RATING: 5 Keys RESULT: Win REMAINING: 16:06
Look, I realize that said I only needed a clean bed and a pillow at check-in, but did you really expect me to specify “a room with electricity?!”
New owners of the condemned Madame Locktane’s Inn & Suites have hired you and your team of inexperienced maintenance personnel to conduct some minor repairs in preparation for the motel’s grand reopening. In the middle of your first shift – you encounter an outage that awakens the spirits of the previous maintenance team and Madame Locktane herself.
You creep into the darkness, but this time, you must successfully restore the power and escape before your unfortunate demise is secured.
Testing your senses, with the exception of sight, will you be able to restore the power to Madame Locktane’s Inn & Suites and escape the darkness? Or will you be consumed by the monstrosities that lie within the walls of this abandoned motel?
Upon checking in, it was made clear that our reservation was not for a night’s stay, but rather to fill a position on the Inn’s maintenance team. (If I had a nickel for every time that’s happened at a hotel…) Apparently some strange things have been going on at the property and the actual, trained maintenance team has, well, disappeared. On the cusp of the grand reopening – one that could make or break the Inn’s long-term future – there’s just nothing more important than getting the power restored to end this outage before it impacts any actual paying hotel guests.
It should be easy, right? Just get into the boiler room, make the repairs and get out in time for a stale donut in the maintenance break room. What could possibly go wrong? (Definitely still not interested in learning that life lesson.) It’s just a hotel. It’s just a boiler room. It’s just… wait, haunted? What flavor did you say that donut was?!
On paper, Outage: No Vacancy occupies a fairly modest footprint – although just the same, it manages to squeeze in two distinctly different environments that further the storyworld in highly effective ways. Would-be maintenance staff begin their tenure at the old Inn outside of the first room. A themed entry statement sees the property’s exterior door chained shut – no doubt due to the strange occurrences that seem to keep happening within.
Once inside the hotel-proper, it becomes instantly apparent that there’s far more than just potential power issues to worry about at Madame Locktane’s Inn and Suites. A small, cramped hallways evokes a sense of just how modest each guest room must be. Worse, the property has, ahem, seen better days. The wallpaper is peeling under the weight of water damage dripping from ceiling leaks. Holes in the wainscoting reveal not just the motel’s worn-down plumbing, but all of the pests and critters that have taken up residence within them.
At first glance, the space is surprisingly detailed for such a small area. But it’s what happens next that becomes the true talking point of Outage: No Vacancy. They say that ‘seeing is believing’ – although in this case, that wouldn’t exactly be accurate at all.
Roughly sixty percent of this game takes place in total darkness. To be clear, we’re talking cannot see a hand in front of your own face levels of pitch blackness. Suddenly, what’s actually in the room is far less of a concern than what one’s imagination puts there!
Prospective maintenance staff will have the opportunity to prove their qualifications early on – as the experience within Outage: No Vacancy actually begins before entering the main space. New staff are left on their own in the hallway – outside the first room – and quite literally have to figure out how to even get the front door opened.
Once inside, Madame Locktane’s Inn and Suites is what a lesser honest realtor might describe as “a handyman’s dream.” Many of the tasks required connect to the notion that they are being done to resolve very real maintenance concerns, from repairing loose boards to exterminating pests. And then, true to its name, the outage happens.
Thrust into the blinding confines of pitch black darkness, the experience becomes entirely reliant on tactile sensations and communication skills. This is where Outage: No Vacancy becomes even more satisfying, but also significantly more challenging. The simplest of tasks take on a whole new level of difficulty when one must rely on their other senses to achieve them. In the process, Outage: No Vacancy takes advantage of its unfortunate new maintenance staff’s imaginations to create irrational fears that a reasonable person knows couldn’t possibly be real.
Interestingly, in the process, it’s that over-stimulated imagination that creates a sense of urgency in Outage: No Vacancy’s puzzle flow that is unlike that often found in many other games. With no time clock available – a conscious choice to maintain the darkened environment – and no sense of what’s still left to be achieved, it’s likely that even the most experienced players may find themselves scrambling under the assumption that their last few seconds are about to tick away. It’s a unique and satisfying layer that puzzles in a lighted setting could simply never achieve.
The Escape Ventures has built a new brand around not shying from unique themes. In a market as populous as Orlando, it unquestionably works to their benefit and makes them even easier to recommend. But that in mind, Outage: No Vacancy is still a bold design choice.
We recognize that some may read this and immediately develop a pre-conceived notion about this particular game, simply based on the fact that a large portion of it occurs in the dark. Don’t. Outage: No Vacancy is truly not a game that exists within the horror genre. Really, the only scares within Madame Locktane’s Inn and Suites are conjured up entirely in the imaginations of its overnight guests – or unfortunately under-qualified maintenance staff. There’s no jump scares or intentionally jarring moments; but spending an extended period entirely without the ability to see even a glimmer of light will most certainly send minds racing on their own.
But, if you can get past the notion of darkness – and you really should in this instance – Outage: No Vacancy benefits from that bold design choice and stands as a very unique offering in a crowded playing field. This game is different in all the right ways, and it works. There’s something incredibly satisfying about solving puzzles in the dark here – because all of them feel (pun intended) attainable. Each step is a logical, intuitive task that takes on a whole new level of challenge given the environment. It also allows The Escape Ventures to stretch a relatively small room from a few hundred feet to the boundaries of one’s own imagination.
The Escape Ventures is perhaps best known for their first permanent game, Bros For Life Fraternity Heist – and make no mistake, we very much enjoyed that one as well. But for its daring ambition to think outside the box and its willingness to be different, Outage: No Vacancy is the venue’s shining star. An ironic statement to make given that there isn’t so much as a glimmer of light to be found during much of it.
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Venue: The Escape Ventures
Location: Orlando, FL
Number of Games: 3
GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:
Duration: 60 minutes
Capacity: 4 people
Group Type: Private / You will not be paired with strangers.
Cost: $32 per person
We thank The Escape Ventures for inviting us to play this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, that in no way impacts the opinion included within this review.