Room Escape Artist

Prototype is a point-and-click adventure game created by Edaqa’s Room.

Format

Style of Play: point-and-click adventure game

Required Equipment: computer with internet connection

Recommended Team Size: 2-4

Play Time: There is no timer. The website says groups usually take about 90 minutes. Our reviewer group played in about 45 minutes.

Price: introductory price of $12.50 per team

Booking: Upon purchase you gain immediate access to the game in the browser.

Description

Prototype is a point-and-click adventure game with collaborative elements. The whole team plays together, but everybody can move around the screens separately.

Hivemind Review Scale

Matthew Stein’s Reaction

I will always have a soft spot in my heart for classic point-and-click escape rooms, with their predictable puzzles and janky clip arty style. Prototype is a fun twist on this genre, built for collaborative team play. The puzzles were more creative than those in standard point-and-click escape games, though they didn’t approach the uniqueness and stylistic consistency of those by Rusty Lake and other forerunners in this genre. There was plenty to keep our team occupied for a good 45 minutes, and the multiplayer gameplay was fairly well implemented.

Where the game really fell apart for me was the metapuzzle, which could quite easily be solved without all the feeder answers. Without any in-game warning that there was no turning back, we clicked onwards… and entered the post-game sequence with no option to return to the 2 puzzle arcs we’d missed. If the decision to allow this experience was intentional, I’d encourage the designers to reconsider it: either redesign the meta so it is not as easy to solve only partially, make elements of the game more sequential so the meta is unlocked later, or allow players to go back into the game after they’ve exited. Just as in an in-person escape room, I appreciate getting a puzzle walkthrough post-game if not everyone on my team got to see every puzzle (or if we accidentally broke sequence!), and I equally want to be able to fairly see all parts of an online escape room experience.

The Lone Puzzler’s Reaction

This is a point-and-click multiplayer game that allows each player to work independently on the puzzles or collaboratively as needed. The game was very playable for a group of 4 and had the same good and bad elements of a real-life escape room – you will likely not see all the puzzles, but you could divide and conquer the searching and the puzzles. The puzzles themselves were quite creative and entertaining. Not terribly hard, but not easy. The room had plenty of interesting content for our group of 4 experienced puzzlers. A very good game at any time for a group that cannot be at the same physical location.

Joel Smileypeacefun Reaction

I want to start off by saying I didn’t hate it and I can see how other people like it. It just wasn’t my cup of tea.

At its best, I liked a lot of the puzzle ideas. As someone who learned the basics of coding at university (and wasn’t particularly good at it), I have mad respect for anyone coding their own game.

At its worst, we accidentally skipped multiple puzzles. Afterward, we were assured that not all puzzles need to be solved in order to tackle the final step. This sparked an entire discussion about “optional puzzles” in escape rooms among our group. I’m personally okay with smaller clues that hint to certain things being optional to find, but not with full-on puzzles and gates (i.e. locks) being optional. After we finished we wanted to go back to what we had skipped, which wasn’t possible.

The theme and look of the game (while being very reminiscent of old-school point-and-click adventures) felt random and weird to me. But I can see this leading to bigger projects.

Theresa W’s Reaction

Prototype took a typically bland format (point-and-click puzzle game) and turned it into a really well done collaborative experience. Each player could interact with the scene on their own, and if one player solved a puzzle, every player’s instance of the puzzle became solved. Most of the puzzles required teamwork and communication, which is hard to pull off in this format. With some deduction, we were able to skip two of the puzzles and finish the game. I wish there had been a way to go back and solve these, or for the sequence break to not exist in the first place. Overall, they did a really solid job of creating a game that was fun and collaborative!

Disclosure: Edaqa’s Room provided the Hivemind reviewers with a complimentary play.