Mar 22, 20213 min read

REMOTE: Escape Rooms Ennis - "O'Brien's Cottage"

Updated: Apr 25

Photos provided by Escape Rooms Ennis

Company: Escape Rooms Ennis

Game: O'Brien's Cottage

Country: Ireland 🇮🇪

Language: English

Type of Game: Remote Escape Room 🗣

Genre: Horror

Date Played: 3/18/2021

Difficulty (based on 4 players): 5.5/10

Size of Team: 2-6 Players Time: 60 Minutes Price: 2 Players €50.00 // 3-6 Players €75.00

🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈

Eddie O'Brien's family has been cursed ever since he chopped down an old Hawthorn tree to build his cottage on the hills of West Clare. Strange sounds (like a wailing of a woman) has been heard by many on stormy nights. Will you be able to release the Banshee and free the O'Brien's from their curse? You only have 60 minutes...

🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈

This is an avatar-led online escape game experience paired with Telescape as their inventory system. Telescape gave us an intro video of the backstory and immediately after, our avatar Sarah was standing outside O'Brien's cabin. I'm sure if played in person, the lighting would probably be dimmer and creepier but even with the bright lights, certain areas of this game still gave us the goosebumps.

This game had the perfect set up with the use of Telescape. Every time when we received an item, it would alert us as a thunder sound in the portal. This went well with the theme of the room (although I wonder if different sounds could be implemented for various items as a creepy door sound would be nice). The transition of whenever an item would appear and disappear in the inventory system was seamlessly paired with the avatar's actions. It's probably the most efficient way we've seen Telescape used in an remote game.

🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂

We really liked the tactile and interactive puzzles that were added into Telescape. We were able to do them alongside the avatar and most importantly, work on it as a team. Sarah was really fast at completing her tasks right after we've solved ours. It made us feel like we're doing them in person at the same time. Most of the puzzles were not too difficult. There was one that took us a bit of time but we had a strong P.I. team with us and finished the game with 20 minutes and 34 seconds left. There was also one cool tech device worth mentioning as we haven't seen too many places use it the way how it was used in this game.

🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂

Escape Rooms Ennis only started their remote escape room experience a short awhile ago. In this short amount of time, they've perfected some of the hardest obstacles of translating physical rooms to online. They are late comers to the remote escape room world but definitely faster learners than some of the other companies we've seen out there. We love the fact that they listen to feedback and suggestions and is constantly improving the quality of their games. We highly recommend giving this room a try if you're looking for a smooth game play online.

𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤❜ ℙ.𝕀.𝕤❜ 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤

Sabina M.

What I liked most about this game was the combination of exploring a real room with the real person who was executing our orders and in the same time being able to click and view the puzzles and the room in Telescape. There were various type of puzzles with various difficulty. The puzzles where most of the time a combination of two parts of the room brought together which in my opinion were easy to connect to each other. We didn’t have a hard time figuring out which belonged to which. There were a few locks in the game but not too many at the same time so there were about 2 options every time. I prefer there being more keys and locks simultaneously in the game so when you find the right key or combination for the lock its more satisfying. To control the avatar was very easy. She understood what we were doing and gave a few hints as well.

All together a very fun room to do with a group and a unique combination of being in a real escape room with digital puzzles on screen.

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Kobi R.

This was a really great room. It's a challenging room. Sarah was a great avatar, making sure we get the full experience and ambience but also super responsive. No real cons, the riddles were special and I really felt the background story adds to the experience. Would recommend to experienced players.

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

Disclosure: We thank Escape Rooms Ennis for comping our tickets for this game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.