Meridian Adventure Co. - "The Traveler's Guide to Little Sodaburg"

Updated: Apr 27

Photo above is property of Meridian Adventure Co.

Company: Meridian Adventure Co.

Game: Traveler's Guide to Little Sodaburg

Country: USA 🇺🇸

Language: English

Type of Game: Digital Game w/ Live Host 💁

Genre: Sci-Fi, Time Travel

Date Played: December 5 2021

Difficulty (based on 6 players): 4/10

Size of Team: 2-6 Players

Time: 75 Minutes

Price: ~$20/ pp (6 ppl), ~$30/ pp (4 ppl), $125.00/ team

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You show up to the quiet town of Sodaburg expecting a quiet local tour, but there’s something fishy going on. You’re suddenly drawn into a mysterious, time-traveling, choose your own adven-tour save the world!!

Video above is property of Meridian Adventure Co.

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There is a huge variety of art and styles of the various digital media as they reflect specific time periods and tasks your team is undertaking. In some slick behind-the-scenes tech wizardry, the exact same web address even loads a completely different version of the page when you travel to a new time, reflecting the aesthetics of the day. There is a mixture of the outlandish, charming, and realistic throughout the game, and it was utterly fin-tastic.

Photos above are property of Meridian Adventure Co.

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Your live host is your Sodaburg tour guide, but most of the narrative is delivered through pre-recorded videos of the person who guides you on your mission. I don’t think he could be any punnier…Your goal at each step is primarily to determine to which year you must travel next, at which point you enter that into the chat in the video conferencing software. For each year, you are given a variety of new websites or resources to consult, with puzzles or tasks to solve to help you figure out the next destination. This is very much a cooperative game, and for the most part all of the technical pieces worked really smoothly. The overall interface is unlike anything we’ve seen before! There was one ridiculously satisfying mechanic that was way more fun for everyone than it should have been, and will totally have you living out your hacker dreams. You also have some really fun character interactions, with some entertaining behind-the-scenes improv from the host.

Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

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This is very much a game of split-puzzle design, whereby different players are often presented with different pieces of information. Therefore, communication is key to share what each is seeing and help to solve the puzzles together. There were a few cases where it seemed like we could have brute forced the solution…or even may have? It was hard to know at times exactly who did what and how we got to the next phase. And there was one puzzle mechanic that seemed to go on a bit long and it's really meant for one player to speak at a time but with a large group, everyone was eager to participate of course. However, there was a lot to love about these puzzles and the satisfaction of solving them together.

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It’s o-fish-al, we had a blast playing this game! The ridiculousness of the storyline, the density of puns, the variety of the puzzles, the necessity of teamwork ensuring everyone had their moment, and the creativity of the interface all contributed to making the overall experience absolutely unique and a joy to play. I think 4 would be the perfect number for this game, though anywhere from 2-6 works. It’s family-friendly in its theming, though some of the puzzles might be tougher for younger kids, but they could definitely enjoy sitting with you as you play. If perch-ance you like dad jokes, quirkiness, and cooperative puzzles, you should absolutely give this one a go! If you end up playing, let minnow what you think!

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