrong, but really the box/insert/booklet should all be mangled to a point that no one can play it again. Sure, with the unlock games we’ll play them once and not be able to play them again, but we can pass it on to someone else, that is not the case with the Exit games.

Final Thoughts

Both games are fun, and if you are fine dropping the money, about $15 into the Exit games for a one off experience, they are a lot of fun still. I think that the Unlock games just work a little bit better and are a bit better thought out in terms of a board game experience. Neither are bad though, and you aren’t guaranteed of having a good time, but if you like those puzzle sort of games or if you like escape rooms, you’ll likely enjoy either of these games.