Videos/ Photos provided by Lost Escape
Company: Lost Escape
Game: The Curse of Pharaoh
Country: Lithuania 🇱🇹
Language: English, Lithuanian
Type of Game: Remote Escape Room 🗣
Genre: Adventure
Date Played: 3/27/2021
Difficulty (based on 4 players): 6/10
Size of Team: 4-6 Players
Time: 60 Minutes
Price: € 10/ pp
🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈
You're stuck in an ancient Egyptian tomb. The only "friend" you see is the skeleton laying in the corner of the room. Will you be able to escape the Pharaoh's curse or will you end up like your friend?
🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈
When you receive your booking confirmation, you'll also receive a written backstory and 3 links that's marked "Do Not Open Until Told To Do So". We met our group in Zoom and the avatar quickly started our adventure inside what looked like an ancient Egyptian tomb. At first glance, it didn't seem like there was much to do in the room but as we started to explore (I would suggest being very thorough about the searching), more secrets revealed themselves.
As we ventured deeper into the tomb, our avatar instructed us that it was time to open those links. We have suggested to them afterward that it would've been better if these links were send in the Zoom chat rather than having us to keep our emails open as an additional window during the game. The links provided us with 360 views of the rooms. This was an awesome improvement on Lost Escape's games as they don't have an inventory system so this really helped us to be able to navigate our avatar in a much easier way.
🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂
Since we're in a tomb, it only make sense that you won't be able to discover any keys and locks. Most of the room operated on tech triggers, There was one tech device that we haven't seen used much in escape rooms before so it was nice to see the creative use in this setting. There was a lot of search and find in this game and we found that at times it was pretty hard to see the hidden areas on camera. The 360 view definitely helped a lot in this case but we think that the game master should definitely give the team some "camera nudges" if they group is stuck on not being able to find something. There was a few puzzles that didn't really have any logic behind it and was more like trial and error. We gave some suggestions to the company to make them into actual puzzles so hopefully it would be implemented in the future games.
🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂
Lost Escape always impresses us with their set design. This time was no different. From the sand on the floor to an actual sarcophagus with a mummy and hidden secrets all over the tomb, we felt like we're in "The Mummy" movie. Our game master was such a good sport. Let's just say our team definitely made her complete a week's worth of exercise in an hours time. There were a few tactile puzzles that they had to take out in order to adapt this room to online. I would have loved to play this game in person. If you're not really looking for difficult puzzles but more for a cinematic adventure, then definitely embark on this journey and hopefully you'll be able to find that cure to the ancient curse of the Pharaoh.
𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤 ℙ𝕒𝕥𝕣𝕠𝕟❜𝕤 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤
For any remote escape room, I believe the game master/host is the number 1 factor. For Lost Escape, I must say that our host was amazing. The video feed is excellent - there wasn't any delay in transmitting what she is seeing live as well as the audio. Her instructions were super clear, and I could understand every single word that she says. She was patient and taught me on what is a remote escape game and how does it work. It is easy to be a good game master to give players a briefing along with the game rules, but it takes another skill level to be a host. And boy, she was an excellent host as well. There were some humours added in during the game, depending on what we ask her to execute, and she even let us know her thoughts and feelings, as if as if she was exploring the room with us for the first time too! This makes players feel comfortable and make her seem very approachable, so don't be embarrassed to ask the host to execute any funny ideas you may have!
Moving on, the room itself. The interior design of the room is amazing. As it was meant to be an Egyptian themed room, the set up really does make you feel like you are transported into Egypt. There were hieroglyphics around, pillars, statues, panels and even a tomb. Everything does seem in place and blends in with the theme directly. It would have been eye catching to be physically present in the room itself as it was one of the biggest and immersive escape room I have seen. It makes you feel like you were exploring deep into a tomb to look for some treasure!
Talking about the puzzles next. I am not sure if this is the norm for remote escape games, but 90% of this game was mainly searching for stuff. It relies intensively on finding places to touch and explore around to get the items you need. There were only about 5 'puzzles' in this game. Everything else was just searching for the things you need. If it isn't searching, it will be obvious what you need to do. I will not give any spoilers, but when you see a certain 'something' in the room, you will know what to do. It will be like once something is found, all 4 of us can instantly shout out and tell her where to place the item or what to do with it. It was that simple and straightforward. Hence, it wasn't a puzzle game to me but more like an 'adventure' game. If this room was being played in person, having 1 person to play this room makes not much of a difference than having 4 people when it comes to 'thinking out of the box' to crack the puzzle, all it helps is searching around. Hence, for this remote version, it doesn't help that there IS A LOT of searching and everyone will be excited to inform the host where to go and she can only go to one place at one time. Much time was spent as she will be searching the area one at a time, but if it was in person, a group of 4 might have searched all 4 areas at once together. However, take this with a pinch of salt as I am unsure if this is the norm for a remote escape room.
Another thing that I liked was we will be given a 360 link of the room. Hence, we are able to look around the room ourselves as there is only 1 camera on the host. It is good that we can pinpoint the stuff we want to explore as we may forget a particular item of interest if all we had was a glimpse on the game master's camera when she turns her head for example.
Therefore, it was overall definitely still a fun room for my first remote experience, as there were a few physical tasks that are creative and unique (I have not seen them anywhere before - would seem fun to try it in person though!). I would highly recommend this game if you were looking for an immersive experience and you love the sense of exploration. You can marvel at the technology present and watch all the cool effects occur, just like if you were in the movies. However, if you are the sort who like games that are heavy on puzzles, you may find this room a breeze as most of the time is spent on searching rather than getting the 'aha' moment when you finally crack a puzzle's solution.
Dion T.
Overall, the ambience and staging of the entire room are really enjoyable and in line with the Egyptian theming. Throughout the game, environment wise it did feel as though I was stuck in a pyramid (aside from a maze puzzle, which I understand is adapted due to online game restraints). My favourite puzzles would have to be the one that we had to use a physical item. I think it really made full use of the room and resources. It was engaging to have the puzzles respond with a special "tool". I think it gives direct feedback to the players which is important for an online game. The facilitator was extremely encouraging and non-judgmental whenever we requested for her to go back and look in odd places – I would say that she was a really big part as to why the game was so fun. The 360 is also an extremely helpful aid to have, not only for the players but also to make the facilitator’s life a little easier.
Puzzles wise, I think that there is a good mix of physical and mental puzzles if a person were to be in the room. However, I wish that more puzzles utilized the Egyptian symbols or some riddles to solve it instead of a more search-open/collect-arrange sequence. Depending on a player’s computer resolution, lighting or browser, some of the hidden areas might not be obvious to them and some hidden pieces might only be visible depending on the facilitator’s viewpoint. While our team managed to find and discover all of them, I think it would be rather hard to give hints if another were stuck without specifically pointing out or revealing the hiding space.
Lastly, I think it would be great if more is done to integrate the storyline into the gameplay. The story included an antidote to a curse which I do not think we found. Perhaps it could also be possible to introduce the facilitators as a fellow adventurer or a friend of Harry’s and to have them communicate the story to us. I think that would be a lot more immersive than to have them as a sort of ‘tool’ for us to command around.
*** This game is no longer available but check out other games on "Lost Escape"'s website ***
(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 thank Lost Escape for comping our tickets for this game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.
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