Tag Archives: escape game olympics

Emergency Exit: Exorcist (Digital) | Review

Image

Reply

The ancient legend has it that anyone who stays longer than 1 hour in this haunted house simply disappears! Follow the footsteps of a world leading demonologist to uncover the secrets of this spooky house and exorcise the demons. Do NOT outstay your welcome.

Rating: Spooky
Completion Time: 45 minutes
Date Played: 29th March 2021
Party Size: 4
Recommended For: For a spooky, play any time awarding winning adventure

Before the Escape Game Olympics took a break for the summer, their penultimate game was Emergency Exit’s award winning Exorcist… And what a game to usher in the summer months with! We ranked a very respectable 5th place, which is not bad for a team of newbies! I’ll take it! 🎉

Recently converted from the remote avatar version, Exorcist’s point-and-click version utilises Telescape for a 360 view of the room and easy to follow inventory management system. I did go into the game apprehensive, I mean just how scary can a non-hosted game really be? It turns out, quite scary indeed!

Exorcist is the first in a two part horror series that centres around the mysterious Crowley Manor. Despite it being the first in the series, if you’ve been following The Escape Roomer you might have noticed we’ve already played the remote avatar sequel, The Beast. Oops! But honestly, despite seeing the conclusion first, neither ruined the surprises of the other and both games were a spectacularly spooky homage to the local history.

I did prefer The Beast to Exorcist, but I think this has a lot to do with the order we played them and the fact we went hosted for the former but point and click for the latter, and not truly representative of which is a better game. Because there’s not a lot in it – both games are brilliant.

Once upon a time…

So how did we come to find ourselves inside the mysterious Crowley Manor? You sign up for a haunted house ghost tour, of course! As we’re living in *gestures vaguely* a global panini (joke intended), you can’t join your tour guide for the actual experience but instead you get to remotely guide him via a digital interface. Legend has it anyone who stays longer than an hour will suffer a fate worse than death.

But that’s just a legend… Right?

The most recent spooky tale from the manor surrounds a priest from the Vatican going missing. The original resident of the Crowley Manor was a notorious Satanist, so this whole building needed a bit of cleansing TLC, but alas! The demonic entities won. But not before the priest has left a trail of breadcrumbs you’ll quickly follow if you intend to get to the bottom of the mystery.

*shudders*

Let’s set the scene

Exorcist is a remote version of the physical escape room you could play pre-pandemic at Emergency Exit… Well, sort of! It’s modified for a digital audience, but the space your host explores is the same. The same creepy abandoned furniture, strange dark liquids oozing, and blood splattered where blood should not be.

Exorcist is themed perfectly. It puts you on edge from start to finish – from antiques that have seen better days, to candles curiously arranged on the table, flicking and casting shadows that any demons could be lurking in. One big benefit to having Telescape’s 360 view is being able to explore the environment at your own pace and fully appreciate the set the creators have designed.

Point & Click vs Remote Avatar

So this is probably the main reason you’re reading this review and not one of the countless others out there. We played the point-and-click version, and you may be wondering how it compares. I’ve broken down my thoughts in an objective way to help you make an informed decision about which version you should book:

Point and Click

  • ✅ If you have a lot of players to wrangle and can’t decide on a time slot together, point and click is great as you can play at any time.
  • ✅ Point and click is a lot cheaper, at £21 per team.
  • ❌ Point and click is less atmospheric, and easier to mentally ‘switch off’ during the gameplay and miss jump scares or spooky details.
  • ✅ You could play solo if you wanted to.
  • ❌ We experienced some technical errors in the point and click version which would not have happened in the remote avatar version.

Remote Avatar

  • ✅ The hosted version is a cinematic experience guided by a very immersive actor. You’ll see only what the guide wants you to see at each important part of the story.
  • ❌ Remote avatar is more expensive at £80 per team **
    ** Please note, I still consider this to be a very good price for the experience you’re getting.
  • ❌ You have to have a team to play, this wouldn’t work well solo.
  • ✅ The remote avatar version of the game is the version that has won all of the awards. The point and click has not.
  • ✅ The remote avatar version of the game very special, and unique on the market. The point and click felt less unique.

Brilliant customer support

As a final note to this review, we were one of the first teams to play Exorcist as a point and click but our experience wasn’t without a few technical issues. Officially according to the Escape Game Olympics our completion time was 45 minutes, but this does not include 30 minutes spent stuck on a puzzle which didn’t (yet) work correctly digitally.

It was late on a Saturday night and yet we were immediately able to get a response from the Emergency Exit team who were brilliant in helping us out, triggering the next puzzle sequence and fixing the issue for future players right there and then. I’m seriously impressed! From both my interactions with the Emergency Exit, it’s super clear they care a lot about customer support. Double thumbs up all round.

The Verdict?

Exorcist is a great game. Sure, I do regret not playing it as a live avatar, or in-person escape room, but I’m really happy we did get to play it at all. It completely lives up to it’s accolades and evokes such a cinematic feeling of tension and spookiness, months later I’m still utterly spooked out every time I remember Crowley Manor.

The Exorcist Point & Click can be booked on Emergency Exit’s website here.

ClueHQ: The Warp Core Part Three | Review

Image

Reply

A Warp Core team ventured back to 1692 Massachusetts, the location of the Salem Witch trials, in search of a magic wand and spell book but they never made it back to the ship. Will you join the rescue mission to bring them, and the magical artefacts, home safely?

Rating: Awesome!
Completion Time: 61:45
Date Played: 25th April 2021
Party Size: 4
Recommended For: Everyone!

Woohoo! It’s Escape Game Olympics part… *counting on fingers* okay, okay I’ve lost count, but I reckon I’m getting into the flow of it now *flexes muscles*. Nevermind that we only placed 15th this week… You can’t win them all, and anyway it’s the taking part that counts! Right? Right?!

The truth is I’m actually having a LOT of fun playing a new escape room game every week, and I was super thrilled after the success of The Warp Core Part II to see Part II in the roster. ClueHQ have really outdone themselves with this series, each game so far is an absolute delight (and better than the last!).

Part III is markedly more difficult than Part II, if the “time to complete” weren’t already a giveaway. There’s just so much to do in these rooms – I love it! So many nooks and crannies and unique interfaces to point, click, drag, button mash. In this game we found ourselves crawling around through caves, casting spells, and transfiguring animals. So darn creative. A round of applause!

The Story

I missed “Part I” of The Warp Core series and now I’ve come too far along to go back and play it, so I have to admit I don’t fully understand the over-arching plot. I admit, it’s my fault! But here’s my vague interpretation of what is happening in The Warp Core:

You and your team of intrepid explorers have a TARDIS- I mean, it’s a time machine. Just a general, sci-fi time machine. Any resemblance to fictional alien spaceships is purely co-incidental (I’m kidding! Haha). Your goal in each of The Warp Core games is to go to a specific time in history and steal an ancient artefact. At the end of each game you store that artefact in the ‘Artefact Hatch’. It’s likely there’s a greater purpose to all this, but in the mean time I’m enjoying the ride.

In Part III, you journey back to Salem in the time of the infamous witch trials. The year is 1692 and there’s magic afoot. This time it seems you’re not just there for an artefact but you’re also looking for a missing team of Warp Core treasure hunters who disappeared around this time. What on earth did those witches do to the treasure hunters? Can you find them? If you don’t hurry their fate will also be yours! Go go go!

The Experience

The Warp Core Part Three takes place in a piece of software called Telescape and honestly I think it is the best example of Telescape from any company out there right now. As well as the typical 360 degree view of a space that by now I expect, Warp Core is multi-room, meaning you unlock not only new physical spaces but also other additional spaces which would not be technically possible in a real escape room experience. You can move around, zoom in, and click on things, and often this will trigger an interesting video sequence or a fully interactive interface.

Again, I have to reiterate that Warp Core III is impressive in the world it creates and in particular for those moments which would not be possible in the real world. For example (and minor spoilers here – this is information available on their website so I think I’m free to mention it), in a real escape room would you really come face with a witch or wizard and be able to enter into a spell casting battle in real time? Could you cast spells and physically see the result of your spells in front of you, such as things materialising or transforming? Can you cut shapes out of materials and have them transform into the real thing?

I reckon the answer for each of those things is no. At least, in 2021! I dunno you might be reading this blog post way out in in the year 2500 and all that stuff is possible. But right now, I AM IMPRESSED. This game is excellent!

The Puzzles

The puzzles in Warp Core III are pretty cool too. It felt as if the designers paid a lot of attention to detail and furthermore really pushed the limits of what is possible in a digital space, which is cool. Using my magic wand, I was able to draw shapes and physically manipulate objects around me… With magic!

That said, we did get fairly stuck! Not only is there A LOT to do in one small escape room, but the puzzles were a big step up in difficulty from Part II which he how we came to take a lot longer to finish it. However one of the main places we ‘got stuck’ wasn’t due to the difficulty of the puzzles, but more because we didn’t think to look in a place where the next clue was to be found. Oops! So piece of advice: check everything and check it twice!

My favourite puzzles involved Scanny Tim. No spoilers here, but I loved the addition of a handheld device that helped advance the game in very unexpected ways!

Overall

I am a huge fan of The Warp Core series and I cannot stress enough what an impressive piece of tech it is! The creators have gone above and beyond in creating a brilliant play at home experience and I only wish we weren’t playing these competitively so I had more time to soak it all up and enjoy. I’m super stoked to see what Part IV will bring! Bring it on, Warp Core!!

The Warp Core Part 3 can be booked for £15 on ClueHQ’s website here.

Immersia: The Forgotten Station | Review

Image

Reply

James Presswood is the CEO of the Simplon Orient Express company. He created a modern version of this mythical railroad track. Mr Presswood has generated a fortune with this new project. The Orient Express quickly became the most popular mode of transportation in Europe. In an unexpected turn of events, his operations team decided to kidnap his family and is asking for a 500 million euros ransom.

Rating: Exciting!
Completion Time: 48:40
Date Played: 18th April 2021
Party Size: 4
Recommended For: People who want to play the IRL escape room but missed it! (It’s now retired)

So I LOVE the idea – The Forgotten Station was a real life escape room that was available to play at Immersia Laval from 2017 to 2020. Pre-2020, the idea of making an escape room live on in the digital world was unknown. Heck, I’m not even sure the system it’s built in (Telescape) existed back then. But thanks to lockdown forcing a lot of companies to embrace the digital, The Forgotten Station lives on! I feel privileged and thankful to be able to play it today.

The Escaping the Closet team and myself took on The Forgotten Station as part of the 36th International Online Escape Game Tournament and placed 12th (aww not quite top ten but we tried!). It’s a classic escape room converted to online format and an excellent use of the digital point-and-click system Telescape!

The Story

The story of this escape room is… Actually really exciting!! So I can completely imagine how brilliant it was to play the real life version too.

The story goes, the CEO of the Simplon Orient Express has called in the detectives after a huge ransom for his kidnapped family has been announced. If he doesn’t pay up, he’ll lose his family forever. It so happens that the family is… *gasp* On the train!! You’ve got an opportunity to stop the train, disconnect the carriage they’re in and capture the bad guys, but only if you hurry!

From here the whole experience takes place inside the control room of the train. The problem is, you don’t have the driver with you to help – he’s guiding you from afar with a series of video cut scenes. No pressure!

The Experience

The Forgotten Station is a completely self guided online game that takes place in a software called Telescape. If you’re new to the online escape room world, this means you have a 360 view of the escape room ‘environment’, can see where all your fellow teammates are, and can click into anything for a closer look.

In The Forgotten Station, the whole room takes place in one area, so we quickly familiarised ourselves with the space and got to work on the puzzles. There are three distinct ’rounds’ to this game. Each is characterised by a colour (red, blue and green), and during that round you need only focus on items in the room that are highlighted in this colour. At the end of each round you’re greeted with a cut scene. These cut scenes mark the plot – first, stop the train, separate the carriages, and finally capture the bad guys.

The cut scenes work really well and here we’re introduced to the actual train master, and the ‘bad guys’ as they tie up a genuinely frightened looking family in one of the carriages. There’s some fun acting and I enjoyed getting to know the characters. One point of note however is that the original game is in French, so the acting is dubbed into English. I think subtitles might have been a better choice, but I’m not complaining!

The Puzzles

The puzzles are where The Forgotten Station really shines, and they’re on the medium to difficult level of the scale! The main thing is, I thought it really interesting that they were separated by colour and (especially on the clock for the Escape Game Olympics) this tripped me up. I spent too much time early on looking at the wrong colour thinking a puzzle was relevant. Oops!

In terms of the types of puzzles, it’s got everything you’d expect in a traditional escape room and then some – there are a few number locks, a few padlocks, a letter lock, a directional lock… We also came across a nifty black light puzzle, and some fun use of maps too. There were also some unexpectedly creative stuff that required several members of the team looking at different things and calling numbers, letters and directions out loud. So this is definitely one to play in a group!

Overall

As I say, I’m especially stoked that I get the chance to play this room I may never have otherwise played! Long live the escape room, even when it’s been decommissioned!

Whenever I play a game as part of the Escape Game Olympics there’s a big degree of ‘need to smash this to get a good score’, so I probably didn’t personally see and experience everything the room had to offer. Teamwork makes the dream work after all! But I still came out with a smile on my face and a feeling of accomplishment. We saved the day, rescued the victims, and caught the bad guys! Not bad for a Sunday evening.

The Forgotten Station can be booked for $19.99 CAD on Immersia’s website here.

Hourglass Escapes: The Navigators and the Call From Beyond | Review

Image

Reply

You and your friends have won a tour of the JPL facility in California! As you begin the tour you very quickly realize that something is wrong, and you and your friends must answer the CALL FROM BEYOND!

Rating: Good!
Completion Time: 22:42
Date Played: 11th April 2021
Party Size: 4
Recommended For: A team of exactly 4, playing via Zoom! Sci-fi fans!

Every review on this website marked with “Escape Game Olympics” you already know I was in a competitive “we’ve gotta race through this” mode, which means I’m aiming for the fastest score (at the expense of pausing to enjoy the game and take it slow). But HECK, worth it for a fantastically speedy score of 22:42 and 7th on the Escape Game Olympics’ leaderboard this week!

But this review isn’t about the EGO, it’s about The Navigators and the Call From the Beyond – a game as mysterious and sci-fi as the name suggests, and with the voice of actor Yuri Lowenthal in it, it’s definitely in the ‘extra special’ list. So here’s everything you need to know 👇

The Story

The story of The Navigators and the Call from Beyond takes you and 3 other friends on an adventure into the great unknown (space). On a tour of a space facility, you’re suddenly pulled into something that is much greater than the four of you… A call from the (literal) beyond. Aliens! Maybe? Well… By working together and solving various puzzles, you’re able to bring the game to a conclusion.

Reading back my own description, I probably have to say that this game isn’t too heavy on plot – it’s not central to what’s going on at all. Instead, it’s a super fast paced game and the reason why you’re there, or why it’s your responsibility to save the day isn’t immediately obvious. There’s an intro video which does give some explanation *cough* Secret NASA, but overall the main mechanic is to get you into the action as quickly as possible, and I know a lot of people will appreciate that!

The Experience

The Navigators and the Call From Beyond is played inside your web browser, so you’ll want to use Zoom or another video messaging service to connect to the other 3 players. Although built in Telescape, the creators have done something very unique that I’ve not seen before! It’s not your typical point-and-click.

Instead, each player can see a different screen. I opted to play as “Player 1”, so every time a new area loaded I had to immediately click on the Player 1 screen and ignore the other screens. This worked well to an extent, but 2 of our team were playing via the same screen, so had to hop between Player 3 and 4. For this reason, you can play with less than a team of 4. Essentially, if they want to, everyone can see everyone else’s screen! So on the occasion I’d finished a puzzle early, I could hop onto Screen 2 and help out my fellow team mate (and vice versa).

At the end of each level a password needs to be inputted to proceed, and then we were presented with a video which set the scene. The video parts of the game were easily my favourite! There’s a strong retro ‘sci-fi’ vibe to this whole game which looks GORGEOUS in the animations and cut scenes. If you know me, you know I love that retro stuff. Hourglass Escapes really smashed it! It’s simply the icing on the cake to also have such a cool actor narrating the game too.

A unique interface combined with some beautiful aesthetics make this an all round great experience in my books. I love a bit of sci-fi on a Sunday afternoon, and I feel like the creators have done something special with the tools available to them.

The Puzzles

Each of the puzzles in The Navigators and the Call from Beyond are centred around the idea that all four team members have 1/4 of the puzzle. Personally, I adore puzzles like this! You have to work together to make sense of the bigger picture – it’s true collaboration!

In some cases, the puzzles were completely self contained and each solution at the end would give us the password to the next phase. In other cases, we could each see a portion of something and had to work together. It reminded me a little bit of Escape from the Two Base Stations (a game like this for 2), or The Pyramid (a game like this for 3) – but the best part about this one? The more players! More the merrier, eh?

Generally speaking, you can expect to encounter a good mix of puzzles! As I played as “Player 1” I did miss out on some of the puzzles my team mates tackled, so I’ll speak for myself only! But players can expect to encounter cipher puzzles, puzzles that involve you searching in a 360 Google Maps style interface, puzzles where you have to navigate through a maze, and puzzles with plenty of anagrams!

The only piece of constructive criticism I’d like to mention is that there’s not enough. Both from a “ooh this game was fun I want more” perspective, and also from a “we finished it in 20 minutes perspective”. Yes, yes, I was playing this competitively so I’m bound to have raced through it, but we all concluded that there could have been 2, maybe 3 more levels to the game to make it feel more full.

I do know that the creators plan to make a Part 2 of this game though, so I’ll be eagerly awaiting this!

Overall

Good fun! I’d seen this game advertised a lot, and Escape Game Olympics or not I was going to play it anyway. Being able to tackle it with an ace team of 4 (shout out to Escaping the Closet) made it all the more fun, and I’d definitely recommend this to anybody looking for that retro space vibe, folks who enjoy collaborating, and of course fans of Yuri Lowenthal(‘s voice).

The Navigators and the Call from Beyond can be purchased for $24.99 USD (currently reduced to $19.99) on Hourglass Escape’s website here.

Experios: Ben’s Big Heist | Review

Image

2

For many years Ben has been working as an underpaid cleaner at a small bank. He needs the help of you and your team to finally take his well-deserved money.

Rating: Enjoyable!
Completion Time: 49:38 (with $6,089,000.00)
Date Played: 5th April 2021
Party Size: 4
Recommended For: Aspiring Bank Robbers (I’m kidding, don’t do that). All audiences.

It’s week three in my Escape Game Olympics journey, and up this week was Ben’s Big Heist!

The Story

Ben’s Big Heist is a fairly classic ‘bank heist’ themed online escape game – I’ve actually got a whole category for ‘heist’ themed games here on The Escape Roomer that’s slowly filling up and if you like the genre, you’ll enjoy this one too! It’s got everything you want: blueprints, remote hacking, vaults.

The story of this heist follows the disgruntled and underpaid employee titular character Ben as he plans an epic heist to kick back at his employers and take what he feels is rightfully his. I mean, I do pause at the phrase “small bank” – you probably shouldn’t be robbing small businesses, but hey a bank is a bank. *shouts something anti-capitalist*

The Experience

From here, you’re acting as the eyes in the sky with Ben as boots on the ground. As each stage, Ben progresses through areas in the building and you must assist him at each step – sometimes with a passcode, sometimes by hacking into a computer, sometimes by scouring the map and figuring out the best way to progress.

There’s two things in this game I found pretty cool:

First, the element of multiple choice! At a few key junctures you can choose to do one thing over another and this changes the outcome of the game. Some choices may lead to harder puzzles but a larger pay-off, and others may give you a faster exit out the bank and thus a better time score.

The second cool thing about this game is it’s scoring system. You’re not just judged on time. In fact, I’d argue that time isn’t even the most important thing here (well, okay I’m doing this as part of the Escape Game Olympics and I care a LOT about time). What you’re really trying to do is steal the most money, and this is where the ‘multiple choice’ becomes important. Do you go for the more valuable vault that’s harder to crack at the risk of remaining too long and being arrested? Choices! Choices!

The Puzzles

The puzzles weren’t wholly tricky but it was hard to get the answer right. What I mean is there’s some subjectivity which felt a little iffy here. I can’t specifically explain without giving away a spoiler for a puzzle, so I’ll give a simpler example. Let’s say the password is “diaper” but here in the UK we say “nappy”. At one juncture, we put the word we knew for an item in and *bzzt* incorrect. So we tried 6 different options (and took penalties for each) before going back to our correct answer and realising they were just looking for us to type “diaper”.

This popped up twice in the game, so it’s a small piece of advice I’d give to prospective players looking to give this one a go. Otherwise, the puzzles were fairly straightforward – a couple of maths puzzles, a couple of sorting, a few search and find, and plenty of looking at the map.

Overall

In the end, we finished with a very respectable time – not enough to crown us champions of anything any time soon, but it was a good fun little game to play on a bank holiday Monday afternoon with team Escaping the Closet!

Ben’s Big Heist can be played for $45 AUD per team by booking it on Virtual Escape’s website here.

Virtual Escaping: Underground Murder | Review

Image

Reply

On his way to work, a young man is killed on the subway. How he was murdered is still unknown. Suspects and witnesses have been questioned, but now it’s up to you to find out exactly what happened.

Rating: Spooky!
Completion Time: 34 minutes
Date Played: 28th March 2021
Party Size: 4
Recommended For: 16+ Murder Mystery Enthusiasts and Budding Detectives

Week two in my Escape Game Olympics journey and this time we are…Down a couple of places, aww. But hey! There were 13 additional teams playing this week and I’m still super proud of our fantastic score of 34 minutes and 8 seconds! As with before, I’m playing on the Escaping the Closet team with Alice, Ash and Tash and absolutely loving the competition.

Underground Murder

If there’s two things I love it’s murder mysteries and underground trains. Ok I’m kidding on the last part. Does anyone actually love cramming onto a sticky underground train for a daily commute? Bleh. It’s a perk of working from home that I never need to again. BUT THIS underground train station is deserted. Why? There’s been a horrific murder and you, a team of detectives, must solve the case quickly and get the trains running again.

Screenshot (c) Virtual Escaping

Underground Murder has really spooky vibes. The whole environment was dark and mysterious – think flickering lights and plenty of dark places with discarded weapons *shudders*. To navigate the game, it’s a straight forward point and click, but the environment really makes you work for it… Read as, a lot of button mashing from me in all the shadowy places trying to find stuff.

Whilst is IS a point and click, unlike others, you can’t see what your fellow players are doing unless they discover something new – this pops up on screen for all players. So communication is absolutely the key:

“I am in the engine room, I have found this, we need a 4 digit code…” etc. etc.

Screenshot (c) Virtual Escaping

The Puzzles

The game is really cleverly done in terms of solving the ‘big puzzle’ of whodunnit. Sure, it feels like an escape room with puzzles to solve, but the end goal is to collect as much evidence as possible and interrogate the suspect statements to figure out who the murder is and more importantly why the victim died.

As you search for evidence, the main purpose of the puzzles are to unlock the three new areas. For example, an engineer’s room locked with a 4 digit code, or a series of panels that control the train doors. Rather unhelpful of the station staff not to give me this kind of information, but hey ho! As such, most of the puzzles require you to find a 3, 4, or 5 digit/letter code – so we spent a great deal of time trying the same code in various locks until we cracked it.

Screenshot (c) Virtual Escaping

A few stand out puzzles didn’t involve 4 digit codes (well, not exactly). At one point you’ll find yourself needing to unlock a phone with a shape, and other puzzles may involve small details in statements you overlooked the first time you read them. Pretty cool!

With three distinct areas to explore you won’t have enough information to solve the case until you unlock everything BUT you can try. At any point in the game you can head to your detective notebook, review the evidence, and solve the case. Pretty cool!

We ‘solved the case’ so the moment we were sure we were right (hey! This IS a competition – no time to waste!) BUT… This left us with one puzzle we did not solve and I’ve still no idea what it was supposed to do! Grrr, my inner completionist NEEDS TO KNOW what the puzzle solution was. Haha!

Overall

One of the standouts for me about Underground Murder is the really intriguing (and kinda beautiful) world. I just loved ‘being’ there and exploring the places. It was almost like a video game environment – damn, that’s a great idea! I would 100% play this if it were a video game, and right now I’m cheering the creators on to create a Part 2!

But, in the mean time, Underground Murder is a great option for a team of budding detectives looking to spend a fun afternoon solving a case. Even though we raced through it, there’s at least an hour – if not more’s worth of fun. You can see for yourself the various completion times of the players from this week’s EGO here.

Underground Murder can be purchased for £30 per team on Virtual Escaping’s website here.

ClueHQ: The Warp Core Part Two

Image

Reply

Come back aboard The Warp Core and head even further back in time on your hunt for more historical items to add to your collection. This time, visit the Dungeons of Camelock as you try to track down King Arthur’s legendary sword: Exkeylibur. You’ll need to breakout of your cell before battling your way back to the portal for a safe return.

Rating: Awesome!
Completion Time: 31:54
Date Played: 21st March 2021
Party Size: 4
Recommended For: Everyone!

Stop the press! This is my inaugural entry into what’ll hopefully be a weekly thing for me – The Escape Game Olympics! Seriously, how am I THIS FAR into lockdown and I’m only just doing this now? It was brilliant.

International Online Escape Game Tournament

The tournament, sometimes known as the Escape Game Olympics and other times known as the International Online Escape Game Tournament is a weekly event every Sunday from 7pm hosted by escaperoomers.de. Each week at least 40 teams from around the world take on the escape play at home escape game in a race to get on top of the leader board and win a coveted medal for your country.

Team Escaping the Closet

I joined the fantastic Escaping the Closet team comprised of Alice, Ash, and Tasha who have regularly competed in the EGO since week 1, and this week’s escape room challenge was The Warp Core Part 2!

The Warp Core Part 2

The Warp Core Part 2 is… You guessed it, the second part in The Warp Core series. Since I haven’t played Part 1, I’m a little bit ‘behind’ in the overarching plot, but no worries – it was very easy to pick up as a standalone mission too! What was most interesting about this game though was it’s seamless mix of sci-fi and history.

Essentially, you start in a time machine and spend the first part of the experience powering it up. Then a portal opens up transporting you all the back to ancient Camelot- sorry, CameLOCK to retrieve the legendary ExKEYlibur sword. This game gets away with a lot: sci-fi puzzles perfectly segmented between old timey puzzles. At one point we piloted a drone around the room scanning areas. At another point, we shot arrows around a medieval dungeon and engaged in some casual sword play with the guardian of the sword. It’s eclectic but it WORKS.

As well as the setting being unusual, the technology was also particularly noteworthy! The whole experience takes place in Telescape – if you’re new to the escape room industry, this means it’s a point and click 3D model of the room, with question marks over items of interest. You can see where each other player is ‘in the room’ and what they’re looking at, and helpfully you also have an inventory system.

The Warp Core is built in telescape, but the creators take this further with some really unique extras in the game. Unlike 99% of digital Telescape escape rooms, which are just normal rooms converted to online, this one has been BUILT FOR Telescape. It makes excellent use of the technology in surprising ways that simply wouldn’t work in real life. For example, fighting a person (would an actor just jump into a room and start attacking you with a sword – how would this work in real life?), piloting a drone (which would probably break irl), or using a knife to hack through something in a room (knives, yeah thats a no from me).

Cool tech aside, the puzzles overall were really fun! Zero hints were used throughout the game, and nothing stumped us for too long. The team of 4 we had was also about the ‘right’ amount of people so that we all kept busy. I generally prefer games that err on the side of non-linear, meaning puzzles can be solved simultaneously.

Due to the competitive nature of the EGO, we raced through this game in a record 31 minutes. Okay maybe not quite a record, but our team came 7th out of 41 teams, so I’m pretty damn chuffed about this! Both the The Warp Core and the Escape Game Olympics were an absolute joy and I’m looking forward to seeing what next week’s tournament game will be!

The Warp Core Part 2 can be booked for £15 on ClueHQ’s website here.