A dot of fun with a dash of excitement!
It’s war-time in 1942 and we need you to help infiltrate the enemy tower. Once in, you must retrieve a package and then relay the enemy’s attack plan using morse code. You have a maximum of 60 minutes to achieve your mission and get out safely.
Lately a lot of the rooms we’ve been doing have been completely unknown to us. That wasn’t the case for Morse Code at Twinwoods Adventures, thanks to one key feature of their room which I’m pretty sure is unique – more on that later.
We had been holding off on booking this room as we really wanted to be able to do it in person at some point. Fortunately, the team at Twinwoods have thought about this and have said that when the Coronavirus enforced closures are over the room will be rejigged, so even if you’ve played the online version you’ll still be able to go and enjoy the ‘real’ version.
As a special treat we once again teamed up with Amy from Brit of an Escape Habit; as she has done well over 400 escape rooms we knew we had plenty of experience to ensure our success.
Prior to our experience beginning we were invited to watch a briefing video that doubled as a bit of a promo for some of their other activities (they have a lot) and also explaining our mission and how things worked.
There are different levels of experience that you can choose from, and you have the option to add on a third mission that includes a few more puzzles, an extra 15 minutes, and a very memorable finish (more memorable in person for sure). Of course, we made sure we did the extra mission.
CONCEPT/EXECUTION
I honestly don’t know why but I had low expectations for this game, I think because they have so many activities I just expected the escape room to be an afterthought, but how wrong was I!
On joining the zoom call we were welcomed by our GM who did a little intro and made us feel at ease. He then introduced us to our live avatar, simply known as the ‘Trooper.”.
The Trooper was wearing a camera that enabled us to share her point of view and she could hear everything we said. But on top of this there was also a 360 degree live view of the room that we could switch to at any point if we wanted to get a more rounded view of the room we were in.
With the 360 degree view, an inventory that our behind-the-scenes GM updated, and a very attentive GM, this room has everything we needed for a good time.
PUZZLES
The puzzles in this room were all on theme and nothing really felt out of place or like it was plonked in there just to slow teams down. Even though we couldn’t physically interact with items ourselves, this room still managed to give us the buzz like a physical room does.
A mixture of padlocks and technology kept us guessing as to exactly what would happen when we solved something. Fortunately, they haven’t gone crazy with the padlocks so when we got a code we didn’t have to spend ages trying the same number in multiple padlocks.
There was some really good use of technology in this room and one in particular stood out to us as being really rather fun. I won’t give it away, but one prop that at first appears to be simply a bit of fun becomes so much more.
For us at least we found the puzzles to be on the easier side, and in person we think we’d have blitzed this room pretty quickly. But when you’re three people controlling one person that slows you down immensely. Saying that, this would be a fun room to do whether you’re experienced, or new to escape rooms.
GM/CLUE SYSTEM
Often with a live avatar room your avatar is the only person you interact with, playing both your character and also offering clues if you get stuck. Twinwoods have taken this one step further and the avatar is purely that, not breaking character at any point.
If a clue was needed then the behind-the-scenes GM, Liam, would send a message on the Zoom chat function that would pop up to all people on the team.
Liam was on the ball and obviously knew their room well. As I alluded to, there was a good use of technology and that counts for both Zoom and the puzzles. If we solved something in the room that activated something elsewhere, Liam switched to the 360 camera automatically so we could see what had happened, a great touch!
FINAL THOUGHTS
This room went beyond our expectations with; a great avatar, fun puzzles, good set design and a one-of-a-kind ending. If you get a chance, play this game!
Twinwoods are also currently running a kickstarter campaign to help fund their second online room, get in quick while you can.
I guess if I had one negative it’s that the ending was simply a pre-recording of what would happen if you did the room live and our avatar didn’t jump off the building for real (that time). But factoring in health and safety and the time it would take to set it up, I think we can let them off – plus that’s another reason to visit in person.
GOOD TO KNOW
- Number of connections: Upto 10 connections
- Price: £45 – £175 (extra mission £20)
- Devices: Desktop/Laptop
- Platform: Zoom
- Inventory: Yes
- 360º View: Yes
- Time Zone: GMT/BST (UK Time)
Final Rating:
| Puzzles | |
| Concept/Execution | |
| GM/Clue System | |
| Value for Money | |
| Enjoyment |
Team: 3 players
Time Remaining: 25:26
Website: https://twinwoodsadventure.com/activities/remote-escape-room
*Disclaimer: we weren’t charged for this experience, but this has not influenced our review.
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