Norris Box – Mission Accepted – A Play-test

Norris Box – Mission Accepted.
A Play-test.
Game Date 28/12/2017.
Team: Amy & Ian

We were kindly invited to a scout hut in Otley on a wintery December morning to Play-test Norris Box’s newest game, Mission Accepted.
Norris Box is a mobile escape room, specialising in bringing  the escape game to wherever you are! We’ve played one of their mini games “Kidnapped” and when Jane was looking for play-testers and contacted us, we couldn’t refuse the offer!

Mission Accepted has been especially commissioned by Creative Events in Dublin, so play-testing a game that was going to be sent overseas was an exiting event for us!

Theme:
Mission Accepted centres around a comical super-villain who is intent on enslaving the world!

A fun story which explodes from the original box and delivers multiple storylines and weaving connections, a feat that is achieved remarkably well considering the nature of a mobile escape room means the theming and immersion come directly from the puzzles, props and storytelling. All 3 aspects merge together with ease to create a cohesive story, which is surprisingly immersive!

Game Play:
A very busy game, I’ve never seen so many locks come out of a relatively small box! A cleverly designed game which was primarily open, with several paths to take throughout the game, this makes it very accessible for larger teams, and you will never feel stuck on anything as there’s always something else you can bounce to if you get stuck on a puzzle.
Puzzles types consisted of logic, decoding, observation, physical (yes, physical, in a mobile room! Very clever)
All the puzzles were a lot of fun to solve, required some critical thinking and yet were totally solvable without any hints or clues, it was a true case of “everything you need to solve the puzzles is laid out in front of you” – it was a case of putting the pieces together and collating them into an answer, which came in every puzzle with brilliant Ah-ha moments and satisfying answers.
All the puzzles were in theme with the story and even delivered more and more insight to the characters and plot with each reveal.
The flow was excellent, with no sticking points and each puzzle leading wonderfully to the next with element reveals being timed perfectly. The several paths really aided the flow, and whilst we played the game in a linear fashion, knowing that there was always something to do if we got stuck was a good fall back, and like I said before will be excellent for larger teams, creating a competitive element in a race to the final puzzle.
The only downside is that this game will only be available to play through Creative Events.
However, Norris Box do have a selection of 3 boxes to get stuck into (and we can’t wait to play them!)

Clue System:
Clues were delivered from Jane who was watching over us for the hour.

Game Host:
Jane was our game host and as always was friendly, hospitable and delivered a thorough briefing and gave us perfect hints throughout our game. AS normal we spent ages chatting about escaping and Jane’s passion for creating her games really is at the forefront, and what great game she does create!

Did we escape?
Yes! Although I’m not sure of our time, I think we were around 40 minutes!