Escape Stations - "Humbug Hijinx"

Updated: Apr 28

Photos provided by Escape Stations

Company: Escape Stations

Game: Humbug Hijinx

Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧

Language: English

Type of Game: Digital Escape Game 💻

Genre: Adventure

Date Played: 3/7/2021

Difficulty (based on 4 players): 5/10

Size of Team: Up to 5 Devices

Time: Unlimited

Price: £15/ Team

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A year ago, the world famous confectioner, Honey Humbug went on a mission into the Amazons to find ingredients for her new recipes. She hasn't returned since then. If you're able to find the last will then perhaps you can become her successor.

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Once you purchase the game, you'll be given a link that you can share with your team. Once everyone is in the portal, you can press the "start" button. The game is synced so if one person enters in a passcode, it'll unlock for the rest of the players. Although every player can click and explore the interface, whatever one player does, the other person will see it on their screen as well. So if I'm examining a clue, the rest of the team will have to look at it with me until I close that particular clue. This type of game design forces the teams to solve puzzles together and puts limitations on the "divide and conquer" method.

The graphics were colorful and screams fun. We liked how there were many different scene changes in the game since our mission is to find the last will in Honey Humbug's residence.

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If you pay attention to the instructions at the beginning, you'll receive a pretty big hint that will help you tremendously with the game play. Since the areas you've explored or items you've opened will lock again after you "leave" that screen, it's best to write them down after you solve them. This game had a lot of puzzles that will put your memory to the test. A lot of the solutions did require us to click the right sequence so having too many people clicking at the same time was counterproductive, We ended up assigning one player to solve one puzzle per time. We finished the game in about 35minutes or so with 4 people. I would definitely recommend playing with just 1-2 devices due to the puzzle design and the interface. If you do want to play the game in "divide and conquer" mode, have all the players take snapshots of the puzzles with their phones so they can solve that particular puzzle while the other teammates move on to another area.

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Humbug Hijinx felt like a video game. Some exploration methods reminded me of Minecraft. If you want to fully experience this game, I would suggest playing it as a one player game. If you need some help with puzzles, maybe team up with one other player. If you have teammates that don't mind watching the action then you should be fine playing with 2+ players. The ending seems to suggest that there's more to the story...Perhaps there's a sequel? We're ready!

𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤❜ ℙ.𝕀.𝕤❜ 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤

Koen D.

Pro's:

- Nice graphics and a funny environment

- Good technical puzzle system

- Puzzles have a nice flow

- Lovely, sweet storyline

Con's:

- System not remembering answers

- Puzzles a bit on the easy side, but this must be great to play with a family with children

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Mike S.

With this game being my first online exclusive escape room, I really didn't know what to expect when going in and after participating, I can safely say it was a fun experience!

The basis of this story is that you need to go out and search for the last will of a beekeeper in this world. She has left clues all around her mansion (which so happens to take place in a Hansel and Gretel, fairytale-esque, décor) in order to locate these documents. That is all you need of the story because the rest of the game doesn't give any more depth into what happened to her. It was a simple, easy to follow story that gets you into the world so that you can do what this game does best, the puzzles.

When it came down to our team of four solving the puzzles, we breezed through with ease! Not to say that these are extremely easy puzzles, on the contrary, these puzzles had a good mix between physical and mental solves with varying degrees of difficulties. One might be aware though, memory and details are key in this game, retracing your steps happens quite a lot during the game and if you forget a keyword or a passcode, you have to go and redo the puzzle previously. This game DOES NOT save your completed puzzles. The puzzles were well designed and there was a hint system included in the game that would help parties out (although we did not use any hints during this experience). When this game is treated like a team based point and click adventure game, it is a lot of fun. We solved all of the puzzles and got to the end screen about 35mins in and through that time, everyone in the group was able to contribute and work on a puzzle that best catered to their puzzle solving skill set.

There was a unique look to this game as well. Very much one that looks like it was created in Microsoft paint. This was done in a manner that possessed the game to have a childish like atmosphere. Once we understood the "world" of the game, it made sense to have it look this way but it still felt...unfinished. Almost like playing a flash game that you would find online.

Overall, it is not a bad experience but a party should expect to go into this game for the puzzles first and foremost. The story and the scenery are lacking which turns the game from more of an escape room to a puzzle adventure.

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

Disclosure: We thank Escape Stations for providing us with a sample of the game. Although complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.