Space Station Online Adventure is a real-life escape room livestreamed and played through an avatar, created by Lockdown Paphos in Paphos, Cyprus.
Format
Style of Play: real-life escape room livestreamed and played through an avatar
Required Equipment: computer with internet connection
Recommended Team Size: 2-6
Play Time: 60 minutes
Price: €80 for up to 6 connections
Booking: book online for a specific time slot
Description
Space Station Online Adventure was a standard live-streamed escape game with an in-character avatar and no external inventory. The avatar was unusually engaging and enjoyable.
Hivemind Review Scale
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Matthew Stein’s Reaction
Space Station Online Adventure was so much fun! Our space engineer avatar Matthew, in addition to having a most excellent name, was notably charismatic and entertaining, engaging us in nonstop hilarious banter while also masterfully controlling camera angles and overall putting on a fabulous show. In a game with fine but not particularly noteworthy puzzles or set design, this demonstrated yet again how the actor can singularly define the quality of a remote escape experience. I found that this game benefited from not having an external inventory system; we were easily able to see and keep track of objects and information in the video feed, and focusing solely on just the one window maintained a level of immersion and connection that’s often lost when switching between windows/tabs.
Joel Smileypeacefun Reaction
Collecting nuclear rods to casually save our planet earth from exploding… I mean, what else did you expect working on a space station?
At its best, we had an energetic gamemaster who was fun to interact with. The game had great puzzle variety and a nice mix of tech and non-tech inputs.
At its worst, some game elements had to be taken out because there wasn’t an easy way of adapting those for online play. The game had red locks that you’re not supposed to open because they just hide tech or are needed to reset certain puzzles. Those locks felt distracting and like an inelegant way to hide tech. In one instance, the answer to a letter lock was just random letters. It’s really nitpicky, but an actual word as a solution would make a little bit more sense.
The owners told us that this game was created to be fun where the one-hour timer shouldn’t be an issue for groups. And I fully agree that they achieved what they set out to do.
Andrew Reynolds’ Reaction
Lockdown Paphos’s Space Station Online Adventure is a standard avatar-led experience of a pre-existing room. I say ‘standard’ but our gamemaster Matthew was more than that. He was funny, he was charming, and he anticipated our next actions. I and other Hivemind writers have written about how an outstanding gamemaster can take an average room and make it into something much better than the sum of its parts.
Every pre-existing room converted to be led by an avatar has some issues with puzzles that don’t translate well into the virtual space. Lockdown Paphos did an excellent job mitigating these issues – their camera placement for set pieces and the removal of surfaces that catch glare, to name just a few. They even found an almost poetic way to get us through a touch-based puzzle that some other companies may have just completely circumvented.
Overall, this is a game with easy-to-medium puzzles. That, combined with the space theme and an enthusiastic gamemaster steer me toward recommending this game for teens or an enthusiast group looking for a fun time that’s not overly challenging. In fact, our team was having so much fun at one point that we had to be quieted down so we could actually, you know, solve a puzzle and save the world.
Tammy McLeod’s Reaction
In avatar style games, the skill of the avatar can often make or break the experience, and in this game, the skill of our host most definitely made it. The puzzles were straightforward and would be great for groups of any skill level, and the numerous jokes from the host kept me smiling for most of the game.
Brett Kuehner’s Reaction
- + Excellent avatar performance, so take advantage of it. You will enjoy the game most if you joke around, interact a lot, and suggest funny things to do.
- +/- The puzzles in this game are fine, but nothing particularly special. If you are looking for a serious puzzle focus, this might not be the game for you.
- + Puzzles are mostly on the easier side, and would work well for novice players. They were generally quick solves for experienced players, but still enjoyable.
- + Just plain fun. An excellent example of how a good in-character avatar can dramatically improve the game experience.
- + Several puzzles were clearly adapted for remote play, and the designers made smart decisions about what and how to adapt
- – One or two puzzles could use some additional editing for remote play
- -/+ Sets were not particularly exciting, but they translated well for remote video and provided a good physical play space for the avatar
- + Because the best parts of the game are watching the avatar interaction, it would probably work for up to 7 players, which is more than most online games
- + Did I mention that the avatar was really fun?
Disclosure: Lockdown Paphos provided the Hivemind reviewers with a complimentary play.