RATING: 5 Keys          RESULT: Win           REMAINING: 12:57

Moonshine, officer? What moonshine? We didn’t see any moonshine.

Moonshine Shack is an existing, physical escape game at the the venue’s brick and mortar location – retrofitted to be offered as a live, online experience. Although altered slightly to better flow in this new medium, the game is, at it’s core, essentially the same as what guests will find should they visit Speakeasy Escape Room in person. To read our Pro-Tips on how to best enjoy this new Remote Play genre, click here.

You’re enjoying another night out at the Blind Tiger Club, a speakeasy serving local hooch, when suddenly the Sheriff is at the door ready to bust the joint!

You need to sneak back to the Shine Shack and hide our moonshine operation before the coppers can drain our kegs.

The Blind Tiger Club is the best – not to mention only – place in town to get a stiff drink. Unfortunately it’s not exactly… well, legal. But laws be damned, people want their bourbon and scotch.

It’s all fun and games. And drinks. Not legal drinks. Which causes a slight issue when the coppers show up. But thankfully The Blind Tiger Club has a not-so-well trained rag tag crew of cover up guys, tasked with hiding all evidence of the hooch operation before the police make a bust. It’s their job to turn the back room distillery into a regular old grain farm storage unit. Luckily the coppers aren’t all that fast, so the team has one hour to get everything hidden away before the gig is up.

Moonshine Shack takes up the space about the size of a… well, shack. With a relatively small footprint, this dimly lit room is covered floor to ceiling in old wood and rusty metal. A beat up work table, tools strewn about, and of course a large distillery operation fill out the remainder of the shack.

A scenic storyworld is crafted before even starting the attempt to cover up the illicit activities. The lobby at Speakeasy Escape Room takes on the role of the Blind Tiger Club, with a Roarin’ Twenties aesthetic of mirror lined walls, velvet and metallic finishes, and of course a full length “bar” where guests can mingle and drink.

Upon running through the hidden exit in the Blind Tiger Club and into the backstage brewing barn, patrons are quickly immersed in an old time Smokey Mountain vibe. This gritty space packs a lot of visuals into a small footprint, and when played remotely it fills the screen with an entirely believable sense of real world clandestine hooch factory.

Moonshine Shack tasks speakeasy visitors with a vitally important challenge – to cover up the evidence before the coppers arrive. This takes on the form of a puzzle track entirely dedicated to literally transforming the room from distillery to innocent barn storage.

At first glance, that may appear to be impossible seeing as there are giant barrels of varying liquors, a large distilling set up, and a limited amount of time. But thanks to an intuitive flow of in-world puzzles, the cover up turns into a satisfying hurdle to overcome.

Each step along the way is something that would actually need to be done in a moonshine shack or a farm storage barn. It all culminates in literally building a structure to hide the hooch, a fantastic ending to a risky mission.

Throughout the game, patrons will encounter puzzles that are both approachable for less experienced moonshine cover up teams and also quite enjoyable for career felons.

Speakeasy Escape Room immerses guests in their storyworld the moment they walk into the storefront. With a lobby themed to be the Blind Tiger Club speakeasy, there’s no mistaking that narrative plays a big part in their experiences. Most notably when it comes to the pre-game show is the transition to the actual experience. The coppers are on their way, and in order to get back to the hidden distillery the team must utilize a well disguised exit out of the club.

Moonshine Shack is a great example of “good things come in all sizes”. A single room game that takes up a relatively small footprint manages to pack in several really neat and enjoyable puzzles. The concept that the evidence must be hidden by literally changing the space from a distillery to a regular storage unit is unique and totally logical. The well executed scenic design helps to bring it all together, making Moonshine Shack the star of the show at Speakeasy Escape Room.

*Montu, Escape Authority’s VP, Dog Business™ and lead home game correspondent endorses the opinions found within this review.

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Venue: Speakeasy Escape Room

Location: Remote online play at home, broadcast live from Hampton, VA

Number of Games: 3

GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:

Duration: 60 minutes

Capacity: 6

Group Type: Private / You will not be paired with strangers.

Cost: $125 / group

We thank Speakeasy Escape Room for inviting us to play this game. Although complimentary access was generously provided, that in no way impacts the opinion included within this review.