by The Escapement (website)
65 Northdown Road, CT9 2RJ
1-6 players
Overall rating
based on ratings from 7 users
combined with 1 pro review
Player reviews
The Network is a premium at-home escape game-in-a-box, which combines printed and physical artefacts together with video delivered via an online portal. You'll also have to discover content placed on a variety of well-known external internet sites.
A huge amount of effort and care had been placed into the game design - all the material is completely original and features a cast of actors - there's no stock footage here, and the quality of the components is high. There's a lot of attention to detail: little things like the fact that photos are printed on photographic paper, not plain A4, and there's a delightful physical prop featuring some fine craftwork by the creators.The puzzles themselves have been equally carefully-constructed - there's just enough information to guide the player to know what to do, while still presenting enough of a challenge to feel the satisfaction of solving. Every detail has its purpose - there's nothing missing, and nothing spare. As with many ARGs, the puzzles we enjoyed most were those that were "hidden in plain sight" but only noticed by those who knew where to look, and this complemented the game's undercover operative theme perfectly.
The game is separated into 3 sections, and we played through the whole thing as a couple in around 2 hours. It is not the cheapest experience out there but, for the original content and moments of delight you get while playing, I'd say it's absolutely still good value for money.
I think as an example of this genre, this was fantastically done, and I'm not surprised after our experience at the venue a few months ago. It felt carefully put together and so well presented. We didn't time ourselves although know we wasted a fair amount of time down a rabbit hole (entirely our own fault for not paying enough attention). Good variety of puzzles with excellent immersion given we were playing out of a box at home, ramped up to a fun finish. Website well executed and delighted to see the return of Jacob (a trainee GM who hosted one of the games when we hit The Escapement). I can only imagine The Network will be setting the bar for this kind of game, and we felt the price represented fair value for what we got.
A quality game with high production value. We had great fun with some head scratching moments (there is an in-built help system to keep you going.) Would highly recommend. Looking forward to the next instalment!
Fantastic escape room style game in a box. Amazing world building and attention to detail and with very clever aspects and surprises. Highly recommend!
Having previously played the Exit boxed games, our experience of these left something to be desired. When The Network arrived, however, we knew we were in for something completely different. Opened up the box and there was our personalised greeting letter, along with the instructions to start. Loved this experience from start to finish, especially as it has you going online as part of the gameplay as well. We had a couple of little hiccups with solving a couple of puzzles but that was just our own brains, the clues were there the entire time we just overlooked it! Well worth the cost, and excited to play future boxed games from The Escapement, as well as their new Broadstairs rooms!
Escapement have created an excellent, creative and challenging home escape game! It's a brilliant concept with excellent puzzles, that is very well executed. It's more expensive than other at home escape games, but it's well worth the price!
Reviews by escape room review sites
See also
- All games by The Escapement
- All games in Margate