Photo provided by Escape Online
Company: Escape Online
Game: Dead Man's Hand
Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧
Language: English
Type of Game: Digital Game w/ Live Host 💁
Genre: Western
Date Played: 3/25/2021
Difficulty (based on 4 players): 5/10
Size of Team: 2+ Players
Time: 60 Minutes
Price: £39/ 2 ppl (£10 each additional)
🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈
You're happily visiting a cow-boy themed amusement park Western World when the robotic "hosts" started to malfunction and killing off guests. Your only chance is to find the park owner's hand (currently already dead) in the Saloon as that's the only thing that will open the park's gate!
🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈
We were greeted by our GM in the Zoom lobby. After explaining the rules of the game, we're sent to a breakout room.
Once the cinematic intro video finished, our game started in a digital platform called Telescape. This is a point-n-click game hosted by a game master. The game master only interacts with the group if a hint was needed. The game is synced where if one player enters a code correctly it'll unlock for the rest of the players.
You'll need to read the instructions clearly on where you'll need to input codes. For the most part of the game, we're able to interact with objects from the inventory bag with another object directly or input the codes into a specific lock but towards the end we had to also use the input bar which was quite confusing.
🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂
The puzzles stuck to the Western theme and had various levels of difficulty. There were a few interesting props that we were able to use in this room that reminded us of in-person escape rooms. I did enjoy discovering some surprises that was triggered by the puzzle inputs.
The hotspots made some of the puzzles quite confusing in this game. Some hotspots showed up too earlier but then disappeared and then showed up later again. Some were clickable but were never used. For two of the puzzles, we're just able to randomly click as there seemed to be only one way to click the right solution. It didn't feel like we solve the puzzle ourselves.
🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂
Our host was lovely and was able to provide us with just the right amount of nudging. Although for these digital games, we actually prefer playing them in self guided mode with hint system build-in to the game. But this game could also be played in competitive mode where you and your friends could compete to see who would be able to finish the game quicker, For this option, you'll need a host to break you guys up into different breakout rooms. We decided to play the game together as a team of 4 and finished in 45 minutes or so. If Escape Online is able to fix some of these hotspot integrations, it'll definitely make the game play a lot smoother. We look forward to trying their other games in competitive mode next time!
𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤❜ ℙ.𝕀.𝕤❜ 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤
Matt L. & Jess A.
I was having some problems with my Telescape (not sure if it was a device problem or an internet issue), so I wasn't much help to the group! I thought the story was amusing, but generally it felt like there was some attention to detail missing for this room. Though we had been able to use keypads to enter our answers previously one puzzle required typing it into the telescape box for no reason, and the final video showing the moment of the escape was shown sideways. Also, quite a few of the puzzles seemed to be triggered by unintentionally clicking or moving things, which is great because it saves you time, but you won't get the satisfaction of actually solving anything.
The host was super friendly, but did keep popping into the room to give us hints that we hadn't ask for. We finished the room in 45 minutes, so I would have liked a bit more time before intervention.
All escape rooms are fun, but this one wasn't my favorite. Having said that though, I'd be really interesting in doing one of their games live to see if it is purely the online format that lets them down.
*** We regret to inform this game is no longer available for purchasing but check out other in-person escape rooms on their website***
Disclosure: We thank Escape Online 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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