Photo above is property of WTF Escaping
Company: WTF Escaping
Games: Something Strange at Sea
Country: Australia 🇦🇺
Language: English
Type of Game: Digital Escape Game 💻
Genre: Mystery
Date Played: June 11, 2022
Difficulty (based on 5 players): 8/10
Size of Team: Unlimited (Up to 10 logins)
Time: Expires 72 Hours from start
Price: $30.00/ Up to 10 logins
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Expecting to enjoy a cruise vacation, things start to take a turn for the worse when you notice weird occurrences happening onboard the ship. People start to disappear and the interior starts looking more empty by the day. Not quite sure what to make of this, it's time to pass out for the night and see what tomorrow has in store. When the morning comes, your first thought is to head straight for the breakfast buffet! As soon as you try to open the cabin door, it is locked from the outside. It is now up to you and your team to get out of the cabin and explore the ship to find out who locked you in and how you are going to get out.
NOTE: This is the first game of a multi part series. Some things may be left unanswered at the end of this game.
Video above is property of WTF Escaping
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WTF Escaping uses their own integrated gaming platform for "Something Strange at Sea" (no downloading required). Everyone will have a unique code that will require answers to be entered into the website. The user interface is straightforward and clear. All of the actions needed to be performed in the game could be done without much direction. There is an integrated voice and video chat in the game so no external interface is needed.
During the game you will keep track of notes and other unique findings in a journal. You can access this at the bottom of the screen. It will contain quite important clues for your journey. Another aspect of the journal that might be overlooked are the “fast travel” buttons. This is a large game with a lot of things to search for so WTF Escaping has implemented a fast travel option to make traversing this cruise ship a little bit less cumbersome.
Navigation throughout the game takes place in a 3D rendered version of a replica cruise ship. Having been on a couple cruises, I can honestly say the interior and the decks depicted are quite accurate.
Photos above are property of WTF Escaping
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The puzzles in this game will really force your team to think. With a mix of some simpler puzzles to some absolute time sinks, you really have something for everyone with this game. Most of the logic when solving the puzzles during the game created a proper flow and enjoyable experience. With the whole group having access to all unlocked areas of the space, the game lends itself to a divide and conquer strategy with some mild communication to make sure puzzles are effectively solved. All of the puzzles can be completed in the game and the use of the internet is not required (although during one time sink puzzle, you can search for a solution to speed things up).
🅲🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂
"Something Strange at Sea" does a good job of bringing well thought out puzzles into a world that seems appropriate for them to be there. There is a hint system in the game, but we didn't need to use it during our experience. All of the sets get their locations across well enough, there are some points during the game that when you need to navigate specific sections, the arrows aren’t quite clear on where they will take you. This is the big advantage to the in-game fast travel option. The story of the game isn’t explicitly told to you completely and because it is the first episode, WTF Escaping doesn’t reveal all its information which left our group feeling a little confused and shocked by the way the game ended (we didn’t realize until after, that it is the first episode). However, it makes sense where the ending of the game is and by that point you have run across a wide variety of puzzles and you're left with a satisfying room that the second episode is in your future.
(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 WTF Escaping for providing us with samples of the game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.
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