Get Lost Dover: Operation Paranormal Research Anomaly Taskforce (Play at Home)

How could you not like a game with PRAT in the title?

You are part of the Paranormal Research Anomaly Taskforce. You have been contacted by the infamous Dr Richard Hole to assist in his latest paranormal palaver. Dr R Hole has somehow found himself in a pickle, he appears to have picked up a paranormal pal. He’s issued a desperate plea for help in banishing his unwanted guest as it is proving to be quite the nuisance. Particularly when he’s having some issues keeping PRAT running! Do you have what it takes to identify and eradicate the bothersome ghost

We’re big fans of Get Lost Dover, it helps that we’re still the current record holders for their World Fair Hotel room (or we think we are anyway), so when we saw they had released an online escape room it was a no brainer that we would give it a go.

If there is one thing I enjoy in an escape room, it’s when the company doesn’t take itself too seriously, and that is apparent from the onset here – Operation PRAT, and that sets the game up nicely.

The game starts off with a nice little intro video from a familiar face (familiar if you’ve played Get Lost’s physical games anyway), who is suitably in character and once again reaffirms that this is going to be a fun game. So thanks to that wonderful introduction by Dr Rs Hole (roll the R) we were ready for our spooky mission.

CONCEPT/EXECUTION

You won’t find anything revolutionary in the way this game has been built, and that’s fine. Get Lost have built a functioning website (well, technically two) that does what it needs to do, and have focussed their time on building quality puzzles and adding entertaining videos through-out. The only annoyance we found was a bit of inconsistency in what the buttons did, sometimes they opened in a new window, sometimes they didn’t.

Our new pet-peeve in online rooms is the online version of ‘difficulty by darkness’ where passwords are obscured when they really don’t need to be. I’m pleased to report that Get Lost have solved that by including a nice button saying ‘Show Password’ – suddenly typos are a thing of the past! It’s such a small thing but it really makes a difference to our experience. Some passwords are quite lengthy and there’s nothing worse than thinking you have solved the puzzle incorrectly when actually it was just a damned typo that you couldn’t see.

I’d imagine when Get Lost sat down to plan this game that they had two items on their list and then built everything around that – Puzzles and fun, and it shows as those two things are the biggest strengths of this game.

This game uses a variety of methods to keep you engaged throughout your entire game time, the previously mentioned videos, images, and audio. I personally enjoy having the variety as it stops any game getting a bit stale.

PUZZLES

Strangely for an online escape game, we found that Operation PRAT actually started with its hardest puzzle. Perhaps we were just finding our footing but this was the puzzle that kept us occupied for the longest, although in hindsight it was simply because we were trying to cut corners and not reading everything that we did actually need to read. Lesson – don’t try and take short cuts (just like in escape rooms).

You’ll find a mixture of puzzles here; dingbats, wordplay, logic, deciphering, deduction, and probably more that we can’t remember. There’s a really good variety of puzzles and the first part of the game is nicely signposted thanks to the ‘strange document’ which is available to you at all times.

The game ultimately culminates in a do-or-die type scenario where you need to pick your final suspect, but Get Lost are too nice to only give you one shot so if you do get it wrong, you do still get a chance to rectify your mistake.

CLUE SYSTEM

Get Lost have followed best practice with Operation PRAT and stuck with what works, a gradual clue system that is available on each puzzle, with each reveal getting a little less cryptic.

One thing they don’t do is offer you the solution, which is both good and bad. Other than the first puzzle which we took a while on (our own stupidity) we didn’t find any of the puzzles particularly challenging so I can’t imagine many people would need the solutions, but if you really are stuck then that can be a problem. If you do get stuck then pop over to Facebook and contact Get Lost, they’re really responsive and will get you back on track in no time.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This game put puzzles and fun ahead of everything else and created a really fun, family-friendly game. The websites are rough around the edges but functional and everything worked as it should. Well done, Get Lost!

Also, keep your eyes out for some nice like Escape Room industry easter eggs – we certainly spotted a few names we recognised. 😉 (thanks Get Lost)

TOOLS REQUIRED

• Desktop/Laptop
• Pen and Paper for note taking

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players

Time Taken: 50mins

Website: https://www.getlostescaperooms.co.uk

*Disclaimer: we weren’t charged for this experience, but this has not influenced our review.