Disney + Goonies + Peter Pan = MAGIC!
The notorious Captain Hook has captured your group and locked you in the brig, deep in the bowels of The Jolly Roger. When dawn breaks the nefarious villain will make you walk the plank, but a new friend has offered you a way out… and she knows where Hook keeps his treasure map. While the crew sleeps you’ll take control of the ship, set a course for the second star to the right and head straight on ‘til morning! You have 90 minutes to dodge Hook’s clutches, find your way to Neverland and escape with riches untold.
If you’ve been keeping an eye on what is going on in the online escape room industry lately then you will most definitely have heard about Improbable Escapes and how great their rooms are. We’d be meaning to see for ourselves but for some reason it took us a little while to get around to it.
This online game wasn’t actually our first experience of Improbable Escapes as Liz had played their Mayan Temple room in person when she was in Kingston last year (she loved the room, but hated the clue system). Ever since Liz got back, I’ve been hearing her say how amazing the set design of that room was, so I was very much looking forward to seeing one of their rooms ‘first hand’.
A lot of people have been giving love to Improbable’s other room, Seven Dwarves (we still haven’t played that one yet), so we decided to give Neverland a try just to see if it deserved to live in the shadows – it most definitely did not! This room deserves to be shouted about from the rooftops! Anyway, we blew our conch and assembled the team; Review The Room and Brit of an Escape Habit were reunited online once again, this time to escape Hook’s clutches and grab some booty…
CONCEPT/EXECUTION
Improbable Escapes have done a great job with this online offering. Our GM, Alec was steady with the camera, the quality was good, and we could hear what we needed to hear. Even before our experience started, things just felt refined. A slick intro video that felt straight out of Disneyland gave us the backstory for our mission, and everything that followed was equally slick.
The inventory system didn’t give a 360 view of the room but did give high-resolution photos that we could look at for close-ups of key items. Alec would give us keywords to input as we progressed and when these were entered we could then get a closer look at what he was seeing.
PUZZLES
None of the puzzles in this room were particularly challenging, although one was definitely made more challenging by not being in the room ourselves. There was a mixture of puzzle types in Neverland, but most of the puzzles involved interacting with your surroundings in one way or another.
I would guess that at least one puzzle has been simplified for the online experience, but that didn’t detract from it at all and like all the other puzzles, it fitted with the theme and story perfectly.
There were a few padlocks dotted around, but pirates need to protect their treasure, right? In addition to the few padlocks there was a very heavy reliance on technology. So we’d solve something in one spot only to see that it revealed something elsewhere – magical.
GM/CLUE SYSTEM
When we joined the call Alec greeted us with a big smile on his face and I’m not sure I ever saw him not smiling. He was enthusiastic and did a wonderful job of being our hands and eyes on the ground. Alec guided us around the room but at no point did we feel like he was trying to overly force us one way or another, a good skill to have.
There are always going to be things which would be better in person, and an online game will never replicate that feeling. Alec played his role well, getting excited by things happening and reacting like we probably would have had we been there in person. He was also patient when we took a bit of time to work out a couple of puzzles.
We didn’t request any clues, but I would imagine if we did need any then Alec would have just offered a bit more guidance to get us back in the right direction.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This game was as fun as it was beautiful and is an instant favourite of ours. The use of technology to push forward the story was inspired and something we haven’t seen before in a room. Sometimes you get a room with a strong start or a strong end, this room had both, and what a beautiful ending! This is one room that we would recommend without any hesitation!
GOOD TO KNOW
- Number of connections: 1 – 14 players
- Price: $74.99 (+ HST) CAD – 1-5 players (+$10 per player above 5)
- Devices: Desktop/Laptop
- Platform: Zoom
- Inventory: Yes
- 360º View: No (Pictures provided)
- Time Zone: EST (Kingston, ON)
Final Rating:
| Puzzles | |
| Concept/Execution | |
| GM/Clue System | |
| Value for Money | |
| Enjoyment |
Team: 4 players
Time Remaining: 4 minutes (possibly?)
Website: https://www.improbableescapes.com
*Disclaimer: we weren’t charged for this experience, but this has not influenced our review.
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