75 minutes of fun!
After finding one of his childhood drawings, Alex is suddenly plagued by nightmares of the “Sleepyman”. Seeking to rid himself of these nightmares, Alex turns to a hypnotherapist. Playing the role of his subconscious, you will need to help Alex figure out what is causing his nightmares… before it’s too late
Mystery Mansion are not strangers to us as we have played their Detective’s Office and Seen online games, and since we played those games we have been patiently waiting to play their new online offerings, Night Terrors and DTF. First up, was Night Terrors.
As you may expect, Night Terrors is classed as a horror themed room, although I personally wouldn’t say it was scary, perhaps just more creepy. Probably the best time to play this game is on Halloween, the second best time is now. We played it a week after Halloween but we would have no hesitation recommending this room at any time of year.
We planned to play this 75 minute game as a team of four players, but due to two members of the team getting a bit too intoxicated earlier in the evening, and thus being rather unwell, we played this game as a team of 2.5 people – so if you are thinking about playing this in a smaller team then we can confirm that it is doable.
CONCEPT/EXECUTION
Night Terrors mixes the use of a real-life avatar with the online system, and does so seamlessly. Playing as Alex’s subconscious made the story more plausible and also opened up the room to more possibilities in what could be achieved.
Most of the avatar rooms we have played have been real-life rooms that have been modified to play online. Night Terrors is one of the few rooms we have played that has been designed specifically for this type of gameplay.
The great thing about online games is that the creators can get more creative with their rooms. Night Terrors had elements in it which wouldn’t have been possible if playing the game in real life, but playing online (and thanks to a great gamesmaster) the storytelling was taken to the next level.
Night Terrors is an online game where you control an avatar in the room, but it also uses a Telescape inventory system that enables videos to be played to further enhance the story. We found that the inventory system was used in a limited way but this actually worked perfectly for this game as we were able to focus more on what was in the room rather than what was simply in the inventory. The inventory’s main purpose was to play the videos and to give close up views of text based discoveries.
PUZZLES
There was a good variety of puzzles in this room, and as the game was designed for online play, every puzzle worked well without any compromises. Observation was key and the need to have our avatar search thoroughly, but this wasn’t a particularly search heavy room.
I wouldn’t say there were any puzzles that we hadn’t seen before, but Mystery Mansion had added extra elements to them which made them a bit more challenging. There was also a good use of multi-layered puzzles. We thought we had solved one puzzle, only to find we were massively oversimplifying it, when we finally came back to it later and actually did solve it, it was immensely satisfying and the signposting was suddenly so very obvious – yet at the time we very much overlooked it.
GM/CLUE SYSTEM
Online games can really be made or broken by the gamesmaster, and in the case of this game, it really made it for us. Our host/avatar was Mitch and he did a great job of getting into character as Alex. The way he interacted with the room made it feel like it was his first time there, and despite this technically being a horror themed experience, he added humour at the perfect times.
If we needed hints we could ask for one in a way that didn’t break the immersion. I’m sure that Mitch/Alex guided us in places by looking at certain things a bit longer than normal, but I’m ok with that as sometimes it is easy to miss things in the online environment.
Mystery Mansion had a good camera rig set up that meant we didn’t experience any lag or juddering, and when Mitch needed his hands he could easily access them.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Nothing about this room terrorised us, we loved it. A good use of Telescape and live video made for a slick and seamless game. The star of the show though was our avatar who brought the character to life and really made this game special.
GOOD TO KNOW
- Number of connections: 3+ players
- Price: CAD$25.00 per person (+ tax)
- Devices: Desktop or Laptop suggested. Also compatible with handheld devices
- Platform: Zoom/Telescape
- Inventory: No
- 360º View: Yes
- Time Zone: Regina, Canada (CST)
Final Rating:
| Puzzles | |
| Concept/Execution | |
| GM/Clue System | |
| Value for Money | |
| Enjoyment |
Team: 2.5 players
Time Taken: Around 58 minutes (It’s a 75 minutes game)
Website: https://www.mysterymansionregina.ca
*Disclaimer: we weren’t charged for this experience, but this has not influenced our review.
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