Category: Hivemind

Ruins: Forbidden Treasure is a digital adaptation of a real-life escape game created by The Escape Game, a national company based in Nashville, TN.

Format

Style of Play: digital adaptation of a real-life escape game

Required Equipment: computer with internet connection

Recommended Team Size: 2-4

Play Time: 60 minutes

Price: $25 per person

Booking: book online for a specific time slot

Description

This is a live virtual experience in which an in-person avatar explores the physical room on your behalf, following your commands. While watching the first-person experience via Zoom, you also have access to a web app that presents a 360 degree view of the room as well as an inventory of the objects you have collected. Each team member interacts with the app asynchronously, which enables effective parallel exploration.

Hivemind Review Scale

Trouble in Tinseltown is a digital adaptation of an escape game created by Lokey’s Escape Rooms in Sarasota, FL.

Format

Style of Play: digital adaptation of a real-life escape game

Required Equipment: computer with an internet connection, pen and paper

Recommended Team Size: 1-4

Play Time: 60 minutes

Price: $19 per person

Booking: contact Lokey’s escape room to book, receive login code, and guide an avatar through the room

Description

The now-standard Zoom meeting to control a gamemaster/ avatar through verbal instructions. The in-character gamemaster was good at managing and executing instructions from multiple players. He was also fairly autonomous; once the players figured out how to solve a puzzle, he would perform the manipulations without needing much input.

Hivemind Review Scale

Seven Dwarfs: Mining Mission is digital adaptation of an escape game created by Improbable Escapes in Kingston, ON.

Format

Style of Play: digital adaptation of a real-life escape game

Required Equipment: computer with an internet connection

You’re encouraged to play on two different computers (or with two monitors): one screen for the camera, the other for the inventory. This was effective.

Recommended Team Size: 2-4

Play Time: 60 minutes

Price: $74.99+HST CAD (approximately $54 USD) flat rate for 1-5 players. $10+HST per additional player beyond 5.

Booking: book online for a specific time slot

Description

This was an avatar-based escape room. A gamemaster followed our instructions in a livestream as we guided her through an adapted real-life escape room. There was a companion website inventory, which contained high-quality photographs of the room and key items within it.

Hivemind Review Scale

A World of Magic is an escape game played through an avatar, created by Mystery Motel Murcia in Murcia, Spain.

Format

Style of Play: escape room designed specifically to be played virtually through an avatar

Required Equipment: computer with internet connection

Recommended Team Size: 2-4

Play Time: 45 minutes

Price: €25-45 depending on the number of devices

Booking: book online for a specific time slot

Description

In A World of Magic, you connect through Zoom and direct the gamemaster / avatar to explore the room and manipulate objects on your behalf to solve the puzzles.

Hivemind Review Scale

Read more about our new Hivemind Review format.

I recommend this game to escape room players at any time.

I recommend this game to escape room players in quarantine.

I do not recommend this game.

Continue reading “Mystery Motel Murcia – A World of Magic [Hivemind Review]” →

Crime Stories Part 1: Back to the Congressman is a digital game created by Crime Runners in Vienna, Austria.

Format

Style of Play: point-and-click adventure game

Required Equipment: computer with internet connection

Recommended Team Size: 1-2

Play Time: less than an hour

Price: €15, which includes a €10 voucher for an in-person game

Booking: Upon purchase, a code will be sent to you via email. Simply enter this code into the website to begin.

Description

Back to the Congressman was an escape room adapted as a classic point-and-click style game. Click around, find clues, and solve puzzles. Escape rooms have come full circle by returning to their roots.

Note that you and your remote teammates will share a single instance of the game and one person’s clicks control everyone’s screen.

Hivemind Review Scale

Read more about our new Hivemind Review format.

I recommend this game to escape room players at any time.

I recommend this game to escape room players in quarantine.

I do not recommend this game.

Continue reading “Crime Runners – Crime Stories Part 1: Back to the Congressman [Hivemind Review]” →