Room Escape Artist

The House of Wizard is a real-life escape room livestreamed through an avatar, created by Lost Escape in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Format

Style of Play: real-life escape room livestreamed through an avatar

Required Equipment: computer with internet connection

Recommended Team Size: 2-4

Play Time: 60 minutes

Price: about $11 per person

Booking: Book online for a specific time slot.

Description

This is a standard live remote game where you verbally tell the avatar what to do and see their actions via a Zoom video. The avatar is lightly in character during the game.

Hivemind Review Scale

Cara Mandel’s Reaction

When The House of Wizard began, I was admittedly concerned. The room looked to be filled with a lot of physical objects and mechanics that I was worried wouldn’t translate well to the digital/ avatar-based format. However, those fears were quickly assuaged as our avatar did a wonderful job of guiding us just enough without over inserting herself into our gameplay. The production was sparse, but beautifully designed. It had a hand-crafted quality to it. The puzzles and tech elements were delightful. Overall, we had a smooth and enjoyable gameplay experience and I’m glad we were able to experience this charming, well-designed room!

Brett Kuehner’s Reaction

• + Friendly in-character avatar who let us make our own mistakes
• + Most items and images were large and came across clearly on screen
• + When the game started, the gamemaster sent reference images of several items with details that were important, avoiding frustration
• + Most puzzles were physical, but they generally translated very well for use in a live remote game
• + One maze puzzle was adapted to reduce tedium when playing remotely
• – One audio puzzle was not well suited for remote play, but could be easily adapted
• – One puzzle was not clued enough, and we were told “almost everyone needs a hint for that puzzle,” which should be a red flag that it needs to be tweaked
• + Several puzzles had magical moments and effects, and they were entertaining even over video

David Spira’s Reaction

The House of Wizard was my first Lithuanian escape room… even if it was played remotely.

This was a typical avatar adaptation of a medieval wizarding escape room. Overall, I found the game satisfying, with the exception of one puzzle sequence in the middle, which wasn’t much fun to experience through an avatar… not that we would have loved that challenge in real life either.

All in all, this was a solid game that would have been more fun playing for real. But since I may never get to Lithuania, I’m pretty happy that I had the chance to play it.