Defeating Clue Kingdom: The Dwarven Mines

Have you heard of Panic Room’s online fantasy themed escape room series? After having fun playing part one, I tried chapter 2, Clue Kingdom: The Dwarven Mines.

Is this game worth your money? Yes! But for all the spoiler-free details on what to expect and how to play, read my review below.

If you haven’t read my review of chapter one, The Enchanted Forest, make sure to read it first. In it, I’ll explain the overview theme of the entire game and what you can expect the first time you play.

Part 2 The Dwarven Mines continues from The Enchanted Forest, taking you deep into a Dwarven City as your group o heroes attempt to defeat an evil wizard.

How To Play

To start playing, one member of the team will need to buy the digital game. Upon purchase, they will be emailed a URL and a password. To start playing, everyone on the team will need to visit the website and enter the password.

It doesn’t matter if the number of players you have changed between the games, but ideally, you’d want the same people so everyone can experience the entire story.

You’ll also need everyone on a voice/video chat program like Discord or Zoom so you can discuss how to solve the problems.

Clue Kingdom: The Dwarven Mines (Spoiler Free Review)

In The Dwarven Mines, the story is easy to follow as there are several videos you can watch. As you trek into a city hidden under a mountain, the game continues to remain light and cheerful. So if you are searching for a game that isn’t stressful, it would be perfect.

Clue Kingdom will allow you to take as much time as you need, and at the bottom of every page, there are helpful clues to assist you. If you are ever truly stuck, you can also click the answer button to move onto the next challenge.

One significant change from chapter one is for every puzzle; you’ll need to translate the dwarven alphabet into English. The process does get a bit tiresome later in the game after done it over and over again.

While Panic Room labels Clue Kingdom: The Dwarven Mines as medium difficulty taking 1-2 hours, I would describe it more as between easy and medium.

My team of four people found it very straightforward how to tackle each step, with only the last stage taking us a few attempts to figure out. We never needed a clue, and I feel that even novices at escape rooms could tackle the puzzles inside.

One minor issue I had with the game design is the layout. You need to play the game on a computer, and if possible with two monitors. Each step has a similar layout where you’ll have the dwarven ruins you need to translate at the top, a middle section with instructions and clues on how to solve the puzzle, an area below that with a graphic that contains the puzzle, and at the bottom where you enter the answer.

This design is a problem as you need to see the instructions, puzzle and dwarven alphabet at once, but you can’t. Sure, you can scroll up and down, but it will waste tons of time.

My solution was to open the page as three separate tabs in Chrome to view all the information I needed at once.

Final Thoughts

Priced at £15 (approximately CAD 26) per team of up to 6 people, it is a very budget-friendly way to have fun with your friends. 

While chapter two was okay, I found it a bit too repetitive, but I’ll continue to chapter three as I enjoyed the fantasy theme.

Buy Clue Kingdom: The Dwarven Mines now.