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Photo above is property of E-Scape Rooms Company: E-Scape Rooms Game: The Sword of Drakul Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧 Language: English Type of Game: Digital Escape Game 💻 Genre: Adventure, Fantasy Date Played: November 3, 2021 Difficulty (based on 3 players): 4/10 Size of Team: 2-12 Players (Recommended Age 7+) Time: Expires in 4 Days after activation (Suggested 60-90 Mins) Price: £14.99 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Retrieve the sword of the Dragon King and save the kingdom! 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 "The Sword of Drakul" is a digital point-n-click game played over Telescape. You can explore the virtual room in 3D, click on items of interest and solve the puzzles by interacting with padlocks or objects. There not much of an inventory system in this game like the other ones we've played. You won't be able to collect or find a lot of things. Most items that are useful can be clicked on as a visual clue. Interactive components are either to open a lock or trigger an action by clicking the right sequence. Photos above are property of E-Scape Rooms 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The puzzles were intuitive and fun to execute. They made well use of this virtual platform to create puzzles that normally wouldn't be possible. Some will require audio (if you mute your game, you can still hear part needed for the puzzle), some memory and some logic. Some puzzles might even need assistance from a teammate in order to reach the solution by communication. If you are playing as a solo player, you might just have to take a screen shot in order to use it with that particular puzzle (but there are instructions in the description to help you out). There was also a puzzle that could be quite confusing. I have also voiced out to the designer, but to prevent any spoilers, in case nothing was changed, do keep in mind to follow literally what you see, though it might all show the same thing! If you need hints, you can always use the self guided hints in Telescape to move on, so do not fret if you get stuck! 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 Compared to dozens of Telescape games out there, "The Sword of Drakul" proves to be a unique game that sets it apart from the others out there. Once the game loads, there will be a lengthy video with a cinematic storyline, music in the background and amazing graphics. This is not just a reproduction of a physical escape room, but a fantasy world that uses graphics and images to create the room. Hence, it can be seen that a lot of effort was put into creating this game. I would say besides the minor issue regarding 1 puzzle mentioned above (which might have been fixed already at the time of writing), this is a well polished Point and Click game which most players would enjoy. For those who have played both The Alp and Detention, this was designed by the same designer, so if you like those games (like me), you will certainly enjoy "The Sword of Drakul"! (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 E-Escape Rooms for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #MelvinLim #AtHomeGames #DigitalGame #PointNClick #Adventure #UnitedKingdom #Telescape #EScapeRooms

Photos provided by Solve Me If You Can Company: Solve Me If You Can Game: Strange Inheritance Country: New Zealand 🇳🇿 Language: English Type of Game: Online Puzzle Game 💻 Genre: Adventure Date Played: 4/17/2021 Difficulty (based on 4 players): 5.5/10 Size of Team: 2-4 players Time: Unlimited (Suggested time Approx. 1 Hour) Price: $15.00/ Team 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 An mysterious map that could potentially pinpoint the location of an ancient pyramid and a tomb bought Samantha and Benjamin together. Do they really know each other as well as they think? Let's put this childhood bond to the test... 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 You can play this game either as teams of 1 vs 1 or 2 vs 2. Once you purchase the game, a code will be send to your email (make sure to check your spam folder as that's where ours went). Team one will log into the game using this code first (if you're playing with 2 ppl on your team then just share the same code with that person). Once they are logged into the game, they'll receive another code which they'll give to team two. Once everyone is logged into the game, the team leader will press the start button. A timer will start and from that point, you'll have 24 hours to finish the game. Team one's player(s) and team two's player(s) will be seeing different game screens. The items on the screen are interactive and mostly act as "click-n-drag" pieces. The key to solving these puzzles is communication. Each team will need to inform the other on the clues they've discovered in order to gain a correct location on the map. The ultimate goal is to piece together the shredded map and find the location to the tomb. If you get stuck, there are build-in nudging hint system and solutions in the game. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 Most of the puzzles were not too difficult but there's a good variation of decryption, word play and association. We played the game as 2 vs 2 mode. We had a bit of a late start as we haven't played team style with the other two players before. Since our team had more information to look at at the beginning, we had a lot of random information to throw at the other team. The other team felt like the information did not pertain to what they were working on as it didn't quite fit the given information visually. Since our team had more items to interact with, we kind of forcefully solved two puzzles without knowing that we did until later on. This kind of put the game play out of order as when our other team finally picked up their pace and gave us more information from their end, we had already solved them. Our advice would be to trust your instinct and your teammates and try not to second guess too much on the instructions. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 I love cooperative type of games that gets the players working together to solve puzzles as they give the players their own moments to shine. These types of games are normally designed with components where you will not be able to solve this game without the other person. Sometimes when I play games with puzzlers who's amazingly fast at solving puzzles, I feel like I don't get a chance to contribute or solve any of the puzzles in the game. This game gave all the players a chance to do something. Whether it be simply describing a picture or putting in a code, it feels like accomplishment. This is Solve Me If You Can's first digital game and we really enjoyed it. We look forward to more of their games in the future! (If you do decide to try this experience, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!) Disclosure: We thank Solve Me If You Can for providing us with a sample of the game. Although complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #escapetheroomers #escaperoom #SolveMeIfYouCan #StrangeInheritance #cooperativegame #teams #communication #fun #puzzles #onlinegames #digitalgames

Videos/ Photos provided by Hotel Topia Company: Hotel Topia Game: Initiation: Esoteric Order of the Veil Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Digital Escape Game 💻 Genre: Mystery Date Played: 3/27/2021 Difficulty (based on 4 players): 6.5/10 Size of Team: Unlimited Time: Unlimited (three days to play after pressing "start" button) Price: $35/Team ($30 for a limited time) 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 An ancient secret society is looking to recruit new agents to join their fight against evil. Will you be able to pass the initiation test so you can join them on this sacred mission? 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 Hotel Topia did a great job with the intro video. It's probably one of my favorite trailers for a digital game. The instructions to how to play the game was also very clearly stated. This is a point-n-click game build using Telescape. Although it didn't feel like your typical Telescape game as it's not a direct translation of an actual escape room to online. The graphics were top notch. It was as if we're playing a video game. There's a lot of space to roam around in this game as it's staged in an old creepy house. You'll be surprised with secret doors, rooms and various objects. If you are lucky, you might even see some unexpected "visitors". Note that some of these areas are pretty well hidden. You'll need to trigger something or turn your mouse cursor a specific way in order to find them. Once you start the game with your team, you'll be able to see everyone's cursor in the same game interface. When you trigger an action (find something or open something), it'll update the progress for the entire team. You'll also be able to check back on the inventory cart to see what items have been collected by your teammates. It took us a bit of time to get use to the fact that some items on the upper cart could be used with items in the lower cart. We're quite impressed by the audio and visual effects that were build-in to this game. The creepy footsteps and random weird noises is exactly what an old house would make. I particularly enjoyed a visual that was created by us in the latter part of the game where we had to assembly an ancient ritual. It felt like we've opened up a portal to the unknown. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 There's a good balance of search and find, logic and cipher puzzles that kept our team busy throughout the game. Essentially the goal is to find 4 codes that'll open up the final door. Most of the puzzles were nonlinear but we did have to come together at the end to put together the final pieces to the story. If was nice to be able to each have something to do but also come together to solve the harder puzzles when needed. We did have to play the game twice as the first time one of our players was able to skip an entire part of the game by discovering a code too early (this issue has been rectified by the company). An audio puzzle also gave us some issues as it was quite difficult to make out what it was saying especially when other teammates were also communicating other puzzle information each other other. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 If we talk about "amazing set design" as a category for "in-person" escape rooms, then this game was be our categorization of "amazing set design" for a digital game. INITIATION: Esoteric Order of the Veil utilized cinematic sounds, detailed graphics and "ritual-like" type of puzzles to make this virtual world seem realistic. If you think you have what it takes to become a member of this secret society, then start your initiation now! 𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤 ℙ𝕒𝕥𝕣𝕠𝕟❜𝕤 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤 Hannah N. There was a lot to look at and in the beginning it felt slightly overwhelming with a lot of searching to do, so it was nice that we had a team of 4 to spread out and as we progressed the feeling of being overwhelmed slowly disappeared. The atmosphere was really well made, the room itself was detailed and the use of sound effects was really nice and spooky. Tension was built up by eerie effects to a point where I even felt a little bit scared. Unfortunately I was not able to play the game to the end, so there are a few questions left for me about items we didn’t use, but in general I really enjoyed the experience! Evan P. Order of the Veil is deliciously immersive, and the sound design is especially good. You won't need any arcane knowledge to succeed, but it's full of Easter eggs for fans of Lovecraft, alchemy, astrology, and other pop occultism. It also comes with its own searchable external wiki to look up certain in-game clues, which was essential for my team (though there may be ways around it). Seriously, though--look everywhere. Look everywhere five times. Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of the game: Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers (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 Hotel-topia for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #CiciCao #AtHomeGames #DigitalEscapeGame #PointNClick #Telescape #HotelTopia #EscapeTopia #Supernatural #Paranormal #USA

Photo provided by Escape Online Company: Escape Online Game: Dead Man's Hand Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧 Language: English Type of Game: Digital Game w/ Live Host 💁 Genre: Western Date Played: 3/25/2021 Difficulty (based on 4 players): 5/10 Size of Team: 2+ Players Time: 60 Minutes Price: £39/ 2 ppl (£10 each additional) 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 You're happily visiting a cow-boy themed amusement park Western World when the robotic "hosts" started to malfunction and killing off guests. Your only chance is to find the park owner's hand (currently already dead) in the Saloon as that's the only thing that will open the park's gate! 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 We were greeted by our GM in the Zoom lobby. After explaining the rules of the game, we're sent to a breakout room. Once the cinematic intro video finished, our game started in a digital platform called Telescape. This is a point-n-click game hosted by a game master. The game master only interacts with the group if a hint was needed. The game is synced where if one player enters a code correctly it'll unlock for the rest of the players. You'll need to read the instructions clearly on where you'll need to input codes. For the most part of the game, we're able to interact with objects from the inventory bag with another object directly or input the codes into a specific lock but towards the end we had to also use the input bar which was quite confusing. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The puzzles stuck to the Western theme and had various levels of difficulty. There were a few interesting props that we were able to use in this room that reminded us of in-person escape rooms. I did enjoy discovering some surprises that was triggered by the puzzle inputs. The hotspots made some of the puzzles quite confusing in this game. Some hotspots showed up too earlier but then disappeared and then showed up later again. Some were clickable but were never used. For two of the puzzles, we're just able to randomly click as there seemed to be only one way to click the right solution. It didn't feel like we solve the puzzle ourselves. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 Our host was lovely and was able to provide us with just the right amount of nudging. Although for these digital games, we actually prefer playing them in self guided mode with hint system build-in to the game. But this game could also be played in competitive mode where you and your friends could compete to see who would be able to finish the game quicker, For this option, you'll need a host to break you guys up into different breakout rooms. We decided to play the game together as a team of 4 and finished in 45 minutes or so. If Escape Online is able to fix some of these hotspot integrations, it'll definitely make the game play a lot smoother. We look forward to trying their other games in competitive mode next time! 𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤❜ ℙ.𝕀.𝕤❜ 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤 Matt L. & Jess A. I was having some problems with my Telescape (not sure if it was a device problem or an internet issue), so I wasn't much help to the group! I thought the story was amusing, but generally it felt like there was some attention to detail missing for this room. Though we had been able to use keypads to enter our answers previously one puzzle required typing it into the telescape box for no reason, and the final video showing the moment of the escape was shown sideways. Also, quite a few of the puzzles seemed to be triggered by unintentionally clicking or moving things, which is great because it saves you time, but you won't get the satisfaction of actually solving anything. The host was super friendly, but did keep popping into the room to give us hints that we hadn't ask for. We finished the room in 45 minutes, so I would have liked a bit more time before intervention. All escape rooms are fun, but this one wasn't my favorite. Having said that though, I'd be really interesting in doing one of their games live to see if it is purely the online format that lets them down. *** We regret to inform this game is no longer available for purchasing but check out other in-person escape rooms on their website*** Disclosure: We thank Escape Online for providing us with a sample of the game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #ESCAPETHEROOMers #AtHomeGames #EscapeRooms #EscapeOnline #DeadMansHand #OnlineEscapeRoom #DigitalEscapeGame #scifi #thriller #survive #escape #robots #adventure

Photos provided by Dave Escape Rooms Company: Dave Escape Rooms Game: Rita's Cult Following Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧 Language: English Type of Game: Digital Escape Game 💻 Genre: Mystery Date Played: 3/24/2021 Difficulty (based on 6 players): 7.5/10 Size of Team: 3-6 Players (Recommended age 12+) Time: 60 Minutes Price: £14.99 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 We were sent here to investigate the disappearance of the famous actress Rita Vasconcellos. She just vanished in the middle of a performance at the Palm Street Theatre. Who could be behind this? 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 One game code can be used for your entire team. We suggest a Zoom meeting so you can communicate with each other. The entire game is played over the company's own digital platform. We're able to see each other's cursors but can search and look at items freely on our own. Only one player needs to input an answer for the result to reflect for the entire team. The graphics were beautiful. It felt like we're on a movie set. The lighting in each area made the scenes dream-like. It was really pleasant to look at it. I wouldn't waste anytime in this game. The timer starts to count down once one player presses the "start" button and you only have 60 minutes to complete the game. The hint system is a nudging style system but it's also timed (update 4/5/21: the company has shortened the wait till to 1 minute based on our feedback). I would advise using it immediately once you feel like you're stuck as the first hint pretty much felt useless and we had to wait for a few minutes before we were able to receive a more in depth hint. Since this game is timed, you really don't have much time to wait around. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 This digital game really mimics what you would feel in a real life escape room. With the rigid timer and hint system, our team actually felt that nerve-wracking moment as we escaped with just seconds on the clock. I love the different types of puzzles that the game was able to incorporate (especially the mixture of tactile and logic puzzles). The only issue with that was that the puzzles were linear and with a multi-player interface, it didn't work well with inputting a tactile puzzle that could potentially get players stuck for a long time. This happened to our group and besides the one player that was working on the puzzle, the rest of us were just waiting around. It would've been great if the game added more "search and find" elements to keep the rest of the teammates busy. My favorite puzzle was towards the end. I haven't seen a digital game able to translate this type of puzzle (which we've seen used in real life escape rooms) to online yet. It was quite clever and definitely fitting to the theme of the game. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 I think I would have enjoyed this game a lot more if it wasn't a timed game (update 4/5/21: At the time of the game, we didn't know that you'll receive a bonus 10 times when 60 minute runs out to complete the mission and after that runs out, you'll have unlimited time until you finish the game. In that case, it's up to you if you like to play the game in the normal competitive way or take your time to actually enjoy the game). There were a good amount of reading and story line that I wasn't able to appreciate because we're too focused on getting out. Also with the linear aspect of the game, we would recommend playing with no more than 3 people. I would love to see more cooperative type of puzzle where the group could interactive on together. This was the first digital game where the graphics felt top notch and I just wanted to stay longer than the mere 60 minutes. Although the cinematic train ride was quite a beautiful ending scene. 𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤❜ ℙ.𝕀.𝕤❜ 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤 RJ G. Pros Inspired and polished graphics Sound quality was above average Cons An overabundance of red herrings The inventory system was underused This escape game was a joy to look at. The backdrops, notes, and objects were all high quality graphics that really made the room pop. The animations, effects, and sound made the room come alive. The puzzles themselves were sensible and fit the theme well. While I can understand the use of some red herrings to distract solvers, this room went way beyond any line in the sand. Not only were there excessive notes and interactive features, but there was even a translation table and message that was purely a distraction. Overall, despite it's problems, the room was still fun. I would recommend game to more experienced players who are looking for new and uniquely themed games. Jacqueline G. I was so excited for this escape room, the theme seemed right up my alley. I thought the art style chosen for the backgrounds were phenomenal. I really enjoyed exploring the rooms. There was a puzzle that took us FAR too long to solve. I think some of us were too dedicated to finishing something else to do than putting our heads together to figure out that puzzle that actually turned out to be much simpler than we made it out to be. After we figured that out the rest of the puzzles fell together quite quickly. One part of the game had a few too many red herrings for my liking. The puzzles were diverse and fun but the hints didn't help us move forward enough that we got to fully enjoy the experience (having to wait for another hint when the last hint was unhelpful was especially bothersome). I was a bit disappointed with one of the puzzles because it felt like we had to do some deciphering but that was just a decoy and then once the actual trigger was performed what I was working on all disappeared. It felt a bit demoralized. Overall I think the theme, puzzles, and graphics were top-notch but the hint system and creator expectations vs actual user thought process was misaligned and needs a few tweaks. Ashleigh M. & Keiran M. The game was visually very engaging. There was a nice variety of puzzle types that encouraged collaboration among teammates. Overall, it did a good job of simulating the reward of the "unlocking" experience that you would find in an in-person escape room. Even accounting for some stumbles along the way, completing the puzzle in the time allotted was challenging but realistic. (If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!) Disclosure: We thank Dave Escape Rooms for providing us with a sample of the game. Although complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #ESCAPETHEROOMers #AtHomeGames #EscapeRooms #DaveEscapeRooms #RitasCultFollowing #DigitalEscapeGames #Horror #Thriller #cults #Mystery #OnlineEscape

Photos provided by Top Escape Rooms Company: Top Escape Rooms Game: The Dentist Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧 Language: English Type of Game: Digital Escape Game 💻 Genre: Detective Date Played: 3/24/2021 Difficulty (based on 4 players): 6/10 Size of Team: Up to 6 Devices Time: Expires 72 Hours after clicking "start" (Suggested game time 90-120min) Price: £20.00 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Elise needs your help. Her friend Neville had gone to the dentist awhile ago but hasn't returned. There are rumors going around town that this new dentist is up to no good. Do you dare to venture into his office to see what he's been up to? 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 This is a point-n-click style game build with the digital platform Telescape. You'll be able to see all your teammate's cursors and the game will be synced for the entire game play. If one player inputs a correct code, it'll unlock the item for the rest of the players. All the teammates will be able to see the items that were picked up by each other in the inventory bag. We've played many games in Telescape now. There's a lot of ways various companies thought of using when they have to combine two items in the game. For instance if you have a lock and a key, how would you get the key in the inventory to that lock? Some companies asks the players to input two words together to combine the two items where as others do not use the input word method at all. We think the second option of "click and drag" is more immersive and cleaner in the interface. This game added an additional option to that. Instead of just having the item appear at where you'll need to use it, you are presented with two options of where the item could be used. This added an additional puzzle to the game since you could potentially choose the wrong area to use the item. It took us awhile to get use this game design. After a few tries, we figured out the best way to do this is to have one player in the inventory box clicking on the options awhile another player "stands" at where we would potentially try the option on. It felt nice to have that team collaborative moment. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 There were a good amount of "search and find" used in this game. If you do decide to play this as a larger team (we recommend no more than 4), it's good to know that the puzzles were non-linear so we're able to divide and conquer quite easily. As we were all experienced puzzlers, we finished the game in 54 minutes or so with a group of 4. The creator did add in a few red herring items in the game since if you only give clickability on the items that were needed for the puzzles, it would have made the game too easy. It was also nice to be able to roam around the virtual space in various rooms to notice that something you solved in this room could be used elsewhere. This bought back some memories of us playing in physical escape rooms. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 One thing I felt like the game lacked was a story line. As we're solving puzzles and unlocking locks, it just led to more puzzles. I could sense that something bad happened to Neville but I wasn't able to piece what we found with regards to his disappearance. Other than that, it was an enjoyable online adventure with our team. There were many cooperative puzzles that we're able to do together but thanks to this game, I'm even more scared to go to the dentist now! 𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤❜ ℙ.𝕀.𝕤❜ 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤 RJ G. Pros Elegant use of the Telescape system High puzzle density Unique dentist theme Cons The final puzzle felt a bit unfinished This online escape game is a perfect example of a real escape converted to online done right. The puzzles all translated well and the user interface was carefully built for ease of use in the Telescape system. Small touches like color coding colored lock interfaces went a long way in making the experience feel much more real. Even as someone who doesn't fear dentists, the theme evoked some eerie dread. There is no shortage of teeth in this game. Most notably was the sheer volume of puzzles and interactions. Even with four people there was constant discovery and solving by everyone. The non-linear nature and information overload also simulated an in person escape room. Everyone was forced to work together as if we were in a real escape room. Although none of the puzzles were highly challenging, the quantity of puzzles didn't sacrifice their quality. Most of the puzzles were well done and satisfying to solve. Overall this escape room converted to online is a blast and I would highly recommend it to anyone, but especially to those people who are looking for the real escape room feel that is hard to find in the pandemic. Mike S. The Dentist: Online is a virtual game of a brick and mortar escape room in the UK. The team gets a request to go and investigate what has taken our friend so long at the dentist. What follows is an investigative mystery to deduce where our friend is and why the doctors patients keep disappearing. The game interface was intuitive but there were issues with lag when heading into doors and using keys. The inventory of the game was represented by a red bag and in order to access it you had to find it in each room. If one needed to use items from the inventory, the game would give you indications of what to do with each item. The use of the online game system was not an issue. This room was themed around dentistry. Walking into the waiting room actually felt like walking into a dentist’s waiting room, it was underwhelming. There is everything you expect to find in a waiting room, from the kids entertainment, to the secretaries desk, and blank walls with teeth and smile posters, and this was the most well decorated room. The rest of the experience was an office space with less and less decoration. For a fantastical game about a “murderous” dentist, it keeps the theme in the real world. The puzzles are what you would expect to see in an escape room. They do fit with the theming but most of the solutions are entered into locks. Locks are in abundance in this game, so right from the start, the group is searching for number codes upon letter codes, all hidden in the dentist's office. The puzzles start to get a bit more physical the further you progress through the room but it doesn’t take away the “enter code into lock” mentality. The game was well put together from a puzzle standpoint and most of them our team was able to follow the logic behind. The room space looked barren and uncostly through most of the experience and thus was unable to transport our beliefs into this story world. (If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!) Disclosure: We thank Top Escape Rooms for providing us with a sample of the game. Although complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #ESCAPETHEROOMers #AtHomeGames #EscapeRooms #TopEscapeRooms #TheDentist #DigitalEscapeGames #Horror #Thriller #dentist #Mystery #OnlineEscape

Photo above is property of Top Escape Rooms Company: Top Escape Rooms Game: No Place Like Gnome Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧 Language: English Type of Game: Digital Escape Game 💻 Genre: Adventure, Fun Date Played: April 23, 2022 Difficulty (based on 4 players): 6/10 Size of Team: Up to 6 Devices Time: Expires 72 Hours after clicking "start" Price: £20.00 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Mr. Cooper loves his gnomes, but he does not appreciate people taking his favourite gnome, ‘Arthur’, away to far-away places. They even have the cheek to send him postcards of where Arthur heads to! Therefore, Mr Cooper has found it absolutely necessary to hide Arthur away. The truth is, Arthur really enjoys these trips around the world and wants to escape to his new adventure. Can you find Arthur and fulfill his globetrotting dreams? 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 The gameplay for "No Place Like Gnome" is offered on Telescape, a 360-degree platform where players are digitally placed in an Escape Room itself. Clickable items in this room present locks, puzzles, and relevant room materials to be added into the team’s shared inventory for later. While you and your team progress, you also realise that more than one of you can work on one puzzle - we solved quite a few locks just with a few players looking at different parts of the room at once. Instructions on "how to play the game" appear after the game’s introductory video, and could be accessed in the shared inventory or settings anytime during the game. Another point to take note of, is the possibility of movement and video lag. Telescape plays video clips across all team members’ screens every time there's a reveal based on the first member of the team to solve its trigger puzzle. Should you be playing this game as a team, communicate your movements or progress frequently - and take note on not clicking too fast! "No Place Like Gnome" also makes use of video clips to showcase how parts of the room activate, marking the completion or progress of a certain aspect of the game. According to the room’s website, the recommended playtime for this game would be 90 minutes for 4 experienced players, and 120 minutes for 4 non-experienced players. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 In order to progress through the game, you and/or your team will need to search for clues and puzzle parts for various areas of the room. Therefore, it would be helpful to have something available to take notes on and/or communicate frequently with your team so that you can pool your resources together to try out solutions on a possible lock on the other side of the room. This game is also self-contained, so there is no need for any external searches on the Internet or prior general knowledge required for puzzle solving. A good thing about the game is that it also showcases a shared inventory of what the team has collected, together with how many items in specific categories have been collected. Therefore, members who are lost, would like to keep track of the team’s progress, or take a reminder of the game’s instructions, can refer to the game’s inventory and settings. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 If your favourite escape room team mates are often separated geographically or you just want to attempt a room from the comfort of your own home(s) but still experience being in an escape room environment, then this game is a possible option. Interacting with a combination of animations, videos, and photos, "No Place Like Gnome" is a fun, family-friendly real escape game for those looking for an online searching adventure. (If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!) Disclosure: We thank Top Escape Rooms for providing us with a sample of the game. Although complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #JoelynAlexandra #AtHomeGames #DigitalEscapeGames #PointNClick #TopEscapeRooms #Christmas #Telescape #Fun

Video/Photos provided by Hourglass Escapes Company: Hourglass Escapes Game: Rise of the Mad Pharaoh Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Remote Escape Room 🗣 Genre: Adventure Date Played: 11/10/2020 Difficulty (based on 6 players): 5.5/10 Size of Team: 3-6 players Time: 60 Minutes Price: $33.33 pp (1-3 players)/ $30.00 pp (4-6 players) 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Dr. Carter has been trapped by an evil curse by the mad mummy during his journey in Egypt. It's up to you and your team of specialists to set him free and destroy the evil Pharaoh. 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 We've done immersive theater experiences before when we had to dress up as a character but this is the first time we had to do it for an remote escape room. It was quite exciting as there were 6 characters to chose from. If you have less players, one player will just have to take on more roles. The player packet will be emailed to you after you book the game. The leader should either let your team pick the role they want or assign the role prior to game day. It was a lot of fun for us to dress up according to the character sheet, set up our Zoom with the background provided and transform ourselves into that character's personality. I was the CIA codebreaker but rather than going the nerdy route, I went with a more "cool" look. So definitely add your own flavor to it and just have fun! As the game does introduce various videos throughout the experience, it would be best for each player to play the game with headphones. After the initial intro video, we were joined as a team in Telescape. Just like in a regular remote escape room, we're able to ask the avatar to open, unlock and reveal items throughout the game. The difference with this game is the innovative ideas that's implemented into the inventory portal (Telescape). Each player has a different color and sound that's associated with their character. Every time when an item was discovered, it was only send to the "working station" of the character that pertained to that item. For instance, when we found a map piece it was send to the Cartographer only. As a player, you're able to enter the workspace of another player if you like to help them solve the puzzle at their station but you also have an option to sit back and only work on the puzzle in your station if you chose so. I really enjoyed this type of play since there are games where I felt like my character didn't have much to do but others were too busy. This style of play also gives the player who doesn't want to do much but just sit back and watch others play an option to do so. I must give props to the avatar, Seth, for being able to remember which puzzle piece goes to which character as he'll have to send them manually as we discovered them. It was impressive that the items went away immediately from the inventory as we solved the puzzle. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The entire set design and puzzles were revolved around a mysterious sarcophagus that's placed in the center of the room. We were amazed by the secrets that's hidden within. Every time we thought we've discovered everything it had to offer, a new secret would unveil. The puzzles were designed with the mindset of incorporating the different characters in the game. The codebreaker received items that they had to decode, antiquarian received antiques that he/she had to analyze, cartographer received maps to trace, etc...Every player had their moment to shine and contribute to the game. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 This game was definitely one of our favorite remote escape rooms so far. The puzzles translated well in terms online play and Hourglass was able to use Telescape too create a brand new experience in the remote escape room realm that we've never experienced before. We really enjoyed the role playing idea and the interactive team effort within Telescape. It's great to see that Hourglass was able to utilize their creativity to formulate these entertaining ideas for the online play to make up for the fact that we can't play it in person. If you think you have what it takes to save the doctor from the evil mummy, round up your team now! *** This game can no longer be booked as a remote game but can still be booked as an in-person experience *** (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 Hourglass Escapes for comping our tickets for this game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #AtHomeGames #EscapeRooms #HourglassEscapes #RiseoftheMadPharaoh #RemoteEscapeRoom #Avatar #adventure #horror #ESCAPETHEROOMers #escape

Photo above is property of Hourglass Escapes Company: Hourglass Escapes Game: The Road to Innsmouth Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Digital Escape Game 💻 Genre: Supernatural Date Played: March 4, 2023 Difficulty (based on 2 players): 5.5/10 Size of Team: 1-4 Players (Ages 13+) Time: Unlimited (Approximately 2 Hrs.) Price: $29.99 (Anytime), $39.99 (Deluxe) 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Your journey begins on an eerie night when the main character, Stella Clark woke up on a bus. The bus is speeding down a pitch dark road when all of a sudden you realize that it's the road to Innsmouth. Where is that? What can you expect to encounter there? The adventure begins NOW... Video above is the property of Hourglass Escapes 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ The game can be purchased as an "anytime" version for $29.99 or for just $10 more, you can receive the "Deluxe" version. The "anytime" version can be played online as a digital point-n-click game with multiple players. The "Deluxe" version (which is what this review will be based on) will come with a physical game box containing collectible artifacts. It also allows repeated play-throughs of the game versus the "anytime" version which will only allow a one-time play-through. The "Deluxe" version's game box contains a map of Innsmouth, a key and key fob to Gilman House Hotel, a strange membership card, a metal coin, a curious postcard, a worn ticket, an aged bookmark, a color poster, and finally an ancient totem. If you are a player that likes visuals and physical items (especially if you are into collectibles), the deluxe is definitely worth the add-on. Photos above are properties of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 If you have the "anytime" version of the game, the entire game will be played as a "point-n-click". The game is compatible with MAC or PC. The main player will share a website with the other players so they will be able to navigate the game together. If you have the "Deluxe" version, you'll also be able to have props that you see in the digital game right in front of you. It did come in handle a couple of times where we didn't need to zoom into the screen to see the map and for some puzzles, we're able to manipulate the actual paper versus seeing it automatically unfold on the screen. It was very easy to navigate using a mouse on this platform (Telescape) as we were able to collect items and utilize them from our inventory bag whenever they were needed. We also love that the game had an auto-save function in case we wanted to take a break and return to the game another time as the game could take up to 2-3.5 hours to complete. Photos above are properties of Hourglass Escapes 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The creators really took in the environment that we were in (the creepy town of Innsmouth) and utilized everything they could think of in terms of what could potentially be in this strange world in terms of props and set design and turned them into creative puzzle ideas. Most of the puzzles were linear as the game does want you to follow the path of the story. The game allows players to roam around and click on different things but if an item was triggered or a puzzle was solved, everyone will be bought back together so they won't miss out on an awesome reveal. We also appreciated the fact that the design team was very considerate of puzzles that involved sound (there were none) or color and always had an alternative way of solving them. Our favorite puzzle was the one at the end. It was when we realized that everything we had done so far had a meaning and that everything we collected was utilized in some way. It definitely bought out some elements of an escape room for sure. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 The graphics and sound were amazing in this game. Although we were not there in person, we felt like we were. From the eyes and ears of Stella, we experienced Innsmouth with fear, curiosity, and excitement. The story was very intriguing but the added puzzle elements made the game ten times better. Every time we solved something and entered a different area of the game, it felt like a new chapter. We really didn't want it to end. Although the finale did have a hint of "part 2" vibe to it? I, for one, would love to journey on to wherever the next chapter of this adventure would take me to! But for now, we highly recommend that you check out this game especially if you love Sci-fi and mystery! Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of these game: Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers (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 Hourglass Escapes 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. #CiciCao #AtHomeGames #DigitalGames #PointNClick #Supernatural #HourglassEscapes #ArkhamHorror #Seattle #Washington #Telescape

Photo above is property of Hourglass Escapes Company: Puzzle Effect & Hourglass Escapes Game: NOVA Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Digital Escape Game W/ GM 💻 Genre: Sci-Fi Date Played: August 21, 2021 Difficulty (based on 7 players): 6.5/10 Size of Team: 1-6 Players (Ages 13+) Time: 90 Minutes Price: $25.00 USD 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Your ship has been damaged by the asteroid storm. We must repair the ship ASAP as you're our last hope to initiate the NOVA seed. Without the seed, our colonists will run out of oxygen and food in a matter of months... 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 This game was designed to host large groups of players as teams will be broken into breakout rooms after their initial debriefing in the Zoom lobby. We had a team of 7 and after a quick intro video, our GM divided us into 2 breakout rooms with a team of 3 versus 4. The game is to be played in a digital platform called Telescape. The entire game is played as a point-n-click game. Players are able to see each other's cursors and work on various puzzles together or separately. The game is synced so if your teammate opens something, your game will also be updated. The GM will only interfere if you need tech or puzzle assistance. The interface is really easy to use and we felt that 3 people per room is the magic number. There's puzzles where it's actually better with less hands on deck as the toggles are quite sensitive so if everyone presses them at the same time, it might actually change an input that was initially correct. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 We really enjoyed the variations of difficulty and types of puzzles this game bought to the table. There were some that were quite easy to spot and others that required multi-step process. If your group has a mixture of beginners and advanced players, there'll be a puzzle for everyone. The graphics went really well with the theme of the game and the puzzles themselves. It felt like we're reading encrypted messages and repairing ship parts in outer space. The creator designed this game with team building in mind. The puzzles are not linear so a group of players can work on separate puzzles but there are plenty of puzzles that they can work on together as well. Commination is key in this game as you'll need to let you your teammates know what has been done and what else is left to do. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 Our team of three finished the game 10 minutes quicker than the team of four. As enthusiasts, it's like a shark feeding frenzy when we see puzzles. Everyone wants to be the one who opens the lock and solves the puzzle first. In this game, it's actually counterproductive. In situations where an answer need to be entered, I would advise choosing a dedicated leader to do the clicking. The rest of the team can just give advise or shoutout the answer. Whether you play this game in a leisure way or competitive way, it's all lead to the same result: FUN! ** Live-Hosted game is no longer available. Only digital game is available for purchase. (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 Hourglass Escapes & Puzzle Effect for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #CiciCao #AtHomeGames #DigitalGame #PuzzleEffect #HourglassEscapes #SciFi #Telescape #PointNClick

Video/Photos provided by Hourglass Escapes Company: Hourglass Escapes Game: Rise of the Mad Pharaoh Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Digital Escape Game 💻 Genre: Adventure Date Played: 6/15/2021 Difficulty (based on 4 players): 5.5/10 Size of Team: 1-6 players (Ages 13+) Time: 90 Minutes Price: $14.99/Team 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Dr. Carter has been trapped by an evil curse by the mad mummy during his journey in Egypt. It's up to you and your team of specialists to set him free and destroy the evil Pharaoh. 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 This is a point-n-click game using the Telescape platform. This game has a build-in video conferencing feature which make it really convenient for our team since we didn't need to organize our own video conference. If you've played their remote or in person "Rise of the Mad Pharaoh" then the puzzles will be the same. If you haven't, this is a less costly option but equally as fun. The game can be played as a one person or up to 6 players. Ideally, if you had 6 players, each player could be assigned a role. If you like to play this the cooperative way then each player will have their own "puzzle space" according to their character (Cartographer, Egyptologist, Cultist, CIA Codebreaker, Antiquarian, and Poet). It's best to assign each player a role prior to start of the game. Since we played it with a team of 4, two of us had two roles. If you wanted to play the game the fair way then just stick in your "puzzle station". You'll know when your part is needed when it comes to solving a certain puzzle. This is a really clever way to allow every player to contribute to the game. Moreover, if you know what you're good at (for instance decoding). then you should choose the role that will you a "hero" during the game. One other big difference we noticed in this game is that the inventory system is more reasonably attached in locations where we'll need the items instead of just randomly placed in the room. This made the play experience a lot smoother instead of having to toggle in and out of the inventory bag. If you needed hints, there's a typewriter that clearly says "clues" on the table. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The puzzles were made easier in this digital game versus the remote version with live avatar. When you found items, it'll automatically be send to the location that you'll need those pieces for a certain puzzle. Although the puzzles felt easier, there's still a lot to do in this game. Even though we've played it before, we still have to rethink about how to solve a few of the puzzles. The game play was really smooth from beginning to end and every player felt like they've completed something during the game. We loved solving things on our own but the game also provided moments where we would join forces as a team. The puzzles, set design and props all stuck to the Egyptian theme. The added music also added to the immersion factor as we really felt like we've transferred ourselves into our designated roles. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 Rise of the Mad Pharaoh brought the digital game category to another level for us. The funny puns in the intro and end video (narrated by Yuri Lowenthal, the voice of Peter Parker and Spiderman), the user friendly interface, the cooperative element in puzzle design really made this game stand out from the rest. For the price, I would recommend this game in a heart beat. Are you ready to embark on this adventure? (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 Hourglass Escapes for comping our tickets for this game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #AtHomeGames #EscapeRooms #HourglassEscapes #RiseoftheMadPharaoh #DigitalEscapeGame #PointandClick #TombRaider #IndianaJones #Uncharted #NathanDrake #adventure #Mayan #Tomb #Pharaoh #Sphinx #Museum #ESCAPETHEROOMers

Photos provided by Hourglass Escapes Company: Hourglass Escapes Game: The Navigators and the Call from Beyond Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Digital Escape Game 💻 Genre: Sci-Fi Date Played: 3/17/2021 Difficulty (based on 4 players): 4/10 Size of Team: Up to 4 Players Time: You have 24 hrs after initial use of game code Price: $15.99 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 It's a dream come true! You and your friends won a tour of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory facility in California! Right when you're about to explore the facility, a strange call from beyond disrupted all your plans... 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 This is a digital game designed in the Telescape platform. We found that the best way to play this game was to assemble a team of 4 and host the game with any online conference platform. We assigned each player with a number at the beginning of the game. Since each puzzle set had 4 puzzles, we each solved the number that was designated to our station. The graphics had a sci-fi vibe and were beautifully designed to make us feel like we're traveling in space. We enjoyed the options presented with this game of either playing as a cooperative team or as solo players. When one of us was done with our puzzle, if another needed help, we could easily "hop over" to their screen to check out what he/she was working on. It was nice to have your own "working station" but also able to seek for assistance quite conveniently. The narrative was a bit unclear but it seemed like the focus on the game wasn't really on that. The game started right away for some but for others there was a delay in the intro video. We started solving puzzles right away and quickly forgot about the reasoning behind the mission. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The puzzle were not so difficult and mostly felt like mini single-step ones. We didn't mind that at all as they were creative, fit the theme and fun to solve. At one point, we also had to work together as a group to inform a member what we were seeing on our screen in order to help he/she figure out the final situation. That was really cool and definitely strengthened the team building aspect of the game. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 Other than the cool graphics, sound effects, and interactive puzzles, you might want to listen carefully to the narrative voices! Perhaps you'll realize that one might sound like the actor Yuri Lowenthal (voice of Peter Parker and Spider-Man)! Moreover, what's a good "movie" without a post-credit scene? Definitely stay for that after party and celebrate your victory! 𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤❜ ℙ.𝕀.𝕤❜ 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤 Matt L. & Jess A.. This game went so quickly! We’re not really sure what the narrative was… It was definitely space themed though, and there were some nice pop culture references. Graphically, the 50s sci-fi style was cool and it was well executed through the web portal. We all seemed to see the intro video at different times, which probably didn’t help in deciphering the story. Also, picking the player numbers at the start could have been clearer. It gave the impression that we had been assigned as certain players, but the colours didn’t exactly match our pointers. If you’re player one be careful not to accidentally click the clue button every time you want to open your puzzle. Not that hints come immediately, but it is a bit panic inducing! We liked the four separate puzzle mechanic but wished there were a few more instances where we needed to work together. For us the game felt most fun when we had to team up to solve, rather than simply input information from another player. Some puzzles seemed to outweigh others and be extra complicated. As we said before, it was a quick, pacey game, but not sure if that came from the story/puzzles or just the pressure of being separated, but either way we had fun. Oh, and Matt liked the music video at the end (even if it had nothing to do with the game). (If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!) Disclosure: We thank Hourglass Escapes for providing us with a sample of the game. Although complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #ESCAPETHEROOMers #AtHomeGames #EscapeRooms #HourglassEscapes #TheNavigatorsandtheCallfromBeyond #TheNavigators #DigitalEscapeGames #Scifi #Mystery #OnlineEscape #newgame #telescape

Videos/ Photos provided by TheRooms.eu Company: TheRooms.eu Country: Slovakia 🇸🇰 Language: English Type of Game: Digital Escape Game 💻 Date Played: 3/6/2021 Time: 60-90 Minutes (Approximately) Price: €25/ team 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 All three games in the below review are played in an online platform called "Telescape". These games are all digital point-n-click type games. Once you purchase the game, you'll be given a link to be shared with your group. Once all members are signed in, you can click "START". You'll have 48 hours to complete the game after this. All the games seem to be translated from physical escape rooms. Our favorite was the set design of Tutankhamun. There's so such space to explore and lots of "treasures" to be found. Every game had an inventory bag where if one player found an item and clicked on it, it'll be send to this central hub. From there, all players were able to see this item. During the game you'll encounter three ways to unlock certain items: 1. enter code in the "reveal" bar 2. rotate codes on actual locks 3. combine words of various items together to trigger something. It might take some time get use to Telescape if you haven't used it before. If one player opens something, it'll unlock for everybody. Overall, the interface is quite easy to use and if you get stuck, there are build-in walkthrough videos in game. We still prefer the old style text nudging hints as you don't quite get how some puzzles were solved and if it's a pattern clicking puzzle, it's quite difficult to see exactly what's been clicked in order to solve the puzzle. Also when watching the walkthroughs, you might accidentally drag it too far and detect unwanted spoilers. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 We played all three games back to back so we're glad to be able to experience variations in puzzle types. In the "House of Escobar" game, our mission was to find information on the 3 fugitives and capture them before it's too late. Inside Pablo's house, we're able to find items that gave us clues on the whereabouts of these criminals. It felt like we were special agents on site looking for evidence. There was one puzzle that we didn't fully understand and had to use a hint to bypass it. The audio puzzle was quite heavy on the accents so it took several tries for us to complete it. We did like the secret reveals done by the combination of the items. Out of the three games, this one was probably the easiest in terms of difficulty. "Ministry of Magic - Part I" had a very different vibe than the previous game. We were suddenly in a magical forest. There were many creatures and areas to explore. The game play was quite smooth until we got stumped on a counting puzzle. We weren't sure if certain creatures were supposed to be counted or if those were the actual creatures. We had to use a hint to bypass this puzzle. In the latter part of the game, we also got stuck on an audio puzzle. For some reason the audio didn't play and there was no other way to move forward other than using a hint to bypass it. One other puzzle also had a very particular way of combining certain items and without a clue, we would've never thought that we were supposed to complete it that way. This game was the least favorite of ours due to the bugs in the game. Usually I'm a big fan of "Harry Potter"/magic type of games. If they're able to fix some of these issues, this could become more magical. We look forward to seeing Part II. I did enjoy the cliffhanger ending. "Tutankhamun" was probably our favorite out of the three. In terms of the amount of puzzles, this game probably had the most. It was also the most difficult one out of the three. We had to work through riddles, decryption, and a lot of "search and find". We didn't mind the search and find with a team of 4 as it actually went well with the theme and we felt like we're archeologists excavating a dig site. There were several "wow" moments during the game after we combined particular items together. Game: House of Escobar Genre: Mission/ Adventure Difficulty (based on 4 players): 4.5/10 Size of Team: 2-6 Players (Recommended) 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 You are on the DEA anti-drug task force. You have a very important mission this time. There are 3 dangerous drug lords (including the infamous Pablo Escobar) currently on the run. Will you be able to find them before they go into hiding again? 𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤❜ ℙ.𝕀.𝕤❜ 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤 Andrew K. I had the pleasure of tackling the House of Escobar and I had a great time. This was my first experience using the Telescape platform, and was impressed. In this escape room, you are offered a 360* view of the actual escape room. You are able to look in all directions, and your mouse cursor is able to interact with different pieces and elements of the rooms. Most objects are still, but there are a few items that can be moved around via some animations which is quite fun. There were a lot of fun and creative puzzles throughout the room, and it did not feel too linear. There was enough for the four players to do, and we were able to work on different puzzles independently. The embedded videos, inventory suitcase, and digital elements were well-integrated, and it was definitely a satisfying experience. ______________________________________________________________ Kobi R. TheRooms uses Telescape as the platform for their remote escape rooms. It's a really intuitive platform and easy to use. One small quirk - every time you leave and enter a space, the entire team hears a sound. For nonlinear rooms, this could be a bit irritating. The Escobar room was nonlinear so it was great to work in parallel as a team. I felt that some codes and riddles didn't have too many options, allowing you to just guess the answer. Other than that, the story feels pretty comprehensive and made sense. It wasn't the most theme focused experience but it was enough to feel the general vibes. I would recommend this room for beginners and mid-level escapers. Experienced escapers would probably not enjoy this as much. Game: Ministry of Magic - Part 1 Genre: Magic/ Fantasy Difficulty (based on 4 players): 6/10 Size of Team: 1-4 Players (Recommended) 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 It seems like He Who Must Not Be Named is planning something evil again. Our only chance at winning this battle is to retrieve a memory from a Death Eater to know of his plans. There's no option to fail! 𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤❜ ℙ.𝕀.𝕤❜ 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤 Helen B. The Ministry of Magic was a room type I hadn't tried yet - a real physical escape room, captured and digitized with an interface that allows you to move around it and interact with the items. It is also the first I have seen where all players are collaboratively moving around the same interface, watching what happens between you rather than all solving alone. There is also an inventory where things you collect as a team can be found, which is a clever way to go about it - I did find hunting for it by my feet tricky at times though! The room design is brilliant - I'm a Harry Potter fan so it appealed - very mythical and almost spooky - with sound effects when going in for close-ups of some items. There were some great mechanics at work - different interaction types and ways of solving puzzles - however the aforementioned sound effects are crucial to the solving of some puzzles so it is strongly advised for all to listen and use headphones when playing. We started strong, but came unstuck one puzzle that requires counting - it was not all that obvious and we ended up using the hint to progress. The same thing happened when we came to open a door where we think a vital clue we needed to hear was not operating correctly, meaning we had to see the answer to carry on. A couple of irks - one was that some zoomed in versions of clickable areas did not look the same as they did before being clicked on so threw you a little, plus if items have been added or collected from areas then in the zoomed out view this does not update, meaning you can miss some activities that have been completed. One puzzle where items are combined did not seem to work On the whole though a very entertaining time spent hunting around this room, enjoying the feeling of being in a digital room WITH people, as you can see their cursors moving around, and much more reflective of a real-life room, where you can all be working on separate tasks to progress. Would be interested to see what is through the door into part 2!!! ______________________________________________________________ Jorge L. Ministry of Magic was a nice point and click adventure that truly stuck to its theme of magic and wizardry. The game is mostly a 360 image of their physical room, but contained enough puzzles to keep us busy for the entire hour. All of the visuals and puzzles flowed well and it was easy for our team of four to work together and chat about what we were finding. The hint system was also great, as we got stuck at one or two spots and it was easy to follow on how to progress. Game: Tutankhamun Genre: Adventure Difficulty (based on 5 players): 7/10 Size of Team: 1-4 Players (Recommended) 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 It is the year 1922. You and your fellow archeologists have just made the biggest discovery of your lives. You've found the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Would you be able to retrieve the secrets within or will they die with you in the tomb? 𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤❜ ℙ.𝕀.𝕤❜ 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤 Ryann S. I’m new to this exact style of virtual escape room and, ultimately, I’m just not sure the format itself is for me. One of the biggest struggles for me is in something that others might enjoy, so it’s worth seeing if the format does meet your likes! Because my teammates and I were able to independently work on different puzzles at the same time, I often found myself getting lost at what was going on overall and felt disconnected from the group aspect that I enjoy of escape rooms. This also hurt any storyline that was going on for me. During my playthrough with ETR, I eventually completed two puzzles that we had started on as a group (then temporarily abandoned when they weren’t working out as readily.) While I definitely felt some sense of accomplishment at solving the puzzles, I have to admit that I never exactly felt confident about what I was doing. [At least one of the solutions was a total guess on my part.] This also meant that my teammates both found and solved entire puzzles that I never experienced! Bummer. Overall, the ability for my teammates and I to connect across the world and play a game in a third country entirely is awesome! I enjoyed the theme of the stuck-in-an-Egyptian-tomb room and thought that the room itself looked really well-decorated and full of mystery. Ultimately, however, some of the magic of real-time team adventures was just lost for me while I felt like I spend almost half of my time clicking on a 2D representation of the room, trying to find some area of it that would lead to a discovery or a puzzle-solve. Clearly, this is absolutely a personal preference and may appeal to a whole audience of folks who want a more relaxed environment where they can explore at their own pace. Would I give this style of room a second try? Totally. Now, I’ll have a better idea of what to expect. ______________________________________________________________ Yoni Y. The graphics are very good, and successfully animates a real life 360’ escape room (actually, we played a physical room with very similar decoration). The co-operation between the team members is done nicely - you can see named cursors wherever the other player is pointing. Since the solving is done together, the game can, very easily, become a little chaotic, with one player putting a puzzle part in one place and another player moving it elsewhere, and sound effects are heard simultaneously. It wasn’t always clear that a puzzle was solved successfully, so more than once we found ourselves puzzled about what we have already solved and what is still waiting. The riddles were challenging, though some of them have very loose connection to the pharaohs & pyramids theme. Also, there were tedious translation tasks which we could have done without. The overall experience was close to a real life escape room, but unfortunately, not an outstanding one. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 From being a secret agent to a wizard to an archeologist, TheRooms.eu sure knows how to keep the players entertained. If you don't like these three themes, they've already came with 2 other games. The amount of spaces for us to explore in these games was really impressive. We can't imagine what it would be like to play these games in person. Hopefully we'll bring you more reviews from their games as they seem to be developing these quite quickly! (If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!) Disclosure: We thank TheRooms.eu for providing us with a sample of the game. Although complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #ESCAPETHEROOMers #AtHomeGames #EscapeRooms #TheEscapeGame #TheRoomseu #HouseofEscobar #MinistryofMagicPart1 #Tutankhamun #DigitalEscapeGames #Fantasy #Holiday #NorthPole #SantaClaus #Christmas #Xmas #Scifi #Mystery #Murder #Detective #Mystery #Thriller #Solve #Train #Subway #NYCSubway

Videos/ Photos provided by TheRooms.eu Company: TheRooms.eu Country: Slovakia 🇸🇰 Type of Game: Digital Escape Game 💻 Size of Team: Unlimited (Recommended 1-4 Players) Time: Suggested play time, approx. 70 min (48hrs to finish the game once you've pressed "start") 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 Both of these games are played over a digital platform called Telescape. Once you enter the game as a group, you'll be able to see all the players' cursors. There'll be a quick instruction to teach you how to operate in the game. If you get stuck, there's a build-in hint system. The games contain 360 images with hotspots that you'll be able to click and interact with. The collected items will automatically be put into the inventory. The game is synced for all the players so everyone will be progressing at the same time. Both games have background music for ambience. This is quite nice to set the mood but it's too loud for groups that are trying to communicate during game play over video conferencing. We had to eventually mute the site but this created issues for puzzles that have an audio component. We hope the developer would come out with an alternative option for this soon. We suggest playing the game with one player sharing their screen. Since the puzzles are not linear and players are dispersed in the game play, there's always the case where some players have no idea if a puzzle or item have been used or not and at times they'll miss out on certain puzzles. By having one person share their screen hopefully this would act as a tutorial type of walkthrough for the rest of the players. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 "X-Mutants" had less puzzles than "Sherlocked - Part 1" game. It's probably why it's priced lower as well due to play time. We finished "X-Mutants" in around 35 minutes or so and could have probably finished much faster if it wasn't because we couldn't find an item that we needed for a certain puzzle. It was pretty hard to find and we eventually had to use a hint. "Sherlocked - Part 1" had a bit more puzzles for our team to do which bought our finish time to around 41 minutes. Both games had puzzles that we were able to interact with like gears. jigsaw, paper etc...For these types of puzzles, it's best to designate one clicker or else it gets quite confusing. Moreover, there's one function your team might need to get use to and that is combining trigger words in order for an action to happen. Some actions gave us a video which was really great as it was nice to be able to see how a hidden door or an item would operate in real life. But not all of them had a video so those without it caused some confusion for our group since we didn't know if we had input the right code as we had to search for new items or things that opened up. Most of the hotspots disappeared as we used them which felt very close to what we would experience in a real life escape room similar to items we would put away after they were used. There were still a few hotspots left in the "Sherlocked - Part 1" game that we are hoping the creator would be able to remove after our feedback. Game: X-Mutants Genre: Sci-Fi/ Adventure Language: English/German Date Played: 5/11/2021 Difficulty (based on 4 players): 4/10 Price: €16/ team 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 The Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters is in danger! Magneto wants to destroy Cerebro so he can use telepathy on the mutants to direct them to kill humans! You must hurry and stop him! 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 We're big Marvel fans so we're really excited to play this game. The set design was really cool. You have juggernaut breaking through the wall and dark phoenix on another. The way Cerebro was build was really creative too. I wish I could play this room in person. There were many secret reveals that would be a lot more fun to see in person than to see a recorded video. Perhaps it's because we completed various things on our own we ended up feeling like there were items that we never used. The final complain and a common complain for most enthusiast about a game is that the game felt too short and we didn't feel like there were enough things to do for 4 players. You might not need to assemble all the avengers for this game. Genre: Detective/ Mystery Language: English Date Played: 5/12/2021 Difficulty (based on 5 players): 5/10 Price: €25/ team 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 It is the year 1901 and the streets of London definitely does not feel safe. You are checking up on your friend Sherlock in 221b when you realized he's gone missing. Can you figure out his whereabouts from the clues left in his apartment? 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 It never gets old to be able to solve a case involving Sherlock. The set design took us into that 1900s Victorian as we step foot into his apartment. The props felt like they were all antiques. Too bad we couldn't play this room in person as operating on some of those props could be really fun. The puzzles were not linear so we each worked on something at the same time. The disadvantage of that is some players missed out on what happened to some of the puzzles. In the end we were still able to work on some puzzles together as a group. We do recommend wearing headsets for this game as there are a few things that involved audio. The ending felt kind of inconclusive. It would be great if we had a video to sum up the storyline. But I'm sucker for any type of cliffhanger so I'll be patiently waiting for part 2... 𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤 ℙ𝕒𝕥𝕣𝕠𝕟❜𝕤 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤 Melvin L. Sherlocked - Part 1 is played over Telescape. It is basically their real life escape game transited into an online platform. There is nothing much to say if you have used Telescape before. Different games have different functions implemented into Telescape. However, for this particular game: Pros : - You can see everyone's cursor and explore the 360 at your own pace. - If you find an object, it will appear in the inventory and everyone can see what you found Cons: - Communication is heavily recommended, so that players know where you have searched before and where you have not - When a puzzle is solved or an object is used, it disappears, so players might be confused about what happened - Just for this game, not Telescape in general, there were some bugs in the audio. Most of us couldn't hear the music but 1 of my teammates could. This wasn't one of the smoothest transitions from an escape room to Telescape. Not that it isn't fun, but there are so many options out there using Telescape and Online.Eu games are quite pricey. For the price, there wasn't any stand out moment in this game, so I would classify this as ' Worth a try' if you are running out of games to play online. Helen B. Another converted physical room game from TheRooms.eu using Telescape. You find yourself in Sherlock's room, full of vintage Victorian furniture and fittings - I wanted to just stop and admire all the objects rather than start solving! The puzzles are standard fare for a Telescape converted room - click on what you can, work out lock codes, find keys, combine codes to make things happen. One of the puzzles relies heavily on listening - so headphones are recommended, and you can choose whether to go off and solve puzzles alone or work around the room together. There was a really nice mix of things to do in the game and you are bound to find something that you like amongst their many themes. (If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!) Disclosure: We thank TheRooms.eu for providing us with a sample of the game. Although complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #ESCAPETHEROOMers #AtHomeGames #EscapeRooms #TheEscapeGame #TheRoomseu #XMutants #SherlockedPart1 #DigitalEscapeGames #Marvel #XMen #Mutants #Scifi #Adventure #Superhero #Mystery #Murder #Detective #Mystery #Thriller #Solve

Videos/ Photos provided by TheRooms.eu Company: TheRooms.eu Country: Slovakia 🇸🇰 Language: English Type of Game: Digital Escape Game 💻 Date Played: 5/16/2021 Time: Suggested play time, approx. 70 min (48hrs to finish the game once you've pressed "start") 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 All three games below are played over a digital platform called Telescape. Once you enter the game as a group, you'll be able to see all the players' cursors. There'll be a quick instruction to teach you how to operate the game. If you get stuck, there's a build-in hint system. The games contain 360 images with hotspots that you'll be able to click and interact with. The collected items will automatically be put into the inventory. The game is synced for all the players so everyone will be progressing at the same time. These games differed from the previous 2 games we've played in terms of the background ambience music. The pirate game was the only one that had it but was not so loud compared to the previous played games. Perhaps the developers took our suggestion and corrected this issue in these game. We played these games with one player sharing their screen. It really helped as it was easier for the rest of the players to follow along and not miss out on most of the puzzles. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 "Wonderland: Going Down" had a different take on how we're supposed to solve the puzzles. Other than the interactive "drag and drop" type of puzzles, we had to solve the puzzles by utilizing the items we've collected in a storybook. Only when we combined certain two items correctly would we receive an interactive video showing what was triggered by this action. We finished this game in around an hour. "Pirates - The Curse of the Living" and "DEA - Mission Colombia" used the similar method as their previous games for answer input. Once you figured out an answer, you'll need to type it in the answer bar at the bottom of the screen. The great thing about this is that all the players can try different answers on their own. The disadvantage is when they simultaneously enter an answer and one actually triggered something, we wouldn't know which answer was correct. For both of these games, you'll need to combine trigger words by typing them into the answer bar in order to activate something in the room. "Pirates - The Curse of the Living" had a lot more puzzles than DEA - Mission Colombia". We finished Pirates in about an hour (one counting puzzle in particular took a long time as we're not sure if partial images counted as well or not and there were too many variables) and were done with DEA in 35minutes or so. Both had some cool hidden elements that were well implemented to the online version although it would've been nice to be able to see them happen in real life. Game: Wonderland: Going Down Genre: Fantasy/ Sci-Fi Difficulty (based on 4 players): 5/10 Size of Team: 2-5 Players (Suggested) Price: €25/ team 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Looks like we're going to follow the White rabbit into a magical world. What could happen and who will be waiting for us? Game: Pirates - The Curse of the Living Genre: Pirates/ Adventure Difficulty (based on 4 players): 5/10 Size of Team: 1-4 Players (Suggested) Price: €25/ team 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 As captain Jack Sparrow boarded the cursed ship, your mission is to rid the Black Pearl's curse. Would you be able to do it in time or will the curse consume you as well? Game: DEA - Mission Colombia Genre: Detective/ Adventure Difficulty (based on 5 players): 5/10 Size of Team: 2-6 Players (Suggested) Price: €19/ team 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 As a special DEA agent, your mission this time is to capture all the big drug cartels in Colombia. This is a very dangerous mission. Are you ready? 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 What I like about these TheRooms.eu games is that they are all so different. Some games have an intro story and some are backstories told by a GM. One minute you're chasing a criminal and the next you are Alice in wonderland. Every time when we saw a cool reveal in video format, we were reminded of how awesome it would be to be able to play these games in real life. Since the puzzles were not too difficult, I would recommend doing these as marathons. For enthusiasts, it's more worth it to go for the longer games with more puzzles and play them with less people. Out of the three games above my favorite was probably "Wonderland: Going Down" for it's unique take on the narratives in combination with the puzzles. Now that we've played all 8 games from TheRooms.eu , my only question left is, are there more!?!?! Since all of these rooms are at their physical location, just how big is this company? 𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤 ℙ𝕒𝕥𝕣𝕠𝕟❜𝕤 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤 WOW! This is one complex and expansive escape room! The premise of hunting for Pablo Escobar was covered in their first room which we had also completed, and this follow up takes the story to the next level - hunting for his drug-running criminal friends. You take on the role of DEA agents and have to explore the room for clues and information. There is so much to do in this game - and so many fantastic interactive elements - it was definitely one of the ost broad and varying games I have played with TheRooms.eu, and involves a live-action twist I had not seen before, which was a really nice touch. The room(s) are superbly and vibrantly decorated and populated with all manner of items, some useful, some just decorative, but you really can't help but inspect everything as even if they are not crucial to solving the hunt, they are fascinating. The puzzles in this part are somewhat harder and more involved, however this time we used the trick of sharing one person's screen in our communication channel, meaning that if they came across something interesting, or there was a two-part puzzle that needed information from one place, we could watch the action whilst still exploring ourselves, rather than it just happening without us seeing. I often find with these Telescape games that the other team members have run off, found objects and solved puzzles without me even realising, which means you miss out on a lot of what has happened to get to where you are. It's nicer to be able to see what everyone is up to. The other thing that is a shame is that if an object has been found already, it is not removed from the scene, therefore I think I have stumbled upon a useful key or item, only to find it had already been "taken" and used minutes ago by someone else. If they could resolve this in Telescape games in future, that would be most beneficial. A theme maybe for older children and adults mainly, especially due to the nature of the puzzles too, but another enjoyable production by this company. (If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!) Disclosure: We thank TheRooms.eu for providing us with a sample of the game. Although complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #ESCAPETHEROOMers #AtHomeGames #EscapeRooms #TheEscapeGame #TheRoomseu #WonderlandGoingDown #PiratesTheCurseoftheLiving #DEAMissionColombia #DigitalEscapeGames #Fantasy #AliceInWonderland #SciFi #PiratesoftheCaribbean #JackSparrow #Narcs #Escobar #Mystery #Murder #Detective #Mystery #Thriller #Solve