Tuesday 11 January 2022

Ukiyo at Home - Stawk Pine Falls Review (Virtual)


Hi all

Back in August 2020, I heard from other enthusiasts that Ukiyo, a Melbourne-based escape room business, had designed a play at home experience that would be played out online over a period of 10 (or so) days.  

The story, which was inspired by Twin Peaks, revolved around a small town and the disappearance of a number of young women. 

I remember SPF being quite exciting in the first few days, with new characters being introduced, emails being received with further clues and information, newspaper articles appearing on the SPF Facebook page and a live radio show on Youtube that took place every night or two.  

There were some interesting puzzles that players were able to solve that would in turn provide more information about the storyline.

Whilst I thought some elements of SPF were really enjoyable, there were 2 aspects that I did not enjoy.  The first was the complete overload of unnecessary background information throughout the story, which often led to red herrings and many loose ends at the conclusion of the experience.  I also reallly did not enjoy the final act, which seemed to me to have been put together in a very arbitrary and inelegant way, requiring a bit of guess work to solve.  Others really enjoyed the ending, so each to their own I guess.

Stawk Pine Falls was only $5 per player, which was objectively great value for the content.  I just wish more work had been put into the flow of puzzles (and perhaps some serious editing of the many different story arcs that just weren't necessary).

Ukiyo at Home have since run 2 further experiences, which I will review separately.

Thanks

Scott


 

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