RATING: 1 Key RESULT: Loss REMAINING: X:XX
Art collectors may not be as wealthy as we first thought.
You and your team are master thieves who’ve just broken into the private gallery of your rival: the art collector Dr. Voxman.
Dr. Voxman has been boasting that he’ll reveal his collection’s newest and most valuable piece of artwork at an auction, which is to be held tomorrow morning. Before that auction, he has hidden this mysterious piece in his intricately designed personal museum!
You don’t know precisely what you’re trying to steal, or where Dr. Voxman has hidden it, but you do know that it’ll fetch a high price on the black market. The security systems will be re-enabled in 60 minutes… will you work quickly enough to steal the art before time runs out?
Thieves have intel that Dr. Voxman has something valuable hidden in his private art gallery with a prestigious auction tomorrow to sell the piece. The alarms have been disabled for one hour and his latest piece must be found and stolen before the team is caught. Thieves must be careful, as even though the security system has been disabled, there might be extra precautions in place.
Although FLEE uses a very common theme, a museum heist game can still be a lot of fun with many twists and turns. That is not the case here. Thieves enter the museum, break into the back room, discover the loot, and evade the security system on their escape.
The story begins in Dr. Voxman’s art gallery. It contains many display pieces that might have belonged in a museum a decade ago but have been neglected with age. The exhibit shows plenty of wear and tear along with dirt and grime, which doesn’t match the expensive art gallery the thieves apparently are in. With a spring cleaning, the set could be passable.
The museum is small, though FLEE allows for up to eight thieves in this game. This would make for a snug heist.
The puzzles vary from some interesting tech moments to some that are brutally bad pen-and-paper riddles. One tech-based puzzle is showing some serious age and its mechanical components are actively misleading, which caused our group to get caught in the end. There are instances where thieves can solve a puzzle correctly, but execute in the wrong direction, and there is no indication which way is correct. The solution is to simply try the other way if thieves guess incorrectly. This is not only frustrating but is also a major time sink. As with the puzzle quality, some nicely fit the theme with novel elements, while others are there to fill the time.
The game is linear, which further makes the upper limit of eight thieves even worse. At any given point, five or six team members would be spectators waiting for their turn to join the action.
The story of Museum Heist falls squarely into one of the Four Unforgivable Themes. This isn’t always a bad thing, but the common familiarity makes it harder to be impressive.
Upon entering, the lobby’s first impression is strange as it feels like an abandoned arcade. FLEE seems to have a focus on VR games over traditional escape games. On the day of our visit, the host was running many rooms at once and did not offer a team photo after our experience.
Museums pride themselves on aging artifacts and that is perhaps where FLEE comes closest to bringing this storyworld to life. With lots of competition in the strong Seattle market, FLEE is an antique amongst plenty of modern gems.
Show your support for Escape Authority and get social with us:
Venue: FLEE
Location: Redmond, Washington
Number of Games: 6
GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:
Duration: 60 minutes
Capacity: 8 people
Group Type: Private / You will not be paired with strangers.
Cost: $40-45 per person, depending on group size
