Scott Weiss - Communing With Nature Review (Live Audio Escape Room)

Hi all

Back in June 2021, I played an online room with some escape room enthusiast friends of mine from Australia and New Zealand.  This was a first for me - it was an audio escape room experience.  The "room" is called Commune with Nature and it was designed by Scott Weiss, a puzzle enthusiast, Jeopardy winner and an Associate Professor of Computer Science based in Maryland, USA.  It was my 188th escape room experience.

For those of you who aren't aware of audio escape rooms, they reminded me of a text adventure game from the 1990s (only in audio format).  For those of you old enough to remember, text based adventure games had no graphics - they simply explained the scene to players wholly by text (something like "you have walked into a large cave, with doors to the left and right, a large chest in the middle of the floor and a lamp on the chest".  It was then a matter for the player to decide what to do, which they did by typing in "open the door on the left", etc.  It was all pretty primitive, but strangely immersive and addictive.  

Audio escape rooms have a similar sense of immersion (and addictiveness), but the main parallel with text-based adventure games is that there are no visuals (other than from time to time some visual aids).  So much is left to the player's imagination. Many of you will have heard of Escape This Podcast, which is ran by Dani Siller and Bill Sunderland.  Dani and Bill have been designing audio escape rooms for some time and are now in their 10th season.  You can listen to their podcast where they take players through their audio escape rooms and you can even download the notes and visual aids from each room and host you rown audio escape room with your friends.  You can (and really should!) check them out here.  https://www.escapethispodcast.com/

At the time that I played Commune with Nature, I had never tried an audio escape room.  So I really didn't know what to expect.  Scott, our host, begins by explaining the room layout and various things in the room that we might want to investigate further.  He was live hosting on zoom (or Google Hangouts, I'm not sure) and at different times he would provide us with visual aids for the room layout or for different puzzles.

The experience was incredibly fun.  It's really interesting how room flow and puzzles can be designed with little or no visual aids.  We found it helpful (or at least I did) to sketch the room layout and label different things as we were playing.  As with any escape room experience, there were tricky puzzles to be solved and some hunt and seek fun as well. 

I have since listened to Scott and his daughter host The Escape This Podcast crew through Commune with Nature, which was fun to listen to.

I really enjoyed Commune with Nature.  So much so that after playing online, I then printed everything out for my team and one night I hosted them through their first audio escape room.  I think they enjoyed the experience (and I'm hoping to try some more out with my team soon).  

For anyone interested in trying out an audio escape room, you can contact Scott Weiss here to play one of his rooms (he is an excellent game master and the price is only $15USD), or you can check out the many different audio escape rooms at Escape This Podcast here.

Thanks

Scott

 

Daydream Adventures - The Witch's Forest Review (Live Avatar)

Hi all

In May 2021, I learned that a highly-rated live avatar escape room in Canada was about to close down one of its popular online rooms.  So I quickly jumped online and booked a session for my wife and 2 young daughters.  The room was called The Witch’s Forest from Daydream Adventures, who are based in Toronto.

The Witch’s Forest was my 186^th room to date.  The theme of the room is as follows:

In a realm of dreams and magic, a trickster has upset the witch who lives here. Hilda has been away from the forest. Upon returning home, Hilda discovers someone has mischievously interrupted what she was working on. She is locked out of her cabin. She suspects a human may have done this, as she knows many humans detest her. In this realm, spirits often watch and listen. Spirits of the forest, such as yourself, are very wise. A witch calls upon forest spirits for guidance. When Hilda calls for your help, your spirit can tell Hilda exactly how to undo the trickster’s mess.

Here’s what we thought about The Witch’s Forest:

• this room really does deserve all of the positivity it had generated online.  The theming is really beautifully done.  Whilst Hilda the witch acts as your live avatar, they also include pre-recorded video cut-scenes throughout the game which is really magical and flawlessly executed;

• the live avatar was excellent.  Hilda took the time to really engage with our team, particularly with our young daughters, to ensure that they were actively involved.  Our girls loved the experience; and

• there was a really lovely mixture of puzzles throughout the experience, ranging from quite simple to slightly tricky.  I would describe the overall difficulty level of the room as easy to medium, but perfect for families.

Unfortunately, The Witch’s Forest has since closed down (and by the looks of it, has been replaced with a new room called Dream Portal.  Currently the 2 rooms available at Daydream Adventures are in person only rooms.  However, at the time of writing this review, their website says that they are looking to again provide online options (due, I assume, to current Covid lockdowns in Canada).  

Where:                                 Virtual Room (online)

Virtual Room Type:             Live Avatar

Duration:                              60 minutes

Themes:                               2 (but currently up in the air due to Covid)

Cost:                                    $93CAD for 4 (but we had a discount code)

Overall Rating:                    A clever and truly beautiful room perfect for families

More details:                       https://daydreamtoronto.com/our-escape-rooms/

 

Sherlocked Escape Rooms - The Vault Review (Live Avatar)

Hi all

In May 2021, I played an online escape room with other escape room enthusiast friends of mine from Australia and New Zealand.  The room was called The Vault from Sherlocked Escape Rooms, who are based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

The Vault was my 185^th room to date.  The theme of the room is as follows:

Form a team of highly skilled thieves to steal a mysterious object from a heavily protected safe. Should you get caught, we will deny any knowledge of this operation.  This is not your average escape room. The Vault requires you to think on your feet, bluff your way past guards and think outside the box.

Here’s what we thought about The Vault:

• we had a really fun time playing The Vault.  The room begins in the CBD of Amsterdam, with many people walking past the live avatar who is trying to gain entry into a beautiful, old building;

• The Vault is cleverly designed and utilises both a live avatar and video feeds of another NPC within the space.  One of the main puzzles in the game is to bluff your way past guards, which is really fun and immersive;

• there are also a number of different media used for puzzles, which is quite well done;

• the highlight of the experience for me though was the space.  The building itself (I think) was the old stock exchange building that dates back to 1896.  It is stunning and at one point, players get to see a real safe door that was used in the stock exchange (which was amazing);

• we had an excellent host and live avatar which really lifted the experience; and
  

1. the theming throughout was really strong.  The puzzles all made sense and were enjoyable to solve.

Our team enjoyed the experience.  We also had a long chat with the game master after our escape, which is always fun, talking about the history of the beautiful building.  I wouldn’t recommend this room for younger audiences (as there are some poorly-lit sections), but playing remotely likely takes away the scary factor somewhat.   

Since we played The Vault, Amsterdam has come out of lockdown and so the game is available for in person players.  However, according to their website at the time of (finally) writing up this review, they are still offering The Vault as a live-avatar experience by appointment only.  So, if you’re interested, you can send them an email to line up a time to play remotely.  I’m also not 100% sure of the price (their website provides that the price is 169 Euros for 4 players, but this might be cheaper as a remote room.

Where:                                 Virtual Room (online)

Virtual Room Type:             Live Avatar

Duration:                              60 minutes

Themes:                               1 online room

Cost:                                    169 Euros (team of 4)

Overall Rating:                    A fun, challenging room in a spectacular building

More details:                       https://sherlocked.nl/