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Sky High Escape Room presents...
"CASINO MORTALE ONLINE" (Remote Version)
(Played In: June 2020, With 6 Players, Success!)
► VENUE AND GAME INFORMATION ◄
🏢 COMPANY: Sky High Escape Room
🏘️ ADDRESS: Josephine Bakerstraat 2, 1311 GA Almere | Google Map
🗾 COUNTRY: Netherlands
💻 WEBSITE: Company [Dutch] | Virtual Rooms [Eng]
🕹️ GAME: Casino Mortale Online (Remote Version)
💻 WEBSITE: Game Info | To Book This Game
⏲️ TIME LIMIT: 60 Minutes 💬 DIFFICULTY: 4/5 Stars (Official) | Medium (Mattster)
👨👩👧👦 CAPACITY: 3 to 6 People
🔐 GAME TYPE: Private
💰 PRICING: Device Number Dependent (See Details Here)
► PREMISE AND OBJECTIVES ◄
Official Premise (from Sky High): Soft jazz, secret whispering, the smell of gin-tonics and bad intentions: in the secret office of the Casino Mortale the battle is no longer limited to roulette, blackjack and poker. You are being dragged into a dangerous live video game full of intrigue, love, crime and murder. The stakes are high, but the potential reward is higher; but you have to beat the competition.
► ROOM ESSENCE AT A GLANCE ◄
📚 NARRATIVE: Intrigue, love, crime, and murder; it's got everything!
👀 VISUAL: Decent, but no match for the plot's obvious starring role
🧩 PUZZLE: Enjoyable, organically embedded, central to storytelling
🧠 IMMERSION: Excellent, esp if fully committed to all pre-game emails
🎮 REMOTE INTERFACE: QR code scan, ehh... could be improved
🏪 VENUE: N/A
💁♂️ STAFF: Avid married couple owners, undeniable love for their work
💭 OVERALL: Superb cinematic experience that's also an escape room!
🎟️ BEST FIT FOR: I have a hard time imagining who wouldn't like this?!
🎫 IDEAL TEAM SIZE: 4 to 6 (Be mindful of time limit for small size)
took a gamble with Sky High and hit the Jackpot!
"Casino Mortale Online" officially joins the "MUST DO!!!" rank!
► PUT IT ALL ON RED... BLOOD RED ◄
Let's start off with a quick disclaimer: in order to preserve the elements of surprise for their future customers, Sky High respectfully asks all their past patrons to limit spoilers to the minimum.
No problem, Sky High, you got it. As such, this review may sound a little more abstract, a bit more cryptic--esoteric even--than my usual style.
"Casino Mortale" is, by far, without a single doubt, the one remote escape room that offers that most developed story line in the plot department.
There's an extensive amount of backstory that enriches your game play by magnitudes--though it came at a "price"--some reading was required.
To fully immerse its audience in the midst of a crime filled drama, several emails will be sent to your inbox days before your actual Zoom experience.
Some will be from your contact 1-Ω-1, and some will be from Alice, who will fulfill the avatar's role on game day.
1-Ω-1, an experienced hacker with a questionable past, will lay out your basic mission, the who, what, where, when, and why. And Alice, a recently terminated croupier, will--most likely unintentionally--be your comic relief and do her best Dory impression. (You'll see!)
...Psst, also watch out for potentially helpful clues in the emails!
And here lies the potential divide: are you willing to commit some extra time to do some pre-game homework to maximize your escape game pleasure?
Surely, even if you decide to blindly go in and just wing it without doing any extra email reading, I am fairly sure you can still complete your assignment. For me, however, I actually found my entire pre-game ritual rewarding.
To start, these aren't long reading assignments. In addition, they are fairly well written and entertaining. But most importantly, these stories helped established various characters' past histories, personalities, and motivations. Came game day, I felt like I already knew everyone.
Moreover, I learned of the origin of Casino Mortale, and caught a glimpse of the life of Freddy Martin, the casino's former owner. And more importantly so, I understood what's at stakes--and having that comprehension made the immersion factor all the more effective.
Right off the bet, this live video escape room lived up to its promise of being a cinematic experience. A pre-recorded introduction video chronicled our successful infiltration into our target building, and smoothly transitioned to a live Zoom video feed. (And the game starts now!)
Our field ally, Alice, who would act as our mute avatar, was ready for action. Though Alice stayed silent, 1-Ω-1 would continue to provide useful intel, tips, and advice throughout our quest.
As we moved through the first 10 minutes of play, we quickly realized that all was not what it seemed. Something that we thought was true (from our emails) promptly decayed into something uglier. Something more sinister.
Roulette, blackjack, and poker? Forget about it.
Turned out, this was a case of less Casino and more Mortale. This is Sin City, baby. Hands are about to get downright dirty.
Your movie like experience will continue through the various objects lying around. Don't underestimate that mediocre piece of semi-sensual poetry written by a lovesick fool. It, too, has a story to tell.
Every piece of clue, and its corresponding solution, narrated part of this alluring tale, full of twist and turns, much like a Hollywood motion picture. The reward of solving a puzzle was not only the self assurance of being a smarty pants, but also further developments of this romantically tragic noir.
There was love, passion, jealousy, betrayal, and of course, MURDER.
And I'll leave you at that, so you can be the one who unravel every bit of delicious details as I had savored, from beginning to end.
Actual puzzles wise, they were not particularly difficult. In fact, some were easier than I would've expected. However, because the owners did such an ace job on shrouding their players in an engaging cinematic universe, their carefully crafted and well themed puzzles became a blast to play.
What I truly savored was how organically these challenges were embedded into the adventure, and how they ultimately functioned as keys to unlock more scenes to our crime film. Every enthralling reveal made me excitedly look forward to what came after.
Production value was decent, though the casino setting was much more in tune with a semi-squalid underground gambling hot spot than a full blown headlining Las Vegas destination tourist spot. Perhaps it's intentional.
Either way, ultimately, it didn't matter. Because frankly, everything I've discussed thus far will inevitably blow everything else out of the water. Behold the power of great screenplay!
And a final note: Sky High used an unusual QR code inventory system.
For every significant clue that warranted a closer look, Alice would present a QR code up close to the lens, and players could scan said code with a smart device. (Quick tip: iOS camera has a QR scanner embedded.)
A bit unconventional, but we quickly acquainted ourselves with this routine. I would highly advise all to use a tablet to scan, because some resulting information required a large resolution for clearer viewing.
And God knows, my teeny tiny iPhone 7 screen just didn't quite cut it.
