Castle Escapes - "History Heist"

Photo above is property of Castle Escapes

Company: Castle Escapes

Game: History Heist

Country: USA 🇺🇸

Language: English

Type of Game: Audio/GM led Escape Room 👂

Genre: History, Time Travel, Sci-Fi

Date Played: May 15, 2022

Difficulty (based on 5 players): 5/10

Size of Team: Up to 8 Players

Time: 60 Minutes

Price: $80.00/team (Up to 6 players), $100.00/team (Up to 8 players)

*This is our third game with Castle Escapes. Read our reviews here on "Hunt for the Crimson Fang" and "Alone in Ward 6".

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After years of hard work, Dr. Jellingham has finally created time travel! Unfortunately, looming debt and a loss on investors means Dr. Jellingham and her android assistant are unable to add the finishing touches (ie. make the time travel safe for humans) and are desperate for funds. They need your help to travel back in time to steal Dr. Jellingham’s lost family heirloom, "The Golden Gravy-boat", to help fund this outstanding invention! What sounds like a smooth sailing adventure across history, though, turns into a wacky journey to save reality! Get to it!

🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈

This game takes place entirely on Zoom. You are given an overview of how to play, with the new Zoom feature of annotation being emphasized. All information and notes you gather with the android assistant as your avatar will be shared using the chat feature of Zoom. You are free to ask questions and engage with the character. In this kind of room, I highly recommend speaking with your avatar to build the immersion.

NOTE: Hints are available and can be provided when you ask your guide!

Photos above are property of Castle Escapes

🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂

The puzzles in "History Heist" varied from pattern recognition, logic, and searching that really encouraged players to keep track of their exploration across the room. There are quite a few puzzles that require background information but access to links and information to help will be provided in the chat once you make a connection. I found the puzzles to be fun - once I got the “aha”, each puzzle was smooth in their assembly. Towards the end of the game, the puzzle difficulty ramped up a little as you were bouncing across scenes to put information together which I thought was a great way to build tension. I recommend to voice your line of solving aloud not just for your group but also for the avatar. If you have a question, give it a try! This is especially key if you aren’t actively googling things on your own as the guide will know what you need. Overall, the puzzles weren’t too hard and I can definitely see this being a more family-friendly experience in comparison to their two other horror games.

🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂

"History Heist" is another Castle Escapes adventure that combines fun puzzling and engaging guides that keep you on track and moving through an adventure at a smooth pace. I never felt rushed and could really enjoy the experience. If you like a story with cinematic cutscenes, collaborative puzzling, and a strong guide character, I think this is a great addition to your puzzle TBP list! If you have friends and family interested in trying online escape rooms, this is also a good on-ramp as it requires very little setup and you have a guide you can speak to as part of the adventure. I will say this was a bit easier than their previous games, but the family-friendly vibe comes from Castle Escapes branching out. After finishing this game, I cannot wait to see what more they are going to offer in the future!

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*** We regret to inform this company has closed its doors ***

Disclosure: We thank Castle Escapes for comping our tickets for this game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.

#JillianRaymond #AtHomeGames #DigitalGames #AudioGames #CastleEscapes #SciFi #TimeTravel #USA