What’s the best way to test a duo’s teamwork? The easy answer is to throw them in a pit together and see which one survives, but the easier answer would be to put them in an escape room together.
But what if you’re like David and I? David lives in Melbourne and I live in Sydney. Sadly, they are not that close to each other, and the company probably isn’t pulling all the stops to send us to an escape room together on company time. So what’s the next best thing?
Simple. Escape Simulator.
Escape Simulator is a 2021 first person puzzle game developed by Pine Studio. It’s, in my eyes, the perfect escape room simulator. I saw that it was on sale, and immediately had a great idea. I’d buy a copy for David as a nice little treat, and then buy a copy for myself. And then we would play. And learn. About teamwork. It’s work, it’s allowed!
Upon starting the game, we made our characters. Of course, so as to not be confused about who we were playing with, we both decided to make our characters look exactly like us as possible. I pondered on the idea of creating a monstrosity, but the only thing scarier than a beast is a hard puzzle, so I didn’t want to frighten David more than necessary.
The very first escape room is a child’s bedroom, which is easily the most stressful place a person can exist in. There’s toys everywhere, furniture made for tiny people, and a looming sense of dread. Obviously, nobody wants to be trapped inside of here so we had to get out.
At first, our journey consisted of David looking at things and me throwing shit around. One could say that this is akin to our usual start to the day. But when David started to find things and my throwing around began to yield results, that’s where the magic happened. We were getting out of this fucking room.
After picking up literally everything we could and mashing it together, we managed to find a way out and moved on to the next room. We felt proud of our achievement, and were eager to move forward. My technique was secured: pick up and stow away anything that was possible to pick up and stow away (stealing), and break all the shit that I could.
While this may make it sound like I am simply a petty thief, I’ll actually have you know that I am a big fat puzzle bitch. A huge slut for a good brain-twister. I see patterns like I’m da fackin’ Sherlonk Homes. Whatever. Fuggedaboudit. I’m good at puzzles. David is a great discover-er, and I’m a great solver.
So we headed into each puzzle with the same mindset: find as much shit as we could, let David look at what linked them together, and let me work my galaxy puzzle brain. And let me tell ya folks, it worked every time. We were absolutely demolishing these rooms. They were a mess after dealing with us.
So what did we learn? Easy. David and I make a great team. With David’s sensibilities and ability to discover, and my ability to go ape and somehow manage to find a solution in the chaos, we could achieve anything. That’s if ‘anything’ means ‘getting out of a virtual room without just quitting’. Definitely that.
If you’re looking to test your working relationships or even friendships, I recommend giving Escape Simulator a go. Outside of David and I’s ability to play it despite sharing a single hard-working braincell, the game itself is actually quite a beauty in its own right. The puzzles are fun, the visuals are delightful, and it’s just an all-round good time.
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