Room Escape Artist

This game is now closed.

Atlantis is a real-life escape room livestreamed and played through an avatar, created by Escape One Algarve in Portimão, Portugal.

Format

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

Required Equipment: computer with internet connection

You will need to toggle between Zoom and the inventory system.

Recommended Team Size: 2-5

Play Time: 60 minutes

Price: 60€ per team

Booking: book online for a specific time slot

Description

This is a real-life escape room streamed live via Zoom with an avatar performing your commands, and a user friendly inventory system.

Hivemind Review Scale

Matthew Stein’s Reaction

Atlantis is a fun gen 1 game filled with charming handmade props and set pieces, smoothly adapted for remote play, with a borderline-bumbling captain avatar. In cutting one puzzle that wouldn’t work over video, Escape One Algarve added in a new NPC (non player character) – the kraken – which elevated this game with comically endearing verve (so much so that our team suggested they add this character into their in-person game, too!). While this game would have been fun to play in person, it was equally fun over livestream, and it was a delight to add an enthusiastic Portuguese escape room company to our virtual escape room passports!

Joel Smileypeacefun Reaction

There was no introduction like “this is an online escape room via Zoom…” No! We weirdly but funnily went straight into a ticking timer and a captain that was running out of oxygen in one hour.

At its best, hints are delivered by an extremely funny in-game character. Besides the Zoom video conference, you also get an inventory website. As you find objects you’ll get sent close-up photos and 360° virtual models of the room. It is very well made and keeps your group organized.

At its worst, the audio of the in-game character was hard to understand in the beginning. The first introduction puzzle gets skipped in the online version. Some interactions would have been easier in real life. On the other hand, some interactions over Zoom made us giggle.

Escape One Algarve goes the extra mile by having not one, but two gamemasters: One as your set of hands/ eyes and one voicing the hint system plus running the inventory website. And it’s worth it!

Michelle Calabro’s Reaction

Our group of Hivemind Reviewers played Algarve’s Atlantis and Final Call back to back, and overall I felt that Atlantis was less suited to the avatar format than Final Call. Several parts of Atlantis were disjointed: a confusing start left some of us wondering whether we’d missed a scene; a beautiful set in the entryway but a main room that seemed under-considered by contrast; and many puzzles that simply felt unintuitive to think of aligning, pushing and pulling via verbal instructions to our avatar over Zoom. I kept having the thought that it would’ve been better in person.

Theresa W’s Reaction

Remote games are the perfect way to experience games you never would have otherwise, and Atlantis is an awesome example of this. I probably won’t make it to Portugal any time soon, but having the ability to play this charming escape room with an impressive online inventory was such a treat. Atlantis has been adapted in a few ways to be played online, and the addition of one of my favorite character interactions ever was a huge bonus. The puzzle flow was smooth and cohesive, with many fun interactions. The team over at Escape One Algarve really put their hearts into designing this game and it showed.

Peih Gee Law’s Reaction

Atlantis was delightfully charming, with a fun avatar and a fantastic inventory system. The room itself was a pretty standard escape room with solid, fun puzzles. While I imagine playing this room in person might have been a relatively basic experience, Escape One Algarve has really managed to elevate their virtual game.

Their inventory system was fantastic – I wish every escape company used their system. The 360° view and items were all in the same space, and the best part is that the inventory populated itself (well, with a little behind-the-scenes magical help). There was an auditory cue when a new item would appear in the inventory after we found it in the room – a vast improvement over making the players themselves input codes or cut and paste into shared documents.

Atlantis also featured one of the cutest NPCs (non player characters) I’ve seen in a room yet. You can tell they put a lot of effort into creating a fun, user friendly experience.

Disclosure: Escape One Algarve provided the Hivemind reviewers with a complimentary play.