Regional Recommendations Guides
15 things to know before playing an escape room
Our online escape room con for industry professionals & players
RECON gives you:
Login from home, admission is pay what you want – that includes free
Learn more at RealityEscapeCon.com
Layers of Innovation
Location: at home
Date Played: Fall 2020 & Winter 2021
Team size: 1-6; we recommend 2-3
Duration: 2 hours
Price: about $20
The Break In series is an innovative feat of engineering; I am surprised that these games exist.
At their most basic level, the games in the Break In series were tabletop escape games where the goal was to break into some exotic location. These games felt like escape rooms where we were breaking into a place, complete with scene changes and an evolving narrative.
Each game began by lifting the lid off of the box, from that point forward literally everything under the lid was part of the game.
The box within was made up of a plastic frame and cardstock panels, and designed to look like a model of the building that we were breaking into.
As we progressed, the cardstock panels opened like an onion revealing interior settings.
There was an insane amount of creative design and construction in each game… and the biggest surprise was that the boxes opened differently from installment to installment. We held back our original review of Alcatraz until we could play and compare it to a second installment. I’m glad that we did.
Your mileage may vary from game to game on puzzle clarity. There were also some challenges in on-boarding. Overall, however, this was high quality series with a unique gimmick. It’s remarkably affordable; it feels like it should cost more than it does.
Of the current batch, we felt that Area 51 was a bit stronger than Alcatraz.
Mibo Island is a 3D point-and-click game created by Sherlocked in Amsterdam.
Style of Play:
Required Equipment: computer with internet connection
Recommended Team Size: exactly 4 players
Play Time: about 60 minutes (significantly less for experienced puzzlers, but also, you can stick around in the virtual environment after solving the game)
Price: €25 per team of 4
Booking: purchase and play at your leisure
You are little computer avatars that move around in a 3D space. In order to solve the puzzles, you need to move around, click things, and communicate with your teammates.
Read more about our Hivemind Review format.
CyberQuest is an online race in the style of a light puzzle hunt, presented by Accomplice in New York City.
Style of Play:
Required Equipment: computer with internet connection, pen and paper
Recommended Team Size: 2-3 per team for experienced players
Play Time: under 30 minutes for experienced teams
Price: To book a private group, contact Accomplice for pricing (think corporate rates). For public bookings (offered occasionally) it’s priced at $25 per person.
Booking: book online for a specific time slot
You enter into a Zoom meeting that delivers a narrative. The call abruptly self destructs after less than 10 minutes and it is up to you and your team to solve the mysteries laid before you in order to win the game before your competitors do.
At the conclusion of the setup, you have to self-divide into your own teams, spin up video chats, and race through a series of puzzles.
Many of the puzzles are solved via typing in your team name and a code phrase.
Read more about our Hivemind Review format.
Sensperience is an audio game created by Enigmarium in Slovenia.
Style of Play:
Required Equipment: computer with internet connection, blindfold or sleep mask, headphones
Recommended Team Size: 3-5
Play Time: 90 minutes
Price: €90 per team
Booking: book online for a specific time slot
Sensperience was an audio-only experience akin to tabletop roleplaying. Our host told us about our environment, we spoke our actions into existence, and the host explained what happened as a result. Accompanying voice performance and audio effects added to the immersion.
In this experience we were each playing as ourself, and the host referred to each of us by name.
The recommended blindfold and headphones significantly added to the immersion and overall experience.
Read more about our Hivemind Review format.
The Warp Core Part 2 is a point-and-click game in Telescape, created by Clue HQ in the UK.
Style of Play:
Required Equipment: computer with internet connection
Recommended Team Size: 2-4
Play Time: 60 minutes
Price: £15
Booking: purchase and play at your leisure
You get a Telescape page with a video introduction and 360-degree photos to move around in, click and drag things, and solve the puzzles. It looks like their real-life rooms, but the puzzles are mostly a bit altered.
In Warp Core, we are time travelers and need to bring back 4 artifacts. This review covers part 2 out of 4. Each part brings you to a different historical period and part 2 part brought us to medieval times. You can play part 2, without having played part 1.
