Comparison

Adventure Escape Mysteries vs Dark City

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Adventure Escape Mysteries

Engage in story-driven escape room adventures with unique puzzles. Solve mysteries, crack cases, and survive thrilling scenarios. Explore beautifully illustrated scenes and use logic to overcome challenging brain teasers.

Highlights
  • Story-driven escape room gameplay
  • Solve murder mysteries
  • Survive horror scenarios
  • Solve logic puzzles and brain teasers
  • Explore over 500 illustrated scenes
  • Influence story direction
  • Play offline
Features
Read full description

NCIS: SHADOW STRIKE Play as special agents from NCIS, the hit TV show, and investigate a shocking Navy ship explosion! Play a story-driven room escape game with unique puzzles enjoyed by tens of millions of players. Solve mysteries, puzzle through escape rooms, and find the clue that will crack the case in a critically acclaimed puzzle adventure game! SOLVE A MURDER MYSTERY Find clues and solve a murder mystery as Detective Kate Gray in On Thin Ice! A mysterious criminal has blackmailed the police station and a key witness was murdered. Investigate the crime scene, interrogate suspects, and solve the case. SURVIVE THE HORROR Julian Torres is an ordinary boy in a sleepy town until a creepy serial killer known as Mirror Man tries to kill him. Julian must escape haunted houses, scary situations, and his own creepy memories. Who is Mirror Man? What can stop him? Can you help Julian survive? This is a scary puzzle game for adults! PLAY AN EPIC STORY Save a fantasy kingdom in Legend of the Sacred Stones! A mysterious curse has fallen over Tempus Island. Help Aila take control of the elements, escape brain teasing temples, and battle towering Stone Gods in this epic adventure! SOLVE UNIQUE PUZZLES Use your observation skills, deductive reasoning, and cunning to solve logic puzzles and brain teasers. Collect treasures and tools in your inventory, find clues and hidden objects, and relax and enjoy an escape room game. ENTIRELY FREE Play for free! You can support Haiku by purchasing a hint if you’re stuck, but you’re never forced to. And no - we don’t create impossible puzzles so you’re forced to pay. The escape rooms may be challenging but the puzzles are always solvable! INSPIRED BY CLASSIC POINT AND CLICK GAMES Adventure Escape takes the best of classic point and click adventure games that adults love and mixes it with the brain teasing gameplay of modern escape games. RAVE REVIEWS Adventure Escape has been played by tens of millions of players and has a >4.5 star average rating. Game critics like AppPicker, TechWiser, and AppUnwrapper have picked Adventure Escape games as the best escape room game. SUPPORT AN INDIE GAME COMPANY We're an indie game studio that loves riddles, logic puzzles, and brain teasers. Our team has been to hundreds of escape rooms and participated in jigsaw puzzle competitions. At Haiku, we have a game design philosophy we call “satisfying challenge.” We think puzzles should be tough but solvable, so we spend a lot of time designing unique escape room gameplay that we think you'll love! Website: www.haikugames.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/adventureescape Instagram: www.instagram.com/haikugamesco KEY FEATURES - Enjoy the entire escape game experience for free! - Influence the story's direction with your choices. - Engage in ingenious escape room gameplay - Explore over 500 beautifully illustrated scenes. - Encounter challenging puzzles for adults that tease your brain - Seamlessly continue your progress across multiple devices. - Regularly updated with more fun stories! - Play offline by downloading chapters in advance! No wifi required.

About

Dark City

Investigate a series of mysterious robberies threatening Dublin's St. Patrick's Day celebration. Uncover the truth behind claims of a mischievous leprechaun perpetrator in this hidden-object puzzle adventure.

Highlights
  • Track down the mysterious Banshee
  • Find morphing objects and collectibles
  • Replay scenes and mini-games
  • Unlock challenging achievements
  • Access an official strategy guide
Features
Read full description

It's almost St. Patrick's Day, but a string of mysterious robberies threatens to ruin Dublin's celebration! Witnesses claim that the perpetrator is no mere mortal but a mischievous leprechaun. As you investigate, you find more than just stories behind their claims. TRY THE FREE TRIAL VERSION, AND THEN UNLOCK THE COMPLETE ADVENTURE IN THE GAME! With a strange presence tracing your every move, can you find the culprit and save the holiday in time? Find out in this marvelous Hidden-Object Puzzle adventure! Dark City: Dublin features are: • Track down the mysterious Banshee in the Bonus Game! • Loads of morphing objects and collectibles to complete your collections! • Replay your favorite scenes and mini-games to unlock challenging achievements! • Keep the hunt on track with an official strategy guide! Discover more from Friendly Fox Studio: Terms of Use: https://friendlyfox.studio/terms-and-conditions/ Privacy Policy: https://friendlyfox.studio/privacy-policy/ Official website: https://friendlyfox.studio/hubs/hub-ios/ Follow us on: https://www.facebook.com/FriendlyFoxStudio/

Screenshots

Adventure Escape Mysteries4 screens
Dark City4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Adventure Escape Mysteries at every 2 weeks against Dark City's every 5 months. Adventure Escape Mysteries also leads on review sentiment (83% vs 67%) and ratings volume (22K vs 1.5K). Dark City's advantage is iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15.0). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Adventure Escape Mysteries sells 16 one-off in-app purchases and Dark City sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Adventure Escape Mysteries against 4.7 for Dark City. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Adventure Escape Mysteries has 22K ratings behind it against 1.5K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 83% of Adventure Escape Mysteries's written reviews are positive against 67% of Dark City's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Adventure Escape Mysteries ships an update every 2 weeks, Dark City every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Adventure Escape Mysteries versus Dark City: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAdventure Escape MysteriesDark City
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (22K ratings) — better4.7 (1.5K ratings)
Positive reviews83.3% of reviews — better67.3% of reviews
Number of ratings22K — better1.5K
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterEvery 5 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#88 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.011.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size339 MB805 MB
Age rating12+9+
DeveloperHaiku Games CoFriendly Fox Games Limited

Customer experience

Adventure Escape Mysteries

All ratings21,698 ratings
Positive95.3%
Neutral2.7%
Negative2.0%
Written reviews1,844 reviews
Positive83.3%
Neutral7.8%
Negative8.9%

Dark City

All ratings1,532 ratings
Positive93.2%
Neutral4.5%
Negative2.3%
Written reviews49 reviews
Positive67.3%
Neutral12.2%
Negative20.4%

User reviews

Adventure Escape Mysteries

From 22K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Grate game
  • 🚀 So much fun!
  • 🚀 LOVE THIS GAME
  • 🚀 Fantastic
  • 🚀 Best game

Room to improve

  • 🤔 Too much dialogue
  • 💰 Don't buy any pack
  • ⏱️ Too long
  • ⏱️ Keys take extremely long to regenerate
  • 💰 Disappointing

Dark City

From 1.5K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great fun to be had
  • 👍 Another great game
  • 👍 Excellent game
  • 👍 Excellent series
  • 👍 Every game this company puts out is top notch!!

Room to improve

  • 🙄 Too much dialogue
  • 💰 Would be cool if it wasn't pay to play
  • 🙄 u kiddin me! pointless
  • 🙄 I hate the puzzles - too many
  • 💰 Good, but not for the price

Bugs and requests

Adventure Escape Mysteries

Reported bugs

6 issues
  • Chapter 2 will not load
  • Certain actions don't unlock the way they're supposed to
  • Login screen freezes
  • Incompatible with older devices
  • Purify filter puzzle needs fixing
Show 1 more
  • Scuba diving puzzle has contradictory rules

Requested features

11 requests
  • More stories of the mirror man
  • More beginner level games
  • More creepy ones and detective Kate
  • More free help/sparkles
  • More lore
Show 6 more
  • More chapters
  • More games
  • Pay once, Play forever
  • No ads if paid
  • Dark mode option
  • Advanced analytics dashboard

Dark City

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Game hangs in certain scenes on iPad. There is NO tech support
  • Constantly crashing
  • Payment error

Requested features

2 requests
  • More people of color in the game
  • Dark mode option

In-app purchases

16 purchases

Adventure Escape Mysteries

One-time16
  • Get 1 Key!$0.99
  • Get 5 Stars!$0.99
  • Get 3 Keys!$1.99
Show 13 more
  • Get 10 Stars!$1.99
  • Get 10 Keys!$4.99
  • Get 30 Stars!$4.99
  • Welcome Bundle$4.99
  • Get 50 Stars!$7.99
  • NCIS VIP Bundle$8.99
  • It Came From Above VIP Bundle$8.99
  • Rendezvous VIP Bundle$8.99
  • Dino Country VIP Bundle$8.99
  • Death Dodgers VIP Bundle$8.99
  • Puzzle Lovers VIP Bundle$8.99
  • Get 100 Stars!$13.99
  • Get 300 Stars!$34.99
1 purchases

Dark City

One-time1
  • Full Game & Bonus Unlock$6.99

Questions

Is Adventure Escape Mysteries free?
Adventure Escape Mysteries is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Dark City free?
Dark City is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Adventure Escape Mysteries or Dark City?
Adventure Escape Mysteries is rated higher. Adventure Escape Mysteries averages 4.8 out of 5 from 22K ratings, while Dark City averages 4.7 from 1.5K ratings.
Do Adventure Escape Mysteries or Dark City have ads?
Neither Adventure Escape Mysteries nor Dark City shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Adventure Escape Mysteries or Dark City?
Adventure Escape Mysteries ships an update every 2 weeks, and Dark City every 5 months. Most recently, Adventure Escape Mysteries was updated on September 24, 2026 and Dark City on September 20, 2026.

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