EXiT The Polar Station Review

Only Human Logic Will Save You!

The Polar Station is an Exit escape room puzzler brought to you by Kosmos. Just like live escape rooms these games do try to follow a theme to immerse you in the adventure. In the Polar Station, you are working at a research station in the North Pole when the evacuation alarm goes off and you get locked in. Out of the windows you can see your colleagues escaping in helicopters and try to do the same. But wait, the door is locked shut. In order to escape you must solve riddles and puzzles to prove you are still human, only then will you be able to release the door lock and escape to freedom. Fail to prove your worth and you will succumb to the dark alien fluid and never been seen again, well not in a human form anyway.

Get Out While You Still Can

Now, I’d love to tell you everything will be okay. You’ll survive! I’d love to show a few of the clues and explain some of the puzzles. But I’m afraid if I did, I’d have to kill you. I mean, I wouldn’t literally kill you, obviously, but I would have killed your fun. As with all escape games, whether in person, online or via a game box as in the case here, the fun really is in working out what the puzzles are and solving them for yourself. Does this make it a hard game to review… maybe. But here’s what I can share…

Game Components

Now the first and most important thing to note is that this is a one time play only game. You are going to cut up and destroy some of your components. For the price, when you consider how much you might spend participating in a live escape room challenge this is still very much value for money despite the one-time play. However, keep that in mind because if you’re a bit of a keep things nice and undamaged freak like me… it can be a bitter pill to swallow. It also means you can’t really replay or pass this game on.

The Exit series follows a similar pattern in terms of contents in the box. All the ones I’ve played do at least. You will see included a decoder of some sort, the style of which can vary, the one included in The Polar Station is pretty straightforward to be fair.

When you are solving puzzles you can use the decoder to enter the clues you find. At the top of the decoder is a symbol matching a puzzle within the game. There are then numbers on dials that you can move to match the clues you find. Different combinations will give you different answer numbers. Assuming you’ve solved the puzzle correctly that number will lead you to the correct answer card which in turn tells you what to grab next to start solving the next puzzle and so on and so on.

You will also receive a small puzzle booklet which I won’t go in to in too much detail about so as not to spoil your puzzle solving fun but essentially you’ll find some form of introduction to the theme and a variety of puzzles that you need to solve with the help of riddle cards, a keen eye and those ‘little grey cells’.

Generally there will be a front cover, don’t dismiss this just because. Then within the first page a letter explaining your dire situation, before looking to the second page which can help you cross reference some symbols when you think you’ve found the answer, as directed by an answer card.

Speaking of cards, within the game you get 3 sets of cards. It’s important not to look through these cards until either instructed to in the case of the riddle and answer cards or desperation takes over you, in the case of the help cards.

There are also a couple of other components within the box that you will need at various points in your puzzle solving adventure. Don’t forget you will also need to bring some scissors, a pen and some paper to the table to be able to solve this game.

When you have the components and everything you need laid out on the table in front of you, drink; snacks; brainfood; you are ready to start your timer.

Begin by reading the theme information, in The Polar Station this is the letter on the first page of your booklet that informs you what has happened to cause you to be trapped inside the station. Reveal the first riddle card and start solving.

Escaping The Cold

One of the things I love about Exit games is that you get a lot of puzzles within the gameplay. It really utilises the space available so you’re not overladen with components either meaning you can solve the game using a relatively small space making this a really portable game. My husband and I completed it in a bar with a cocktail whilst on holiday.

Exit games come with a difficulty rating out of 5 and this one is ranked at 3. Now, my husband and I do a lot of escape rooms and play a lot of these types of games and we found it HARD! So I feel like it should have been a 4, at least. That said, everyone has different skill sets and find some puzzles easier or harder than others so maybe this game just incorporated a lot of the puzzles styles that we’re not ‘as good’ at.

The puzzles weren’t impossible to solve but we had to use 1 solution, which as soon as we looked at it we kicked ourselves for using it and felt bad about our stupidity, but such is the life of an escape gamer. We also had to use a couple of clues to help us along because we were just wasting too much time staring at the table.

The game has a scoring system based on the time it takes you to finish and the amount of clue cards you use. With this in mind sometimes you’ve got to weigh up what’s more valuable to you, time or loss of points due to clue card usage. But here’s the frustrating thing, especially for us. You are given 3 clue cards. The first one is like a check that you have all the things you need to solve the riddle. We never needed this. We always had everything we needed. It felt like a waste to use this card and I didn’t want to lose points because of it. The second clue card gives you information about how to solve the riddle. This was more useful. If you’re still stuck, as we once were… sounds like a song that. Anyway… I digress, maybe, actually, just maybe, that was my problem… the mind wanders. As I was saying, if you’re still stuck you can use the solution card. Yep, the card of shame. I was defeated in this puzzle and I’ve had to have the game move me along lest I spend eternity at the table.

One final note to mention is that there is also an app. I mean there is literally an app for everything these days so, duh, of course there would be. Shrugs shoulders preparing to announce… I haven’t actually used the app! However, I hear it adds to the gameplay with a sound track, timer and hints/tips so it definitely could be worth checking out, especially if this is your first Exit game.

What do you win at the end… well your freedom, obviously, and, of course, the accolade of your peers. There is a little score card you can fill in to keep and when you meet a gaming group of friends who have also played the game you can compare scores.

Final Thoughts

Exit have now made a lot of these games yet, they are somehow managing very well to not repeat any of the puzzles or mechanisms. This means playing previous ones doesn’t really help you to become better as such but on a HUGE positive it means you can work your way through their catalogue of games and always be thrilled and surprised.

In The Polar Station particularly, we found the biggest skill we needed was the power of observation. Which, for a teacher and software architect we both seemed to be scarily lacking in some places. This game took us about 90 minutes to complete with 1 solution used and 3 clues.

Did we enjoy this game? Absolutely! Was this game frustrating? Indeed, yeah it was! Would we recommend it… I think we would. But one final thing to remember is… no one talks about Exit Club, I mean games. Don’t be ‘that dude’ that ruins a game for someone else by revealing spoilers and telling people how to solve the riddles. And most of all… enjoy!

That concludes our thoughts on EXiT: The Polar Station. Do you agree? Let us know your thoughts and tag us on social media @zatugames. To buy EXiT: The Polar Station today click here!