Break Free from Ravensburger is a fast paced interactive game best suited to ages 6+. It involves chaining yourself up in a handcuff which is attached via a chain to other players and then being the first to unpick the lock and Break Free.
The Break Free game pieces consists of 4 special padlocks with chains, 12 unique locking puzzles that you insert in the to base of the handcuff – 4 of each level, 4 lockpicks and 12 tokens. To play the game all players (can be played by 1 to 4 at a time) put one of the puzzle pieces (green for easy, yellow for a bit harder and red for tricky) into their padlock then attach the padlock to their wrist. You clip all the ends of the chains together and are then ready to begin.
The idea is in each round, the first player to unpick their lock, takes the highest numbered token, the next player takes the next highest token and so forth. So the first round you all start with green which is the easiest and work upwards.
What I really liked about this game is that all four of us could join in, mummy, daddy, 10yr old and 8yr old. We were really were all at equals trying to unpick the locks and although sometimes you though you got the knack, in the next round you would struggle again.
It certainly got competitive with everyone eager to unlock their padlocks and be the first!
Another aspect that I liked about this Ravensburger Break Free game is that within each level, all the lock puzzles have different sequences within them, so if someone works out a quick way to turn their pick to make their way through the lock, then if you play the game again and mix the pieces up, they are likely to have a different route to follow to unpick the lock which keeps everyone on their toes.
Even though the 8yr old got a little frustrated on the harder levels at times, you can see he is thrilled here when he beat his older sister. The kids also loved it when daddy got stuck sometimes just going round in circles and not actually unlocking his handcuff so they had to help unpick his lock at the end – of course mummy succeeded in coming in the top two places in most rounds!
Break Free by Ravensburger is a fun family game that all ages can join in or the kids can just play alone. My boy even enjoyed having a go on his own although I think he was trying to hone his unpicking technique for future rounds. We like this with it’s fast paced competitiveness and the excitement it brings – a good one to add to Santa’s list I think!
All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the product in order to write an honest review.
