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Videos/ Photos provided by YouEscape Company: YouEscape Game: #2: Elements Country: Greece 🇬🇷 Language: English/ Greek Type of Game: Live Stream Puzzles 💻 Genre: Science Date Played: 4/14/2021 Difficulty (based on 4 players): 7/10 Size of Team: Up to 4 Players Time: 70 Minutes Price: $30.00/ Game or join Patreon for more options 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 You and your team were on a mission when something went wrong. Your entire team is unconscious and lost in a forest. Your last hope is to be able to escape with a hot air balloon. Hopefully you'll be able to collect all the right items to launch it in time! 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 This is our fourth game with YouEscape. Check our reviews on #1 & #3 and #15 to find out more about their other games. We met on Zoom with our GM Nick, We were given an intro video of the backstory and a link to a Google Drive folder. In the folder, we received a series of documents in numbered order. Since most YouEscape games are quite challenging, these numbered documents really helped to keep with the steps we had to take to solve the puzzles and keep up with the game flow. It's meant to be played in this linear way so don't skip files as it'll just confuse yourselves. This time we had two locks we had to open along with some other items we had to interact with on the table. The entire play will be in front of a table and all you will be seeing is the GM's hands. There's not much verbal interaction with the GM besides when requiring hints or when instructing him to interact with the items on the table. The goal of this game is to figure out a way to inflate a balloon. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 Since the game play is linear, we worked on all the puzzles together as a team. It's great to be able to focus together for once and chat about different ideas for the same puzzle. The advantage to this type of game play is that no player will missing out on any of the puzzles. The disadvantage is that if we're stuck on a puzzle then we won't be able to anything else besides asking for a hint in order to move on. Nick was very helpful as he knows when to nudge us if he felt like we're very close or on the right track. For this game we were allowed 2 hints as it's on the easier side for a YouEscape game. This game had a mixture light math, observation and even some search and find on Google Maps. If you're not familiar on how to navigate Google maps, you might find it a bit difficult for one of the puzzles. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 We always have the same initial reaction when we're about to play a YouEscape game. How are the things on the table all connected with each other? Can we really use them to solve a puzzle? We really enjoyed this game as it didn't burn all our brain cells out and there's a closer feeling to "escaping" with the storyline and the props used. My favorite part is of course seeing that balloon rise at the end. I love Science when it works in its mysterious ways. 𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤 ℙ𝕒𝕥𝕣𝕠𝕟❜𝕤 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤 Kobi R. This was a fun game combining Google Drive and Physical components controlled by Nick the avatar/GM. Nick is great, his voice is soothing and he's really good as a Game Master. In terms of puzzles, this took a little adjusting in the beginning, I wasn't sure what we needed to use and how. This is a fairly linear experience, so Nick made sure we understand which part comes first. This mixture of online / physical remote components in a game is new to me and I still find it kind of strange. I'm probably old fashioned and think it should either be fully digital or fully remote-avatar. I would recommend trying it at least once. In terms of group size, this is one of their easier puzzles but the other chapters are supposed to be harder. For this one, I feel a 4 player group was stretching it and it would be a better fit for a couple. Melvin L. Youescape is a live stream puzzle game where you are shown a table of objects and/or padlocks. There will be a game master present and you are free to direct him to try any code you wish to try, or ask him to show you the objects in a closer view. In a way, this is similar to a remote escape room, but the main difference is this game loses its immersion factor. It is basically puzzle solving with the items given on the table. There is no set up/design to what you see in an escape room. There is a story, but the story is just something to fit it in, you will not feel like you are really trying 'to escape'. In order to solve the puzzles, some digital files will be provided for you to get the clues in order to solve the puzzles. Hence, it is a combination of digital aspects plus a remote aspect. However, with that being said, this does not mean this game is not fun. It is, in fact, opposite! I had so much fun playing this game. The puzzles were excellent, it is really about brain power rather than just 'searching' for stuff. There is nothing hidden! What you see in front of you is what you get, it's that simple. Therefore, you know that you have everything you need, it is just whether you can put them together. Although there were only three 'tasks' for us in this 70 minute game (we did #2 Elements), each task consists of multi-layered puzzles, so time flew past very quickly. There were also some creative and cool effects in the puzzles we encountered and all were equally satisfying when solved. I only wish that the creator could consider making this into a subscription box, similar to what other companies are doing. These items can be mailed to players and the digital files/codes can be used/keyed into a digital interface. It will omit the use of the game master and he is not really needed as he is basically just our 'hands' and all the items shown are actually easily duplicated, printed and mailed out. If so, I will definitely subscribe to it and look forward to a new game each month! Of course, I respect the creator for making this into a Live Steam format, but it's just to emphasize that I will readily jump on and subscribe if there is such a good quality subscription game out there like this. Overall, I had real fun with this game and I am sure everyone who likes solving puzzles will as well. The only people who will not like such games may be those that want to be immersed in the narrative rather than solving puzzles, or those who like to be inside a physical room and be amazed at the set up and design. If you are willing to drop these 2 expectations, you can be sure you will have a great time at YouEscape! (If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!) Disclosure: We thank YouEscape for comping our tickets for this game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #CiciCao #AtHomeGames #EscapeRooms #YouEscape #Elements #LiveHostedGames #LiveStreamPuzzles #Mystery #Potions #Science

Photos provided by YouEscape Company: YouEscape Game: #15 Wave-Particle Duality Country: Greece 🇬🇷 Language: English/ Greek Type of Game: Live Stream Puzzles 💻 Genre: Sci-Fi Date Played: 3/24/2021 Difficulty (based on 4 players): 9/10 Size of Team: Unlimited Time: 75 Minutes Price: $30.00/ Game or join Patreon 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 “In the world of the very small, where particle and wave aspects of reality are equally significant, things do not behave in any way that we can understand from our experience of the everyday world... all pictures are false, and there is no physical analogy we can make to understand what goes on inside atoms. Atoms behave like atoms, nothing else.” ― John Gribbin 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 If you've played YouEscape before, you should be quite familiar with their style of play. This is our third game with YouEscape (check out our review on "#1 Magnum Opus", and "#3 Electromagnetic Fields) and the format is the same as the others. You'll start off by meeting with your GM over Zoom. You'll be presented with a Google doc file and an intro video. After the intro video ends, the camera will be fixated in front of a table. The table will have a few props along with a few locked boxes. Your mission is to open those boxes to receive, hopefully, the "good ending" video. The Google Docs contained text files and images. You'll be led to certain websites and they will help you solve various puzzles. You shouldn't need any other websites besides the ones provided. There's not much interaction from the GM at all. Once the game starts, it's just going to be discussion amongst your group. If you need a hint, there'll be a total of three. If you run out of hints then tough luck, you'll probably be watching the "bad ending" video. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 Its been awhile since we felt challenged by a game. YouEscape gave us an overview of Quantum Mechanics in the short 75 minutes. Make sure you follow the numbered steps in the Google Drive. Hopefully that will pinpoint you to a starting point. Since all the puzzles were multi-step puzzles, we found that confirming the answer with the GM really helped us not go down any rabbit holes as there's no time to waste. There were a lot of tabs that had to be opened so make sure you close them after each cluster of puzzles as they do get confusing after awhile. Our favorite puzzle was when we're able to utilize our answers in the simulators. It was a sense of accomplishment to see the final results in "action". Our favorite part of the game was when we realized that our P.I. has one of the props in his home and since they had some knowledge on how it should work, they solved the puzzle in a blink of an eye. It was such a relief as it would have probably taken us awhile and I quite liked being a cheerleader on the side. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 This game is not for beginners. I used every single drop of my brain cells for this game. There were some serious calculations and simulations we had to run. Our team escaped with no hints and let's just say I'm glad our P.I.s were with us. If you are looking for a challenge and maybe a reminder of high school Physics and the theories behind various actions and reactions, this is the test you have to take. Bring some hardcore puzzlers if you want to ace the exam! Good luck. You're going to need it! 𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤❜ ℙ.𝕀.𝕤❜ 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤 Yoni Y. We really liked the concept of combining physical objects with internet assignments, though it could have been cooler if there were more physical elements to meddle with and investigate. The assignments were brilliant and original, with multi-stages. We felt that some of them were quite obscure and vague. Once you understand what you are supposed to do, everything seems easy, but until you figure it out, things can be a little frustrating. This game is recommended for experienced players, which love math and science, though no pre-knowledge is required. Recommend playing at least one other YouEscape game before this one, in order to get the feeling on how to approach the tasks. (If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!) Disclosure: We thank YouEscape for comping our tickets for this game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #CiciCao #AtHomeGames #EscapeRooms #YouEscape #LiveHostedGames #WaveParticleDuality #LiveStreamPuzzles #Mystery #Potions #Science

Videos/ Photos provided by YouEscape Company: YouEscape Country: Greece 🇬🇷 Language: English/ Greek Type of Game: Live Stream Puzzles 💻 Size of Team: Unlimited (Recommend 4-5 ppl) Price: $30.00/ team YouEscape currently have 13 live stream puzzles options. They are constantly working on adding new puzzles to their website. You can chose to play a single game or join them on a subscription bases. The puzzles are set up on a table. You'll not need to do any searching like in a remote escape room. Everything you need will be in front of the camera. The game master will be providing hints to you based on the level of difficult you chose. Every game is different in terms of how many hints could be provided for the different levels. We suggest you ask and chose accordingly before starting the game. Game: #1 Magnum Opus Genre: Fantasy Date Played: 6/22/2020 Difficulty (based on 2 players): 5.5/10 Time: 60 Minutes We were very excited to check out YouEscape as we've heard a lot about them through our friends. The owner suggested that we give room #1 "Magnum Opus" a try. The story line for this room was based on a vanished alchemist and we had to discover the mystery behind his disappearance. The live stream was hosted on Google Hangout. Our puzzles were displayed in front of us on a table. After some hesitation, we decided to go for the hard mode (you only live once!). For this game, hard mode means we'll be only getting two hints if we needed them. A google drive link with a few folders pertaining puzzle information was also sent to us prior to the start of the game. You can tell this format of the game was designed to appeal to puzzle lovers and enthusiasts. There weren't any "fancy" add ons like audio or visual effects. All the focus were on puzzle design. Most of the puzzles were also multi-step puzzles. We enjoyed this format more than we thought we would as we haven't done too many live stream puzzle type of games. As puzzle lovers ourselves, it was a well spent 35 minutes with our host, Nick. After the game, he informed us that the difficulty of the rooms does get harder as the room number goes up. We felt ready to take on the next challenge, or so we thought... Check out our thoughts on room 3 - "Electromagnetic Fields" below! Game: #3 Electromagnetic Fields Genre: Science Date Played: 6/23/2020 Difficulty (based on 4 players): 8.5/10 Time: 90 Minutes The name of the room "Electromagnetic Fields" made us feel like we needed back up. As this was also a harder room, we recruited our friends from Escape Room Adventurers to join us. Our mission was to fix the broken compass and find our way out of our own kingdom. The set up was exactly the same as the previous game. The only difference was the level of difficulty definitely went up. Although the amount of puzzles were the same, the steps to get to the solution increased. In the previous game, we had some two step puzzles where as in this game some took four or five steps. At times I felt like I was back in high school again taking a hard science exam. As the timer slowly runs down, I felt sweat in the palm of my hands. In my mind I was thinking: "Why didn't I pay attention in Physics class?" Although outside knowledge was not needed, I did feel that you do have a little advantage on one of the puzzles if you knew a few theories. Maybe its the theme of this room or the type of puzzles, but we found this one less engaging than the first game we tried. At the same time we felt like we just had a science class and learned a thing or two. Ultimately we escaped with a few minutes left on the clock with a small nudge. If this theme is not your cup of tea, YouEscape have 12 others for you to chose from (including a murder mystery)! (If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!) Disclosure: We thank YouEscape for comping our tickets for this game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #CiciCao #AtHomeGames #EscapeRooms #YouEscape #MagnumOpus #ElectromagneticFields #LiveHostedGames #LiveStreamPuzzles #Mystery #Potions #Science

Photo above is property of Know Escape Online Company: Know Escape Online Games: The Curse of Emma Rose Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧 Language: English Type of Game: Live-Hosted Game 💻 Genre: Murder Mystery Date Played: June 16, 2022 Difficulty (based on 6 players): 5/10 Size of Team: Up to 8 Players Time: 60 Minutes Price: £60.00/ Group 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 In the middle of a stormy winter’s night at the Emma Rose Hotel, you all of a sudden hear a scream coming from the reception area. You head downstairs and along with the other staff members, you find that Mr. Jenkins, the manager, has been murdered. The six of you have been the only people in the hotel during the murder. Letting no one leave, can you discover the murderer and figure out why Mr. Jenkins was murdered? Photo above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 Clicking the link, this game was played over Jitsi. We were each assigned a character role that we would get to be and would come into play later in the game for some minor dialogue. We then watched a high production video that introduced us to the story and set the mood before we began the game. The game was a little different than what I have seen before. It was a blend of a point-n-click and an audio escape game. The GM would perform the actions for us as we explored the areas, but she also read out a narrative as she did it. She also kept track of our inventory for us as we collected items and used them up. This different experience was a satisfying blend of the 2 types of games as it was a little more interactive than a regular audio escape game, but we were able to progress together unlike some other point-n-click games. As we explored the hotel, you end up at all 6 character’s hotel rooms and that is when each of us were able to play our part, but do not worry. We were sent the dialogue that we had to reveal to the rest of the group. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The puzzles were a creative mix of counting, matching, following instructions and more. The goal of the game was not to escape or retrieve a specific item to finish, but as we progressed through the hotel, we would find clues on who might have had the motive and opportunity to murder Mr. Jenkins. Once you finish the game and have all the evidence, you discuss as a group who you think the murderer was and put it to a vote. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 The objective of this game was a fun mix of "Clue", murder mystery, and an escape room. Our GM was amazing at narrating the game for us. She took us though the game and had a response for everything we said whether it advanced us or lead us to nothing. The name suggested a spookier theme, but there was nothing scary about this game. The interactive parts where we got to play roles made for extra fun and definitely could be made even funnier depending on the group that you play with. A tip would be to make sure to mark down everything as you encounter it. A few times, visuals from the past would come into play and luckily we had some attentive people in the group. Overall, this was a fun game that even if you do not have the most outgoing group, it's still an entertaining experience to play. (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 Know Escape Online for providing us with samples of the game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #MatthewLui #AtHomeGames #DigitalGame #LiveHostedGame #Whodunnit #PointNClick #MurderMystery #KnowEscape #UK

Photo above is property of Know Escape Online Company: Know Escape Online Games: Mother's Room Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧 Language: English Type of Game: Live-Hosted Game 💻 Genre: Mystery Date Played: August 18, 2022 Difficulty (based on 6 players): 5/10 Size of Team: Up to 8 Players Time: 60 Minutes Price: £60.00/ Group 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Mother once had a priceless ring of pearls that went missing after her death. Uncle Reginald has instructed you to return to her house and room to uncover the clues likely left by mother and uncover the heirloom. The catch…you only have one hour until liquidators arrive to process the house. Let us return to Appleyard estate and solve this mystery! Video above is property of Know Escape Online 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 After clicking the link provided, you are brought over the Know Escape’s chosen online platform for their games, Jitsi. Your Gamemaster will explain the instructions of the game and also show a well introduction video that explores the backstory of the game, which I loved. This game is essentially an audio escape game with the GM performing some elements of a point-n-click and an audio escape game. Your group informs the GM which items you want to inspect and which rooms you want to explore and they will click them as well as provide prompted details that are revealed when you explore. It’s essentially an interactive narrative which means you can easily immerse yourself by engaging with the GM. There is also an inventory that the GM will keep track of for you at the bottom of the screen. There are hints available - the GM can provide up to three hints during your adventure. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The puzzles within Mother’s Room are mainly logic based. By observing your surroundings and deducing connections between your inventory and what your task is, you problem solve your way through. I found the puzzles light and a relaxing experience that allowed our group to explore and engage with the GM. It was fun when we put the connections together as it often created a domino effect of what we must do. I would say towards the end it felt more like a video game experience where we just needed to put everything together but I liked that. Overall, the puzzles are quite light but this game does a great job pushing your exploration and observing your surroundings. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 " Mother’s Room " is a playful audio experience that allows groups to engage and explore with an escape room in a refreshing way that physical escape rooms are unable to do. Our GM, Mia, was amazing in her banter and guidance in our exploration. I love the cheekiness and tone that her attitude had on our game. This is the kind of game for newer players or those looking for something to relax and just connect with. I look forward to seeing more of their games. You can also check out our review of their other game, " The Curse of Emma Rose "! (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 Know Escape Online for providing us with samples of the game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #JillianRaymond #AtHomeGames #DigitalGame #LiveHostedGame #Mystery #KnowEscape #UK

Photo above is property of Lockbox Escape Room Company: Lockbox Escape Room Games: Principal's Office Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Digital Game w/ Live Host 💁 Genre: Challenge, School Date Played: June 17, 2022 Difficulty (based on 4 players): 3.5/10 Size of Team: Unlimited Time: 60 Minutes Price: $54.99 (2 Players or less), $79.99 (3-4 Players, $99.99 (5-10 Players), $199.99 (11-15 Players), $349.99 (16-25 Players), $499.99 (26-50 Players), $999.99 (51-100 Players) 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 You know you’re not supposed to have your phone out in class but, once again, you have been caught by your teacher and this was the final straw. Sitting in the principal’s office you fear you are about to be suspended, but the principal has an alternative for you and as a fellow lover of puzzles you are intrigued with the offer. If you can escape the principal’s office within an hour by following the clues, you will be let go scot- free… there’s no time to lose! Video above is property of Lockbox Escape Room 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 "Principal’s Office" is based on an in-person escape room by Lockbox Escape Room that has been converted into a point-n-click game offered on the Unity platform. Upon booking the game, you will receive a link to a zoom call. At your scheduled date and time, log into the zoom call where you will be greeted with a game master who will then give a short briefing on how the game works, before giving us all a link to the Unity platform. One of your players will be told to share their screen so that the GM can keep track of progress, while everyone else is free to explore the game on their own. This means every player must input their own codes and solve the puzzles on their screens in order to move forward. This game uses 360-degree views of a physical escape room for you to explore the principal’s office and I found this style of game was much easier for my computer to run on the Unity engine compared to their other digital point-n-click games. In the room you will see multiple "I" icons, which you can explore further for clues and to see locked items and what they require to be opened, such as a 5-letter word or 3-digit number. I also liked that in the top left corner of the game screen you have a puzzle counter that tells you how many puzzles you have left, which helped keep our group on track. Photo above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The puzzles were all on the easier side as this game is tailored towards a younger audience, which means I feel confident in saying younger players will find this a medium level challenge. Our team of four players completed the game in 18 minutes without any hints! The style of puzzles included tracking, pattern observation, ciphers, logic, and more which provided ample variety for players to dive into. My one piece of advice is to encourage players to keep other members in the loop as you solve because groups can easily get lost or fall behind if you aren’t openly communicating. Play to your puzzle strengths and don’t be afraid to ask for help! The puzzles in "Principal’s Office" are traditional in nature and an excellent gateway into the escape room world for new players wanting to try in the comfort of their home. Also, for anyone who runs into technical issues, there will be a game master who will be there for the entire game as it is a hosted game, even though the gameplay is in digital format. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 "Principal’s Office" is a classic puzzle adventure that lends itself to providing the perfect level of challenge and engagement for younger audiences new to the escape room world. More experienced players may see this as easier and expensive for the amount of time you get out of it but I would say the target audience is for new players looking to host an event, in particular. children’s events as the theme and puzzles provide a smooth well-structured format for young players to connect with. If you are looking for a bit more of a challenge, check out some of the other Lockbox Escape Games such as "Order of Illusionists" or "Vampire Hunters"! 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 Lockbox Escape 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. #JillianRaymond #AtHomeGames #DigitalGames #PointnClick #LockboxEscapeRoom #Fun #Kids #EscapeRoom #Florida #USA

Photo above is property of Lockbox Escape Room Company: Lockbox Escape Room Games: Holiday Land Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Digital Game w/ Live Host 💁 Genre: Holiday, Adventure Date Played: June 17, 2022 Difficulty (based on 5 players): 5/10 Size of Team: Unlimited Time: 60 Minutes Price: $54.99 (2 Players or less), $79.99 (3-4 Players, $99.99 (5-10 Players), $199.99 (11-15 Players), $349.99 (16-25 Players), $499.99 (26-50 Players), $999.99 (51-100 Players) 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 The holidays are the most wonderful time of year with Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Years all coming together. Unfortunately, while you may enjoy the festivities, there is a troll who is out to ruin the holiday spirit! It has locked away the holidays and you only have one hour to free Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Years before the clock strikes midnight! Video above is property of Lockbox Escape Room 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 "Holiday Land" is a point-n-click game held over the Unity platform. Upon booking the game, you will receive a link to a zoom call. At your scheduled date and time, log into the zoom call where you will be greeted with a game master who will then give a short briefing on how the game works, before giving us all a link to the Unity program. One of your players will be told to share their screen so that the GM can keep track of progress, while everyone else is free to explore the game on their own. This means every player must input their own codes and solve the puzzles on the screens in order to move forward. This game uses 360-degree views of a digital room where you explore each of the holiday rooms to uncover clues and locks to aid your adventure - pay attention to the "I" icons, which indicate areas you can explore further. It is important to note that the digital nature of this game, coupled with the Unity program, required a lot of RAM from a player’s computer. My 2018 Macbook Air struggled with some lag while playing and was prone to glitching so double check the specifications on your computer before buying this game as it did affect my puzzle experience having to restart the game at one point. I will say Lockbox Escape Rooms digital adventures that are converted from physical rooms, like Principal’s Office, are easier on the computer and equally good. Photo above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The puzzles within "Holiday Land", utilised the traditional puzzles you would expect in an escape room from observation, logic, maths, and matching. I felt the puzzles were smooth and fell into each other quite cleanly while also upping the challenge each time you progressed - I would say this is a medium level game with our group taking about 30 minutes to complete. There was one puzzle in particular that I remember in the New Year’s Eve room that had a really great moment where the answer was right in front of you but it took just some time to put everything together and the “aha” was perfect. There were quite a few of these kinds of puzzles in the game which were refreshing and helped build momentum in the game 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 "Holiday Land" provides an excellent holiday experience for a large gathering looking to embrace the festivities with well themed puzzles and good graphics! I always find the style of puzzles and their execution by Lockbox to be really clean and put together so that I never need a true hint to keep me going which I love as a player. I like those few minutes you need to take in everything and in "Holiday Land" there were quite a few of those “aha” that I feel every player enjoys. Now, this is a more pricier game so I recommend bringing together a group to help offset the cost and to also check your computer graphics before ordering to ensure your computer can handle it! If you are interested in an experience more tailored to kids check out "Principal's Office" or for something more spooky and challenging, check out "Vampire Hunters"! 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 Lockbox Escape 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. #JillianRaymond #AtHomeGames #DigitalGames #PointnClick #LockboxEscapeRoom #Holiday #Adventure #USA

Photo above is property of Runaway Games Game: Runaway Games Country: Singapore 🇸🇬 Language: English, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Baha Melayu/ Indonesia, Polish, and Russian Type of Game: Digital Game w/ Live Host 💁 Genre: Espionage Date Played: February 19, 2022 Difficulty (based on 6 players): 7.5/10 Size of Team: Unlimited (Min. of 4 Players) Time: 90 Minutes (Can be adjusted to 75 Mins.) Price: $54.00 (3 Players), $72.00 (4 Players), $90.00 (5 Players), $108.00 (6 Players) 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 You are students in the Spy Academy of Spy Island and you hope to be one of the best to fight against the bad guys out there in the world. After four years of training at this academy, today is your big graduation day! However, at the ceremony, the principal announces that your graduation IS your final exam. This is your final test and you must pass in order to become an official spy! Will you be able to demonstrate to all your professors the skills that you've acquired thus far and "Escape Spy Island"?? Video above is property of Runaway Games 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 "Escape Spy Island" is a live-hosted digital game communicated via Zoom and played on Runaway Games' website. The game master sends you a link to the website after briefing you about the game. Throughout the experience, the game master will guide you and monitor your progress. The main goal of this game is not to escape, but to earn points at several stages to pass the final exam. This isn't a standard escape room game, it's more like several mini-game challenges that you have to pass in order to score higher points during each stage. There are mainly four distinct challenges in three stages by three professors who examine the different abilities that will qualify you as a good spy. Each challenge has to be completed within a certain amount of time. If your answer is correct, you get points. If your answer is wrong, you lose points. If you want hints, you can ask the game master. However, hints will result in points deducted from your overall score. So, think wisely before you ask. There were only a few very minor concerns when we played. For one of the puzzles, the clock was ticking while the game master was explaining the puzzle. Since time is of the essence for this game, it would have been better to stop the clock or clarify before the time started. Also, the point system that they used was a bit complicated and unclear. The measurement of the final scores in the three challenges varied tremendously. If the point system was much simpler and more interpretable, then the scores might be more meaningful. Other than that, their web system looked very professional and the game was really smooth throughout (there was one tiny technical flaw but nothing major). Photos above are property of Runaway Games 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The challenges for the first stage are logic puzzles and a memory game to test your intelligence. The very first task is one type of conventional logic puzzle. The content of the puzzle fits perfectly with the theme, but it may be better to explain a rule or show an example beforehand when a conventional pencil puzzle is used. Some people may not be familiar with the rule of the puzzle (I personally like solving this kind of puzzle at my own leisure rather than solving together as a group). If you love it, enjoy it! If you don’t, wait until the memory game which is a more straight-forward challenge. The second stage is a point-n-click escape game to test your hacking and decoding skills. This section is definitely for escape room enthusiasts. The set design of the room was really nice and the puzzles in were challenging even for some experts. So don’t hesitate to ask for hints even if you lose some points. The last challenge is the application of your skills to the real world using the GeoGuesser-type game. It is entertaining and fits perfectly well with the theme. This mini-game is much simpler than the other challenges. So everyone can enjoy this section as a group. Overall, I had a fun and positive experience with the game (although I am not a huge fan of solving logic grid puzzles as a team). Each task was highly challenging and exciting and our game masters were friendly and supportive. The animated introductory and backstory was very intriguing and made me feel eager to play the game in the beginning. The website for the puzzles looked very professional. It might've been even more exciting if they add just a little bit more originality in the puzzles or a twist in the story towards the end. There were only a few small concerns about the operation, but the game as a whole was really enjoyable. Photos above are property of Runaway Games 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 “Escape Spy Island” is a fun and exciting game that challenges you with mini-games to tackle as a team. This game is for players that like to try various challenges and work as a team. Because the skills that were tested at each section are distinctively different, each member of your team will have something to contribute. I believe that “Escape Spy Island” is a great game for team building. So put on your graduation cap and gown and get ready for your exciting final exam at Spy Island! (If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!) Disclosure: We thank Runaway Games for comping our tickets for this game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #ChikakoOmura #AtHomeGames #LiveHostedGames #RunawayGames #Spy #Espionage #Singapore

Photo above is property of Meridian Adventure Co. Company: Meridian Adventure Co. Game: Traveler's Guide to Little Sodaburg Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Digital Game w/ Live Host 💁 Genre: Sci-Fi, Time Travel Date Played: December 5 2021 Difficulty (based on 6 players): 4/10 Size of Team: 2-6 Players Time: 75 Minutes Price: ~$20/ pp (6 ppl), ~$30/ pp (4 ppl), $125.00/ team 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 You show up to the quiet town of Sodaburg expecting a quiet local tour, but there’s something fishy going on. You’re suddenly drawn into a mysterious, time-traveling, choose your own adven-tour save the world!! Video above is property of Meridian Adventure Co. 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ There is a huge variety of art and styles of the various digital media as they reflect specific time periods and tasks your team is undertaking. In some slick behind-the-scenes tech wizardry, the exact same web address even loads a completely different version of the page when you travel to a new time, reflecting the aesthetics of the day. There is a mixture of the outlandish, charming, and realistic throughout the game, and it was utterly fin-tastic. Photos above are property of Meridian Adventure Co. 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 Your live host is your Sodaburg tour guide, but most of the narrative is delivered through pre-recorded videos of the person who guides you on your mission. I don’t think he could be any punnier…Your goal at each step is primarily to determine to which year you must travel next, at which point you enter that into the chat in the video conferencing software. For each year, you are given a variety of new websites or resources to consult, with puzzles or tasks to solve to help you figure out the next destination. This is very much a cooperative game, and for the most part all of the technical pieces worked really smoothly. The overall interface is unlike anything we’ve seen before! There was one ridiculously satisfying mechanic that was way more fun for everyone than it should have been, and will totally have you living out your hacker dreams. You also have some really fun character interactions, with some entertaining behind-the-scenes improv from the host. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 This is very much a game of split-puzzle design, whereby different players are often presented with different pieces of information. Therefore, communication is key to share what each is seeing and help to solve the puzzles together. There were a few cases where it seemed like we could have brute forced the solution…or even may have? It was hard to know at times exactly who did what and how we got to the next phase. And there was one puzzle mechanic that seemed to go on a bit long and it's really meant for one player to speak at a time but with a large group, everyone was eager to participate of course. However, there was a lot to love about these puzzles and the satisfaction of solving them together. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 It’s o-fish-al, we had a blast playing this game! The ridiculousness of the storyline, the density of puns, the variety of the puzzles, the necessity of teamwork ensuring everyone had their moment, and the creativity of the interface all contributed to making the overall experience absolutely unique and a joy to play. I think 4 would be the perfect number for this game, though anywhere from 2-6 works. It’s family-friendly in its theming, though some of the puzzles might be tougher for younger kids, but they could definitely enjoy sitting with you as you play. If perch-ance you like dad jokes, quirkiness, and cooperative puzzles, you should absolutely give this one a go! If you end up playing, let minnow what you think! (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 Meridian Adventure Co. for comping our tickets for this game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #KristaJones #AtHomeGames #DigitalGames #Fantasy #SciFi #MeridianAdventureCo #Oregon #USA

Photos are property of Lockbox Escape Room Company: Lockbox Escape Room Games: Vampire Hunters Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Digital Game w/ Live Host 💁 Genre: Sci-Fi, Vampire, Supernatural Date Played: November 6 2021 Difficulty (based on 4 players): 6/10 Size of Team: Unlimited Time: 60 Minutes Price: $54.99 (2 Players or less), $79.99 (3-4 Players, $99.99 (5-10 Players), $199.99 (11-15 Players), $349.99 (16-25 Players), $499.99 (26-50 Players), $999.99 (51-100 Players) 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 You’ve finally managed to find the resting place of the infamous vampire attacking your city. You and your team discover, unfortunately, that the vampire has spelled his coffin shut and only by harnessing earth, air, fire, and water can you break the magical spell and put an end to this vicious monster. The caveat is that the sun sets in one hour…time is ticking before the monster awakes! Video above is property of Lockbox Escape Room 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 "Vampire Hunters" is a point and click game played on Unity program. This game is typically held with a gamemaster on Zoom. The gamemaster will provide an introduction to the game before providing the Unity link to begin. Everyone is able to run the game on their own computer but to aid the gamemaster in providing hints, one player is asked to screen-share their page to show progress. This game has a non-linear structure as you must unlock the four elemental pillars near the vampire’s coffin. When you start the game, everything is pretty open for exploration. Throughout the room you will find “I” icons that you can click to inspect a wall better, see what is needed for a lock, and read information with more clarity. I appreciated the crisp details in the room and the smoothness of the Unity interface. ** Note: Unity Engine does have certain requirements to run effectively on computers. My 2017 Macbook Air struggled to keep up with the game and a Zoom call but, thankfully, I had some team members with stronger computers I could play with. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The puzzles for this game were more challenging than previous games by the company and I found that it better fit our level of experience as puzzlers. Our team of six finished this game in about 52 minutes with one hint. I enjoyed how well the puzzles layered into each other and provided opportunities for all types of puzzlers to flex their muscles. A lot of the time, your inventory bank would collect items that would have icons or images or a phrase that would match something else in the room to help you make the association. In this frame of mind, a keen eye and observation skills are the core of completing this game. There is a gamemaster who will be present during your play-through so don’t be afraid to ask for hints! Do not try to brute force any of the puzzles as if you play the game out of order some reveals won't happen and you'll be very lost (this did happen during our game but good thing not all the players were affected so we're still able to see the full game through the player who shared her screen). 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 "Vampire Hunters" is a well themed game with plenty of interesting puzzles that will engage your mind and really bring your team together. I found the story to be light, but that is because these games are more focused is the puzzles. I enjoyed the feeling of success as we opened each pillar, and the finale was awesome. This game is on the pricier side, but the level of challenge has increased this round so players fully utilize their hour of play. For a beginner group I wouldn’t recommend this game but if a company is seeking a team building activity with some challenge this would be a great option! They do have other games of varying difficulty so if you’re looking for something a little easier, check out our review of "Gallery Heist". 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 Lockbox Escape 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. #JillianRaymond #AtHomeGames #DigitalGames #PointnClick #LockboxEscapeRoom #SciFi #Fantasy #Vampires #USA

Photos above are property of Ultimate Quest Company: Ultimate Quest Game: The Last Pyramid: Sands of Time Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧 Language: English Type of Game: Audio/GM led Puzzle Game Show 👂 Genre: Adventure Date Played: October 16, 2021 Difficulty (based on 5 players): 7/10 Size of Team: Up to 6 Players Time: 60-90 Minutes Price: £50/Team 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Work as a team and explore The Last Pyramid. Solve the puzzles, stop the clocks and bank time to break into the pyramid's vault! 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 The Last Pyramid: Sands of Time felt more like a game show rather than a typical escape room. It draws resemblance to the ever popular Crystal Maze game show. When everyone in your team is logged into Zoom, a timer will count down and a live actor will appear on the screen to signify the game officially began. He was quick to dive into his character as a space cadet. Our mission is to help him solve issues around the ship so we can eventually repair the ship so he can return to his journey. The vault is the final step and the more time we got, the more time we'll have in the main value to answer questions to gain more access levels. There were 4 main areas to explore throughout the ship. Each area will have around 5 or 6 rooms. Pending on how you do with time you might have access to more or less rooms in each location. The games are all played via the shared screen by the GM as he controls what you see and what you tell him to do. There will be a countdown starting from 10 after the rule has been explained in each room. The timer will stop as we solved the puzzle. If there was 4 seconds left on that timer, then we would've gained 4 seconds in the final round in the vault. The final time we have in the fault will be an cumulated total across all the rooms. We had about 100 seconds for the vault and was able to get 4 diamond shards (which acted as fuel for the ship) out of the maximum possible number of 6. Photos above are property of Ultimate Quest 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 Since this is more like a game show, the puzzles felt more like generic type of trivia puzzles, memory games, scavenger hunt, Math, etc...This is not your typical escape room type of logic/cipher kind of puzzles. Certain riddles also felt like they would be difficult for foreign players like myself as they could be regional based in terms of the vocabulary. Unlike Crystal Maze, where a leader will elect someone in their team to tackle the problem, for every task, all 5 of us could do it at the same time. One issue with this is that there were too many voices talking over each other and the GM has to pick one that he heard but maybe it's not the general consensus of the entire team. It might be better to designate just one player for those type of tasks and the teammates can assist perhaps through chat but cannot speak. The decision ultimately still ends up being in that player's hands. This way it eliminates the issue with the dominate player in control of the entire game situation. In other times we do appreciate that we're able to participate together as a team i.e. scavenger hunt as it was fun to have a group affair. Photos above are property of Ultimate Quest 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 The GM was in character the entire time and with added humor, this is definitely the type of game that someone who enjoys game shows would book to have a fun night with friends/family. One thing that we were hoping to see was a bit more organization for the show itself. At times we felt that the GM has to write down our score and calculate the total while maneuvering other functions of getting us through the various rooms and check on time. At times we were rushed into one area but would've rather had more time there or less in other places. We didn't feel like the control was in our hands. Perhaps the scoring could be added in as a feature that could be automated on the shared screen so the players could see how many seconds they've gained after each round. The GM probably should just be the game host and not the tech on the background as well. The idea and graphics of this game was great and with some added tweaks of the organization and hosting, we can see the potential for future developments! *** We regret to inform this game is no longer available for booking but check out other products on their website*** Disclosure: We thank Ultimate Quest 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 #LiveHosted #SciFi #Adventure #UltimateQuest #UK

Photos above are property of Mojec Hyper Industries Company: Mojec Hyper Industries Game: Dracula's New Friends Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Digital Game w/ Live Host 💁 Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi Date Played: October 16, 2021 Difficulty (based on 6 players): 4/10 Size of Team: 2-8 Players Time: 65 Minutes Price: $25.00/ pp (min. of 2 ppl required) 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 It’s been a long time (if ever?) since I read the original Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but apparently this loosely follows that, in a light-hearted, family-friendly way. You set out to help the young lawyer, Jonathan, as he heads off to meet Dracula... 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 I loved the look of this game! It was so charming and whimsical. The art is all original work by 1000 Dead Draculas, and it is colorful, unique, and really draws you into the screen. There is a cute and quirky use of the drawn characters that are filmed in almost a puppet style on little wooden sticks, as part of several story-telling interludes. Interspersed with the beautifully drawn Telescape world, you are also interacting with a live actor (who pulls off a number of quick costume changes)! As a Telescape-based game, this is largely a point-and-click style. All members of your team will be in the game together, and you can see where others are clicking, for instance. The game tends to alternate between narrative components that progress the story (either via puppet style in a video or the live actor) and more traditional “puzzle-solving” in Telescape. Though, there are aspects that feel a bit more like immersive theater, and you will need to achieve some goals simply through interactions with the live actor. I appreciated that you generally could not access the Telescape game while the other aspects were occurring, so that you did not have to debate whether to ignore the story while you kept puzzling but could fully focus on each as it occurred. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 This is a very family-friendly game, and the puzzles were certainly ones that would be accessible to children or inexperienced players. As experienced adults, we progressed through them quite smoothly and finished in 41 minutes. There were a variety of puzzle types, including searching, deciphering, logic, and assembling jigsaw-type puzzles. There were a few places where people were able to split up to tackle several puzzles simultaneously, which is a nice option if you are in a larger group. There were other puzzles that seemed to be intended to focus on cooperation, where different players would access different information simultaneously. I certainly like these kinds of communication challenges, though there were some frustrating aspects of this in Telescape, where one person’s interactions with an object (e.g., turning the page of a book) have the same effect in everyone else’s version, which can interfere with what they were trying to do or look at. I do enjoy the interactive element of this kind of Telescape game, where you get to flip switches or move objects, and it gives a bit of that sense of agency you would have in an in-person room. Photos above are property of Mojec Hyper Industries 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 "Dracula’s New Friends" is a really cute option for families or those looking for a more accessible (and not scary) Halloween-themed game! There were parts of the story that did not totally make sense to me, but in the end I didn’t really care. The various characters played by the actor and particularly the charming art are all extremely endearing, and the style was unlike any other game that I have played. *** We regret to inform this company has closed its doors *** Disclosure: We thank Mojec Hyper Industries for comping our tickets for this game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #KristaJones #AtHomeGames #DigitalGames #Fantasy #MojecHyperIndustries #USA

Photos are property of Lockbox Escape Room Company: Lockbox Escape Room Games: Gallery Heist Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Digital Game w/ Live Host 💁 Genre: Heist Date Played: September 19, 2021 Difficulty (based on 4 players): 3.5/10 Size of Team: Unlimited Time: 60 Minutes Price: $54.99 (2 Players or less), $79.99 (3-4 Players, $99.99 (5-10 Players), $199.99 (11-15 Players), $349.99 (16-25 Players), $499.99 (26-50 Players), $999.99 (51-100 Players) 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 The manager of an art museum is being accused of stealing a valuable painting. He claims he is innocent and has called you in to help him prove his innocence. You have 1 hour before he will be taken in and charged with the crime. Your mission is to recover the stolen painting and find out who the real thief is. Good Luck! Video is property of Lockbox Escape Room 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 Gallery Heist is a point and click game held over the Unity program. Upon booking the game, you will receive a link to a zoom call. At your scheduled date and time, log into the zoom call where you will be greeted with a game master who will then give a short briefing on how the game works, before giving us all a link to the Unity program. One of your players will be told to share their screen, while everyone else is free to explore the game on their own. Any code that you have tried and worked on, you will have to let the person who is screen sharing know, so he/she can also key in on their own screen. The game will not be synced so sharing the screen really helps to keep the team moving at the same speed. The controls are smooth to use, and the graphics are eye catching - it really seemed like legit art pieces. Anything that is important will have an "I" icon which you can explore further, and upon using/solving that puzzle, it will be gone. Our objective is to find out who stole the art piece, so its kind of like a mini murder mystery to solve. If you are not a gamer, we suggest you go into the setting to switch the orientation of your mouse control. It will make the game play much smoother for you. Photos are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The puzzles were all on the easy side. Our team of 4 completed the game in 18 minutes without any hints! There were a variety of puzzles which required certain skills like keen observation, spatial ability, inference and logic. Most were easily solved if you can infer where each clue relates to each item and just 'match' them together. For enthusiasts, you might recognize these puzzles quite quickly but for people who are not familiar with these puzzles, you might take longer time. Most group do get an initial hint from the game master. The game master will be there for the entire game as it is a hosted game even though it's in the digital format so if you need any technical assistance or hints to puzzles, he/she will step in right away. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 Although we finished in 18 minutes, it was still a fun game due to the mechanics involved, the overall storyline and puzzles that revealed clues of the mastermind's identity, bit by bit. We felt encouraged to keep going on as we want to know who is this mastermind! With that said, depending on the number of players you have, this game might or might not be suitable. The high cost for the game might not be suitable for enthusiasts but could make sense for a large group with less experience with puzzles. They are able to host to an unlimited amount of players all at once! Hopefully they'll develop self sustaining games soon without a GM so that enthusiast can play on their own. Lastly, I wouldn't recommend this game for enthusiasts as they will take roughly the same time as us and might feel it's not worth it. However, as someone who is in the events industry, I will totally recommend it for team building activities or beginners to online escape games, where they can have a feel on how such games work, yet not find it too difficult/easy, and perhaps might get addicted to escape games in the future! 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 Lockbox Escape 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 #DigitalGames #LockboxEscapeRoom #Heist #USA

Photo above is property of MPower Escape Rooms Company: MPower Escape Rooms Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Digital Game w/ Live Host 💁 Date Played: September 17, 2021 Size of Team: 1-6 Players Time: 60 Minutes Price: $79.95 (Up to 4 Connections), $17.95 (each additional) Photo above is property of MPower Escape Rooms Game: The Cabin Genre: Mystery Difficulty (based on 5 players): 4/10 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 One of your good friends enjoys spending his free time fishing in the bayou, but after so many days you’ve become worried when he hasn’t returned. You and your group have tracked his last known whereabouts to a nearby cabin with hopes of discovering what has happened to your dear friend. Will you be able to solve the mystery and find your friend or does what happen in the bayou, stay in the bayou? Photo above is property of MPower Escape Rooms Photo above is property of MPower Escape Rooms Game: Detective Dan Case #041 Genre: Mystery Difficulty (based on 5 players): 4/10 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 In what appears to be a regular New York apartment complex, a string of burglaries has sparked the police’s eye. You and your team of detectives are on the scene to assist Detective Dan to discover if you can solve this puzzling crime. Photos above are property of MPower Escape Rooms 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 Both "Cabin" and "Detective Dan Case #041" have the unique component of not only being a Telescape digital point and click adventure but also have a dedicated gamemaster to guide you on your adventure, as such you do need to book a time slot for this experience. This gamemaster can provide you with customized hints while your puzzle for those moments you get stuck and are unsure what to do. In both games you are exploring a series of rooms to see if you can piece together what has happened. I think this set up is excellent for anyone bringing in players new to escape games and/or Telescape as you have that additional comfort of knowing someone is present to help guide you if need be. Each player will be able to explore Telescape on their own screen – just remember that when you type in an answer it will move the whole group forward and this sometimes means activating video clips. We found the experience to be straight forward and easy to follow. When you want to explore something more closely, look for a magnifying class to tap in order to pull up a better image. There is also no need to explore outside of the platform as everything is provided within. The Zoom link is used to allow players to talk amongst themselves while solving on Telescape with the gamemaster observing; your Telescape link will be provided in the Zoom chat by your gamemaster. Since the main use of the Zoom is to communicate with friends and listen to the gamemaster, you are free to split screen the experience or minimize the Zoom link to keep Telescape up completely on one screen. Our gamemaster, Gannon, was extremely helpful and was able to accurately read our level of playing to adjust his guidance. He was quick to give us direction without giving anything away and knew when to step back and give us time to solve on our own. Of note, Cabin is also in-person escape room that was converted into a Telescape experience while Detective Dan is an entirely online experience. As such, while the games play using the same platform, Cabin will make use of a real space in 360 degrees while Detective Dan had an digital layout. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 Both games used a combination of searching, logic, and observation puzzles that provided a good level of challenge but still fair for new players. After you solve a puzzle, make sure to give the room a once over as some clue only reveal themselves after you solve a certain puzzle. In Cabin there was a really fun puzzle that used a really good well-hidden clue that only made sense when you reached a certain point of the game and I had a good “aha” moment then. In Detective Dan, my favourite section involved a series of cat centered puzzles that encouraged exploration of the room – the online space for this game was well utilized and allowed for some great animations. As enthusiasts we were able to complete both games in 30 minutes each while still taking time to truly explore the rooms. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 Both "Cabin" and "Detective Dan Case #041" provide a good variety in theme and story but, if I were to choose a favorite, I would say for an online game, Detective Dan provides a fuller experience on the digital platform through its puzzles and design as I felt you got more of a story through the exploration of the digital room. We enjoyed both but I would recommend attending Cabin in person to get a more rounded experience. MPower is an excellent option for people new to digital escape rooms but could easily be played without a gamemaster for more experienced players. (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 MPower Escape Rooms for comping our tickets for this game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #JillianRaymond #AtHomeGames #PointNClick #Mystery #Detective #MPowerEscapeRooms #USA

Videos/ Photos provided by Alex Lacey Company: Alex Lacey Game: Tudor Escape Box Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧 Language: English Type of Game: Live Stream Puzzles W/GM 💻 Genre: Mystery Date Played: 6/20/2021 Difficulty (based on 4 players): 4/10 Size of Team: Up to 6 Players Time: 60 Minutes Price: £40 (1-4 ppl)/ £50 (5-6 ppl) 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 A mysterious box has been delivered to your attention. It contains the lost gems of Mary Tudor (better known as Bloody Mary). You only have an hour to take a stab at it before it gets taken away. Are you ready for the challenge? 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 When you book the game, you'll receive a PDF file with your confirmation. Inside you'll find some back story that might come in handy during the game. Other than the PDF, there's no outside resource you'll be needing for this game. We met over Zoom and was greeted by our GM Alex. All we saw in front of us was a fancy blue box that clearly looked like there's treasure in it. Our team was informed that we did not need to explore anywhere else except for the table in front of us. When items were no longer useful, they will be removed from our sight. If we needed a certain clue with another item, a split screen was provided which definitely made it more convenient for the players. As Alex pressed the timer, our game began. Our initial thought was how much is there to do with just a single box? As time went on, more and more boxes, clues and locks just started pouring out of there. It was like a magic portal that we secretly wished would never close. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The puzzles were not very challenging for enthusiasts but you can tell that the creator is an enthusiast herself. She clearly understands the puzzle flow and how the clues linked with each other. The fact that a key or a combination is used only once and items that were finished gets removed were things you typically see in escape rooms. It was great that she was able to build some history into the puzzle elements as well. I always enjoy a bit of learning (in this case History behind Henry VIII) during a game. We completed the game in a new record time with 31 minutes and 27 seconds left. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 Alex works as a professional tour guide in London. I felt the passion of wanting to build a game with some history embedded in it. Although the puzzles were not as difficult, logically they all made sense. We also loved her presentation. She knew that we're a group of enthusiasts so she adjusted to our speed and gave us the appropriate space. At times we thought to ourselves, how would you be able to hide anything from us other than using magic since the box is right in front of the camera? She still managed to surprise us with a few clever moments. If you're not ready to go to IRL escape rooms or want to brush up on your escape room skills, this is definitely a fun game to take part in with friends and family! 𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤❜ ℙ.𝕀.𝕤❜ 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤 Melvin L. Tudor Escape Box is a live stream game held over Zoom. You will see items in front of you and you can tell the host to pick it up, look around it and input codes. This is similar to a remote escape room, but looks much more simplistic. I actually like such games better as everyone will be seeing the same screen and you know you will not miss anything out as what you have is just what is in front of you. There will not be hidden items in the corner of the room nor any fancy gadgets. If you like good set up design and cool mechanisms, you might want to consider a remote escape instead. However, even with the simplicity of such a game, it doesn't mean the game is boring or not fun. There are creative ways that the host can hide objects, which happened in our game. It was a 'wow' moment as it doesn't look possible that it could be 'there', but it was. Hence, don't be distracted by what you look but just think logically on where items can be! The puzzles themselves were on the simple side, as we finished the game in less than 30 minutes! Please don't be bothered by the timing as most groups will take nearly the full hour - we have just played ALOT so our team had different strengths. For example, I knew what to do instantly at Puzzle A, but for Puzzle B, I admittedly would have taken a much longer time to reach the same conclusion. Hence, it was more of a good team gelling together rather than having overly simple puzzles. I believe most corporate/families/beginner groups would definitely enjoy this. For enthusiasts, it is also worth a try as you will see variants of common puzzles and still have a relaxing time. Our host was really friendly and her instructions were clear and smooth. I could catch every single word she said and understood it perfectly. After the game, I heard that she actually provides real guides in museums, which will explain how comfortable she was in hosting such games! The whole experience was truly an enjoyable one and I would look forward to more games from her, if any. Recommended! *** We regret to inform this company has closed its doors *** Disclosure: We thank Alex Lacey for providing us with a complimentary game. Although complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #ESCAPETHEROOMers #AtHomeGames #EscapeRooms #AlexLacey #TudorEscapeBox #Mystery #BloodyMary #DigitalEscapeGames #LiveStreamPuzzles #OnlineEscape #newgame