Photos provided by Paruzal Games
Company: Paruzal Games
Games: 2021 Great Escape Tournament
Country: USA 🇺🇸
Language: English
Type of Game: Audio Escape Room 👂
Genre: Adventure
Size of Team: Unlimited
Time: 75 minutes (60 minute game play)
Price: $200/ Team (entry fee)
We were invited to attend the "2021 Great Escape Tournament" by Paruzal Games. Our first encounter with Paruzal Games was when we played their "Pizza Makes Anything Possible" game back in May of last year. This game won our "Best Puzzle Design" Bullseye Award Category in 2020.
Since we'll be documenting our experiences with this event, our results will not be counted towards the ranking of the tournament. I'll be updating this blog as we progress through the various tournament rounds so make sure to check back on this blog for the results and reviews on each round.
On March 19th, Paruzal Games celebrated their one year anniversary. The "2021 Great Escape Tournament" was announced as a celebratory event where teams from all over the world can register to compete for the "Fastest Escape Room Team on the Internet" title. Enthusiasts started to gather their teams and spots began to fill up rather quickly. Paruzal Games actually had to make a decision to cut off the registration at 37 Teams since only 8 teams can advance into the second round. They are planning to do this as an annual event so if you missed this year, make sure to sign up for their mailing list to join in for next year. They are planning to add more games so more teams can join in for 2022.
There are 4 rounds in this tournament. All teams must play Round 1 ( “The Party Won’t Wait”). Eight of the fastest teams will advance to Round 2 (“Tee Party”). From there 4 teams will complete to advance to Round 3 (“Movie Mayhem”). The final two teams will compete with two 30 minute games back to back in Round 4.
If you want to play these games as regular game sessions, they will be available after the tournament finishes in May. The price will be $15/pp for the regular 75 min (60 min game play) games and reduced for the 30 min games (or you can book them as a pair for the standard 1 hour game play).
Majority of the players seem to be from the US (mainly California), Canada, Ireland and Sweden. Registered teams will also be receiving a swag package like pens, mini notebooks (in my opinion we needed way bigger notebook during the tournament but these are cute souvenirs), tournament progress tracker and a 20% discount code to use towards future games.
🅡🅞🅤🅝🅓 ➊ - ❞ 🅣🅗🅔 🅟🅐🅡🅣🅨 🅦🅞🅝❜🅣 🅦🅐🅘🅣❞
We played "Round 1" on April 3rd and at this point many teams have already completed this round as the event started on March 19th. The round will end on April 9th so a few teams still have to complete this round. We have heard from our GM that some of the competitive teams have played all of the existing Paruzal Games just to get a feel on their puzzle style and game play in preparation for the tournament (this is serious stuff!). There are also teams that spend multiple hours prior to the game and after the game to discuss strategies and to practice solving various puzzles together. Since we went in as spectators, we didn't really "prepare" at all. Our team consisted of me, Brandon, and three of our patrons.
The game was hosted over Zoom with a game master. The game master (Ben) gave us a quick backstory of how we got locked in a room after the conference and the rest of the crew already left the area and was enjoying their cocktails at the open bar reception. We had to quickly find a way to open the door or else there'll be no more free booze!
I must say I'm quite impressed by the updated artwork from Paruzal Games. It's vibrant colors and detailed illustrations really made us connect with the narratives. The puzzles were clever and a lot of them made us think outside of the box. Although this is a serious competition, our game master still thought of ways to make us laugh and relax through his quirky comebacks and the embedded puns in the puzzles. If I can give you two useful advices with these audio escape games, it would be to search thoroughly and be specific with your instructions and answers.
On the date we wrote this blog, the average escape time for this game was 70 minutes. Our team got out in 63 minutes and 55 seconds. If you use a hint, you'll be penalized with 3 minutes. You'll really have to think about strategy as sometimes it might be worth to use a hint rather than be stuck with a puzzle for longer than that 3 minutes. Currently the shortest time to complete this game was 37 minutes and the longest was 91 minutes. I'll report with more accurate results once they are released on April 9th. We look forward to improving our score in round 2 since now we've accumulated some strategy that we can use towards the rest of the games. Wish us luck!
𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤 ℙ𝕒𝕥𝕣𝕠𝕟❜𝕤 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤
Helen B.
Just when I think I have seen it all, along comes another different type of online escape/adventure/mystery and I couldn't be happier!
This game, run over Zoom with a Games Master in command, starts with a short story telling you some background, we were at a work conference, no doubt listening to some boring lecture, but dreaming of the after-event cocktail party which was being held upstairs afterwards :) But we are the last to head out of the room, only to find the door is locked with a note telling us we have to beat a series of challenges to get out! How cruel and unfair! But we must want that lurid pink cocktail so bad, that we set about exploring the room for clues!
The room is shown to us as an overhead first to get our bearings, and then we are allowed to ask the host to show us certain areas, and try certain things. The graphics are smart and static - nothing animates but if you hit upon a correct action then something else may be revealed as a new image. Some of things we had to do seemed immediately obvious - some we went back and forth, round and round! The puzzles were a good mixture, and quite logical, some very fun to solve too. There is a hint option where you are given a 3 minute time penalty, but if you feel like you're just not getting it, it's advisable to take the hint as we immediately moved on with the help of 2 hints. There was one thing you have to do that we probably wouldn't have come up with in a month of Sundays were it not for the hint! My advice is to try everything you can think of to do with some parts of the room! I took some photos of the screen as we went along in order to refer back to things that weren't on-screen any more (no inventory in the game but anything we found we used pretty quickly so no need to keep track) - however when things needed to be used together, the host could bring up an image that combined the two things so you could make reference without having to flick between things.
Just when you think you have escaped, there are some more obstacles to overcome, but we sailed through these - clearly desperate for that drink! We never got to meet our host on camera but he was a very good GM - consistent and gave us all the information we needed, but to the point if we went down a route that was a no-go.
A brilliant game that took us just over an hour, and I'd love to try out some more of their titles.
Here's the Results from Round 1
With 37 registered teams and an average score (completion time plus hint penalties) of close to 70 minutes (mean=69.49min, stdev=12.56min)
Andrew McManus and “Friday the 13th, Part 6” with a time of… 37:40 and no hints for a score of 37:40.
Rei Matsuura and “Let Us Out” with a time of… 46:54 and no hints for a score of 46:54.
Rich Bragg and “United Discord” with a time of… 38:03 and 3 hints for a score of 47:03
Brittany Fasy and “Boze People” with a time of… 50:09 and no hints for a score of 50:09.
Amanda Harris and “Blue Herrings” with a time of… 54:56 and no hints for a score of 54:56.
Juliet Bennett and “The Escapes of Wrath” with a time of… 58:43 and no hints for a score of 58:43.
Tammy McLeod and “Team Prospect” with a time of… 54:43 and 2 hints for a score of 60:43.
Kat Johnson and “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Non-Equity Cast of ‘Godspell’!” with a time of... 58:52 and 1 hint for a score of 61:52.
Ace Ellett and “Team Bluefish” with a time of… 62:24 and no hints for a score of 62:24.
Shelby Windom and “Escape Goats” with a time of… 54:04 and 3 hints for a score of 63:04.
Gilles Duchesne and “La Compagnie Keyhole” with a time of… 57:22 and 2 hints for a score of 63:22.
Raymond Geraci and “Otterpi” with a time of... 60:44 and 1 hint for a score of 63:44.
Cici Cao and “ESCAPETHEROOMers” with a time of… 57:55 and 2 hints for a score of 63:55*
Justyna Sniezek and “Zagadkowcy” with a time of... 61:48 and 1 hint for a score of 64:48.
Melissa Kramer-Sarrett and “7th Overall!” with a time of… 59:07 and 2 hints for a score of 65:07.
Ben Shpigel and “Nerd Immunity” with a time of … 65:33 and no hints for a score of 65:33.
Cathy Roth and “The Elijayans” with a time of … 56:33 and 3 hints for a score of 65:33.
Katherine Guinness and “MIKG” with a time of … 66:05 and 1 hint for a score of 69:05.
Melissa Perttunen and “Morris Family” with a time of … 63:25 and 2 hints for a score of 69:25.
Benjamin Kieran and “Lucky 7” with a time of … 63:46 and 2 hints for a score of 69:46.
… and so on
🅡🅞🅤🅝🅓 ➋ - ❞🅣🅔🅔 🅟🅐🅡🅣🅨❞
Two weeks later, we played Round 2 on April 14th. The top 8 teams listed above are eligible to be competing in Round 2 for the title "Fastest Escape Room Team on the Internet".
Our game started off with our GM (Guy) giving us a quick backstory. This game was staged at a Golf shop. As an employee, we needed to decorate for an upcoming event but the box of decorations went missing. If we want to get that promotion, we'll need to find that box ASAP.
Our team was pumped this time as we strategized a bit prior to the game. Since we're treating it more like a tournament this time, we didn't waste time interacting with the GM like in an regular audio escape game. Guy was great with knowing just the right amount of automation that pushed us through a smooth game play. For instance, there were images that could be shown to us in a combined format if we used the right verbiage. This visualization made the "solving process" a lot more convenient for the team.
From a difficulty standpoint, this one felt easier than the first game. There weren't that many hidden objects that we had to find (we also learned from the past experience and pretty much flip the place inside out) or utilize "think outside of the box" method. Most of the logic puzzles were straight to the point mixed with some light Math problems. My favorite parts during this game were actually the physical activities that we had to perform in order to gain access to the next parts of the game. The "divide and conquer" method really worked well here as we assigned certain team members to work on a particular puzzle while the rest of the team moved on to other parts of the game. I would definitely suggest playing this one first when these games open to public in May. I'm happy to report our score of 36 minutes and 37 seconds with no hints for this round! That's a Tee-rific score in my books! And now we're totally geared up for Round 3!
𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤 ℙ𝕒𝕥𝕣𝕠𝕟❜𝕤 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤
Kobi R.
This was my first Paruzal game and reading about it I was kind of weary at first. Would this style of game fit me? It sounded like you need to think outside the box and remember a lot of things.
Luckily for me, I had experienced players by my side and we had a great team dynamic, so that was a great start (also, Happy Birthday Helen!) This was a very streamlined experience, a lot thanks to Guy the GM. He didn't really push anything, but he was very responsive and nudged us when needed.
I liked how it all made sense. You're actually playing a character and you're doing day to day actions. I could really imagine this as a physical location for a semi escape room and semi LARP (Live-Action Role Playing). I would definitely like to try more Paruzal games in the future.
Helen B.
Tee Party was the second Paruzal game I had attempted and after the first one I was really looking forward to this style of play, the graphics and humor again. And it did not disappoint! The day I played it was my birthday which made it all the more special.
This time rather than escaping the room (indeed at one point it is necessary to leave the room, albeit that you can't go far for reasons you will discover!) - we had to find a box of missing items needed to set up for an important event, which had been somehow "locked away".
The idea is the same - you explore the room and instruct the GM to examine items, try certain interactions and codes, no matter how bizarre your suggestions may seem they will accommodate them, albeit if this means saying "that does not work" on loop :)
There was a wonderful balance of puzzles in this game with fantastic visuals as before, and the very helpful addition of being able to see certain items from your "inventory" together on screen as necessary in order to help with solving. Our GM - Guy, this time, was courteous, helpful and friendly, bringing the story to lie with his descriptions and responses. At one point we had to partake in a real-world activity in order to continue (don't worry - nothing taxing!) which added a nice touch.
We flew through this one with no hints used, finding it easier than our first experience with this company, but not because the games were easier - I think we just had a good team tactic whereby some of us worked on puzzles whilst others commanded the GM to show us around, meaning we saved time and progressed quicker.
A very very enjoyable experience and I am so excited to play more Paruzal games in future.
Here's the Results from Round 2
3 Brackets of 24 teams went head to head in Round 2. Only Bracket A's members still qualify to complete for the real title. Bracket B/C are just competing for fun internally. We are very happy to be heading to Round 3 with our amazing result!
ROUND 2 RESULTS (time+penalties=score, counted in seconds. Low score wins):
Bracket A: (mean: 2396, stdev: 330)
“Friday the 13th Part 6” (2347) was upset by 8. “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Non-Equity Cast of ‘Godspell!’” (2141)
“Let Us Out” (2377) fell to 7. “Team Prospect” (2044)
“United Discord” (2192) handily defeated 6. “The Escapes of Wrath” (3096)
“Boze People” (2742) was edged out by 5. “Blue Herrings” (2229)
Bracket B: (mean: 3415, stdev: 635)
“La Compagnie Keyhole” (2745) proceeds to Round 3 after defeating 8. "Dream Team" (4119)
“Otterpi” (2924) edged out 7. “Koalas, Mauves, and Codex” (3631)
“7th Overall” (2642) triumphed over “MIKG” (4427)
“Nerd Immunity” (3855) was not immune at all to the skills of 5. “The Ellijayans” (2981)
Bracket C: (mean: 3405, stdev: 836)
“Team Bluefish” (3375) defeated 8. “The Ghost of Mrs. Boyle & Two Pirates From Captain Redbeard’s Pirate Ship” (4108)
“Escape Goats” (2968) just barely edged out “Escape Connection” (3136)
“ESCAPETHEROOMers” (2197) walked all over “Pooky’s Posse” (5002)
“Morris Family” (DNS) defaulted to “Test Solution Bees Ignore” (3049)
🅡🅞🅤🅝🅓 ➌ - ❞🅜🅞🅥🅘🅔 🅜🅐🅨🅗🅔🅜 🅐🅣 🅣🅗🅔 🅜🅔🅝🅐🅖🅔🅡🅘🅔❞
A week later (April 21st), our team is back and ready to conquer Round 3. A lot of our patreons have became big fans of Paruzal games and this time we added a new recruit to the journey. Since we're not playing this for real scores, we didn't really stick to hard on the strategy. If you are serious about entering your team for next year, I would recommend no more than 4 players per team. Since these games involve heavily on communication between players and GM, it's rather difficult to hear when too many people are talking at the same time. Repeating and confirming what another players have said can waste a lot of time.
The backstory to this game is that we are thieves and we're here to steal the "golden reel" (the rarest film of all time). I love the graphics of the theater. They were really colorful and detailed from the snack bar to the ticket booth to the theater itself. There were many locations that we had to explore. Our first mistake was not taking a hint quickly when we got stuck early on during the game because we missed a tiny detail.
The mixture of puzzles and prop utilization was well balanced in this game. I liked how we had to think about what was in our "inventory" and what we could use in all of the areas that we've explored. I would definitely recommend searching through everything first to compile all the clues together before trying out any puzzles. This one was pretty tough. Our team finished in 52 minutes and 27 second but had to take a 3 minute penalty for taking 1 hint. In the end, we had a lot of laughter throughout the game and that's all it matters. We want to thank our amazing GM Guy again for being patient with us and surrendering to our weird demands and trying those hundreds of attempts we threw at him on that directional lock!
𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤 ℙ𝕒𝕥𝕣𝕠𝕟❜𝕤 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤
Helen B.
Movie mayhem indeed!
My third experience of a Paruzal game was just as enjoyable but tougher than the others. A nice twist to this one is starting in a location where it seems you have very little to play with - just some bits and bobs that don't seem very useful. But examine everything carefully and make good notes, because you can and will progress, even if it takes you way longer than it should (it really did!).
Once in the main play area, we had great fun examining the room, realising our next steps, but getting too hung up in some areas! One puzzle in particular seemed so easy but then when the answer we were convinced was correct turned out wrong, all logic went out of the window and we began trying anything and everything somewhat desperately. This led to us giving in and using our one and only hint, which was immediately followed by a collective "ohhhh of courrrrrse" - so my tip is don't lose your head and overthink things!
There is a lot of environment to examine in this one, and some clever use of the space and repetition of puzzles but with a clever twist to them. This fiendish game took us longer than Tee Party (partly due to our methods, partly due to the complexity and amount of stuff to do in the game) but was still enjoyable, coming in just under the hour with our one hint penalty.
Paruzal's games are brilliantly made, always different in terms of puzzle variety, theme, complexity and methods, and the GMs do a fantastic job of bringing it all together and making sure you have fun without giving anything away.
Here's the Results from Round 3
After a crazy turn of events, here's the results from Round 3 (time + penalties=score, counted in seconds. Low score wins). Once again, only Bracket A's members still qualify to complete for the real title. Bracket B/C are just competing for fun internally.
Bracket A Completion time + penalties = score (rendered in seconds): 8. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Longest Escape Room Team Title in all of Recorded History” (2867) unseated 5. “Blue Herrings” (3837) 7. “Team Prospect” (2090) eked out the win from 3. “United Discord” (2461)
Bracket B:
“La Compagnie Keyhole” (3775) fell to 5. “The Ellijayans” (3029)
“Otterpi” (3951) suffered defeat at the hands of 3. “7th Overall!” (3525)
Bracket C:
“Team Bluefish” (4381) gave the win to 5. “Test Solution Bees Ignore” (4116).
“Escape Goats” (3017) were victorious over 3. “ESCAPETHEROOMers” (3327)
🅡🅞🅤🅝🅓 ➍ - ❞🅣🅗🅔 🅐🅝🅝🅤🅐🅛 🅟🅘🅒🅝🅘🅒❞ 🅐🅝🅓 ❞🅣🅗🅔 🅔🅐🅖🅛🅔 🅗🅐🅢 🅛🅐🅝🅓🅔🅓❞
May 1st marks our final leg of the journey with the "2021 Great Escape Tournament". In this round, we had to complete two 30 minute games back to back. By this point, we are all pros at "Paruzal Games" and as you can see, many of our Patreons have also became big fans of their game. It was a lovely surprise to have our first game's GM, Ben accompany us to the finishing line.
We started with "The Annual Picnic" and were told that we were 6th graders trying to learn about various cultures from different countries with our pen pals. The school has an annual picnic where we get to show off what we've learned during the school year. This game was actually designed for a particular school that had this tradition so it felt really real to be following through with the storyline. The puzzles felt easier in terms of the level of difficulty since it was designed for students. We finished this game in 18 minutes and 41 seconds with no hints.
"The Eagle Has Landed" was also staged in a school. We were in charge of bringing the paint to draw the eagle mural but forgot them at home. Our art teacher has the paint supplies stashed in the room but they're all locked up. We have only 30 minutes to find a way to retrieve them. This game had a few areas that were graphically similar to "The Annual Picnic" game but the puzzles were all different. It was interesting to see how they were able to utilize the same "cluing image" but form a completely different set of puzzles. We took some time on two of them due to the fact that we were still remembering what we had done in the previous game. For this game we took 32 minutes with no hints.
Both games didn't have "hidden items" that we had to search really hard for like in the first game. It just shows that Paruzal designs all of their games in various styles so you wouldn't really know what type of game you'll be playing until you actually play them. The graphics were nicely done again here. I especially liked the feeling of being able to "collect" the items along the way. One thing I would suggest to the creator is to add an ending "victory image" for both games as we didn't know that the game had ended. Of course there's also that feeling of secretly wishing that they haven't ended as we can't get enough of these Paruzal games!
For anyone who couldn't join the tournament this year, they'll be releasing all of these games to the general public in late May. You should definitely give them a try. Don't say I didn't warn you. They're quite addicting!
𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤 ℙ𝕒𝕥𝕣𝕠𝕟❜𝕤 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤
Helen B. - The Annual Picnic
This was my 3rd Paruzal game and I had no doubt it would be just as good fun and a challenge as the previous ones. The theme for this one was a beautiful story of middle schoolers holding an annual picnic to celebrate friends around the world. We learned afterwards that this was written for an actual event of the same theme, so it made it all the more special. So rather than escaping, you have to find the hidden, locked away supplies for your picnic hidden around the room. Again a beautifully drawn, beautifully written game with a lovely mix of puzzle types - morse code, word puzzles, numbers and even a crazy puzzle including sausages! We seemed to make short work of most of the puzzles, which I think were on the slightly easier side due to the original audience, but still amazing fun and our GM Ben was just as good as last time, providing just the right level of information and responses to our crazy suggestions for where to look and what to try!!! We got out in a very respectable 18.41 with no hints, and I thoroughly enjoyed the topic, the gameplay and the whole experience yet again. Can't wait for my next Paruzal!
Helen B. - The Eagle has Landed
My FOURTH game with Paruzal and now very used to the mechanics of their games we went into this one with just as much excitement and anticipation! Our theme for this one again was to find hidden supplies rather than escape. A refreshing change! But I wish someone wouldn't keep tidying away our stuff behind puzzle locks! So inconvenient!!! Again set in a school but this time for older children, our room consisted of various items from around the school - an eclectic mix of artefacts that all needed to be figured out. We came a bit unstuck on two of the puzzles! Both were a case of interpretation of the clues we had found, and we thought we had exhausted every combination before finally hitting the right one. SO close to asking for a hint but we prevailed! A very nice use of "props" in this room to provide some challenges that we hadn't come across before and despite a lot of back and forth, another enjoyable game that really challenged our logical thinking and saw us obtain our goal in just over 50 minutes. Kudos again to GM Ben who did a sterling job. Have loved all Paruzal's games and really want to do more now!
Here Are the Final Results
(please note DNS means "Did Not Start" as some teams have not completed some of the rounds yet)
Congratulations to "Team Prospect” for winning the "Fastest Escape Room Team on the Internet" title!!!
Bracket A (Winner: “Team Prospect”):
Friday the 13th, Part 6 Round 1: 2260, 2347, 3067, DNS
Let Us Out 2814, 2377, 3527, DNS
United Discord 2823, 2192, 2461, 1958: for a total of 9434 seconds
Boze People 3009, 2742, DNS, DNS
Blue Herrings 3296, 2229, 3837, DNS
The Escapes of Wrath 3523, 3096, DNS, DNS
Team Prospect 3643, 2044, 2090, 1570: total 9347
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Non-Equity Cast of ‘Godspell’! 3652, 2141, 2867, 2505: total 11165
Bracket B (Winner: “The Ellijayans”):
La Companie Keyhole 3802, 2745, 3775, DNS
Otterpi 3824, 2924, 3951, DNS
7th Overall! 3907, 2642, 3525, DNS
Nerd Immunity 3933, 3855, 3951, DNS
The Ellijayans 3933, 2981, 3029, 3317: total 13260
MIKG 4145, 4427, DNS, DNS
Koalas, Mauves, & Codex 4525, 3631, 3071, 2785: total 14012
Dream Team 5105, 4119, DNS, DNS
Bracket C (Winner: "Escape Goats”):
Team Bluefish 3684, 3375, 4381, DNS
Escape Goats 3784, 2968, 3017, 3142: total 12911
ESCAPETHEROOMers 3835, 2197, 3327, 3011: total 12370
Morris Family 4165, DNS, DNS, DNS
Test Solution Bees Ignore 4512, 3049, 4116, DNS
Pooky’s Posse 4643, 5002, 4526, DNS
Escape Connection 4817, 3136, 3609, DNS
The Ghost of Mrs. Boyle & Two Pirates from Captain Redbeard’s Pirate Ship 5101, 4108, 6171, DNS
*** We regret to inform this company has closed its doors ***
Disclosure: We thank Paruzal Games for comping our tickets for this game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.
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