The Locked Room - "Oswald's Marvelous Museum"

Photos above are property of The Locked Room

Company: The Locked Room

Games: Oswald's Marvelous Museum

Country: Canada 🇨🇦

Language: English

Type of Game: Audio Escape Room 👂

Genre: Mystery, Adventure

Date Played: October 15, 2021

Difficulty (based on 4 players): 4/10

Size of Team: Up to 8 Players (Recommended for ages 16+)

Time: 60-70 Minutes

Price: $150/ team (Up to 8 players)

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Your uncle Oswald has always been a bit of an eccentric, traveling the world in search of new antiques to add to his collection. But when he suddenly disappears after bringing home a new artifact, you fear the worst, and head over to his workplace to investigate.

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When we logged into Zoom, we were greeted by a game master, where we were briefed on the story and our end goal. The entire game was played over Zoom where our game master shared a screen and reveal the areas of the museum exhibit one at a time as we solved puzzles. The entire layout of the museum was shaded with black boxes at first. Once we started to explore the museum, our GM would let us know if certain areas were locked or open. If they were open, she would open up the blocked section so we would gain access to a new area of the museum. If they were locked, we would need to solve a puzzle for a code in order to be allowed into that area. The game felt like a Dungeons and Dragon game where we would tell our game master things like "we wish to look at the poster" and she would describe our actions to us as we investigated the poster and revealed important clues if there was one. It would be handy to take down notes as the museum was quite large with many different rooms and items of interest. The story unveiled itself as we solved various puzzles and eventually we were able to discover what had really happened to our uncle.

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The main gist of the game was to investigate item and visualize how they could be utilized. For example, once the game master mentioned that a particular item needed something in order for it to operate. Once we found that item in the later part of the game, we were able to put two and two together. Of course, there were a couple of puzzles that required us to think outside of the box or visualize directions or decipher codes, but they were mainly logical and straightforward.

Most of the items on the museum floor plan could not be enlarged. We had to use our imagination which became another part of a puzzle. It was great to be able to challenge ourselves this way. We really enjoyed that certain reveal felt very IRL escape room like as they were able to open up new spaces that was unexpected. Certain things that we were able to do and combine were also quite humorous. There was definitely a few Easter Eggs you can discover from other popular games.

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Oswald's Marvelous Museum felt like a choose your own adventure novel. Our GM Lauren did a great job putting in her personal touch on GMing this audio experience. Hearing her narrate is quite immersive as she described everything with enthusiasm and clarity. I even closed my eyes a few times to just soak in the narrative and imagined we were actually there at the museum. For an audio escape game, I felt that the game master can either make or break the game, but Lauren delivered in spades. She also did a great job with knowing how much to nudge us or let us know if we're going down the rabbit hole but without spoilers. The Locked Room is also quite generous with their time limitations. We finished right before the hour mark but if you needed more time, you can definitely have more. So definitely take your time to enjoy the Oswald's Marvelous Museum if you're not the competitive type of player!

(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 The Locked Room for comping our tickets for this game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.

#MelvinLim #AtHomeGames #AudioGames #TheLockedRoom #Mystery #Canada #adventure