Room Escape Artist

Miami Bay: The Online Escape Room Experience is a point-and-click game created by Wolf Escape Games.

Miami Bay: The Online Escape Room Experience is included in our recommendation guide for Play at Home Puzzle Games. For more of the best online escape games in this style, check out the recommendation guide.

Format

Style of Play:

• Point-and-click
• Web-based inventory system
• Includes video segments

Who is it For?

• Story seekers
• Puzzle lovers
• Any experience level

Required Equipment: Computer with internet connection, pen and paper

Recommended Team Size: 1-4

Play Time: about 3 hours… but there are longer and shorter versions to choose from

Price: $29

Booking: purchase and play at your leisure

Description

Miami Bay: The Online Escape Room Experience is a web-based point-and-click game with an inventory system. When you buy the game, you receive an access code via email.

It helps to have a second screen, or just a high-capacity device in general. Also, the game only runs on certain browsers (i.e. Google Chrome ). Pen and paper is not mandatory but can help with some puzzles.

The game progress can be saved if you don’t want to finish the entire thing in one sitting.

Cara Mandel’s Reaction

Miami Bay lived up to the excellent reputation of its predecessor, Hallows Hill. Both games stood out as excellent entries into the modern point-and-click escape game genre. With highly cinematic-feeling cut scenes, detailed artwork, and great performances from the voice cast, I found this to be a thoroughly enjoyable play-through. We opted for the extended version which offered some additional puzzles (though without having played the standard version, I can’t say how many). The game had multiple locations with a substantial amount of gameplay. We opted to break it up over 2 different sessions. What I found worked best about the game was how they divvied up info using their inventory system. We were able to play from 3 remote locations over Zoom with one of us sharing the screen to explore the room and the other two investigating the clues as they became available in our web-based inventory. If you’re looking for a good multiplayer game to play with friends or family abroad, this would be a great one to try!

Joel Smileypeacefun Reaction

As detectives, there is a weird case at Miami Bay that catches your attention. But while trying to solve the mystery you bring yourself and your colleagues in danger. Can you survive?

At its best, you can choose between different difficulty modes (I played the regular version), appealing to newer and seasoned players. Multiple hours of gameplay provide you with plenty of challenging puzzles accompanied by cool comic-esque graphics. Also, an integrated tutorial shows you the lay of the land before you start.

At its worst, it felt like the first puzzle was already over-layered and somewhat convoluted. Throughout the game, I was met several times with challenges that lacked instructions or had unintuitive inputs even when I figured out the solution. One task, in particular, had an obtuse logic behind it and overstayed its welcome. Additionally, the hint section wasn’t always helpful and added meaningless time penalties. Lastly, the game crashed/ black-screened on me which added to the frustration.

There was a lot of promising content and features in this game. If the clunky and user-unfriendly hiccups are resolved I can see this being a fun activity.

Brett Kuehner’s Reaction

• + Excellent setup and onboarding instructions for sharing the game via Zoom (though there was one instruction which could be clarified)
• + Game kicks off with a great action sequence, establishing your character and role in the world
• + Terrific voice performances, cinematic visuals, and thematic music, all nailing the 80’s TV style of the story
• + “Backpack” mechanism gives all the players a chance to work on solves together
• ? Puzzle progression is almost entirely linear, which I think is a good choice for a story-driven game, but your taste may vary
• + Good puzzle design and variety, with most puzzles making sense in the context of the story
• – It wasn’t immediately obvious that a couple of puzzles had necessary details available elsewhere, though we did figure it out after a bit of frustration
• + Plenty of content for your dollar – there are options for a shorter version (120 minutes) and a longer version (210 minutes), and you can play both (though the shorter one has no new content)
• + Game can be paused and resumed later, so it doesn’t have to be played in a single sitting
• – A couple of puzzles overstayed their welcome and/ or required a little too much guessing about the rules of the puzzle
• ? Shorter version leaves in a few puzzles that would have benefitted from being trimmed down, while cutting a few larger sequences entirely, one of which left a narrative gap
• + Lots of humor and cop-show attitude
• + Numerous short segments that weren’t necessary for gameplay, but which added immensely to the the style and atmosphere
• + Satisfying ending to the story

Andrew Reynolds’ Reaction

Wolf Escape Games did not have to go as hard as they do making their online games, but I absolutely love that they did. Their second game, Miami Bay, was wildly different thematically from their first game (Hallows Hill) but amped up their dedication to that theme. From unnecessarily (but very much appreciated) slick and entertaining cutscenes and other visuals to a soundtrack that kept us grooving in our chairs, Miami Bay was entertaining from start to finish. The puzzles were mostly engaging and just difficult enough to keep us debating over some of the solves. However, a few puzzles – such as a timer-based memory puzzle and a slider puzzle – highlighted the deficits of playing a multiplayer game shared over a Zoom meeting; only one player was able to really work on the solving while the rest of us watched.

In terms of value, Miami Bay was a steal. For the price, we got hours of gameplay and 2 gameplay modes – a shorter, normal version and a longer, more difficult version. We played through both to see the differences, and felt that the longer version is the better game. It tied up a loose end in the story that the short version left dangling, and added in whole sections of the game that made the game feel more complete. Both versions ended with a credits roll, which more games should be including. Wolf Escape Games gave us another winner, and I’m looking forward to what they create next.