Escape the Room games (ETR games) are among the most elaborate and challenging games you can find online. They combine puzzles and riddles with looking for hidden objects and clues.

To experience the thrill for yourself, we've gathered some of the best online escape room games out there for you to try.

Note: Be warned that you will have to enable Flash in your browser to play some of these point-and-click Escape the Room games.

1. The Mystery of Time and Space

After the release of The Mystery of Time and Space (MOTAS) in 2001, the game continues to be remembered as the pioneer of online Escape the Room games. The makers of the Crimson Room (our next entry) even credit MOTAS as an influence.

In contrast to other titles, the game features a notable science fiction plot that evolves as the game goes on. Rather than leaving the mystery to the room puzzles alone, players must try to decipher whether they're a clone or alien while making their way through the game.

2. The Crimson Room

After MOTAS, The Crimson Room's launch in 2004 helped further popularize the online escape game genre. As a relatively short game, it pioneers a lot of the staples of the genre.

Following what appears to have been a night of heavy drinking, you wake up trapped in a room. You'll have to look for clues to eventually get the bedroom door open. Since this was originally a Japanese game, you might find some language quirks in the game, but they certainly don't get in the way of the fun gameplay.

3. The Submachine Series

The 13 Submachine escape games will keep you on your toes. You won't find yourself trapped in just one room but rather in a labyrinth of rooms that you have to navigate.

In these games, you'll find yourself trying to escape an underground labyrinth, an abandoned lighthouse, a padded white cell, and more.

Submachine's Escape the Room games are incredibly intuitive. You'll know what levers to pull, what items to pick up, and which buttons to push. Submachine is one of those games that's challenging enough to keep you engaged but not so difficult that you'll want to just give up.

4. Neutral Escape Games

Neutral has a great series of seven traditional ETR games. They also offer four Christmas-themed escape room games and two mini escape room games.

Challenges range in difficulty from level 1 (easiest) to level 4 (hardest). The seven main titles from easiest to hardest are Switch, Sphere, RGB, Lights, Linkage, Vision, and Elements. For the more difficult games, you'll want to keep a notebook and pen handy.

With all of Neutral's Escape the Room games, you can save your game and come back to it later, meaning you can use the life skills that video games can help you develop before returning to crack these puzzles.

5. The Doors

The Doors is another labyrinth of the Escape the Room game genre, with rooms and doors that seem to go on forever. The game can become a fast-paced whirlwind of going back and forth trying to figure out which door led where. Still, all that matters is investigating every nook and cranny of the rooms.

6. Ant Hill Trap

Ant Hill Trap takes a much more whimsical approach to the ETR genre. The graphics and storyline are extremely child-friendly. Not only are the graphics cartoony, but a lot of the puzzles are image-driven and will appeal to kids.

With the built-in pause button and timer, parents can easily set timed sessions for their younger children. If you want to introduce your children to escape rooms, this is the place to start.

7. The Afro-Ninja Escape Series

Afro-Ninja has a series of seven minigames that are challenging but less elaborate than the others on this list. This makes them ideal if you're looking for a quick fix to feed your Escape the Room game addiction. Anyone craving more quick hits should try these addictive mobile games you can play for five minutes at a time.

Across the different series entries, players can find themselves locked in a variety of mostly tight spaces, including a car, closet, phone booth, bathroom, office, and shack. Notably, the fifth title adds a survival element to these Escape the Room games where players have to escape a freezer or die of hypothermia.

8. Murder Escape

In Murder Escape, the camera pans around a room with a disconcerting pool of blood seeping in from under its door. It's up to you to find the clues to get out.

The game has its quirks as far as Escape the Room games go. If you don't catch the instruction at the beginning then you won't realize the spacebar key puts items away, and you'll often find yourself endlessly clicking on the screen just to get back to your previous view. However, the tense mystery still makes this one worth playing.

9. Escape the Prison

If you're brand new to escape room games, Escape the Prison is a great place to start. As the name suggests, you're trying to get out of your prison cell. You'll need to put your powers of observation to the test in order to escape from your mostly empty jail cell.

Since the game only has two doors, it makes for a quick playthrough for anyone with a keen eye.

10. Escape the Office

If you really enjoyed Escape the Prison, the developer's other entry offers similar pacing. The office allows for more of the typical interactions of the genre but still manages to feel faster.

If you're looking for an Escape the Room game to speedrun, give this one a try.

11. Baba Yaga

For those tired of Escape the Room games grounded in reality, Baba Yaga offers a fantasy alternative. It's a lot like a fairy tale as you find yourself trapped in a witch's treehouse. The witch even makes a few silhouette appearances as you play the game where she flies around on her broom menacingly.

The production values on this game are among the highest on this list, and it makes a refreshing change from some of the more stark and foreboding games that are typical of the genre. And, of course, magic spells play a role in getting you out of this one.

Can You Escape the Best Escape Room Games?

Escape the Room games put your detective skills to the test. They're incredibly rewarding, so give some of these a try the next time you feel like solving challenging mysteries.

If these games haven't challenged your brain enough, you may enjoy these video games for escape room fans and might also want to try the internet's hardest logic puzzles.