Videos/ Photos provided by Trapgame
Company: Trapgame
Game: Agency 51
Country: Switzerland 🇨🇭
Language: English, French
Type of Game: Remote Escape Room 🗣
Genre: Sci-Fi
Date Played: 3/16/2021
Difficulty (based on 4 players): 6/10
Size of Team: Up to 6 Players Time: 60 Minutes Price: 160 CHF/ team (Approximately $173 USD)
🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈
Agency 51 is a top secret government organization in charge of imminent threats from outer space. Recently they've detected an encrypted message stating that the aliens are coming to attack Earth. Your mission is to gather 3 stones that could be used to stop this attack. The human race is depending on you...
🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈
This is an online live avatar guided game mixed with prerecorded visuals. Our first mission was to rescue our agent who's currently being locked up in a cell. This part of the game were done digitally and through their own online platform. Most of our communication and submission of the answers were done with a chatbot (managed by the avatar). It was very cool to be able to see the "escape route" as live feed and prerecorded videos.
Once the agent escaped, we're able to hop on her spaceship and travel at lightspeed to different countries to search for the stones. Every time when we reached a destination, we would be able to enter a different escape room set design which gave us a sneak peek of their in-person games. This was such a unique concept that we haven't seen anywhere before. There were only 1-2 puzzles at each location and it's exclusive to this online experience so if you were to visit them on site, you would still be able to play these games without spoilers. My favorite set design was the upside down room.
Although there was no inventory system, we didn't really need one for this game. One camera gave us an overhead view of the room the agent was in and another was a handheld camera that she used to show us items that needed a closer look. We really enjoyed this set up.
🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂
The puzzles were quite easy in this game. It's not really a puzzle based game but more about the narrative and the journey. You're merely watching a few mini scenes being put together into a film. In fact, to keep the game at flow, if you're not able to solve the beginning puzzles and the agent was seeing that you're struggling, they'll step in to give you nudges and help you get through to the next step. The main goal of the game is for you to be able to complete this experience. One of our favorite puzzles was a cooperative one that we had to do in the upside down room. I think it's made for this online experience only as I wouldn't see how it would work in real life.
🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂
Between the digital platform, prerecorded videos and traveling through 4 different physical escape sets, you can tell there has been a lot of hard work that's been put into the design of this game. Our agent did a great job with how quickly she was able to transition from prerecorded to the physical spaces. She's also in character the entire time. We had great time traveling with her in her spaceship. She was such a good sport as we didn't really let her take a breather and just kept going one after another with the destinations. If you love more adventure and less puzzling, this is the game for you. You probably haven't experienced any online game like this one before.
𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤❜ ℙ.𝕀.𝕤❜ 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤
Paolo F.
Another mission completed thanks to Cici and Brandon who allowed me this time to fly to Switzerland and play THE AGENCY 51 of TRAPGAME. This experience was one of the best so far as it is varied, dynamic and fun.
The game mixes digital moments (via a dedicated interface and browser searches) with moments on a zoom platform where players interact with an avatar. The riddles are of different difficulty, some easier and more immediate while others more demanding and longer. There is also a cooperative game (one of my favorites) in which all players have to work together.
The story, initially perhaps a bit cryptic and nebulous, as the experience progresses, becomes clearer thanks also to the various settings (because they are several different settings). The scenery changes are probably one of the greatest strengths of this experience and so far I have not played anything else that is comparable to this experience in that respect. The avatar was also very good at following our commands and directing us if necessary, with some very ironic moments.
If we really want to find a "negative" aspect it could be the fixed price regardless of the number of players that could make the experience seem bit too expensive. However, given the high quality of the experience, I strongly recommend to all lovers of online escape rooms to organize a large enough group and try this experience as soon as possible.
A suggestion: if you have the possibility play with two PCs, one for zoom and one for the dedicate interface in order to always have both screens available and not have to open and close them all the time.
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Koen D.
Pro's:
- Great host!
- Good use of video in combination with live
- Great use of the different escape rooms on location
- Nice tech system (enabling camera's and locks)
Con's:
- Bit of cheesy storyline
- Puzzles could be a bit harder
*** We regret to inform this game is no longer available for booking but check out other games on their website***
Disclosure: We thank Trapgame 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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