Corpse Inc.

When planning a first time escape room trip to the Netherlands and Belgium, it’s going to include many many top games. This trip including some recommendations and some games that weren’t perhaps as high up as some of the top 10/20 in the world. Corpse Inc was one of these.

Corpse Inc is though highly credited in the NL and still a favourite for many and appears for its originality. We can see why. So, here we are, a group of 5 of us, now normally I would say this is a big team and perhaps too many for an escape room but, for this game, I think more people definitely adds to the game.

This game in terms of set design definitely wasn’t the best game on the trip, was it an absolute favourite, was it possibly the best game we played for other reasons, absolutely. This game had fun in abundance and is probably a game I will talk about for a long time to come. This was without doubt the most fun we had. The game gives you the scenario and then between the game and us, we made the fun. However, if you don’t like a bit role play, this is possibly not a game for you. If you’re willing to throw yourselves in, you will definitely get a lot out of it.

In terms of puzzles, I really enjoyed them, solid puzzles that had a purpose. The game constantly made sense and followed a very well executed structure, which is at the heart of it. All the time keeping it humorous and with lots of interaction.

Puzzles were interactive, problem solving, observation. There’s running and climbing and adrenaline, oh and did I mention role play? Corpse Inc has an edgy feel and leans to feeling like a horror game but it isn’t/wasn’t! (Could be soon!) This was welcomed as half the team were a bit scared.

Did we fail before we even started, pretty much. Did we read our email, no we didn’t, did we know what to say when we arrived, no we didn’t.

Did we make a complete mess of everything, yes we did, did it add to it, I’m not saying it was the right thing to do but that it did also add to the enjoyment. Follow some basic directions as task one, did we manage it? No we ended up in the wrong place, wondering why we couldn’t get started. Good job, our clever guy/clue system was ready to help us! I’m surprised they even let us play at this point. Puzzles kept us all busy, we all had different ‘jobs’ to do and we all felt necessary. I can’t say I saw where the game was going (we should have read the email) but I felt it had a lovely twist.

The narrative of story playing through role play was executed brilliantly and I think it’s absolutely what makes this game. You are the story. The interaction in the game is brilliant. Couple that with a completely bonkers team and what could possible go wrong?? The whole thing vamps up towards the end with a dramatic finish and a frantic finale. Leading us to practically falling over each other to escape. I’m sure I was bruised for days.

It turns out we were the second team to actually nearly make the actor laugh, with our definitely terrible but incredibly funny role playing and this didn’t stop the owner (host) sitting at her computer screen, crying with laughter. The debrief and chat afterwards was so much fun. My cheekbones hurt for the rest of the night. Thank you for loving us for all our fails.

Any takeaways from this game: If you aren’t mopping the carpet in this game, you aren’t doing it right!

IYKYk

I don’t know how much the new game will mirror the old game but I am very excited to return and play.