RATING: 5 Keys          RESULT: Win           REMAINING: 0:09

Sometimes the Mayor of a small town needs to commit a little breaking & entering because, well… that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.

Ready Mayor One is a slightly modified version of Apartment AI, an existing, physical escape game, at the the venue’s brick and mortar location – retrofitted to be offered as a live, online remote play 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 Rock Ave Escape Room in person. To read our Pro-Tips on how to best enjoy this new Remote Play genre, click here.

When art mimics real life! Everyone in our small town of Davenport is nowhere to be seen, however, our fearless Mayor is still trying to solve the mystery of what happened to Dominic Fontana, but he can’t do it himself! Log in and help be his eyes and ear! Solve the puzzles, put together the clues and have a great time solving Apartment A.I. all from the comfort of your living room!

The Mayor of Davenport means well; he’s just, how should we put this… not the smartest cookie in the cookie jar. That’s why he needs some help figuring out what happened to poor Dominic. There is suspicion that Dominic’s Artificial Intelligence computer, Allie, has grown too smart and chased him away.

Mr. Mayor believes that if we can just break into the apartment and override the menacing droid, Dominic will be safe to return home. However, the Davenport Mayoral powers only go so far – to the hallway of the apartment complex to be exact. From there, it is up to a remote team of (not so artificially) intelligent sleuths to help guide him to make a successful override.

Allie, the abrasive antagonist, surprises with several witty retorts, many of which are personalized to directly target the the Mayor’s aids by name. And as for Mr. Mayor himself, his humorous acting brings the story to life in an endearing and comical way.

Ready Mayor One begins in the hallway of an apartment building before progressing into one of the residences. Both spaces are fairly simple scenically, with little besides what is needed to play the game. Mostly everything found fits the theme and accurately portrays “unassuming apartment of the guy who built and A.I. computer”.

While the set design is not nearly as impressive as what many weathered escapers have come to expect in an experience, it absolutely works perfectly for this medium of gameplay. Hindering nuances that would be easily noticed in person, such as half walls and drop panel office ceiling, are conveniently taken out of the equation as remote players have a much more “forced perspective” through the cameras and images.

A unique aspect of the scenic in Ready Mayor One is the use of two 360 degree panoramic photos that each player can independently manipulate to look around the hallway and the apartment. Combined with an interactive inventory system, which we will discuss in detail below, this is a rare instance where the scenic comes to life in a way that may be more believable than actually being in the physical game space.

In addition to the photographs and live video feed, Mr. Mayor further enhanced the scenic through some entirely improvised descriptive world building. Let’s just say this technique passed the smell test and allowed us to easily imagine we were right there with him on the hunt for fresh baked cooki… uh I mean A.I. override mechanisms.

The puzzles in Ready Mayor One are on the simpler side, as the brick and mortar version, Apartment A.I., is geared to players who are newer to the escape game scene. In a remote play environment, that actually proves to make for an ideal flow.

What would be relatively a simple discovery of hidden objects become a completely new style of puzzle. Figuring out what to direct the Mayor to interact with or look at proves to be a mini-challenge in itself, adding an additional layer of difficulty that makes the overall adventure a bit trickier in a very fair way.

The online inventory system houses many fun surprises, including the ability to interact with and physically trigger several of the actual puzzle props in the real-world game. This rather unique mechanic both brings the puzzles to the players and brings the players into the game with the Mayor, blending the remote play and physical experience really well.

Because there is only one set of hands in the actual game space – the Mayor’s – a mostly linear puzzle track progresses towards the ultimate goal. There are a couple points where more than one task can be worked on, and the inventory system allows for this to be kept track of easily.

Dominic Fontana, and his lovely neighbor, have left a trail of cookie crumbs in the form of tricky but intuitive tasks. The few times that teams may run into a roadblock come in the form of missing some piece of physically hidden information, not from being slowed by poor puzzle design. With several clever “ah ha!” moments throughout the game, Ready Mayor One will leave guests satisfied – even if they never do get any cookies.

Rock Avenue Escape Room is helping to lead the industry through this very challenging time. Being an early adapter of the “remote gameplay” concept, Ready Mayor One has already gone through multiple iterations, each improving upon the previous. There are two aspects of this game that place it in notable status among home escape experiences. First is the online inventory system that allows players to see detailed panoramics of the space, examine found items up close, and even interact with and trigger in-game puzzles. This interface goes a long way in making players more invested in the Mayors success as they actually become a critical part of the story. The second elevating aspect of Ready Mayor One is the always energetic, and always ‘on’ Mayor himself.

We make a point to review games for their merit alone, removing any personal thoughts or opinions on staff and ownership unless they are vitally important to a review. This policy, however, needs to be almost thrown out the window when discussing remote play games. Simply put, the host can make or break the experience. “Mayor” Rob, makes this so much more than just a “basic escape game”. His ability to draw players into the world of Davenport proved to be fantastic. Knowing when to play dumb (which was the entire time, because after all he is the dumb Mayor), when to redirect, and how to act in such a way that sells his character as part of the story and not the creator of the game made for a hilarious and engaging hour.

We are all in uncharted waters right now. Rock Avenue Escape Room was quick to create a solution to the major problem currently facing the industry. Is this a brick and mortar escape game? Not exactly. Is it an at-home puzzle game? Not really. It’s something entirely new, in a category all its own. And for what it is, it certainly takes the cake. Even if it lacks cookies.

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

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Venue: Rock Avenue Escape Room

Location: Remote online play at home, broadcast live from Trinity, FL

Number of Games: 2 (1 currently available via remote play)

GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:

Duration: 60 minutes

Capacity: 6 connection (no limit to players per connection, but 6 is the suggested max)

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

Cost: $49.95 for up to two logins/connections ($14.95 for each additional connection)

We thank Rock Avenue 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.