Category: Hivemind

M.A.R.V.O Archives: Online Escape Room Adventure is a point-and-click adventure game created by Marvo Mysteries in Bournemouth, United Kingdom.

This is a review of the “Director’s Cut,” which combines phases one and two as a continuous experience.

Format

Style of Play: point-and-click adventure game

Required Equipment: computer with internet connection

If playing with multiple people over a videoconference, players should use headphones. Game sound plays for all players, which causes echo.

Recommended Team Size: 1-4

Play Time: 1.5 hours (for both parts combined)

Price: £25.00 (for both parts combined)

Booking: purchase the game and play at your leisure

Description

It looks like you’re navigating in a real escape room, but it’s actually a point-and-click adventure game. One person in the group should handle the interface, but it will update for all players. Along the way, everyone also downloads PDFs with additional information to help with solving puzzles.

Hivemind Review Scale

Operation: X-13 Online is a real-life escape room livestreamed through an avatar created by Trapped! in San Dimas, CA.

Format

Style of Play: real-life escape room livestreamed through an avatar

Required Equipment: computer with internet connection

Recommended Team Size: 2-4

Play Time: 60 minutes

Price: $59 ($69 weekends) for up to 2 connections, plus $15 for each additional connection.

Booking: book online for a specific time slot

Description

This is a standard office-themed escape room played via avatar over Zoom. The avatar will give you codes to enter in the inventory system that unlocks photos and 3D map views.

Hivemind Review Scale

Project Avatar is an unusual avatar-based escape room livestream, designed specifically for online play, created by Legendary Quests in the Ukraine.

Format

Style of Play: avatar-based livestream of a real room, but designed specifically for online play

Required Equipment: computer with internet connection; pen and paper also recommended

Recommended Team Size: 2-5

Play Time: about 2 hours

Price: €200 for up to 8 players

Booking: book online for a specific time slot

Description

You are controlling a silent avatar through an environment that encourages video game-like play. You will see a first-person POV with some HUD-type overlays showing status information and maps. While the avatar does not speak, they will respond nonverbally to the commands you give.

Hivemind Review Scale

Escape the Grid is a set of crossword puzzles with individual metapuzzles and a final metapuzzle created by Bewilderingly.

Format

Style of Play: 10-crossword puzzle suite, each with a metapuzzle leading to the next crossword puzzle

Required Equipment: computer with internet connection and either a printer, pen, and paper, or digital crossword software

These are PDFs designed for print solving, but you can also solve on screen. There is a .puz file included for use in digital crossword software. Across Lite worked well.

Recommended Team Size: 1-2

Play Time: There is no game clock. It took anywhere from 3-6 hours total to solve everything.

Price: pay what you want

Booking: buy and play at your leisure

Description

Although this is called Escape the Grid, it is not an escape room; it is a series of crossword puzzles, presented with light storytelling and gating that is influenced by escape rooms. Players will solve a crossword puzzle, and then use that solved crossword to solve a metapuzzle that extracts the 4-letter word that will unlock the next crossword puzzle. There are 10 total crosswords with metapuzzles. These all culminate in a final metapuzzle.

Hivemind Review Scale