Escape room games are a really interesting sub-genre, mixing together puzzling, point and click and narrative adventures. They’re some of the most atmospheric and engaging games you can add to your mobile gaming library. But which one should you play? …
Escape room games are a really interesting sub-genre, mixing together puzzling, point and click and narrative adventures. They’re some of the most atmospheric and engaging games you can add to your mobile gaming library. But which one should you play?
To answer that question, we’ve written this list of the ten best escape room games for mobile in 2021. Whether you’re looking for something gloomy and deep, a cheeky office-escape or something in between, we reckon there’s going to be something you love here.
Set in a series of mysterious locations, The Room games are pretty much the perfect example of escape room play. They’re tactile, super smart and create one of the creepiest atmospheres you’re ever going to experience on your phone.
There are a few to choose from, but we’d suggest playing them in order. Not just to get the complete story, but because they’re all really, really good. You’re going to need to engage your grey matter to get through though.
Plenty of the games on here are gloomy and dark. Agent A, on the other hand, dresses its room escapes with a brightly colored spying aesthetic. It really works too and stands to set the game apart in a crowded marketplace.
You’re solving puzzles to try and catch a criminal bent on destroying the world. The story is every bit as important as the head-scratching, and adds a frantic drive to your sleuthing. You don’t want the world to end, right?
This one came out in the wake of The Room’s success and wrapped some Dan Brown-style conspiracy into the mix. Leonardo DaVinci has disappeared and it’s up to you, his favoured apprentice, to figure out exactly where he’s ended up.
A lot of the puzzles here are inspired by things DaVinci actually designed or built, and there’s a pretty cool story pushing stuff along. Mystery, intrigue and contraptions? What more do you want?
This is the first of a couple of titles from Glitch Games that make it onto the list. In Veritas you volunteer for a science experiment and things quickly spin out of control. It asks you to question truth, which is a pretty big thing for a mobile game to do.
You’ve got a camera to aid you, as you do in most of Glitch’s games, and there are piles of super tough puzzles waiting for you to try and fathom them out.
A gorgeous looking game set in the ruins of a forgotten megalopolis. Inevitably, those ruins are filled with logic puzzles that you’re going to have to complete if you want to get out. It wouldn’t be much of an escape game without that, right?
There’s a hint guide and walkthrough built into the game, so if you get stuck you’re not going to have to go far for help. Throw in some other interesting mechanics and you’re left with a brilliant mix of the modern and the classic.
Another game that’s heavily inspired by The Room. This one sees you trying to open the titular birdcage. And no, it isn’t as simple as turning the key in the lock. That would make for an absolutely terrible game.
There are loads of cages to open, each of them wrapped in a series of fiendish puzzles. There’s a decent story as well, which will keep you pushing through some of the toughest head scratchers mobile gaming has to offer.
The Rusty Lake and Cube Escape games are all weird and wonderful. This one is a strange crossover between a game and a movie and sees you waking up in a bizarre room with no memory of how you got there.
There are shades of Twin Peaks here, and you’re going to be hooked from the first second to the last. Throw in multiple endings and you’ve got everything you need to really get lost in the escaping narrative.
This one has a smile on its face and a skip in its step. There’s still loads of puzzling to do, but instead of gloom and misery, The Office Quest is packed full of characters that are going to make you laugh out loud.
There’s plenty to do as well, as you plan and perfect your escape from the drudgery of the modern workplace. You’ll laugh, you’ll ponder and you’re going to have an absolutely brilliant time while you’re doing it all.
The second Glitch Games title on this list. This one sees you waking up in your father’s bunker. How did you get there? How can you get out? And are you going to be able to save your sister?
The puzzles here are brilliant, but it’s the story that really pushes everything along. It’s macabre and weird in all the right ways and it’s going to leave you at or close to the edge of whatever seat you play on.
You’re going to have to work your way through 18 different levels, solving loads of puzzles on the way, if you want to get to the end of this one. It looks gorgeous, with the snowy setting giving the game a style all of its own.
With hours and hours of game waiting for you, Faraway 3: Arctic Escape should be pretty high on your list of escape games to try. And don’t worry if you haven’t played the first two, this is a great jumping on point for the series.
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