Cici Cao

Jan 24, 20214 min read

Fast Familiar - "National Elf Service"

Updated: Apr 28

Videos/ Photos provided by Fast Familiar

Company: Fast Familiar

Games: National Elf Service

Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧

Language: English

Type of Game: Digital Escape Game 💻

Genre: Fantasy

Date Played: 1/16/2021

Difficulty (based on 5 players): 4/10

Size of Team: Up to 6 Players (Suitable for age 8+ with adults)

Time: 60-90 Mins (Approximately)

Price: £20/ team

🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈

The toy factory is supposed to be filled with joy this time of the year, why is everything and everyone feeling so gloomy? Lets join the Elite Elf Force team (Merry, Berry and Sherry) and lift up the holiday spirit!

🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈

One game voucher will allow a max of 6 players to log in. Everyone will be able to see each other's cursors on the screen and click and drag items at the same time. We like the features of the teams being able to work together on certain puzzles and if one player puts the right code, our entire team gets to move forward. There were a few puzzles where its best to designate a team leader as too many people clicking for a specific sequence could actually mess up the order.

I really like the color selection and graphics for this game. It didn't go with the usual festive theme colors of red and green but more of a "secretive" dark blue and purple. It added a bit of a spy vibe to the game.

If you enjoy audio story books (especially kids) then you'll feel like you've just watched a short cartoon. It would be nice if an optional "fast forward" or "skip" button could be added to satisfy the players who are just in it for the puzzles. We really enjoyed listening to the stories. The script was quite humorous and made us laugh at various points of the game.

🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂

The puzzles were quite easy to get through. You'll encounter some audio, logic, deduction type of puzzles. There were not that many puzzles in the game as half of the game was storytelling. For the deduction puzzle, I wish we're able to interact with the information given and drag them to the correct position. It was quite confusing for our team to go through that one on paper since we're unable to share screen on what we were working on separately.

This game also has an interesting type of hint system. When your answer is incorrect, the chat box automatically prompts some hints to move you forward. For some puzzlers, this might be a turn off since they would rather not take hints and figure it out themselves. Perhaps it's best to give the "option" versus the automated prompt.

🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂

My favorite parts of this game wasn't really focused on the puzzles. I was more attracted to the graphics, funny puns and the clever ending. I actually got to fulfill my karaoke urge during the game and sang with our entire team. This game bought out a lot of laughter out of us and I think that was the goal of the game and Fast Familiar did a great job achieving it! ❤

𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤❜ ℙ.𝕀.𝕤❜ 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤

Michelle R.

National Elf Service is a lighthearted romp of a game perfect for families (middle school and up I'd guess), friends and accessible for beginner players. I loved the quirky characters and adorable details that the company added. The game had me chuckling throughout from the amusing banter.

Strengths and Weaknesses:

- This is part experience, part escape game. You will be a passive listener for part of the game - the characters are entertaining, but if you want a puzzle heavy game, this is not it.

- Many of the puzzles are process based. They can take time to solve - but on the plus side, you can easily bypass them by guessing if any puzzle overstays its welcome.

- The interface of the game is beautiful as are the illustrations

- The plot is novel and fun and easily followable

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Karen C.

National Elf Service is an online interactive puzzle game suitable for the whole family. This game has a fun and funny holiday themed storyline asking the players to help save Christmas with the help of a crazy batch of elves. This game is weighted more towards narrative than puzzle intensive. This would be a great game for puzzlers to introduce the escape room type experience to family, as the humorous story and collaborative problem solving and activities can engage those less familiar with these types of puzzles.

Pros:

-Family friendly storyline that can engage people of multiple generations and skill levels.

-Lots of humor, particularly in the dialog and details. I really enjoyed following the story line.

-Outstanding production. The artwork was engaging, the voice work expressive, and the interface was pretty seamless

-Puzzles were signposted well and fair.

Cons:

-Hints were triggered by incorrect answers, instead of having a separate hint system. While this ensured you moved through the game, it might have been more satisfying to have a way to know that you're on the right track.

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Kay F.

National Elf Service by Fast Familiar is a whimsical delightful game that the whole family can get involved with. It is a cross between an online based escape room with an immersive audio experience. The artwork is bright and sure to bring a smile to anyone’s face, especially during the holiday season. The game works great remotely as the session can be synced between multiple logins. One of the puzzles in particular was a bit “brute force” but certainly the star of the experience was their very well done narrative audio which I was a big fan of. I would recommend this game for families, in particular those who are in the mood for a light-hearted Christmas puzzle game.

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(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 Fast Familiar for comping our tickets for this game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.