Enter Mission - Timeline Review (Live Experience)

 

Hi all

In October 2020 I played Timeline, a non-live avatar live experience from Enter Mission based in Melbourne. I played Timeline with my fellow escape room enthusiast friend Philip.

Timeline is a Live Experience room, meaning that whilst we did have to play at a designated time and we did have a host, there was no live avatar in the room.  Timeline was my 160^th room to date and my 16^th virtual room.

The theme of the room is as follows:

In the not-too-distant future, the world is in chaos. Your father, has developed a time machine to go back in time and fix what went wrong but he has gone missing. It’s now up to you and your friends to activate the time machine and go back to the 80’s to finish what your father started. Do you have what it takes to go back to the past and save the future? Good luck time traveling dudes!

Timeline is based on a real-life room (which I understand is somewhere in the USA).  The room has been turned into a point-and-click style game, where 360 degree photographs (“photospheres”) have been taken of each of the spaces throughout the experience. 

To be honest, I don’t recall a great deal from this room, so in many respects it clearly was not overly memorable.  In good news, I don’t remember there being any major issues with any puzzles, the game flow or interacting with the spaces. 

After having completed many online rooms at the time of writing this review (which is over a year later), I have found that the only online rooms that I seem to really enjoy are live avatar rooms. 

I found the experience of Timeline to be a mid way between a true live-hosted experience and the type of escape room you can play at your leisure without a host.  The difference is that games like Timeline charge significantly more money because you have a live host who can assist you.  The reality is that we interacted very little with the host during the experience (other than at the very beginning and end, outside of the true escape room).

To be quite honest, there are many similar point and click style games available around the world where you can play at your leisure (and they are significantly cheaper).  I have played a few of these non-live avatar but live hosted games and I have consistently found that I would have preferred to have played without the host (and saved sometimes up to 60% of the price). Timeline is $35 per player, which in my honest opinion is far too expensive for a point and click game - that kind of price is not far off a real life room! 

Timeline was an ok experience but it wasn’t really my thing.  Enter Mission also have 2 other similar non-live avatar rooms, which I decided not to play.

Where                           Virtual room (online)

Virtual Room Type:      Live Experience

Duration:                      60 minutes

Themes:                        3 virtual games

Cost:                             $35 per player (!)

Overall Rating:            Just OK - there are many better, cheaper non-hosted options around)

More details:               https://enterthemission.com/

 

60 Out - Orion's Ridiculous Revenge Review (Live Experience)

Hi all

In October 2020, I played Orion’s Ridiculous Revenge by 60 Out with some escape room enthusiast friends of mine.  Orion’s Ridiculous Revenge is an escape room business based in LA. 

Orion’s is a Live Experience room, meaning that whilst we did have to play at a designated time and we did have a host, there was no live avatar in the room.  Orion’s was my 159^th room to date and my 15^th virtual room.

The theme of the room is as follows:

Afraid of Miss Jezebel? Meet her crazy cat!

Orion, Miss Jezebel’s favorite feline, is on the mission to protect his home from threats, both foreign and domestic, and Miss Jezebel’s newest suitor is definitely the cat’s meow when it comes to evil plans. Will you be able to assist Orion in thwarting the dastardly actions of this bombastic beau?

For those of you who have played 60 Out’s Miss Jezebel room, this the sequel.  You can check out my review of Miss Jezebel here.

I enjoyed many aspects of Orion’s, the least of which is of course the crude humour throughout.  There were also a number of interesting puzzles and some questionable challengers that players needed to complete.

Overall, Orion’s unfortunately wasn’t half the game that Miss Jezebel was.  The reason for this is that the fundamental appeal of Jezebel is the interaction that players have with the Live Avatar, who was incredible.  The level of crude humour, fun and immersion of the original Jezebel was unlike anything else I have played.  Although Orion’s was fun, I think 60 Out made a big mistake in following up Miss Jezebel with a non-live avatar experience. 

Where                           Virtual room (online)

Virtual Room Type:      Live Experience

Duration:                      60 minutes

Themes:                        2 virtual games

Cost:                             $15USD per player

Overall Rating:             Fun but not a pinch on the original Miss Jezebel room

More details:                https://www.60out.com/

 

Agent Stalker Phase One - Project Avatar Review (Live Avatar)

Hi all

In October 2020, I played Avatar Stalker Phase One by Project Avatar with some escape room enthusiast friends of mine.  Project Avatar is an escape room business based in the Ukraine. 

Avatar Stalker Phase One (“ASPO”), which is a Live Avatar room, was my 158^th room to date and my 14^th virtual room.

The theme of the room is as follows:

You start at the first floor of the pawn shop. Avatar's half-human half-duck best friend Utya Duck is the traveller across realities. Unfortunately, he got stuck in an alternate reality due to the malfunction of his plane. He just cannot get home without repairing it. To reach his reality safely, Utya Duck needs to fix the aircraft by collecting artefacts from a pawn shop of Chickman, who does not like anyone around his property. Utya Duck cannot do this by himself because he has a deeply-rooted panic fear of chickens, so he calls his friend Avatar to the rescue. Avatar has to collect artefacts for the plane from a danger-filled pawn shop and save his friend. Virtual X-Caper is one of my favourite Live Avatar rooms to date.  Of all of the Live Avatar rooms I have played, I find myself recommending this room the most (particularly to families as the room is very family-friendly).

ASPO is a completely manic, at times hilarious, truly unique approach to an escape room.  It is unlike anything I have played before or since.

The room requires players to find artefacts of various colours and also separately solve puzzles.  The escape room space is a huge warehouse with different floors (and many different rooms).  The aim of the game is to score points and there is a mechanism in the game where players can trade artefacts they have found for points.

There are crazy cut scenes and an interesting push your luck element as well.

ASPO has won many awards and consistently appears in lists of highly recommended virtual rooms.  If you are looking for a very traditional escape room experience, this room might not be for you.  But if you’re looking for something unique, this is definitely worth a try.

Where                           Virtual room (online)

Virtual Room Type:      Live Avatar

Duration:                      60 minutes

Themes:                        2 virtual games

Cost:                              25 Euro per player

Overall Rating:             A completely manic, unique take on escape rooms

More details:                https://projectavatar.fun/

 

Agent November - Virtual X-Caper Review (Live Avatar)

 

Hi all

In October 2020, I played Agent November’s Virtual X-Caper with some escape room enthusiast friends of mine.  Agent November is an escape room business based in London. 

Virtual X-Caper, which is a Live Avatar room, was my 157^th room to date and my 13^th virtual room.

The theme of the room is as follows:

AGENT NOVEMBER NEEDS YOU!  OUR BEST AGENT HAS BEEN CAPTURED. EXPERIMENTAL GADGETS ALLOW YOU TO SEE THROUGH HIS EYES AND COMMUNICATE ...BUT ONLY FOR 60 MINUTES. CAN YOU SOLVE THE PUZZLES HELP HIM ESCAPE? 

Virtual X-Caper is one of my favourite Live Avatar rooms to date.  Of all of the Live Avatar rooms I have played, I find myself recommending this room the most (particularly to families as the room is very family-friendly).

The room has some excellent puzzles, which I would describe as being on the easier to medium side of difficulty (but still very enjoyable for experienced players).  Our Live Avatar, the owner of Agent November, was excellent.  He plays the role of Agent November, who has been captured and our job is to assist him in escaping.

As well as some really interesting puzzles, there are some really simply but fun additional elements that are included in Virtual X-Caper.  At the time that we played, the pandemic was in full force in England and toilet paper was pretty hard to come by.  So, an additional “objective” (purely for fun) in Virtual X-Caper included finding as many bog rolls as you can while solving the various puzzles in the room.  This was cute.

Also, Agent November awards “awards” at the end of the experience to players who unlock certain unknown objectives, some of which are very much tongue-in-cheek.  I also thought this was really nice.

Virtual X-Caper contains a great mix of fun puzzles and humour.  This remains one of my favourite rooms to date.

Where                            Virtual room (online)

Virtual Room Type:      Live Avatar

Duration:                       60 minutes

Themes:                        2 virtual games

Cost:                              £14 per player

Overall Rating:             One of the best Live Avatar rooms (and family-friendly)