The Escape Game – Rugrats: The Search for the Losted Toys (Review)

July 16, 2021 ~ EscapeAdventurer ~ Leave a comment

Location: Your Home via the Magic of the Internet!

Players: Up to 8 (We recommend 4-5)

Price: $35 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

Theme:

From the The Escape Game website:

Angelica has tricked the babies and hidden all of their bestest toys. But, oh, no! She unwittingly misplaced her beloved Cynthia doll, too! Join Tommy and the gang to track down their most favoritest toys and save playtime! Oh, and you better hurry because it’s a race against the snore. If Grandpa Lou wakes up from his nap and catches you outside the playpen, you’ll be scooped up and toyless – maybe forever!

High Points:

The instant we began our Search for the Losted Toys, I noticed how brilliantly the set evoked the feel of the old Nickelodeon show. As a big fan of Rugrats when I was little, this room absolutely brought back memories, and I love the art style that The Escape Game has employed to bring the world of Rugrats to life! Starting us off in the babies playpen was a great touch, and the way we escaped from there kicked off things in a fantastic way! As we progressed, puzzles gradually increased in difficulty, presenting a difficulty curve that started with some easy wins to get our momentum up, and becoming more complex as we neared the final few toys. I loved how some of the late stage puzzles were brilliantly layered, and the final room really did have some of the best overall interactions in the game. The game isn’t quite as difficult as others we’ve played from The Escape Game, but it does present a great challenge while still being a suitable game for families, and a great intro to escaping for older kids! The escape itself was pretty linear overall, which was good for the remote nature of our experience, ensuring that we weren’t jumping between too many points and letting clues get lost in the fray. The puzzles and interactions were varied nicely, allowing for several different types of puzzler to shine, and keeping the proceedings from getting bogged down in any one type of puzzle. One of my favorite interactions, though it would have been cooler if we had been able to do it live, allowed us to contact one of the best side characters from the show, and it was such a rush of nostalgia to hear his dulcet tones! On the whole, our team has a brilliant time solving through the Pickle’s home, and ensuring that the Rugrats, (even Angelica!) were reunited with their beloved toys.

Low Points:

Though we really enjoyed our time with this super creative Rugrats room, I highly, highly recommend doing it in person if you can. The remote experience is translated decently, but a lot of the puzzles included within the room are very tactile and do not translate well. One of these puzzles in particular takes forever and is very tedious to run through. However, we recognize that were we physically in the room, these interactions would have been a lot more fun. Overall, our avatar did a great job, but was required to do so much of the room for us that we felt like we had missed out on particular parts of the game. Other than that, there is one interaction in particular that requires light outside knowledge as well, and the main parts of the puzzle are somewhat banal.

Verdict:

On the whole, Rugrats: The Search for the Losted Toys is a great way to spend an hour, with the caveat that if you are able to play this one live (Available in Las Vegas and King of Prussia,) that will be a better experience overall. However, we still had a great time with the remote experience, reliving the nostalgia of Rugrats, and enjoying the brilliant set while recapturing those losted toys from Angelica! Book your time helping the Rugrats here!

7.5/10 (Good)

Full Disclosure: The Escape Game provided our team with a complementary game.

The Escape Game – Unlocked! The Heist: Digital Episodes 1 and 2 (Review)

July 1, 2020July 1, 2020 ~ EscapeAdventurer ~ Leave a comment

Location: Your Home via the Magic of the Internet!

Players: We recommend 1-2

Price: $10 per episode, or $17 for both bundled

Hahn shot first.

Theme:

From the The Escape Game website:

Volume 1: Chasing Hahn

Thwart infamous art curator, Vincent Hahn, before another masterpiece goes missing.

Volume 2: The Silk Road

Vincent Hahn just barely escaped, but Intel has noticed some suspicious activity in Hong Kong. According to reports, Hahn is dealing with artifacts related to the Silk Road. Your mission is to go there, find Hahn, and capture him before he can get away.

First Impressions:

I always love a good subscription box, but it’s nice to get an adventure instantly rather than having to wait for it to arrive via the US Postal Service. The Escape Game has created digital editions of their physical boxed mysteries, just in time for lockdown. They’re fairly competitively priced, and after having played the excellent Ruins, I was excited to see what sort of puzzles they included!

High Points:

Unlocked: The Heist carries on the story of The Escape Game’s physical room, The Heist, continuing the search for international art thief, Vincent Hahn. It’s always great to revisit and expand on stories in this sort of medium, and I love sequels to previous rooms and experiences. The difficulty curve of these games was lighter, though the final puzzles did tend to present a somewhat more challenging solve, and Volume One contained a dense array of puzzles to keep us puzzling for a while. Connections were clear between items used and puzzles, and the clues as presented provided a smooth game flow that kept us moving from point to point at a good clip. The inventories are well implemented, and clues are used once, allowing for players to stay focused on what is important throughout, and though no clues are used twice, there are still layers within several of the individual challenges, ensuring that for those interactions, the immediate information revealed may not be the only thing to find. Inputs into the game are straightforward, and give immediate feedback regarding if an answer is correct, ensuring no confusion or frustration in that regard. Videos that accompany the game are well produced and reasonably entertaining, especially during the chase “scene” of Volume Two, and the story is integrated well into the puzzling. The climax of Volume Two is awesome, giving players agency to make decisions within the game world and delivering a satisfying conclusion to the experience. There are also some great references to other The Escape Game experiences, which I enjoyed.

Low Points:

These games trended towards the easier side, especially for Volume Two, which I was able to complete solo in about 20 minutes. Veteran solvers may find that these don’t quite scratch the puzzling itch for very long, and even for just $10, might not get the bang for their buck that they are hoping for. At some points, the puzzles felt like simple research puzzles that just required us to read the clues and enter information, but luckily those points were early and not ubiquitous. New players, though, may find that these are a good introduction. The two volumes are rather inconsistent between the two, with each having almost opposite strengths and weaknesses. For example, the Inventory of Volume One includes a lot of information via PDFs, and isn’t quite as polished as Volume Two, while Volume Two tends to be a lot lighter when it comes to density and challenge of puzzles. The story, however, is much more engaging in Volume Two.

Verdict:

While I think that experienced puzzlers and escape enthusiasts are going to find Unlocked: The Heist a rather simple affair, new players who haven’t been quite as immersed in the language of puzzles will find this to be a fun introduction to these sorts of games. These games would also be great for families, as the content is family friendly, but no so much that adults will be turned off to the challenge. We had a good time quickly solving the various challenges, and if the theme and easier difficulty curve appeals to you, I can recommend trying it out. Begin your search for international art thief Hahn here!

7/10 (Good)

Full Disclosure: The Escape Game provided our team with a complementary game.

The Escape Game – Ruins: Forbidden Treasure (Review)

June 10, 2020June 11, 2020 ~ EscapeAdventurer ~ 2 Comments

Location: Your Home via the Magic of the Internet!

Players: We recommend 2-4

Price: $25 per person

Time to Escape: 60 minutes

Theme:

From the The Escape Game website:

You’re on a relaxing aerial tour of a remote jungle when everything suddenly falls apart. You’re stranded at the foot of ancient and mysterious temple ruins – home of a massive fabled treasure. Adventure has come knocking and the treasure could be yours for the taking! Fortune favors the bold. Will it favor you?

First Impressions:

At the start of our game, we met one of our favorite people we’ve ever met within an escape game, Captain Mac, who would be flying us to the site of our adventure. A man of pure joy and light, we were highly entertained by his beautifully produced and informative educational video, right up until the plane crashed. But, you know, five stars up until that minor incident!

Captain Mac’s tours are brilliant!

High Points:

Our Game Master Brianna and Avatar “Jungle Scout” were great, helping us explore this beautiful room remotely. Set design is amazing, and made us wish we were physically in the room, but I didn’t feel that much was lost in translation, or that we were missing out on too much of the experience by playing remotely. If anything, it got us excited to visit The Escape Game in Nashville once the pandemic is over! There are a few cinematic moments that truly wowed us, including some crazy set pieces that, when activated, elevate the entire game’s immersion brilliantly! It’s strange to comment on how tactile the room is when we weren’t physically there, but it was cool to be able to virtually interact with so many well built props, and the Jungle Scout ensured we were able to have her manipulate them as we directed. The inventory system is excellent, and items are quickly added and removed as we find and successfully use them, respectively. This keeps the game flow running smoothly and ensures the whole experience is well streamlined. Technical wizardry runs rampant in this room, and is hidden quite well, creating mystical, large scale effects that translate well to the zoom call. As an aside, isn’t it nice to be able to have conference calls that aren’t mind numbing, for once?

The game flows beautifully, as previously mentioned, and searching has been modified in order to keep things running at a good clip, so the puzzling is the star of the show here. The interactions are challenging and logical, and it’s great to see that though the experience has been adjusted for remote play, it remains a fantastic room dense with great puzzles. I really loved that several puzzles still relied on good teamwork to overcome, and the variety certainly allowed for each of us to have our MVP moment! Each stage of the game is somewhat self contained, making each room feel like their own individual meta-puzzles to work through, and this approach works fantastically virtually, and eliminates any dead time from having to direct the avatar to walk back and forth. The climactic puzzle is wonderfully intense, and the touches that combine to build this level of intensity are all insanely cool, even through our computer screens.

Low Points:

We had one slight hiccup when we asked to search a particular part of the room, and were told it was featureless, only to later find there was a very important interaction there we had previously expected to find. Luckily, our GM was able to get things back on track once she realized the error, which was great. One particular puzzle relies on sound, and it’s a great idea in person, but virtually, we were directly informed regarding the important bits, simplifying it a bit more than we would’ve liked. I understand the reason for the modification, but other games we’ve done have been able to translate sounds to their inventories, which would preserve the challenge here.

Verdict:

As a virtual experience, Ruins: Forbidden Treasure is a pretty awesome way to spend an hour with friends, escaping even when we can’t be in the room together. I really appreciated the production values of the adventure, and the intro video is almost worth the price of admission alone! I can’t wait to check out The Escape Game once we’re able to make the trek out to Tennessee, and absolutely recommend escaping this room virtually in the mean time. Book your time with Captain Mac’s Skyward Tours here!

8.5/10 (Great)

Full Disclosure: The Escape Game provided our team with a complementary game.