Online Escape Rooms Ireland: Spirit Seekers: The Dullahan (Play at Home)

Escape room + Virtual tour of Ireland = Memorable

You are joining paranormal investigators, “Spirit Seekers Ireland”, on their investigation of an abandoned village which has apparently been repeatedly visited after dark by a creature from old Irish Folklore: The Dullahan.

​The Dullahan was the original “Headless Horseman”, and not the cute pumpkin-headed variety from the Disney movie!  The Dullahan is a grotesque and horrible creature who claims souls (kills people).  He carries a whip made from a human spine and he uses it to blind anyone who sees him (gross!).  Can you find a way to rid the village of the Dullahan before he returns at nightfall?

We’ve played a number of games by Online Escape Rooms Ireland, formally known as Escape Rooms Ennis (O’Brien’s Cottage, The Beach Bar, Under Siege) [LINKS] and have enjoyed each and every one. The Dullahan was the first of their games that we’ve played that is made in a slightly different way, rather than still photos of an escape or a live avatar, this game takes place in real world locations in Ireland – it felt like we were getting a virtual tour and an escape room.

Not knowing what to expect, we made sure to clear the diary for the evening so we didn’t need to rush. We played from two separate laptops in the same room so communication wasn’t an issue but if you’re playing remotely then it would be useful to open up something like Zoom so that you can chat with your team-mates.

So, not knowing what to expect from our Spirit Seekers mission, we logged in, and were greeted by a rather dark and macabre story about The Dullahan.

CONCEPT/EXECUTION

The Dullahan was a bit different to other Telescape games that we’ve played, but the general game play was the same. Although the ‘rooms’ were actually real life locations, we could still look around from a central location (360 view) and interact with various items there.

There was definitely a creepy vibe about this game (just read the description above about the “Headless Horseman”), but ignoring the story, the game play was very much family friendly and if you could glaze over the story then you could possibly play it with the family (it’s like a virtual holiday).

The game starts with a bit of a test area so you can get used to how to interact with things, and that everything is working ok. Like most other Telescape games, you are able to see the cursors of everyone on your team so it makes it a bit easier to see where everyone is.

One thing to point out, although everyone on your team can control their own cursor and look at things independently, you do have to be in the same virtual ‘room’ – if someone goes to a different area then everyone else will be pulled through to the same area, whether they like it or not.

The Dullahan is played out in various areas and as you progress through the game you unlock new places that you can visit. This makes it feel like a linear game where you only go one way, but don’t let that fool you, be prepared to retrace your steps.

PUZZLES

Online Escape Rooms Ireland have managed to cram in quite a few puzzle types into The Dullahan; Searching, observation, decoding, translation, pattern recognition, audio (turn on your speakers/headphones), logic, and some puzzles that involve manipulation of what’s on the screen – like I said, quite a few puzzle types!

Searching is often a love/hate type of thing for a lot of escape room players, so you’ll either love or hate that aspect of this game. It’s not onerous searching, but you do have to move the cursor around the screen to see what things appear – make sure you’re thorough!

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

If you need help at any point during the game, then help is always at hand thanks to the ‘Salmon of Knowledge’, much more interesting than just a boring ‘help’ button! We actually found all the puzzles to be quite intuitive and logical so we didn’t need to consult the fish gods to get us through the game.

Knowing how much that thought goes into the games by Online Escape Rooms Ireland, I would hazard a guess that the clue system, sorry, Salmon of Knowledge, would likely give graduated clues that would be enough to get you on track, and if that still wasn’t enough, then there’d likely be the answer so you and your team can keep playing (but that’s a guess).

FINAL THOUGHTS

At the start, we didn’t know what to make of this game, but it certainly grew on us. It was an interesting story and fascinating to have a virtual tour of a beautiful country (and some pigs made an appearance too). The puzzles were logical and fair, and it had a few surprises to keep us guessing.

TOOLS REQUIRED

• Laptop/Desktop computer + Internet
• Notepad for note taking
• A way to communicate with teammates (Zoom?)

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players

Time Taken: 39:43 mins

Website: https://www.onlineescaperoomsireland.com/

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