Developer: PlayTogether Studio
Publisher: PlayTogether Studio
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Mad Experiments: Escape Room – Preview
Escape rooms are a fairly new concept that is booming all around the world. We have seen an influx of companies providing this experience. While it is hard to keep attracting a crowd, as once you finish a room you’ll never be able to be bedazzled by the initial experience of that specific room, these companies often add new rooms, or remove old ones and replace them. Sadly, with half the world in lockdown, it’s hard to do group activities, especially in a very small room. This is where Mad Experiments: Escape Room comes into play with a digital escape room experience. We were lucky enough to take a look at the project which is currently still in Early Access.
The concept of the game is simple, you’ll get a little explanation that revolves around the room, but you’ll hardly get any story value in this game. You’ll just be dropped in a room, be it solo, with friends, or with random people, and you can even opt to play with or without a timer. You’ll then have to run around the room, pick up items, interact with them, and uncover clues in the process. In this specific scenario, some items are locked with an electronic keypad, and you’ll have to restore power for one, while others require you to solve puzzles to guess the right code. The puzzles are fairly manageable, but some feel a bit too abstract, while others feel too simple.
Overall everything feels properly constructed, but if you’re playing with a team that can guess certain solutions quickly, the sixty minutes deadline is actually quite long. The game also misses a certain sense of urgency, like many real escape rooms tend to invoke. There is no lurking danger, especially when playing with the timer turned off. The current build lacks a bit of excitement to mimic that of a real-life version where something will ‘happen’ if you don’t finish in time. In real life, you’ll have scenarios that you’ll have to escape the police, handle a burglary before the alarms trigger or simply to uncover secret documents before they are destroyed forever. In Mad Experiments, you just trot along your merry way without that same feeling of excitement.
The graphical prowess of the game is okayish at best. Everything looks neatly finished, but it will not wow you. That being said, the game is currently not really optimized as our coolers worked overtime when playing the game. It sometimes felt like our PC would fly off to a better location when playing through the sixty-minute adventure the game has to offer.
Mad Experiments has very simple controls. You’ll just run around with the WASD setup (which you can alter), interact with objects by clicking them, examine them with E and drop them with F. The keypads just require a few clicks and when you need to use an item on another item, you just grab it and click with the item on the one that requires it to work. Things remain very user-friendly and simple throughout the entire game.
Conclusion
Mad Experiments: Escape Room is a rather promising game, especially seeing the second chapter will supposedly be free for those who are in possession of the game. While the overall experience is certainly fun, especially when playing with friends, it currently lacks a bit of excitement to go through the same stress as you would when you’re playing the real-life variant. We can advise this game to escape room lovers, but it might not quench your thirst for a real escape room completely.
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