Emergency Exit Escape Rooms: Virtual Exorcist

Venues are still working out the best way to convert physical games to remote play. For an example of how to do it well, it’s worth looking at E-Exit’s games. Many good remote games still leave me with the impression of being an imperfect substitute for playing in person; Exorcist is one of the rare cases where I’d sooner play the avatar version.

The story is that you’re on a virtual tour of a mansion nicknamed Crowley Manor, and you’re in the narrative from the moment you connect, talking to a...

What makes The Virtual Exorcist by Emergency Exit Escape Rooms stand out is an incredibly likable avatar and the professionally staged cutscenes that make The Virtual Exorcist a great remote experience.

Every time I think back to this room I smile. We have great memories of it, but I can't tell you why. It's a whole, the group, John, the riddles, the room, the choice of narrative. It all fits!

Thematically-speaking, the game goes for the "classical horror" vibe - no excessive gore, very few jumpscares (if any? I'm not telling ), just abandoned rooms with a gloomy vibe. The puzzles were fairly classic, and I'm guessing they must have taken out a few of them in this online version, because a typical group would surely find their way out in short time. Instead, thanks to our (pretty good) host, we were slowly exploring this spooky environment, learning lots of little details that made the setting even more believable. The game also makes good use of video recordings, and I can easily imagine a team getting properly unnerved by the adventure...

This game was also the second remote game we've experienced that utilized two people as avatars (the tour guide and the camera man). They definitely had it down in terms of the whole production. The camera man was great at capturing the different angles to show up close ups on items and locks. We felt like we were on set filming a reality show. The footage was surprising stable for the entire time. There was no inventory list for this game but we felt like there was no need for it. We actually enjoyed it more since we didn't have to worry about missing any action on the main screen. The cliffhanger at the end was well played. Now we can't wait for the next chapter!   

Recently converted from the remote avatar version, Exorcist’s point-and-click version utilises Telescape for a 360 view of the room and easy to follow inventory management system. I did go into the game apprehensive, I mean just how scary can a non-hosted game really be? It turns out, quite scary indeed!