Break In: Area 51 – Game Review

Break In: Area 51 board game — Are you ready to break in to Area 51?

Congratulations! You’ve successfully completed your mission.

Unfortunately, you left your spaceship behind and the humans have captured it and are taking it apart in a place they call “Area 51”.

You better break in and get it back before it’s too late. Otherwise, you’ll never be able to return home.

What are you waiting for? Get going!

How to play Break In: Area 51

Break In: Area 51 is latest “escape room” type game from PlayMonster. But instead of being in a “room” that you need to figure out how to escape from, you have a container that you need to break in to. And in this case, it’s Area 51.

Similar to Break In: Alcatraz that our friend, Dane Trimble, reviewed a few months ago, in Break In: Area 51, the game box itself is the game!

When you remove the lid, you’ll find the game’s general instructions and various cards and components that will help you solve puzzles to open the rest of the box. The main goal is to get to the center of the box because that’s where your spaceship is being kept.

During the game, you’ll encounter special symbols. If the symbol doesn’t have a box line around them, you simply find the matching symbol in the deck of cards and flip it over. That card will reveal more information and clues to help you keep going further.

If the symbol does have a box around it, you’ll need to use one of the 8 double-sided “solution sticks” to check your answers.

When you think you’ve solved a puzzle, pick the stick with the matching boxed symbol at one end. The number refers to the slot in the side of the game box that you’ll insert the stick into. The color tells how far down to insert the stick. Once inserted, look through the cutout hole to see a card symbol. Then you’ll find that card and read it to progress.

Most puzzles also include an optional hint card that you can use if you get stuck. To reveal the hint, you’ll need to use the special “Quiss Ar-may knife” to read it.

Keep going until you accomplish your mission and get your spaceship back!

Can the whole family enjoy Break In: Area 51?

Break In: Area 51 is a cooperative game that’s fun to play with your family members. The recommended age is 12+, but since it’s a cooperative game, you don’t need to discourage younger kids from joining in the fun.

Of course, it’s also a game that you could play solo.

But we like being able to take advantage of the different ways each player thinks. One puzzle or challenge may stump some players while it’s clearly obvious to another player. And it’s nice to talk through the different approaches to a puzzle or to have someone to throw ideas off of.

Which is helpful because there’s a variety of puzzles in the game that challenge players to think creatively.

We’re quite impressed by the way the game is constructed so that you have to solve puzzles to get past each layer of the contraption. Little by little you’ll peel back the layers until you get to the central prize.

The walls of the game box that you’re peeling back sort of snap apart — allowing them also to snap back together again to reset the game.

We were also impressed with the puzzles included in the game and the cool solution sticks that you insert into the sides of the walls to see if you’ve solved certain puzzles correctly.

And we did end up using the hints a couple of times. So we’re happy that those are included — otherwise we would have just gotten frustrated.

Overall, it took us just under 2 hours to reach our final goal and we had fun the whole time — which is a great way to spend an evening working together.

How does Break In: Area 51 score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

As with many escape room type games, Break In: Area 51 is a one-and-done type of game. Once you’ve solved the puzzles, it won’t be any sort of challenge to play it again. But we like that the game isn’t destroyed upon playing it (as long as you open things carefully) so that others can give it a shot.