Zoomdunnit? Solve murders virtually with Mystery Manila’s 'Escape Zoom'
From escape room to escape zoom. Those who miss hanging out and bonding with friends are in for a treat.
Mystery Manila, known for their live escape room games and pop-up scavenger hunts at different parts of the metro, have taken the murder mystery experience online.
With current restrictions on social gatherings and the closure of certain malls where some branches are located, the company has innovated their services, offering fully hosted virtual murder-mystery parties via video chat. Mystery Manila now hosts online socials via Zoom, setting the background story and assigning guests to play the victim, suspects, and killer in various scenarios.
There are currently four themed whodunnit "Zoom Rooms" listed on their website that you can book to play with your friends.
In The Murderous Meeting, groups are invited to take over a virtual board meeting of Mystery Corp.; Revenge at the Reunion sees players reunited with high school friends and enemies to figure out who the killer is before another person gets murdered; The Missing Masterpiece involves figuring out why a million-dollar masterpiece went missing right before an art auction; and in The Wicked Webinar, designed for larger teams with 15 to 50 players, a masked villain named Enigma hijacks a webinar forcing everyone to work together to defuse a bomb within 60 minutes.
The virtual games require five to 15 players and can run from 60 to 90 minutes. Each game is priced at P399 per head, with available schedules every half hour from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. To reserve a slot, all you have to do is book through their website.
If you thought that working together with your friends in an actual escape room was difficult enough, the online format just adds a new layer of frustration, drama and miscommunication to the game.
With Halloween coming up, “Escape Zoom” games could be an interesting way to level up those virtual e-numan sessions, celebrate special occasions with friends from the comforts of your home, or literally provide a brief escape from your boring, quarantine life.
With the actual live escape rooms temporarily closed due to the pandemic, Mystery Manila converted some of their rooms to virtual equivalents for those who want to channel their inner Sherlock or Enola Holmes.
In case you’ve never tried playing murder mystery games before, four online minigames are currently available to play for free on their website, including Who Killed Jamila Torres, Mystery Message, Mystery of the Stolen Sapphire and Mystery Map. You can also test your detective skills with Enigma’s Enmity, currently on sale at a discounted rate of P249. Mystery Manila Gift Cards and sets of Escape from Enigma: The Card Game are also available for purchase.
(Images from Mystery Manila)