Escapists - "The Corporate Kidnapping"

Updated: Apr 29

Photos provided by Escapists

Company: Escapists

Game: The Corporate Kidnapping

Language: English

Country: Netherlands 🇳🇱

Type of Game: Digital Game w/ Live Host 💁

Genre: Adventure

Date Played: 6/1/2021

Difficulty (based on 5 players): 5/10

Size of Team: 2-8 People (Ages 16+)

Time: 90 Mins

Price: 14€ (per person)

🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈

Anna, your coworker at Interwish Company, has gone missing. There seems to be a lot of information hidden in various departments. Can you dig out the dirt and find out what happened to Anna?

🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈

This is the first time we used Microsoft Meetup as a virtual conferencing platform for an online game. It's very similar to Google Meet but did take us a bit of time to get use to the functions. The GM will meet with the team briefly to explain the rules before she leaves the screen completely and will only engage with us if the team needed hints through the chat box.

You'll need to be pretty savvy with the computer for this game as there's a lot of platforms that you'll encounter. Before starting the game, it's strongly advised for the team to open up a Google share document and have one teammate share their screen. We didn't use a share document but I did share my screen which helped some players follow along and catch up to the same places. During the game you'll encounter programs and apps such as Microsoft Outlook (which didn't work as we're in the US but our GM was able to send us a link to bypass this problem - Update: this issue has also been resolved now by the company. You can access the files now with a password), Excel, FB and various websites. At one point, you'll also need to call a Netherlands number which we also bypassed by having our GM send us the audio file (Update: they've came out with an alternative way to resolve this issue so you no longer need to make the phone call). You'll be able to search, interact and open hidden messages through these platforms.

🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂

The puzzles were designed with escape room mentality in mind. You'll only need to use an item (website) and password once and this is stated very clearly at the beginning of the game. You'll encounter red herrings just like in some escape rooms so try not to go down any rabbit holes. There's not too many actual puzzles like decoding or logic as the game focuses more on the storyline and revealing information through videos and text.

🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂

If you are into detective style RPG type of game then you'll have a lot of fun with this game as it takes you from a very clear plot of Anna being missing into something very unexpected. Sometimes we weren't even sure if this organization was real or not as we got lost in this virtual world. Make sure you're use to having lots of tabs open as you'll be maneuvering between multiple screens. This was more challenging than the puzzles themselves. Since it's a timed game (we finished in 58 minutes), you also felt the urgency especially towards the end when there's a decision to be made. Round up a strong team so everyone can take on different tasks and hopefully you'll be able to discover who's behind the kidnapping.

𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤 ℙ𝕒𝕥𝕣𝕠𝕟❜𝕤 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤

Melvin L.

Corporate Kidnapping is a digital game held over Microsoft Teams Meetups. There will be a game master present if you need hints and to add to the immersiveness of the game as you will need to 'contact' the character at times. The game is basically a rabbit hole full of information, where we have to find out what happened to our colleague who was kidnapped. It is not a real life escape room on Telescape nor is it a webpage with puzzles.

We were given a google drive link to begin with and there were some documents there. Of course, these documents are password protected. Looking through the google drive, there will be clues to help you unlock the documents to get even more documents/clues. This game really made use of everything on the internet. Be prepared to look through google drive, Facebook, LOTS of websites that they have created for the game, audio, excel files and make phone calls. They really used everything short of Instagram/Twitter I suppose. It made the whole game feel realistic as we were like hunters digging through files to find out what happened.

The puzzles themselves were clever and fun. There was a variety of all kinds. One technicality we faced was that a certain puzzle was clued slightly differently so it threw us all off for at least 10 minutes because once you brush that idea away, you will never go back to thinking about it because it just looks so different. Hence just a heads up, approach each puzzle with an open mind and even if it does look weird, consider all possibilities. That's what I can say to teams playing this game.

Besides this, it is a fun game that I can recommend for all sorts of players. Perhaps they can consider a purely digital experience, whereby a game master is not needed, as this would be a game that sounds fun when playing solo.

Helen B.

You've just started a new job, and your first task is to find a colleague who has been kidnapped? Wow! Rough first day!

This was an interesting concept that I had not yet experienced. You join on Microsoft Teams, and have a host who takes on the role of one of the characters. Through a series of videos, images, live chat communications, websites and a wide variety of documents on Google Drive, you are plunged into the shady world of Interwish and some dodgy dealings. Luckily I have used all these platforms extensively, but if you are only used to Zoom for things like this you may struggle. The other option is that one player shares their screen so you can see what is going on, and all just contribute while watching.

The puzzles mainly centred around locating passwords for documents, locating information in documents and the like, so nothing like locks, items to find or that sort of thing. There is a time where you needed to see an email account, but we were unable to get in as the site (an official email client) decided that all these people accessing it was very suspicious and wanted us to verify the account! There was also a phone number to call but it was based in the Netherlands so we couldn't call it. It was a shame as we had to "break character" in the game to report these. I believe that both of these hitches have not had workarounds put in so kudos to the company for making changes based on our feedback. You also have to access Facebook for information. Certainly making use of all the technologies, but you can end up with a LOT of tabs open so easy to get lost!

Hunting for information and through sites meant this felt like a sort of mystery/detective story rather than an escape room per se, but if you are a fan of crime-solving hunts then this is a great idea for you - and might make a great team-building exercise as you could get everyone working on the different bits of information to solve the case together. There's also a decision to be made at the end so read everything carefully!

Our host was really lovely and very receptive to feedback - this was a very enjoyable brain-stretching game that has clearly had a lot of time and thought put into it.

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

Disclosure: We thank Escapists 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.