District 3: Something Brewing

We felt that we spent most of the game working on our own in the inventory, and really missed out on being in the "room" having an immersive experience.  Our avatar spent most of the time standing around waiting for us to do the work in the software, rather than interacting with us.  In fact, he was often tidying up the room on camera while we were working things out!  

Having read lots of rave reviews about this game, our team had to check it out (being lovers of both escape rooms and coffee), I have to say, we were a little underwhelmed by our experience. 

Perhaps it was an off day, but our avatar seemed a little distant and offered little in the way of interaction, even when we were struggling and obviously had no idea what we were doing, no help was offered (we were told at the end we'd got an achievement for not having any hints, but no hints were offered)., we ended up over time but our avatar was kind enough to allow us to finish. 

The game contains various puzzles in the Telescape inventory, some of these puzzles would have been nice to have seen completed by the avatar inside the room, instead our avatar told us to look back at telescape multiple times when we asked him to perform tasks (perhaps a digital version of the game would suit?) and even actively wandered around "tidying up" whilst we were solving puzzles. I'm sure this style of play will suit some groups, but we prefer our avatar games to take place largely in the room. 

Our team found it difficult to hear a couple of very important audio elements that took place within the room, so we felt like we'd missed out on large chunks of the games story. 

There are some really nice & clever puzzles in the game, and a couple of unexpected twists and turns to keep you engaged.  Overall, it was a fun experience. 

This game was difficult enough for 4 of us to get everything done.  In fact, we went over time but they kindly let us finish. 

It comes down to personal taste, but our group all felt the same about needing to spend too much time within the telescape inventory.  Although it can be helpful at times, we don't want to spend all of our time in it, doing everything for ourselves.  We want to be in the live room and interacting with the live avatar, who spent a good deal of time standing around while we were in the telescape inventory.  This took the shine off of the experience for us, but we know that other players really enjoy that type of game play, so it's down to preference.

All in all, it was a good challenge for experienced puzzlers.