Publisher: Couch Clues www.couchclues.com

Players: 2 -5

Age Range: None given

Time: 1.5 hours

Played with a link provided by the publisher

Note: This is a spoiler-free review

I love a good puzzle, whether it is a word puzzle, a puzzle hunt or an escape room, so I was excited by the chance to try an on-line escape room. Couch Clues is a new on-line escape room company who bills themselves as a “small but mighty team of puzzle lovers and escape room creators” and they note that their founder designed the #1 most played escape room in the Netherlands. So how did it go? Read on to find out.

Well, right off the bat I was impressed that I had clear instructions on how to activate my game and how to invite the other player, since ideally each player will have their own mobile device that they will use as part of the solving process. I have done other online things that were not clear, or you had to send an email and it took a while, but that was not the case here. It was super easy.

You start the game by clicking on an activation link. That link will get the game ready and allow you to invite other players by sending them a link to join. It was very easy to do, and the other player was able to join immediately. I tried this two player, since the website noted it was best to have both people in the same room. I do think it would be fine with people in different locations as long as you had a way to be online for discussions as a group.

All players will get information and clues to their phone; the basic information will be the same, but each player will get different clues that contribute to the solution of the particular puzzle you are working on. There will be one video that they recommend watching via your tv; you have multiple different ways to do this, since the videos are all on their YouTube channel.

Over the course of the game you will watch a brief video and then receive a puzzle to solve, with clues to each player’s phone. Players need to communicate, as they will receive different clues. Once you have identified the solution you enter it into the website via your phone; assuming you were correct you will move along to the next video and set of clues until you solve the crime.

My thoughts

I thoroughly enjoyed this. I have previously done a few on-line and by-mail escape rooms/solve the mystery games. Some were better than others, but all had issues – incorrect or incomplete information, technical issues, or large leaps in logic to be successful. I was happy to discover none of those issues while making our way through A Toxic Case. All the logistical things worked well with no issues. The puzzles were quite enjoyable as well; all of them felt like it was possible to solve them with the information we had on hand. We set our difficulty to the basic level and we felt challenged enough without being frustrated; one thing I will note is that some hints roll out automatically, and they were coming a little faster than we would have liked, since we were not stuck; I suspect that if you choose a higher level of difficulty they would roll out less frequently or less quickly. I also enjoyed the story; it was immersive, and everything was cohesive; nothing felt like it was pasted on or irrelevant to the story based on the information that we got.

If you enjoy escape rooms, like solving puzzles or even just are curious to try one, I recommend you check out Couch Clues. It’s a quality experience, and you can customize your difficulty level to best suit you. I am looking forward to trying the other case they have available as well as any future cases they might publish.