Photos provided by Trap Factory
Company: Trap Factory
Game: House of Mystery
Country: Finland 🇫🇮
Language: English, Finnish
Type of Game: Remote Escape Room 🗣
Genre: Magician, Mystery
Date Played: 4/13/2021
Difficulty (based on 6 players): 5/10
Size of Team: 1-7 Players (Recommended 4 Players, Age 12+)
Time: 60 Minutes
Price: €80/ Team
🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈
You received a call from the Magician's assistant requesting for your help in finding something that the Magician needs for his show. The show is in an hour and everything in his room looks like a puzzle to you. Would you be able to find the item and save the show?
🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈
Our avatar met us on Zoom and greeted us in what seemed like a Magician's dresser room. This is one of Trap Factory's oldest rooms so its mostly equipped with padlocks and combination locks. The props you'll see in this room will be normal items you'll see associated with Magicians like hat, wand, cards, etc. We did discover some hidden compartments in the latter part of the game but it would've been difficult to spot ourselves without the GM's nudges. Perhaps an added clue would resolve this issue. The Telescape inventory system was useful at giving us a closer look at the clues we've collected along the way. It would've been nice if the game could provide us with a 360 view of the room so we could do some exploration separately rather than being stuck together as a group for the entire game.
🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂
The puzzles were quite easy for enthusiasts especially when we had a group of 6. There was one item that were used numerous times to identify various three digit locks in the room. There were no ways of telling which lock would open with which solution so we also had to watch the GM try each and every one of them. For in person it would be fine since we could have multiple players trying on various locks but it did get tedious watching the GM trying them one by one online. It would help to have some kind of identifier as to which lock belongs to which puzzle for the online version. There was also one puzzle where we had to redo because we didn't know we haven't gotten all the props we needed. That puzzle felt like something that could be translated to Telescape as an interactive puzzle for players versus verbal directions to the GM.
🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂
Our GM did a great job with knowing when to provide us with some nudges as certain things are just not visible through the camera angles. Being that this was Trap Factory's first remote escape experience, we could definitely see the potential in their future games. This one did not give us that vibe of being in a Magician's room as some things felt lost through the online translation. I look forward to seeing what they'll be able to create with their other 7 games as they have plans to put all of them online in the near future!
𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤 ℙ𝕒𝕥𝕣𝕠𝕟❜𝕤 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤
Melvin L.
When the game started, we were welcomed into a Magician's dressing room, where we were told that we need to help his Assistant to obtain something important for the Magician. It was a remote escape game, so we will be 'controlling' the assistant in the room itself. On top of that, there was an inventory system (Telescape), that will update the items we have gotten when we have 'seen' or 'explored' it in the actual room with the assistant (or Avatar).
The set up of the rooms looks great, truly sticking to the theme of magic. Props and furniture were all in line with the magic theme. There were some interesting and creative tasks to execute that I have never seen in an escape room before, but this also shows that it would have been a more fun room to play in person than remotely. It was mainly a 'searching' for hidden items, panels and props type of room, rather than a mind bending puzzle game (which greater emphasis the fact that it would have been better to play it in person). As per the theme of magic, there will be certain props that you expect to be in this room, for example, playing cards and their suits. The issue I had was it was literally almost everywhere. Thus, it was confusing as you are not sure when is the correct time to use a certain prop, or when was it meant to use another.
It also adds to the fact that there are ALOT of number padlocks that contain the same set of numbers. This means that once you find a solution, you have no idea which padlock it goes to, you have to try 1 by 1. In a remote version, the avatar could 'pretend' to try 1 by 1 if your group has a lot of time, or the avatar could 'pretend' to go straight to the correct padlock and try it. I guess this is the advantage of a remote version but it felt weird as they had coloured keys to match with coloured padlocks, but they did not do any matching with their number padlocks.
The telescape system encourages players to all work together on some digital puzzles, which was a good point. However, 1 or 2 such puzzles were non linear. That means when 1/2 players are working on the digital puzzle on Telescape, the others could resume the game with the avatar. This has its pros and cons, because for example, I was working on the Telescape puzzle, and the rest were moving on with other stuff. When i finally looked back into Zoom, it was confusing to see what have been used, or which puzzle/padlock have been opened (and it doesn't help they had ALOT) of padlocks, so in a way, I kind of missed out on some stuff and it would have been time consuming to ask the avatar to try something when earlier, my teammates could have already said the same thing.
Overall, I would rate this room as Worth a Try, for the hospitality of the game master, the room design and set up and the teamwork involved in some puzzles (Telescape). However, just be prepared to discuss with your team after the game what you have missed as it is easy to be confused in the remote version of House of Mystery.
Krista J.
Pros: We had a lot of fun playing this one! It's a light-hearted theme, which we always appreciate, and our avatar totally matched that with her bubbly energy. We enjoyed that there were some interactive elements in the Telescape side of things, and generally found the puzzles to be cute and fun. There were a lot of locks, and we really appreciated that the key locks were color-coded. There was one really adorable aspect near the end that we hadn't seen before and wished we could have done in person! We also appreciated our avatar taking the time to talk through the game with us afterwards. We always find this super helpful, even when we win, because undoubtedly certain members of the group missed some puzzles or aspects. It's great to have the opportunity to have any questions answered. Also - you get to play a game in Finland!
Cons: We would have loved a 360-degree image of the room in Telescape, just to allow a bit more multi-tasking. There are also a LOT of 3-digit locks in the room, and it would have been fantastic if they were also coded in some way (like the key locks), so that you didn't have to try every 3-digit combo in multiple locks at random. Thankfully, our avatar was quick in trying out combos! We got a bit confused about one puzzle aspect for a while; we figured it out in the end, but there could be ways to reduce the confusion for those puzzles.
Who should play: This is a lighthearted, family-friendly game with a lot of heart. While there are some more challenging elements, this is certainly a game that you could play with kids or non-enthusiasts. If you're not deterred by an abundance of locks, you might also find this to be a really fun and endearing game!
*** This game can no longer be booked as a remote game but can still be booked as an in-person experience ***
(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 Trap Factory 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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