Light-hearted point-and-click fun
You’ve applied for a new job, an amazing role as a game master at a brand new escape room. Alas, a mishap has you trapped in the very room you’re supposed to run. Can you get out before the vampires* come?
*There are no vampires, but you might get hungry if you take too long.
We heard about Edaqa’s room when it was selected for the 15th Online Escape Battle (lovingly referred to as the EGOlympics but unfortunately we were busy on that day so couldn’t attend. The general feedback from the ‘battle’ seemed to be positive so we planned to give it a go one day.
That day finally came (we had to wait for heatwaves and general life stuff to pass) and we sat down to see what Edaqa’s room was actually about. We had heard it was a point and click but knew nothing about the story or the types of puzzles we would encounter.
‘Prototype’ was actually created by an enthusiast turned game designer who, having played around 100 rooms, thought they’d give it a try. Also, unsurprisingly, the designer’s name is Edaqa, and it was time to enter his room.
CONCEPT/EXECUTION
Edaqa’s Room is a point-and-click style of game that takes place in a mostly non-descript type of living room. With cartoony type styling and some humour added in, this game plays out in a very light hearted manner – probably perfect for the family.
The only issue we encountered was actually before we even started the game, we were trying to enter our names but there were issues so we simply became ‘d’ and ‘z’ (instead of Gord and Liz) – really rather minor. We were able to play on separate devices yet our progress was shared so if one of us unlocked something, we could both see it.
Unusually for a point-and-click game, there was actually an in-built chat mechanism so you could communicate with your team within the game. Of course, if you’re playing this remotely with Zoom or Skype then it is probably easier just to talk to each other.
Using the ‘Help’ toggle on the side of the screen enables you to see where everyone on your team is, and also get hints and clues (more on that later). The whole game had a very light hearted feel about it and this made it a joy to play.
PUZZLES
We’ve played a few point and click games and sometimes the designers have added extra items just to throw you off and slow you down, fortunately there was none of that here. There were items in the game which were purely there for ‘set dressing’ but thanks to some decent signposting it was easy to discount these and move on.
The actual puzzles in the game were rather varied, obviously there was some searching (or as much as there can be in an online game), but there was also some maths, a sound puzzle, observation, and some logic and reasoning.
The puzzles ranged in difficulty from being really rather simple, to being much more challenging. One puzzle in particular took us quite a long time to work out exactly how to get the solution that we knew we needed, but once we got there it was satisfying.
I think the last puzzle was arguably my favourite, even though I didn’t get it right away, Liz seemed to know exactly how to solve it (I was impressed). This particular puzzle was very clever and even more satisfying to solve than the one I previously mentioned.
CLUE SYSTEM
If you get stuck at any point during the game, there is always a big ‘?’ on the side of the screen that you can click on to help get you back on track. If you click on it you can see a clear section for ‘hints’ that will give you two options, one for ‘clue’ and one for ‘what’s used’ – we particularly appreciated this extra level of detail as sometimes you just want to know if you have everything needed to solve the puzzle rather than knowing how to solve it.
We didn’t delve too deeply into the clue system but it looked like there was a gradually system where if the first hint didn’t help you could get another, I think that it would then provide the answer if you needed it but I’m not completely sure.
FINAL THOUGHTS
If you’re looking for a light-hearted point-and-click escape room then they probably don’t come much more light-hearted than Edaqa’s room: Prototype. It kept us occupied and entertained for around 50 minutes and managed to provide puzzles we hadn’t seen before.
TOOLS REQUIRED
- Internet connection
- Pen and paper for taking notes
Final Rating:
| Puzzles | |
| Concept/Execution | |
| Clue System | |
| Value for Money | |
| Enjoyment |
Team: 2 players
Time Taken: 50 minutes
Website: https://edaqasroom.com
*Disclaimer: we weren’t charged for this experience, but this has not influenced our review.
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