Society of Curiosities: The Bewitched Circus

By | October 25, 2020

by Society of Curiosities (website)

1985 Rue St Philippe, Trois-Rivières, QC G9A 4V6

1-4 players

£10.00 $12.00

🖥digital
30-90 mins
The Society has been tracking strange events around Lone Tree, a small town renowned for its witch history.
Dispatch your team to Lone Tree and track down the source of these strange events.
You will communicate with your team on the ground via text message to guide them, search the web for clues, and immerse yourself in a world of mystery - a light and whimsical adventure that will delight you and have you doubt what is real!
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Overall rating

Rated between 3.5 and 4.5 out of 5

based on ratings from 6 users
combined with 4 pro reviews

Your review

Player reviews

EireBanshee expert rated this:Rated between 3.5 and 3.5 out of 5
Played: June 2021 Team size: 3 Outcome: Successful escape!

The game was a lot of fun, if quite short.

PuzzleParrot expert rated this:Rated between 4.5 and 4.5 out of 5
TEAM AJs rated this:Rated between 5 and 5 out of 5
Anonymous rated this:Rated between 4 and 4 out of 5
lareve expert rated this:Rated between 3.5 and 3.5 out of 5
Played: 31 Oct 2020 Team size: 3 Time taken: 1:16 Outcome: Successful escape!
stairs expert rated this:Rated between 4.5 and 4.5 out of 5
Played: 31/10/2020 Team size: 5 Time taken: 1:30:00 Outcome: Successful escape!

Played this game with the family as a Halloween treat to make up for the fact that we couldn't go trick-or-treating, and we all really enjoyed it (despite the slightly spooky-sounding title, the game is really no more scary than a Scooby Doo episode, and uses similar tropes surrounding circuses).

It was good value, fun, purely online, not too long or difficult, and used a variety of different digital sleuthing techniques.

However, what really elevates this from merely a "good" game to an "outstanding" game is the conversational interaction you have with an in-game character. I don't know exactly what tech Society of Curiosities use to facilitate this - whether it's a mixture of automated chatbot and real, manually-entered human responses - but it's seamless, responsive, and completely natural. The character serves as your in-game guide, narrator, hint system but also provides memorable, laugh-out-loud funny responses. For UK players, this was handled through a WhatsApp-style web interface (which also simulated voice-calling), and it worked completely flawlessly and totally made the game for us.

Reviews by escape room review sites

If you’re looking for an immersive, family-friendly adventure you can’t go wrong with The Bewitched Circus. The game is perfect for Halloween, but don’t worry, any spooky theming is very light, and the game would be a delight at any time of year

One thing that has always been consistent with Society of Curiosities' products is the research they've done on all the relevant information that pertains to the story line of their games. Whether it's 15th century pirates searching for treasure or looking for the whereabouts of 16th century secret society, you'll guaranteed to experience that era (and learn something at the same time). They are great at making the players feel so immersed that they will get confused on whether the information provided in the game was real or not. They've done it here again...If you've played all of their games already and are fans of their design style, definitely check out their Kickstarter: Fairy Tale Files while you wait for Adventure 3: The Memory Stone!

Read the full, detailed review at EscapeMattster.com ⬊

The Bewitched Circus continues the great style of storytelling and puzzlecraft that Society of Curiosities is known for. You immediately feel part of the story as you direct your contact through the mysterious circus. If you enjoyed Mysterious Map Heist, I'd highly recommend playing The Bewitched Circus.

The game follows the Society of Curiosities’s winning formula of traditional puzzles and ARG puzzles. The puzzles feel unique and fresh, even though this is the third installment I’ve played from them in the past month or so. The difficulty is a step up from Mysterious Map Heist though still only about medium difficulty. 

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