It’s the 1930s and your professor has gone missing! Follow his research, discover the mystery of The Lost Temple and save the world! Explore maps, read through journals, decode cyphers, and examine photographs to solve the challenges of an escape room from the comfort of home.
Rating: Mysterious
Completion Time: 1hr 10 minutes
Date Played: 7th March 2021
Party Size: 2
Recommended For: Playing remotely over Zoom with a small team
“Oooh…” I say to myself, opening the game… “I didn’t realise it was going to be this spooky!”
After hearing so many awesome things and enjoying Floor 13 earlier this year, Bianca (Shiny Life for Me) and I took on The Lost Temple on a warm spring afternoon from our own homes via Zoom. The game promptly opens with an “I have passed beyond this world” and an introduction to Professor Knightley’s specialist subject: Occult Studies. Despite the sun outside, spooky stuff makes me just *shiver*
Unlike the rest of the world, we played The Lost Temple (CU Adventure’s first digital escape room game) AFTER playing the new Floor 13. I reckon this gives an interesting perspective though. It’s very clear to me that The Lost Temple was an instant hit early on the in the pandemic, if all the other awesome escape room reviews out there are anything to go by. But, I couldn’t help but notice a couple of hiccups not present in Floor 13, which shows the team really took everything on board and improved the whole experience a lot in their second game! That said, both games I enjoyed a lot in a very different way! So let’s get into The Lost Temple.
The Lost Temple is a classic digital + printable game. The game asks you to print 24 pages (I got away with printing them at 50% size and only printed 12 pages), though you could definitely get away with printing a lot fewer pages than that, as a lot of the information is given on the screen as you go along. All participants then log into the online portal as “Leader” and “Companions”, and the game begins!
Just like a real life escape room, there are a whole host of things to click around and each player can explore at their own pace. Puzzles often involve bits of information scattered across multiple ‘areas’ or pieces of evidence – so a pen and paper comes in handy!
In The Lost Temple, you start at the Professor’s office, rifling through his drawers, examining his books and so on. That is until the second, and third area are unlocked and the game really breaks wide open. It worked really, really well as a team of two. Despite the lingering affects of my hangover *cough cough* never drink and escape, the puzzles were challenging enough to keep the both of us busy for over an hour!
In particular, I enjoyed the ‘final puzzle’ which involved assembling several bits and pieces you’ve collected along the way. With two players, it meant we were both constantly occupied, either working together or separately on different puzzles. Of course, as with Floor 13 only the ‘Leader’ (me) can actually input an answer into the game engine, but with plenty to do this didn’t pose us any problem whatsoever.
Overall yes, it was pretty good fun! Once again the CU Adventures team have made something unique at an incredible price point (seriously, I’d spend the equivalent of $10 USD on a sandwich here in London, UK so I’d much rather play this any day). I hope that post pandemic they continue to make play-at-home escape room adventures.
Oh! I couldn’t possibly end the review without also mentioning that there is also a ‘deluxe’ version at the $135 price point, which I actually think is pretty damn cool. Looking at the photographs on the website, the materials look super high quality including real woodcuts, a physical cipher wheel and- oh my, is that an actual rock carving? Even though we only did the regular, print and play set, I think if you’re looking to splash out on something extra special, it’s worth considering.
The Lost Temple can be purchased for $10 USD on CU Adventure’s website.
