The Dark Tower is a role-playing adventure game with light puzzles, created by Fantasy Escape Games.
Format
Style of Play: digital role-playing adventure game with light puzzles, designed for online play as an audiovisual experience
Required Equipment: computer with internet connection
Recommended Team Size: 2-4
Play Time: 60 minutes
Price: $15 per person
Booking: book for a specific time slot
Description
This experience was on Zoom, and we had an audio guide overseeing the game. The story was told through a series of static images in the style of storybook illustrations, almost like watching a beautiful PowerPoint presentation, and the guide narrated and facilitated our interactions. For example, when we met the Mushroom King, he went into character and pretended to be the Mushroom King.
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Cara Mandel’s Reaction
The Dark Tower was a really charming mixture of a roleplaying game with escape room-like puzzles sprinkled in. Our live voiceover host was very entertaining, catering to our players’ whims in humorous and fantastical ways. The whole experience felt akin to a great game of Dungeons & Dragons with your pals. The puzzles weren’t terribly challenging, but they did require a great deal of imaginative thinking. There were also a few moments where we had a bit of trouble, mostly from a legibility standpoint. Overall, the experience was fun, whimsical, and family-friendly!
Fro’s Reaction
The Dark Tower was a solid, fantasy-themed experience with beautiful graphics that looked like pages out of a storybook. The game made good use of traditional fairy tale elements, and our guide facilitated our encounters with fantastical creatures and situations in a believable and sometimes humorous manner. The highlight of this game is that it offered us the ability to role play and to have a certain amount of control in shaping the story we experienced, and our team took full advantage of that opportunity. The imagination and creativity you bring to the gameplay will directly influence your amusement, and who you play with matters. Bring a playful group of friends who don’t take themselves too seriously and are willing to be a little silly at times.
Joel Smileypeacefun Reaction
You need to go in with the right expectations. It’s a slideshow-narrated story with roleplaying opportunities.
At its best, the visuals and the theme are pretty nicely done. The game’s strength is the roleplaying aspect and how the gamemaster is quickly adapting to what the players are saying. Also, you can choose the difficulty of your game.
At its worst, as a game designer myself, I found the puzzles to be whatever. They were kind of forgettable and sometimes it was unclear what you needed to get out of a puzzle. Also, we had no visible timer.
In the end, I didn’t think it was outstandingly great, but it wasn’t bad either. With the rather low price point, it’s an okay adventure.
Theresa W’s Reaction
The Dark Tower was a charming adventure, combining the worlds of escape rooms and Dungeons & Dragons. The game comprised two main puzzle types — character interactions and more traditional puzzle-solving. The character interactions were by far my favorite part of the experience — the options are endless on how to creatively solve these. On the other hand, the game had quite a few puzzles that didn’t feel innovative or unique; these were a bit uninspired compared to the rest of the game. There was no aha with the more typical puzzles. They were just solved with methodology and were sometimes tedious. I’m really intrigued to see what they make next, hopefully branching more into the unique character interactions and adventure elements.