Base price: $50.
1+ players.
Play time: ~15 minutes per puzzle, and one puzzle per day for 24 days.
BGG Link
Buy on Amazon (via What’s Eric Playing?)
Logged plays: 1 

Full disclosure: A review copy of EXIT: The Silent Storm was provided by KOSMOS.

Yes, friends, it’s puzzle week again here at What’s Eric Playing?, both because that’s what I had photography available for and also because I finally went back to the Bay Area and was able to play a bunch of puzzle games with one of my best puzzle buds. It’s all coming together. That said, there are plenty of other games coming down the pipeline once I get around to writing them, so get hyped for those, too! They’re good ones, and not entirely games I’ve been able to play on BGA. I played some in-person stuff, too! But we got through an entire advent calendar, so let’s check that out!

In EXIT: The Silent Storm, you’re an employee in Santa’s South Pole workshop, where it always has been. No questions about that. Unfortunately, something has happened and now the entire workshop is in lockdown! What caused this? How are you going to fix it? And will you be able to do so by Christmas? That’s generally pretty critical.

Overall: 9 / 10

Overall, I think EXIT: The Silent Storm has been my favorite out of the various advent calendars! I mean, story-wise, maybe less so, but that’s just because these are all inherently extremely silly stories and I just got off of the narrative high of two more Postcurious titles, so my expectations might have been unfairly high, but what can you do. I am aware that reviewing an advent calendar in … April is a bit odd, as well, but y’all tolerate weirder things from me on a regular basis, so I appreciate your current and future patience.

The Silent Storm does demonstrate one thing that I’m consistently impressed by, and that’s that the Brands seemingly have not run out of puzzles yet. They’ve made, what, hundreds of puzzles across the EXIT games? And there are still unique and novel ones here? It’s fascinating and a bit intimidating in equal measure, honestly. I do think that they’re getting more comfortable with the advent calendar format, as well, though; more of the puzzles in this game play with the space provided than previous ones, and it demonstrates that the puzzle wheels keep turning for these two. I’m consistently impressed, but I think this will lead to even better returns for future advent calendars, assuming that KOSMOS keeps churning them out. I don’t really know how well they … sell, but I like them, and if you’re not building a business around appeasing some random guy with a blog, what even are you doing, you know?

I do think The Silent Storm does a nice thing that you’ll see across a lot of the EXIT advent calendars, which is give folks a variety of different ways to engage with it. If you have kids who aren’t as hyped about puzzles, there is always a short intro that they can read to stay engaged with the experience, and the puzzles are short enough that they won’t be waiting too long. They could even be the Cluemaster and be in charge of dispensing hints, should you need them (and given that one of our puzzles didn’t work, you might, though that might be because the box got roughhoused over several multi-hour flights). I think that the opportunities for full-family engagement, even with younger players, is part of where these particular EXITs shine, though I do miss the jigsaw puzzles and am hoping we get more of those this year. This is all to say that I think The Silent Storm is my personal favorite yet of the EXIT advent calendars (though I liked the prize from the first one I did the best), and if you’re looking for more puzzles, you want to get started on the holidays early, or you want to see what those tricky Brands are up to, I’d recommend checking it out!

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