Hourglass Escapes: The Navigators and the Call from Beyond (Play at Home)

A Retro-Spacey Beauty!

The Navigators and the Call From Beyond! A one to four player co-operative online puzzle adventure starring the voice of Peter Parker and Spider-man, Yuri Lowenthal!  You and your friends have won a tour of the JPL facility in California! As you begin the tour you very quickly realize that something is wrong, and you and your friends must answer the CALL FROM BEYOND!

The Navigators and the Call from Beyond had my attention almost immediately, it’s by Hourglass Escapes who exude quality (check out our review of The Evil Dead 2 room) and the imagery looked stunning – it was a no brainer that we were going to play this game.

We knew that this game was set up to be a collaborative game so we made sure to assemble our wonderful team that includes Amy and Ian from Brit of an Escape Habit. We enjoy playing games as just a team of two, but it’s great to get friends together for an online game on a regular occasion.

Other than the beautiful imagery, that reminded me of the American sci-fi literature from the 1930s, we knew nothing about this game, we didn’t know what to expect but we had high hopes. As this is a non-hosted experience you can play it whenever is convenient for you, for us this was 12pm on a Sunday. So at 12pm we assembled our team on Zoom (more on that shortly), we were ready to take on The Navigators and the Call from Beyond.

CONCEPT/EXECUTION

So I said that we joined together on Zoom, which we did, but actually we didn’t need to do that as this game has an inbuilt video chat that you can use – the choice is yours.

This game is designed for exactly four players as each person needs to choose a player number and play it through, however I think you could probably get away with less people if someone took on extra roles (that’s a guess). The game is built in Telescape but it felt like one of the slickest Telescape experiences we have played so far.

As I just alluded to, at the start of the game, each player has to choose a player number. I chose Player 2, no real reason for that, it just seemed like a good number. Each player will see different information and you have to work together as a team, although if you happen to click on another player’s number you will be able to see their cursor and see what they are seeing.

For the most part, I loved this game, but there were elements which I still can’t decide if I liked or not. After each puzzle was completed, the team progressed, then you had to click on your player number again. I would have personally preferred it if you clicked once and then only saw your stuff, but like I said earlier, doing it this way means that you could possibly get away with less players on your team.

Once we got going on this game it came to an end. I would have loved to have seen a bit more content in terms of puzzles. The game was top quality with regards to images and video, but it just felt like it ended a bit too soon. One thing we did LOVE was the ending, or was it the after-ending? I’m not sure, but it was incredibly random and generally just a fun way to end the game.

PUZZLES

Unsurprisingly for a game that states you need exactly four players, many of the puzzles relied on communication so make sure you’re happy to chat with your team and can explain what you are seeing in detail.

Aside from communication, there was a huge range of puzzle styles, because essentially each ‘team puzzle’ consisted of four individual puzzles. I didn’t get to see all the puzzles but I did get a bit of a look at them, so because of that I know that there are puzzles that involve; logic, decoding, deciphering, word play, and just because it’s such a big thing I’m going to say it again, communication!

Some individual puzzles felt easier than others which meant that while some of our team had successfully solved their contribution, other team members had more long winded puzzles that meant there was a bit of sitting around for the rest.

CLUE SYSTEM

A sign of how well thought out puzzles are is often reflected in how many clues we need, for The Navigators and the Call from Beyond, we didn’t need any clues. If we did need clues, then each player had access to Clue-a-tron 3000 which I gather would have supplied enough information to get us back on track. Technically if the clues aren’t working for you because the problem is your communication, you could just look at the other player’s puzzles.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I loved the aesthetics of this game, and the incredibly bonkers ending! The puzzles it had were good, but we couldn’t help but feel like it just needed a few more so we really felt satisfied. Saying that, this is still a game we’d recommend if you want a reason to get you friends together. More please Hourglass Escapes!

TOOLS REQUIRED

• Computer and Browser
• Audio turned on

Final Rating:

Team: 4 players

Time Taken: 38mins

Website: https://hourglassescapes.com/