Photo above is property of Adventure Lab
Company: Adventure Lab
Game: Dr. Crumb's School for Disobedient Pets
Country: USA 🇺🇸
Language: English
Type of Game: VR Game W/ Live Host 📱
Genre: Adventure, Sci-Fi, Pets
Date Played: October 23, 2021
Difficulty (based on 5 players): 4/10
Time: 60 Mins.
Price: $75.00/ Team
* This VR adventure work on the Oculus Quest but they also provide beta support for the Oculus Rift, Oculus Rift S, and HTC Vive, theValve Index, Vive Cosmos, and Windows Mixed Reality (with Steam VR)! It's designed to be a seated or standing experience. Currently it does not support PSVR.
🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈
An Adventure Lab host is waiting to guide you and up to 7 of your VR equipped friends on a time-based puzzle adventure that will last between 45 and 60 minutes. You’ll enjoy a unique social adventure that you’ll remember as if you were all together.
You have been invited to join the Virtual Investigations Agency (V.I.A.), an underground group, using the latest VR technology to solve the kind of mysteries the big guys can't. As new recruits, you will take on the mystery of Dr. Crumb and the School for Disobedient Pets. Find a way to take down the mad scientist before time runs out.
Video above is property of Adventure Labs
🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞
We loved the characters and all the colorful graphics. Currently there are only 4 characters for you to choose from. I really hope that the creator would make more characters in the future as they are all super cute! But since we had 5 players, we had to double up on the "cat" character which could be confusing with more double ups. But there are multiple names you can choose for duplicate pets characters. The set design felt like a giant laboratory/ warehouse full of Dr. Crumb's mazes and obstacles. There's even a surprise guest that pops in the game which we thought was a nice addition to the storyline.
Photos above are properties of Adventure Labs
🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈
The gameplay isn’t revolutionary, but it is so well implemented. You have the choose between 4 animals: Hamster, Bunny, Dog or Cat. Each animal has their own specialty. Like hamster can crawl in small spaces, cat can see ultraviolet, Dog can smell really well and bunny can jump really high. All of them have their own advantage but it all falls or stands on how well your team works together.
We got a short tutorial from the hilarious Ari (who is our host) and he got us through the boot camp where we learned about the different kinds of mechanics of the game. We were also able to teleport through the game by pointing where we wanted to go. The others players might not see you disappear for a moment but your avatar suddenly jumps (hops?) to that place. It might seem insignificant, but it just shows the amount of detail the whole dev team has put in it this game. After that, we had to go through several trials where the mechanics takes central stage until we reached a medal and a final battle with Dr. Crumb.
Photos above are properties of Adventure Labs
🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂
The puzzles are heavily based on teamwork. You still have to figure out what to do with each mechanic. The puzzles aren’t that hard as a whole, but that’s also because the whole experience only lasts (unfortunate) for an hour and there is some banter before, between and after the chambers. So the puzzle part of the game seem a bit short as well. Even with a fairly new team you’d probably get through the game easily and I think that's the intention from the creators. This was meant to be a fun group activity rather than hard puzzles to stump you in the game. You can even view this as a game made for a younger audience but we truly enjoyed it as 5 adults.
🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂
This game isn’t an escape room per se. It feels like a live theater with puzzles sprinkled through it... and it is AMAZING! I was more trying to solve the puzzles as fast as possible just to hear what the host had to say.
The best part of it all is the host's acting and improv skills throughout the whole ordeal. Which is also why I consider this part escape room part live theater. The host acts so flawlessly between characters (because they also play ALL the roles during this game) and have so many quips and jokes ready that every time you come in contact with them, he had a witty comeback. It was always so much fun to watch him act like a true puppeteer of their avatar. This just makes the whole experience feel so unique!
Our team immediately asked if there is another adventure we could play in the future (which sadly, there isn’t yet). This just means that we as a team are really looking forward to what Adventure lab has to offer in the future. Who knows? …. Maybe Dr. Crumb want to have his revenge? 😉
It's official! We have earned our memberships into the V.I.A. by completing our first mission... dealing with that nasty Dr. Crumb menace.
(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)
Disclosure: We thank Adventure Lab for providing us with a sample of the game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.
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