Mission: Success!
Your Mission: Find Hanna
Play as a UTRAX agent on a mission to track down Hanna and Clara. Access your digital dashboard filled with evidence, investigate the escape, piece the story together, and complete your mission.
It wasn’t that long ago that escape rooms were a relative unknown in the world, if the amount of ‘main-stream’ companies that are doing collaborations with escape room companies is anything to go by, then escape rooms are no longer hiding in the background.
Every day we see new games coming out on collaborations with companies like Netflix, Movember and Siren Beer. It was only a matter of time before Amazon got in on the act. I must confess, we’ve not watched the Amazon series, Hanna, that this game was made to promote.
Hanna Unlocked has a great provenance, for one it was commissioned by Amazon, and two, it was developed by The Escape Game who are at the top of their game for both online and in person escape room games.
We were aware of this game but for some reason it took us a while to get around to playing it. That elusive ‘free-time’ finally presented itself, so we created our UTRAX personal identification cards, and sat down to play Hanna Unlocked.
CONCEPT/EXECUTION
The first thing worth mentioning about this game is that it is free, which is arguably the best price there is! Yet you are getting a refined experience that feels slick and seamless.
If you’ve played the other online digital games by The Escape Game; The Heist: Chasing Hahn, or The Silk Road then you will be very familiar with the game play in Hanna Unlocked as the structure is very similar. That’s really not a bad thing as it works, and it works well.
The game is a slick mix of interactive dashboard, live video, and puzzles. Throughout the game you have a menu on the left which gives easy access to your files, messages, and hint system. If there is one thing this game isn’t lacking, it is signposting. At no point while playing did we now know what to do or how to progress, obviously this was down to good design, but a good use of colours also helped.
I’ve said it many times, but this game is slick and our experience was seamless, especially the way we moved from puzzle solving to story-enhancing videos at the blink of an eye. Another nice touch was that if time was limited you could essentially save your progress and pick up where you left off at a later time.
If there was one negative to this game it is that at one point you need the use of a mobile phone capable of calling a US number. We’d have loved to have seen a simple work around put in place here but as there wasn’t one, we had to go through the hint system to get the solution.
PUZZLES
If a game has been designed to promote a TV show then it is understandable that all the puzzles will fit into that theme, and Hanna Unlocked is no exception. None of the puzzles really felt out of place, although they were arguably on the easier side (again, as you would expect).
There was the usual escape room puzzle styles, logic, observation, ‘real-world searching’, and a tiny amount of basic maths. The first puzzle felt like it took us the longest but once we got that one out of the way we moved pretty quickly.
We certainly enjoyed the diverse amount of puzzles in the game and one was so simple in its execution that I really quite liked it. Actually there were two that I liked more than I probably should. Even having played over 100 online digital games it is nice that we still keep seeing new puzzles.
It’s definitely worth noting that everything you need is contained within the game and you don’t need any external knowledge of the world, or even of the show.
CLUE SYSTEM
The clue system was available throughout the game and was laid out in a clear and uncluttered way. You could click on what section you were stuck on and then individually reveal three gradual hints to get you back on the right track. If that didn’t work, you could reveal the answer, but more than that you could click to see the explanation. Personally, I love it when games do this, if I can’t get a puzzle I want to know where I was going wrong and not just be spoon fed the answer.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Yet another solid game from The Escape Game. You don’t need any knowledge from the series ‘Hanna’ to play and succeed with Hanna Unlocked, plus it’s free, so really what do you have to lose by giving it a try?
TOOLS REQUIRED
- Desktop or laptop computer
- Stable internet connection
- Notepad for taking notes
Final Rating:
| Puzzles | |
| Concept/Execution | |
| Clue System | |
| Value for Money | |
| Enjoyment |
Team: 2 players
Time Taken: 48 minutes
Website: https://hannaunlockedexperience.com
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