The game is won when all the pawns have exited using the doors of their color before the timer runs out.

I’ve played several times, inching my way up to the full game, and I haven’t yet won without cheating. If there’s one small issue with Magic Maze, it’s that the group’s focus is so intense on the characters, that no one is looking to see if time has run out. Well a simple set of four characters drawn of the archetypes of the RPG world – a dwarf, an elf, a sorcerer and a barbarian. What’s funnier is in never wanting the ire of the Pawn of Passive Aggression, you’ll watch the board so intensely you’re more likely to miss your turn to move the characters. It’s not entirely hopeless though as you do have ways to replenish lost time and communicate in a more civilised manner.The basic rules of the game are simple, but it can be difficult for players to wrap their minds around the novelty of the game because it is so unlike other games. Simply check the number in the bottom corner of each tile, starting with scenario’s 1-7 for the beginners (initiation) campaign, shuffle them and place them face-down. They have somehow lost their weapons and equipment, so, obviously, they decide to rob the local mall. I’ve played it four players with two separate groups and the most enthusiastic anyone has been so far is to say, ‘I don’t know – it’s okay!

If it makes you feel better, there are 17 Scenarios in the base game of Magic Maze; my group has managed to get up to (but not beat) Scenario 6. However, if the Sand Timer runs out at any moment during gameplay, the Guards have rumbled your schemes and it’s off to jail, or a dungeon, or the guillotine.Codenames at its best gives you something to talk about even if it does require long periods of intense cogitation in place of the conversation for which you might have been hoping. There’s someone, somewhere, with a spreadsheet showing an itinerary and schedule for every last microsecond of the heist. All of the tiles will have arrows telling you where you can move the characters, and most will also have a special action. They mention that it's great fun, an unbelievably social game, and that the single player mode is really fun. I think a theme similar to the one used in Professor Evil and the Citadel of Time would have worked well here.

Magic Maze is simple and straightforward enough for most audiences, and it’s just plain fun, but it won’t be for everyone. Just in front of them; no using it to signal that you want them to use an action (if their Action Tile has more than one). I will say, though, that there seems to be more for players to do and more careful planning required in a four-player game than in a seven-player game.Just as he does though, the sand timer drips down and it looks like no-one is in a position to turn it! Players really do have to work together to move through the maze and to spot the twists and turns where travel will be difficult.