Room 25 Board Game First Impressions

Room 25 can now be ticked off the ‘to play’ list.

Room 25 can now be added to the ‘shopping’ list.

Trapped in a prison in which each room has four doors but apparently no exit, the players must try to find Room 25, the supposed exit to this nightmare. But some amongst them might be guardians of the prison, waiting for the right moment to strike. In the cooperative game Room 25, not everyone wants to escape from imprisonment – but who is the traitor? Each turn, the player moves are preprogrammed, requiring discussion, negotiation – and possibly betrayal.

We played a 4 player game with 3 of us trying to escape the Prison and one player a guard trying to stop us. These roles are hidden so we don’t know who the guard is that is trying to stop us all from getting into Room 25 and shifting it off the board…

The Prison

The ‘Prison’ is made up of random tiles placed in a 5×5 square face down. The centre starting room is fixed and the only other information we have is that one of the corner rooms is Room 25.

Movement

Movement is pre-programmed. You select either one or two options and place them in the 1 and 2 slot on your player board. Then in turn order, each player takes one action starting with the first, then the second.

Actions

You have 4 options for actions.

Look – Secretly look at an orthogonally adjacent tile

Move – Move to an orthogonally adjacent tile

Push – Move another character in your room to an orthogonally adjacent room

Control – Slide a row of rooms adding the tile that is shifted off the end onto the other end of the square, Pac-Man style.

Programming

You program 2 of these which causes a lot of issues. Say you take Look and Move. the room you look into is deadly and now you have to move… but where?

Not all rooms are insta-kill. Most give you a get out such as making you have to leave it by your next turn or with your next action.

This causes havoc as imagine using the move as your first action, then the Guard pushes you into a room that requires your next action be to leave it or die… You programmed Look, you die… FUN!

This game has a few social deduction elements so check out my tips here.

Room 25 Summary

I enjoyed this one. Not sure about longevity, though although there are different game types and a Season 2 due out this year.

One to look for later.

Jesta ThaRogue