Top Escape Rooms - "The Dentist"

Updated: Apr 28

Photos provided by Top Escape Rooms

Company: Top Escape Rooms

Game: The Dentist

Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧

Language: English

Type of Game: Digital Escape Game 💻

Genre: Detective

Date Played: 3/24/2021

Difficulty (based on 4 players): 6/10

Size of Team: Up to 6 Devices

Time: Expires 72 Hours after clicking "start" (Suggested game time 90-120min)

Price: £20.00

🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈

Elise needs your help. Her friend Neville had gone to the dentist awhile ago but hasn't returned. There are rumors going around town that this new dentist is up to no good. Do you dare to venture into his office to see what he's been up to?

🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈

This is a point-n-click style game build with the digital platform Telescape. You'll be able to see all your teammate's cursors and the game will be synced for the entire game play. If one player inputs a correct code, it'll unlock the item for the rest of the players. All the teammates will be able to see the items that were picked up by each other in the inventory bag.

We've played many games in Telescape now. There's a lot of ways various companies thought of using when they have to combine two items in the game. For instance if you have a lock and a key, how would you get the key in the inventory to that lock? Some companies asks the players to input two words together to combine the two items where as others do not use the input word method at all. We think the second option of "click and drag" is more immersive and cleaner in the interface. This game added an additional option to that. Instead of just having the item appear at where you'll need to use it, you are presented with two options of where the item could be used. This added an additional puzzle to the game since you could potentially choose the wrong area to use the item. It took us awhile to get use this game design. After a few tries, we figured out the best way to do this is to have one player in the inventory box clicking on the options awhile another player "stands" at where we would potentially try the option on. It felt nice to have that team collaborative moment.

🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂

There were a good amount of "search and find" used in this game. If you do decide to play this as a larger team (we recommend no more than 4), it's good to know that the puzzles were non-linear so we're able to divide and conquer quite easily. As we were all experienced puzzlers, we finished the game in 54 minutes or so with a group of 4. The creator did add in a few red herring items in the game since if you only give clickability on the items that were needed for the puzzles, it would have made the game too easy.

It was also nice to be able to roam around the virtual space in various rooms to notice that something you solved in this room could be used elsewhere. This bought back some memories of us playing in physical escape rooms.

🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂

One thing I felt like the game lacked was a story line. As we're solving puzzles and unlocking locks, it just led to more puzzles. I could sense that something bad happened to Neville but I wasn't able to piece what we found with regards to his disappearance. Other than that, it was an enjoyable online adventure with our team. There were many cooperative puzzles that we're able to do together but thanks to this game, I'm even more scared to go to the dentist now!

𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤❜ ℙ.𝕀.𝕤❜ 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤

RJ G.

Pros

Elegant use of the Telescape system

High puzzle density

Unique dentist theme

Cons

The final puzzle felt a bit unfinished

This online escape game is a perfect example of a real escape converted to online done right. The puzzles all translated well and the user interface was carefully built for ease of use in the Telescape system. Small touches like color coding colored lock interfaces went a long way in making the experience feel much more real.

Even as someone who doesn't fear dentists, the theme evoked some eerie dread. There is no shortage of teeth in this game.

Most notably was the sheer volume of puzzles and interactions. Even with four people there was constant discovery and solving by everyone. The non-linear nature and information overload also simulated an in person escape room. Everyone was forced to work together as if we were in a real escape room. Although none of the puzzles were highly challenging, the quantity of puzzles didn't sacrifice their quality. Most of the puzzles were well done and satisfying to solve.

Overall this escape room converted to online is a blast and I would highly recommend it to anyone, but especially to those people who are looking for the real escape room feel that is hard to find in the pandemic.

Mike S.

The Dentist: Online is a virtual game of a brick and mortar escape room in the UK. The team gets a request to go and investigate what has taken our friend so long at the dentist. What follows is an investigative mystery to deduce where our friend is and why the doctors patients keep disappearing.

The game interface was intuitive but there were issues with lag when heading into doors and using keys. The inventory of the game was represented by a red bag and in order to access it you had to find it in each room. If one needed to use items from the inventory, the game would give you indications of what to do with each item. The use of the online game system was not an issue.

This room was themed around dentistry. Walking into the waiting room actually felt like walking into a dentist’s waiting room, it was underwhelming. There is everything you expect to find in a waiting room, from the kids entertainment, to the secretaries desk, and blank walls with teeth and smile posters, and this was the most well decorated room. The rest of the experience was an office space with less and less decoration. For a fantastical game about a “murderous” dentist, it keeps the theme in the real world.

The puzzles are what you would expect to see in an escape room. They do fit with the theming but most of the solutions are entered into locks. Locks are in abundance in this game, so right from the start, the group is searching for number codes upon letter codes, all hidden in the dentist's office. The puzzles start to get a bit more physical the further you progress through the room but it doesn’t take away the “enter code into lock” mentality.

The game was well put together from a puzzle standpoint and most of them our team was able to follow the logic behind. The room space looked barren and uncostly through most of the experience and thus was unable to transport our beliefs into this story world.

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(If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)

Disclosure: We thank Top Escape Rooms for providing us with a sample of the game. Although complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.