Phantom’s Hour is included in our recommendation guides for 2-Player Online Escape Games and Play at Home Puzzle Games. For more of the best online escape games in these styles, check out the recommendation guides.
Phantom’s Hour is a point-and-click game created by Wolf Escape Games.
Format
Style of Play:
- Point-and-click
- Web-based inventory system
- Includes video segments
Who is it For?
- Story seekers
- Any experience level
Required Equipment: computer with internet connection
Recommended Team Size: 2-4
Play Time: There is a clock that counts up, but there is no upper limit. Expect about 2 hours play time.
Price: $31
Booking: purchase and play at your leisure
Description
One player opens the game in a browser tab and is given clear instructions on how to stream the game to other players. Remote players access via browser a “virtual backpack” where items and information are collected so each player can review them individually. The host player is the only one that can interact with the game itself, so communication over video chat is necessary.
The game itself is mostly point-and-click to find puzzles and clues, with some typing answers in as well. After puzzles are solved, there are (really good) cinematics that act as scene transitions.
Andrew Reynolds’ Reaction
With Phantom’s Hour, Wolf Escape Games has now given us three exciting and cinematic online escape rooms. Their newest game took a common escape theme, Sherlock Holmes, and produced a game worthy of the world’s greatest detective. Wolf Escape Games has always produced games with a strong blend of point-and-click solving and engaging, well-voiced video segments that help drive the story. Phantom’s Hour mixed eeriness with a sense of urgency to deliver a memorable game that had us exploring the streets and hidden undergrounds of London. The puzzles were varied, but there was a focus on logical deductions that felt authentic to a Sherlock Holmes-themed game. Some puzzles felt a little underdeveloped for the amount of cluing or information we were given, almost like we solved it a lot sooner than expected. But most were right on the money, offering an initial challenge that felt rewarding to overcome.
The play style of Phantom’s Hour is the same as the company’s other games: one player purchases the game and screenshares with their teammates. The remote teammates have access to a “virtual backpack” that populates with clues and items to explore. While this is a great help to remote solvers, our team ran into a consistent issue where new items would not populate into the backpack if we had an item opened to view it. This was fixed with a simple refresh of the page, but it was an annoyance in an otherwise helpful system.
Minor quibbles aside, Phantom’s Hour was a great way to spend two hours or so and is an amazing value for the price they are asking.
Brett Kuehner’s Reaction
- + Step-by-step onboarding clearly explained how to share the game with remote players
- + “Backpack” mechanism allowed remote players to view items and documents so that everyone could contribute to the puzzle solving, though there were some minor issues with one player’s view being slightly truncated
- + High-quality voice acting and excellent atmospheric music
- + Navigation between areas has been improved from the previous games, making it more clear when there are locations to visit
- + Great animation and motion graphics, with a strong Sherlockian feel
- + Most puzzles were fun and logical
- – One or two puzzles had gating issues where information was available before it was able to be used
- ? Many puzzles had a “fill in the blanks in a form” interface, which made it clear what we needed to find, but also felt a bit awkward or rigid at times
- – One puzzle near the end left us feeling a bit confused and slowed our momentum
- + Very engrossing. Our 2 hours of gameplay went by quickly because we were constantly engaged.
- + Progressive hinting mechanism allows players to get small nudges when they want
Joel Smileypeacefun Reaction
London, 1896. Sherlock Holmes and Watson are drawn into a case that defies any logic. A person was supposedly killed by a ghost. Is that really what happened?
At its best, I found the graphics and video sequences of the game to be surprisingly high-quality. They were accompanied by some lovely voice-acting. The puzzles were not easy, but doable, which felt like a great balance. I especially enjoyed a clever final brain teaser. Coming from someone who usually doesn’t care much about the story, I have to say the plot was truly intriguing.
At its worst, there was a slightly annoying amount of hard-to-read cursive text. Additionally, one or two puzzles, which require you to understand the context of what’s going on, can be somewhat tricky for non-native English speakers due to the time period the story plays in. Lastly, the game website crashed once, but luckily the progress was saved.
Even though it’s a fairly linear game, nothing was boring about this. On the contrary, I had a great time with this unique murder case.
Disclosure: Wolf Escape Games provided the Hivemind reviewers with a complimentary play.
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