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Game Website | Company Website | Based In: Regina, SK, Canada
OFFICIAL SPEC
💪 Difficulty: 6.5/10.
⏲️ Time duration: 60 minutes limit.
🔢 Capacity: 2-8 players, but 4-6 recommended. Private booking.
📝 Experience requires Zoom, internet browser, or more. Check for details.
📝 Careful--note potential time difference between your location and the host's when booking.
🛒 If you BOOK due to this blog, please give EscapeMattster.com a shout-out! ;)
TL;DR...
➲ Premise: An innocent man facing interrogation was caught for stealing precious museum artifact--but he didn't do it!
➲ "Interrogation Room" is exactly that, with a set that is literally an interrogation room, one-way mirror and all.
➲ Wonderful tech integration and multiple special effects are put in place to maximize authenticity and immersion.
➲ Puzzles are themed after police procedures and stolen artifacts, intricate and difficult enough to perplex experts.
➲ 60-minute time limit will likely be a tight budget for many, would recommend this for more advanced players.
➲ Telescape system is used to its full potential to provide a great online experience, draggable elements are introduced.
➲ 𝙀𝙎𝘾𝘼𝙋𝙀 𝙈𝘼𝙏𝙏𝙎𝙏𝙀𝙍 😃 subjective rating: 💪 7/10 difficulty (team of 3), 🔢 ideal team size of 4 to 6.
OFFICIAL PREMISE
An investigation begins the day after an attempted heist at a museum. Despite being brought in for questioning as suspects, unease led to your attempted escape. Staying too long may lead to your arrest, or perhaps worse!
UNABRIDGED EDITION
"Interrogation Room" is my third remote escape with Canadian company District 3 Escape Rooms, and it's without a doubt, the hardest challenge yet. How hard? "Never have I finished a livestream room with my heart pounding out of my chest and with only less than 1 minute left" kind of hard. *Wipes sweat off forehead.* Yeah. It's pretty hard.
Beginners, while your turn to conquer this expert-level quest will come in due time, it's probably wise to start off with something more novice friendly, like District 3's other online options, "The Cabin" and, if you're feeling brave, "Haunted".
"Interrogation" describes a premise exactly as titled, a frenzied race against time and a desperate attempt to escape the titular space. The set is a literal portrayal of the term--a large room, a divider wall separating the questioner and the questioned, and of course, the quintessential one-way mirror. Production is simple and realistic, but also why all the more deceiving--beneath the unremarkable surface, there are multiple, well-hidden secrets, waiting to surprise and wow.
In addition, technology integration is well-used and well-timed throughout game play, with both sound and light effects paced and activated strategically to maximize immersion of being in a dire situation. Is someone outside eavesdropping? Did the lights just go out? Misfortune follows one after another! Though no other actor is employed, you may feel like there are extra officers wandering the immediate surrounding area. One wrong move and your avatar's done!
Hurry and take a seat, my kind sir in yellow shirt. David needs our assistance! ▪ District 3 Escape Rooms
Speaking of your avatar, they play the innocent bystander who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. All they wanted was a relaxing trip to the Orion Natural History Museum. But somehow what they got was an accusation of being the prime suspect for a grand heist of valuable artifacts. And here I thought museum visit is one of the safest and most borin... *ahem*... cultivated hobbies there is. Another great reason to stick with escape rooms instead.
"Interrogation" will begin on the dot without any introduction, with the innocent nervously begging for exoneration. The purposeful elimination of the usual rules spiel helps both the avatar and the audience to get into character and/or mood more naturally, and consequentially amplifying the urgency to assist while also increasing player immersion.
Since this escape adventure takes place in an interrogation room, I initially thought most puzzles will be either police or spy inspired. Those do indeed appear, but as the plot gradually develops, elements of the museum exhibit also logically get incorporated into the overall puzzle theming. And since the artifacts stolen just so happen to be from Egypt... Well, once again, albeit sneakily, Egyptian related brainteasers make it into yet another escape room! If you're fan of the pharaoh culture, rejoice! If not, well, at least these puzzles are satisfying to solve!
Challenges are varied in format and type, and very consistent with District 3's usual style. A considerable portion is still padlocked based, though the clues leading the solutions are often introduced in some kind of entertaining gimmick. There will be multimedia presentation, various lighting tricks, and also scavenger hunt-like activity. Rounding out the gen-1 locks are prop maneuvering and gadget application, several of which require fairly active thinking on the player's part to solve. Don't expect this game to tell you explicitly what to do--it most certainly won't.
As mentioned, this is an advanced level escape room, and 60 minutes feels--and did in fact turn out to be--barely enough to finish on time. Legitimately challenging escape rooms targeted at seasoned players are few and far between, and this adrenaline-pumping title will become one that I can confidently recommend to those who crave for something more difficult, or for those who want a room with contents formidable enough to keep a large group busily occupied.
Draggable elements on Telescape: Move that DVD aside to reveal a hidden object behind ▪ District 3 Escape Rooms
Alas, since "Interrogation" is a remote option converted from an existent, originally in-person design, there is a couple of puzzles that do not translate as smoothly as one would wish. These puzzles usually involve spatial arrangement of key clues, and are more evident and easily understood when played on-site. Of note, the game designers did put in significant and deliberate effort to illustrate the same information via Telescape interface's 360° view feature, and it should suffice for most participants despite not being the most intuitive.
Another feature used in Telescape for the first time is draggable elements. For instance, I was able to drag away a DVD case to reveal a mysterious black machinery hidden behind, which I then can prompt my avatar to do the same. Though not critical to game play, it does give the audience an approximate joy of discovery. It is a playful addition that encourages patrons to identify on-site objects more on their own, as opposed to always having to (politely) boss the avatar around.
"Interrogation Room" takes a fresh concept I have not yet seen realized in escape room gaming, and manages to pull it off with respectable results. Given the high number and the complexity of the puzzles, I anticipate many online players would come close to running out of time--some will make it out, and some won't. But in either case, you'll have a near heart attack, and live (well, I hope) to tell your friends all about the thrills of escaping an unjust arrest.
Interrogation Room (Remote) ▪ District 3 Escape Rooms
EXTRA TIPS
★ The initial room is straightforward & linear (be quick!), but game will switch to multi-paths quickly (divide & conquer!).
★ Be sure to combine info from the live feed and from your Telescape interface. Only then you can solve certain puzzles.
★ The last meta puzzle is multilayered and complex. Delegate parts wisely to each member to extract info efficiently.
READY FOR FUN?
"Interrogation Room" is available for booking HERE.
If you BOOK due to this blog, please give EscapeMattster.com a shout-out! ;)
Signing off,
ESCAPE MATTSTER
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Full disclosure: complimentary game access was generously provided for review or testing purposes. All media are sourced from and credited to rightful owners. No copyright infringement intended. In certain cases, media materials are made available under fair use doctrine of copyright law. D3Interrogation.