RATING: 2 Keys RESULT: Win REMAINING: 4:38
In another post-apocalyptic mess, this time we find ourselves in… an office.
You are apocalypse survivors. The raiders that are normally at the office outpost are gone for at least another hour. Now’s your chance to get inside, and find out what they are protecting.
The world as we know it has gone in to full apocalypse mode. Food is scarce, civilization is gone, and to top it all off, we have to deal with raiders.
But who are these raiders? Your guess is as good as mine. Though we have intel from our scientist colleague that they are hoarding something. With things being in short supply in the apocalypse, it’s time to do some raiding ourselves.
In the overgrown city, we have access to a small safe zone. Our makeshift camp is struggling to survive, with resources running thin. It is now time to set out and explore the wasteland in search of replenishing our food supplies.
As a group of gatherers for what remains of society, we set off to pillage what’s left of an office outpost. If the intel is true, the raiders may hold the key to growing sustainable food crops in their encampment.
The Overgrown takes place in an office space. A literal office. The story tries to paint a backdrop to mask that the game takes place in a drop panel ceiling office with actual office decor.
Walking in to Era Inc. Plant Research Company, we are greeted with vines haphazardly growing along the walls of an overrun office. For a post-apocalyptic world the office is in extremely good shape, except for the random assortment of plants scattered across the space.
Maneuvering deeper in to the office, we get more of the same. Office desk, computer, file cabinets, supplies, and various foliage covering the walls. As to why the raiders kept such an organized office space, we aren’t quite sure ourselves.
The deepest room in the game is the most interesting part, with black lights giving life to various forms of fungi with a wide array of colors. However this still resides well within our generic office setting that carries throughout the entirety of the set design.
The weakest part of the game play lies solely within the puzzle set. This is a heavy lock and key type room, relying on visually finding codes and inputting them in to locks. At times this also becomes frustrating, with many locks having the same number of inputs.
When a code for a lock is just painted on a wall, printed on a sheet of paper, or just in the open, it leaves a lot to be desired in actually solving a puzzle. On the actual puzzle side of things, expect a few word riddles in the mix to throw you off if you do not immediately know the answer. There is just a lack of any “ah ha!” moment or surprise in completing the tasks at hand here.
While the puzzle flow follows a logical path, a majority of the puzzles just push us from one lock to the next lock without building up to what the raiders are hoarding inside their secret stash. Only two puzzles here give our gatherer group information on what fungi to harvest to help rebuild society and food sources. The rest of the puzzles feel like puzzles for puzzles sake to bolster the work in the game.
In the end there is a choice on how to proceed with your findings throughout the game. However the implementation of this is lackluster at best. There is a decision to be made, but the pros and cons of the choice aren’t presented clearly, or it just didn’t matter at all.
The Overgrown is specifically designed for smaller groups, which is a welcome design choice where we often see games require a higher number of players, or have a very high maximum capacity when there is often not enough to do. The smaller group size does leave more work to be done for everyone, which was enjoyable. However, the tasks become mundane and repetitive quickly.
We would think in the apocalypse we’d avoid having to do math and answer riddles, but they come up prominently in a way that doesn’t tie in to the game. A potentially interesting story line of rebuilding society and surviving is lost quickly and never comes back. There are CDs to be found throughout the game and they can be played on a working CD player to give some background lore to the game, except they have no puzzle relevancy and feel like a misuse of precious time.
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Venue: Escape Room Era
Location: Anaheim, California
Number of Games: 2
GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:
Duration: 60 minutes
Capacity: 6 people
Group Type: Private / You will not be paired with strangers.
Cost: $35 per person
We thank Escape Room Era for inviting us to play this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, that in no way impacts the opinion included within this review.