Escape Room: a free 3D escape room game online

Escape Room is a free 3D escape room game you can play online, right in your browser. Great-Aunt Ada is the family's puzzle maker, and she has turned her house into five locked rooms. The way out of each one is hidden somewhere inside: a key at the back of a drawer, a code on a painting, a lock that only opens when you follow the route on an old sea chart. Look around, pick things up, read every note and put the clues together to escape.

It plays like a classic point and click escape game, but in real 3D. Drag to look around the room, tap anything to look closer, and keep what you find in your bag. Then use it on the room or on another item: wind a stopped clock, tempt a sleepy cat off a wooden spoon, wire up an old power box. Every puzzle is fair: all the clues are in the room, nothing is a wild guess, and you can never get stuck for good.

Each room takes about 10 to 20 minutes, and there's no time limit. If you get stuck, every step has three hints, from a gentle nudge to the answer. Escape without the answer hints and inside the par time to win all three stars, then play again to beat your best time. There's nothing to download and no sign-up, it runs on computers, Chromebooks, tablets and phones held sideways, and your progress saves by itself, even halfway through a room.

The rooms open one after another, and each one is a little trickier than the last. Every room has its own story, its own sounds and music, and its own way out. No spoilers here: just what you'll find.

1. Aunt Ada's Study: a gentle first escape room

A cosy study with green striped walls, a writing desk under the window, a stopped grandfather clock and a padlocked sea chest. Ada's letter on the desk starts the hunt. It's the easiest room, made for learning how everything works: look closer, open drawers, combine two things and set a clock.

2. The Sunny Kitchen: a kitchen escape room

Breakfast time at Ada's. The back door is locked, the kettle has lost its lead, a cat is fast asleep on the bench and a carrot cake waits in the oven. Steam, a recipe card and the old stove's knobs all have something to tell you.

3. The Garden Shed: get the power back on

A dim, dusty shed with one small window. Dig in the planter, open the toolbox, find the missing fuse and wire up the power box, so the lamp finally shows you the dartboard in the dark corner. Bram's darts hold the code to his tool chest.

4. The Lighthouse: a lighthouse escape room at sunset

Uncle Bram's keeper's room at the top of the lighthouse, with the sun going down over the sea. Follow the route on his sea chart, watch a light blinking far out at sea through brass binoculars, read it with a Morse code table and tune his old radio.

5. Ada's Workshop: an attic escape room finale

The attic where every one of Ada's puzzles was born: closed shutters, a travelling case, a tall cabinet full of puzzle boxes, three mirrors and a crystal ball. Let the morning sun in and steer it with the mirrors to find the code for the last door.

The puzzles are the kind you'd find in a real escape room, and each clue leads to the next. Some are about spotting things, some about thinking, and a few are about clever hands. Here are the kinds of puzzles in the game (without the answers):

• Number padlocks, a letter lock and a keypad, with their codes hidden around the room
• A compass lock that opens with directions: north, east, south and west
• Clock hands to set to just the right time
• Stove knobs to turn like the drawings on a recipe card
• Morse code blinking far out at sea, and an old radio dial to tune
• Loose wires to put back on the right screws
• A sliding picture puzzle on one of Ada's puzzle boxes
• Three mirrors to turn, so a sunbeam bounces from one to the next
• Bronze statues to press in the right order
• Things to combine, like the two halves of a torn photo
• Things to use on the room: a winding key, a trowel, a fuse, a jug of milk
• Secrets in drawers, cupboards, chests, a cake and even under a sleeping cat

In a real escape room, a team is locked in a themed room and usually has about an hour to get out. The room is full of clues: numbers on a painting, a note with a riddle, a key at the bottom of a drawer. Each clue opens a lock, the lock holds the next clue, and the last one opens the door.

An online escape room works the same way, just on a screen. In Escape Room you stand in the middle of a room and turn to look at each wall. Tap a desk, a chest or a cupboard to step up to it, and tap Back to step away. Pick up anything useful, read every note, then use what you found where it fits. When a lock needs a code, tap it and dial the code in.

You play on your own, at your own pace. There's no time limit: the clock only counts up for your best time and the third star. Most players escape a room in 10 to 20 minutes, so all five rooms make a nice evening of puzzles.

Plenty of escape room games online are spooky. This one isn't. Escape Room is a cozy mystery about a great-aunt who loves puzzles: sunny windows, a sleepy cat, the smell of fresh bread and old photos. There are no jump scares, no monsters, no gore and no dark corridors.

That makes it a good escape room game for kids, teens, parents and grandparents alike. Children who read well can play on their own, and younger ones enjoy it with a grown-up. It's a fun one to solve together on one screen: one person taps, everyone else spots clues.