REMOTE: Locurio - "The Vanishing Act"

Cici Cao

Nov 9, 20203 min read

Updated: Apr 6, 2024

Videos/Photos provided by Locurio

Company: Locurio

Game: The Vanishing Act

Country: USA 🇺🇸

Language: English

Type of Game: Remote Escape Room 🗣

Genre: Magic, Mystery

Date Played: October, 25, 2020

Difficulty (based on 4 players): 6.5/10

Size of Team: Up to 4 Players

Time: 90 Minutes

Price: $140.00/ team

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There's something strange going on with The Great Noximillian. His assistance keeps going missing after every 13th act. Today is the 13th performance again and we've been called in by Sam to help his friend Casey (who's Noximilllian's latest assistance) to solve this mystery. Hopefully we'll be able to find the truth in time to save Casey from disappearing!

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The scene opens with Casey meeting us at the theater and leading us down to the dressing room. We were intrigued by the intro right away since most of the remote games we've played started us off in the actual room. This little extra add-on definitely set Locurio apart from a lot of the companies out there.

The game was played over Zoom with a live avatar and an inventory system provided by Mofang One. As we entered into the backstage area and dressing room, everything looked quite normal.

The avatar gave us a quick tour of the room and we're able to start exploring thereafter. There were a lot of items to be examined, so definitely make sure you look through everything. Whenever an item needed a closer look, we would get an image in our inventory. The images were also removed immediately from the inventory after we've used it. The inventory portal made the game play quite smooth for all of us.

The dresser was the centerpiece of the game. There were multiple locks on it. It immediately intrigued us to find out what's locked behind those doors. Although it screamed "Do not open me", we felt very satisfied whenever a lock came off of the dresser.

The avatar was great at giving us subtle hints. It was quite useful for us to get on the right track for "team play" as this was the first time that we felt like teamwork was a requirement during a remote escape room and not an option. That was our favorite part of this experience.

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As enthusiasts, we quite enjoyed the amount of puzzles in this game. Some were quite easy and we would get them right away but some really got us thinking for awhile. The puzzles worked well with the theme of the story line and changed it's context as the plot developed. There was one puzzle design that really "wowed" us. We have seen this type of team effort puzzle design in digital games before but never in a remote escape room. We really loved how they gave every player a chance to shine and contribute to the game play. The game is designed for 4 players and everyone should log in from their own device for the best experience. It could also be played with less than four but will definitely be challenging. Good thing you'll have 90 minutes for this game (although our team used about 60 minutes or so) and if the company doesn't have bookings after yours, they will even allow you extra time just to finish the game.

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We've played remote games before where prerecorded video elements were quite obvious and made the game play quite difficult to follow. In this game, you won't even notice what parts were prerecorded and what was live. Lucurio did a great job stitching the two together seamlessly.

The puzzles were designed to work smoothly with the inventory system and that made the experience felt like we're playing there in person. Although we rather much play there in person, this was definitely gratifying for the time being. So gather a team of friends and try to solve this magical mystery (with a little twist) now!

*** This game can no longer be booked as a remote game but can still be booked as an in-person experience ***

BOOK NOW

(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)

Disclosure: We want to thank Locurio for providing us with a media discount our tickets for this game. Although a discounted experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.