With all of their Indiana Jones-related releases, Funko Games is certainly setting up to make this summer one full of Indy adventures. We’ve previously played Something Wild! Indiana Jones and Indiana Jones: Throw Me the Idol! This time we were intrigued by the new Indiana Jones: Cryptic game, an escape room-style game centered around the original Indiana Jones Trilogy. Like with the other games, Funko Games was nice enough to send us a copy so that we could play and review it.
What Is Indiana Jones: Cryptic?
Indiana Jones: Cryptic is an escape room-style game based on the first three Indiana Jones movies with three different scenarios that are aimed at 1+ players ages 10+ and takes about 60-90 minutes to play. Each game includes a variety of puzzles as well as a series of maps to navigate through. The game has an MSRP of $34.99.
Indiana Jones: Cryptic Components
Since this game is an escape room by design, I’m going to be careful to show the pieces in a way that doesn’t truly create spoilers. Indiana Jones: Cryptic includes the following:
- 3 Adventure Envelopes
- 2 Expo Markers
- 1 Adventure Journal
- 1 Clear Screen
- 1 Plastic Peg
- 16 1 Point Coins
- 4 10 Point Coins
- 1 Instruction Book
I loved the look of the pieces the moment that I saw them. The Adventure Envelopes are made to look like packaged bundles complete with stamps matching the adventure locations and Indy’s full name and mailing address on them. The Adventure Envelopes include Pathway Cards and other puzzle-style pieces that can be used in their adventure. The Adventure Journal reminds me of the Grail Diary from the third movie and is used to navigate your adventure.
The Expo Markers and Clear Screen are meant to be used together for taking notes and solving the Pathway Card scenarios. There’s also a Plastic Peg, Cardboard Point Coins, and an Instruction Booklet. The booklet gives an overview of the different parts of the adventure and gives good diagrams to help understand how to play.
Overall, I love the components. Some bits are playing card thickness and others make use of thicker cardboard. The details on all the pieces are lovely and fans will really love the nostalgia that they kick up.
How to Play Indiana Jones: Cryptic
I’m going to be careful about what pictures I show to try not to spoil the puzzles. Each adventure is divided into two parts: the Puzzle and the Pathways. Any pictures featured will include parts of the first adventure, Covenant of Raiders.
Goal
The goal of Indiana Jones: Cryptic is to solve a series of Puzzles and Pathways Challenges in order to navigate through Indy’s adventures. The more successful you are, the more Coins you earn as a meter of how successful you were.
Setup
There isn’t really a lot to setup in this game, but prepping takes just a few steps:
- Select an Adventure Envelope and find the place in the Adventure Journal where the directions start.
- Set out Clear Screen, Expo Markers, Coins, and Plastic Peg where they can be reached.
- Open the Envelope and follow the directions in the Adventure Journal.
That’s honestly all you need to do to get started.
Gameplay
Puzzles
The first thing Players are faced with is a Puzzle. Like in many escape rooms, there’s a variety of puzzles each more challenging than the next. The goal of each puzzle is to come away with a one- or two-word answer that can be checked in the back of the book in the Hint and Answer Index in the Adventure Journal. The Answers and Hints for the puzzles are assigned codewords to help find them in the Index. This makes it easy to continue the scenarios without spoiling things that are yet to come which I really like.
Each Puzzle starts with taking a number of Coins. When you think you have the right answer, simply check your solution and award yourself the correct number of Coins based on how you did. In some Puzzles, you might be asked to try again if you got a wrong answer, but you’ll lose some coins. If you’re stuck, you can look up a Hint, but Hints do cause you to lose coins. Coins left over after the solution are not lost via additional Puzzles or Pathways and are added to your final score.
Pathways
The Pathway Challenges allow you to reenact key scenes from the movies. To set up a Pathway, place the Clear Screen on the correct Pathway Card, and line them up perfectly. Then find the white start dot and mark it on the Clear Screen with an Expo Marker. Remove the Clear Screen and set it side-by-side with the Pathway Card at least one Expo Marker length away. Take the number of Coins indicated.
Now, draw a Path with the Marker while avoiding certain obstacles and reaching others as the scenario describes. You may erase sections to redraw and adjust if needed. The following scenarios may come up:
Interacting with a Goal: Make an X in Black Marker. As long as that X falls in the Green area of the Solution, you succeed.
Action Tools: Draw in Red using a provided Action Tool. Trace the entire red side you are using. If the tool has two sides, you may choose either. Some scenarios may list how many times you can use the Action Tool. You can use these to Jump and across specific sections, Draw using only the Action Tool, or Hit by making branches off the path like you are throwing an object.
When you think you are done, flip the Pathway Card over, place the Clear Screen on it, and compare your results with the scoring in the Key at the back of the Journal. You will lose or keep Coins based on your accuracy. Coins left over after the solution are not lost via additional Puzzles or Pathways and are added to your final score.
Game End
At the end of the Adventure, you’ll tally up all of your coins and compare how you did against the rankings.
Why You Should Play Indiana Jones: Cryptic
If you like escape rooms and you like Indiana Jones, this should be an easy choice for you. Overall, this is a well-put-together game with lots of details that fans will notice and appreciate.
The Puzzles have some nice variety and go up in challenge levels as do the Pathways. I love that the Pathways feature gives this game its own unique edge and it’s fun to reenact scenes from the movies that I grew up on. I will say that I’m not sure a group of 10-year-olds could do this on their own though. As the puzzles got a little trickier, my 12-year-old grew more impatient while my husband sorted them out the best, and that seemed to carry on to him rushing into the Pathways section, which he had started off much better at. This difficulty jump also hit when the Pathways turned into less straight lines and more curvy lines, and while we solved all of the puzzles, we lost more points in the back half of the Pathways. Those Pathways can be tricky, as you really need to look at an area, spatially orient it, and then recreate it with nothing more than that first dot for guidance. I do think we can score higher the second time we play though. As for our nine-year-old, he got more bored with the story aspect and lost patience with everything, although he did like helping with the Pathways. I certainly recommend taking your time on them and letting more than one person eye them. Also, make sure the people working in it are sitting on the same side of the table so that saying things like “move a little more away” makes more sense.
The components are solidly made and lovely franchise tributes, and they line up well with the game price point. This is one of those things I love about Funko Games; when they make tie-in games, their products tend to be tributes to the fans and not just over-glorified skin covers of preexisting games. I will note that while being familiar with the movies lets you appreciate little details, you don’t have to be a line-dropping hardcore fan to play or enjoy it.
One thing to note is that after the game is played, there’s no replayability among those who have solved things, of course. However, there are three adventures in this game, and with an MSRP of $34.99 that’s a little over $10 for each game, and entertainment-wise you’re lucky if you can get a single movie ticket for that. This game takes 60-90 minutes to play and most 60-minute escape rooms in our area start at $25 a person for that much time, so as a fun date night in, family game night at home, or cool activity night with friends, this is a pretty fair price in perspective. You can find out where to get your own copy here.
