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Writer's pictureHanna Nyberg

Wacky Wheels - "The Fugitive's Escape"

Updated: Apr 28


Photo above is property of Wacky Wheels

Company: Wacky Wheels

Game: The Fugitive's Escape

Country: Netherlands 🇳🇱

Language: English

Type of Game: Digital Escape Game 💻

Genre: Detective, Crime

Date Played: August 22, 2021

Difficulty (based on 4 players): 7/10

Size of Team: 1-4 Players

Time: Unlimited (Suggested 2 Hours)

Price: $10.50/ Team


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A quiet Saturday morning, so you thought, until you learn that the person you helped track down in a previous investigation has escaped Grimway Prison. Left in your mailbox is the first clue in a long trail left behind by the fugitive, leading to countries and places all over the world. The FBI needs your help to capture this fugitive so get on that plane! This is a sequel to the story "The Fugitive's Trail". All Wacky Wheels' games can be played independently.


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The game play takes place on one website and the contents are presented with text and pictures (You can also purchase the PDF booklet version if you rather play this game offline). At the end of each page, a few question will be presented to you. You might need to leave the website to research outside knowledge, If you think you know the answer, you can submit them through a portal specific for answer submissions. On this portal, you'll also find hints and solutions. Be careful when entering the answer because you only have one chance. Once you enter the wrong answer you'll no longer be qualified to score any points. If you use a hint, you'll also not be able to gain any points. This game is not meant for guessers or people feeling lucky.


We received one game link that we shared with everyone in our team. This did allow for all the players be able to see the same game content but it also meant that if one player enter the question on the solution site, it'll update for the rest of the team. To avoid any mistakes or simultaneous entries, it's best to designate one person to enter the solution, The answers were either in the format of multiple choice or free text. The free text can be a bit frustrating since you might spell an answer wrong (unintentionally) or answer in a slightly different way than what the creator's intended answer. Both led to no points. A easy fix would be for the creators to at least give the players a little guidance on how many numbers or letters are within this answer. The storyline was quite fun to read as it gives you context on the fugitive's whereabouts and clues that he/she is leaving behind. Splitting up the reading between your teammates could make this into a more interactive experience,


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The puzzles were mostly straight forward and even though we needed to think a bit on a few of them, we only needed to use one hint. There was one puzzle that confused us as it felt like there could be multiple answers from Googling. The penalty for not getting any points after one try felt a bit harsh from a player's perspective as we didn't have the same type of motivation to figure out the answer as when we first started the puzzle since regardless we'll be ending up with zero points.


A few of the puzzles required multiple steps to solving, which made them seem harder than they actually were. But in between the more challenging ones, there were cute little simple ones that made us feel smart and helped us progress through the questions. There are a good mix of logic driven challenges, constitution puzzles, play on words and imagery puzzles. I think my favourite puzzle was a rebus where solving each part eventually spelled out a type of location. Each part was easy enough but the reveal at the end was very rewarding. There is a lot of information on each page and every now and then you have to go back to previous pages to use information from them. This did feel like the detective is at work since we had to piece what we gathered all together, At some point we definitely over thought a few puzzles and perhaps even created a few red herrings for ourselves and completed the game in 1 hour and 40minutes.


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One of my favourite parts about this game is that you could see an explanation of the puzzle once someone in your team had answered a question. This is so nice in situations where your team is working on different things and everyone has a different speed at solving puzzles, you can go back and read about the steps on your own time. It’s a little bit like having the games master walk you through an escape room after you’ve played it to make sure you understood all the parts!


I had a lot of fun playing this game with my team and I think it’s a great type of game to play over the internet, especially if you are a team with a mix level of players, If you are not so worried about the point system but more concentrating on catching this culprit, you'll ultimately discover the true message behind "The Fugitive's Escape". Perhaps there may even be a threequel?

 

Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of these game:

 

(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 Wacky Wheels for providing us with samples of their games. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.


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