BLOTRECONEscape roomVirtual A hilarious fun virtual game with a live host for Recon 2025! Imagination, creativity, and improvisation are the real winners here. A love for merry melodies and the loony go a long way, and that’s my childhood in a nutshell!
Escape AcademyCoin Crew GamesEscape roomVirtual One of the best virtual escape room video games I’ve ever played! Escape Academy is a collection of about a dozen escape rooms tied together with a charming story about an escape room school. (enroll me now!) The game stands out with its excellent 1st-person controls that are a step above typical point-and-click gameplay. The rooms are all colorful, well-designed, filled with humor and personality, and include elements that would not be feasible in real-life escape rooms. The puzzles are in the easier side for enthusiasts, and the lower time limits reflect that. But there are some good stumpers that took a while, and made me feel proud to solve. There is a built-in hint system for those who need more assistance. You can play co-op too with local and online with optional split screen! Really felt like I was in an actual escape room with a group! Also worth noting there’s DLC packs that add extra escape rooms and storylines. The game is frequently cheap, and I highly recommend it for newcomers and veterans alike, especially for those days where you just can’t make it out to a real room! Passing marks A+!
OxenfreeNight School Studio - OnlineEscape roomVirtual Finally got around to playing Oxenfree in time for the sequel to come out on Nintendo Switch! I loved this experience. Although it isn’t really a traditional escape room game, it’s very much a compelling narrative adventure with some minimal puzzles. The choices matter, and I was invested to making a good timeline for Alex amongst the supernatural, kinda creepy stuff going on. The way the radio was used for puzzles and locks was a nice gimmick. And full voice-acting helped sell me on the characters and their plight on the mysterious island.
Escape Academy: Escape From Anti-Escape IslandCoin Crew GamesEscape roomVirtual Escape from Anti-Escape Island is one of 2 DLC packs for Escape Academy, and it includes 5 escape rooms. If you’ve played the original, which you must own to get this DLC, then this is more of the awesome 1st person puzzle room gameplay! Although there are only 5 rooms compared to the dozen in the base game, they are all better quality, and I enjoyed them even more than the ones in the base game. The last few rooms in particular challenge what is possible in a real escape room which I really loved the most! Definitely worth it for days where you gotta play at home!
The Shop of TheseusRECONEscape roomVirtual Hilarious experience that I was lucky to be able to be a part of doing during escape room convention RECON 2023! It was a fun audio adventure with some images and interactive text/browser puzzles with full audio narration and acting by the talented and witty Mark Larson. Deciding via voice with the team what to do, whether part of solving the room or just messing around for fun, led to delightful descriptions and funny outcomes. I didn’t kwant it to end! I was laughing so hard! The ending is a kick too, but I won’t spoil what made it legendary!
Sherlock Holmes - Phantom's HourWolf Escape Games-OnlineEscape roomVirtual Another win from Wolf Escape Games! The escape game features a set of virtual puzzles, all of which are controlled via point and click with your mouse. The puzzles are elementary, and we felt as smart as Sherlock solving them. The story unfolds with a full mystery that requires deduction and careful thinking to solve. The game isn’t super long, probably took our group of 2 around an hour and a half. But it’s a good length for a game like this, particularly since it can only be completed once per purchase. I recommend the other games from this company, though I found Miami Bay to be long for one sitting. Sherlock Holmes - Phantom’s Hour is much more digestible and also fun for a night at Holmes!
Hallows HillWolf Escape Games-OnlineEscape roomVirtual An excellent online escape game experience! There's a good story (although logically, some of the story beats seem odd) and a great set of puzzles surrounding it. Unlike other virtual games I've played, this one felt like an actual location. In other words, I felt like I was walking around a real mansion and not just a "virtual escape room" approximation of a mansion. I’m also a huge fan of point-and-click adventure games, and this was very much one. The puzzles are a bit math-heavy, which I liked, though others might not. It's also linear and is a bit on the easy side because there isn't a whole lot to actually interact with or observe. Also, I wasn't a fan of the final challenge, but I liked the effects and how the story concluded. The cinematics are very top-notch professional, and the scares are real! Best part is that you can play this online or just huddled around one screen. My group of 4 played this on a computer hooked up to a television and it worked out well! We played with friends who had not done in-person escape rooms but enjoyed puzzles and puzzle video games, and we all had a blast!
Miami BayWolf Escape Games-OnlineEscape roomVirtual Another fun virtual escape game from Wolf Escape Games! This game came out with perfect timing because we wanted a great virtual escape room to play with friends for the holidays, and we loved their previous game Hallows Hill! This one has more of a 1980s Miami vice city crimes vibe, combined with murder mysteries and also video games! It’s point and click just like the previous game. It’s also very linear so you’re only ever working on a few puzzles at a time. On the plus side, you get a good voice-acted story! And the settings change multiple times as you progress so you get to explore different locales throughout. There were a few issues of flickering glitches, but it could have been on our side. The game for us was longer than the 2 hours we expected, which is not a bad thing, but perhaps something to think about based on the group you’re playing with. There are built in breaks if needed! Our group had a lot of fun with Miami Bay! I’m so happy Wolf Escape continues to put out these hits!
A Temporal TangleNext Level Escape OnlineEscape roomVirtual As someone who first played escape rooms through video games, I felt right at home with this digital game. I really appreciated the effort put into making this a game that really replicated the in-person experience, since our group did this remote during the pandemic. This room has a unique story and message, that warmed my heart. The puzzles are all really well done and the game is actually pretty lengthy, but of course, it’s as laid-back as you want to make it since it’s all virtual. All in all, I loved this digital experience!
The RoomFireproof GamesEscape roomVirtual Great puzzle box game! It’s not an escape room per se despite the name, but it nonetheless features similar kinds of puzzles as actual rooms. What I like most is how the puzzles build upon each other and ramp up in complexity in this small yet deep virtual box space. It’s not a very long experience, but it’s worth it to delve deeper into the center at least once. There’s surprising story elements that make it more compelling. It makes me want to experience an actual physical puzzle box!
