REMOTE: Hourglass Escapes Ltd. - "Unstoppable"

Photos provided by Hourglass Escapes Ltd.

Company: Hourglass Escapes Ltd.

Game: Unstoppable

Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧

Language: English

Type of Game: Remote Escape Room 🗣

Genre: Action

Date Played: 3/23/2021

Difficulty (based on 4 players): 5/10

Size of Team: 2-4 Players Time: 60 Minutes Price: £40/ Team

🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈

You're on board a train that's going full speed from London Kings Cross to Peterborough Station. The driver has suddenly collapsed. He left a serious of instructions on how to stop the train but they look really complicated, like puzzles. You are their only hope...

🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈

Our journey started with our avatar standing inside a "moving" train. The motioned window was a nice illusion prop. Since there was no 360 view provided, our avatar gave us a nice overview of the room. At first glance, it doesn't seem like there was much to do but as we started to examine items closely with the help of the online inventory system "Telescape", we were able to discover a few secrets.

Normally you might have to find where the hidden door or passageway would be an escape room but since this was a train themed room so you kind of already knew where the door was located. This actually heightened our curiosity as there could be many many doors that we would need to pass through before ending up in the engine room. We enjoyed this build up sensation.

Whenever we collected an item or a new item was discovered by the avatar, we would get an horn blast sound from the train. This was quite nice as sometimes we were not aware that something was send to us in some of the other online games we've played. The avatar used a tripod which sometimes felt cumbersome in the narrow spaces of the train. It's probably best to operate this game with body harness or handheld gimbal.

🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂

There was a good amount of searching that had to be done in this room. We were glad the avatar was quick on her feet and was able to automate the search for us. She was also great at directing us to not waste time on items of no interest. Hourglass Escapes did their best with translating some of the puzzles to online version as players were able to interact with some of the items that were collected from the searching process. Majority of the time the puzzles were linear so we had to play as a team. One puzzle did stump us for quite sometime because we couldn't understand the terminology that was used since it's different in the US than in the UK. Maybe the clue system could be tweaked pending on where the players are booking from.

🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂

I would imagine this room would be a lot of fun to play in person. There were some ambience and sound that had to be cut out from the online version which could've made the ending feel more intense. Perhaps adding some sound element in Telescape could help achieve this. At the end we escaped with our P.I.s in 47 minutes and 10 seconds! Overall we had a nice and smooth ride onboard the Hourglass express!

𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤❜ ℙ.𝕀.𝕤❜ 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤

Paolo F.

The scenery is nice and the setting changes, because you immediately understand that there is more than one room, help to create the right level of pressure: the door we will open, it would be the last one or there will be another one behind?

In addition to the classic interaction via Zoom, there is also the use of Telescape, not only to better see some objects but also for the resolution of some games. In most cases I prefer the interaction with the avatar to the use of inventories, but I find that in this game the use of Telescape has been well implemented and balanced as the players do not have to be away from the real room for too long. As always I recommend having, if possible, two screens on two different PCs so players don’t have to open and close screens on the same computer.

The riddles are nice and although on a couple of occasions we needed a hint from the avatar to solve them, they have never been too difficult letting us to complete the game in 47 minutes. The avatar was in fact good at guiding us and letting us play throughout the time and at intervening to help us only when necessary. The only regret was not having been able to enjoy the music and sound effects that are present in the live game and that would help to immerse even more in the game. The cost is fixed regardless of the number of players but it is absolutely not expensive. The value for money is therefore one more reason to try this experience.

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Anna M.

The other day I played Unstoppable by Hourglass Escapes with the ETR crew. I really enjoyed our host and thought she was great. I liked that there were a variety of puzzles and they varied in difficulty. I also really liked that they used Telescape to give us a better view of the things in the room. I would recommend this escape room to players with beginning to intermediate experience.

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*** We regret to inform this game is no longer available for booking but check out other games on their website***

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Disclosure: We thank Hourglass Escapes Ltd. 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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