Enchambered: Alone Together (Play at Home)

Communicate!

Play with a Friend! Can you decipher enigmatic puzzles that require constant communication between you and your teammate to solve? Your escape is dependent on how well you worth together to find your way through gadgets and clues to solve the puzzle.

Enchambered is a live escape room venue based in Sacramento, California. I have to admit, they weren’t on my radar, primarily because we’re based out of the UK, not California, but they are most certainly on my radar now, because if you’re willing to put that much effort into a little online game that you’re offering to people for free, just imagine what Enchambered’s live escape rooms are like!

CONCEPT/EXECUTION

The concept here is really rather simple: communicate and you escape, but aside from that, there wasn’t much to the game. Where Alone Together really excelled though was the graphics. Admittedly, I know next to nothing about computers and even less about coding (I leave all technical things to Gord), but the graphics were slick, colourful, and visually appealing. Though there was no charge to play Alone Together at the time of writing, even with a nominal charge of $5 per person to play, I wouldn’t have felt shortchanged; it is also possible to make a donation to help out Enchambered in these odd times and to show your appreciation for the game.

PUZZLES

Communication, communication, communication! On their own, none of the puzzles are overly challenging. The challenge is deciphering the information you are receiving from your partner to allow you to utilise the variety of buttons, sliders, and switches that are on your screen. Gord and I have gotten quite good at communication, but even so, it still took us a while to get into the flow of Alone Together.

For the first few minutes after starting the game, we were just trying to figure out which things could be interacted with, what was static, and what was useful vs. what was decoration. Once we figured that out, we were off, but it did feel like it took ages to get to the point where anything we were seeing was actually useful. Pro-Tip: ensure the sound is on on your device. I spent a good few minutes thinking some items were just decorative, but once I turned on the sound it was much easier to determine what was interactive.

CLUE SYSTEM

It looks like the only way to get help if you’re struggling here would be to allow your teammate to see your screen, and vice versa, in the hope that something will make sense once you can actually see what you’re working with. This is simple enough if you’re two people playing in the same location, but is slightly less simple, though certainly not difficult if you’re playing from across the globe. It’s not ideal, but as the puzzles really are primarily about communication, then there’s not much help that a dedicated clue system could provide.

Once you do this, however, I suspect the jig is up, and it would be all too easy to just fly through the remainder of the game, so I highly suggest persevering and trying to describe items in a different way before deciding you’re really stuck.

*If you get really stuck and need some assistance, shoot us a message on Facebook or Twitter and we’ll help you out (may take us a little while to respond)*

FINAL THOUGHTS

Often in live escape games, the communication challenges can be some of the most difficult tasks teams come across. Alone Together is a fantastic little game to help scratch that escape room itch, and hone your communication skills so you can impress the GM once we can finally play outside again.

TOOLS REQUIRED

• Two separate devices with an internet connection
• Pen and paper for notes may be useful

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players

Time Taken: 25ish minutes

Website: https://www.enchambered.com/puzzles/alone-together/