The Cabin: VR Escape the Room Reviews

This is a short, yet solid experience. My total playing time does not reflect how long it took to complete the game. I did encounter a bug that let me complete the second room, without actually completing it. But, I went back and played through again. If you have claustrophobia, it might not be your thing. I'm 6'7" and I felt like I was practically in a phone booth, if anyone remembers what those are. The experience was quite consistent. There were a few nit-picky things I would have done differently, but I can't gripe or I will give away some of the secrets. I do recceomend The Cabin. it is a well done example of what can be done simply with VR, and watching your firends try to get out will probably be almost as enjoyable as your effort to do the same.

The game is a little shorter than I would like, but for the cost, it’s not bad. The rooms are well laid out and provide a sense of realism. The puzzles are a little too straightforward for my own tastes, but they worked well and were consistent. I enjoyed the room scale, and had no issues navigating around my own space while within the room. Kudos for being able to create a good-sized space without blink or other locomotion. My only complaint is that on my mid-range VR rig (i7-4970k, R9 390X), it was losing frames consistently. The initial title screen outdoors was very painful. The game itself was playable, but the last room was almost frame for frame after the first few seconds of the event.

The game is relatively short and even though the description says that there are multiple endings, there are only two endings. You either escape or die. When I did escape the final room, the game was just over and you see the credits. During the game, you heard some things, so I was expecting a little more of an ending then just "boom" finished, "You Escaped". I have been to numerous escape rooms in real life and there are always multiple keys that need to be found. The keys for this game are not really hidden but easily accessible and, for a VR version of an escape room and for a single person playing, you use the key and then whatever the next step is. Even though the game is really short in duration, it was worth the money I spent on it. As in real life escape rooms where you have to duck and move around objects, the space is small in this game but you have to do this as well. I was on the floor and I even had to duck under some beams. Although you probably could walk through them, the graphics made you feel like you need to duck under them. Someone came in when I was getting one of the keys from the floor and was like "What are you doing on the floor?" They had thought I had tripped and fell or something. So being able to be immersed in the game or have the feeling like you needed to get down on the floor was really enjoyable. The only issue I had was when I died, which I did die on my first play through, when I selected to restart the game, I ended up looking up towards the cabin. So the restart option in the game was bugged. But other than that, I really enjoyed the game. It was fun and I would recommend the game.

Great atmosphere and the game's pacing went well. Puzzles were logical and seemed numerous enough for the playspace. Multiple rooms made for good progression when compared to some other, similar escape rooms. Room layout and progression made good use of roomscale. Gameplay is resonable for the asking price (25-30ish minutes).

I think this is is a good escape room puzzle game. It has a nice atmosphere and nice graphics. The only thing unrealistic is the small micro cabin out in the woods. I don't think anybody would make a cabin so small, but it makes sense for VR to be full roomscale. The puzzles are pretty easy except for 2 of them which will make you think. There's just enough story to keep you going forward and keeping you in suspense. Even the voice-acting was pretty good considering the price. If you can find it on sale for half off, then definitely it's a must get for 20 minutes of entertainment. Rate 7/10 this is a good escape room VR experience to introduce friends or family to the concept, advanced escape artists will probably not enjoy as much

I really wanted to like this game.... but I spent more time trying to get the game area to match my play area by re-centering from the steam menu before starting. I have more than enough space but it just didn't want to line up. The play area also drifted a little bit and [spoiler] in the attic and the room with the fire exceeded the play area, but this was less of an issue in the attic[/spoiler]. The lighting is absolutely terrible, you need to hold a candle most of the time, which if it gets to close to you it is too bright to see much else. Several of the tasks require you to stand in or reach through objects [spoiler]there is a box on the fireplace which was too high for me to reach so had to put my head in it[/spoiler]. Several of the challenges make zero sense as to why they would advance you to the next stage [spoiler] i.e. placing books on a shelf shouldn't in specific places doesn't justify triggering something, but even more odd is installing a radio antenna not only turns it on but activates the phone. Also no real reason to need to turn on a winch to lift up the attic hatch, but not need to actually activate the winch. then again no real reason you couldn't climb out the many windows you see.[/spoiler] Over all, the game is poorly thought out. Frustrating to play. Regularly has you reach through objects and/or fire. With very few really basic puzzles per "room" where sometimes the most difficult part is finding the key because it blends in with the surroundings or can only be viewed from a specific angle because it has no thickness. Add to that the gripping hands kept getting stuck in the closes position was more just annoying. Bottom line there are several more engaging escape rooms, with or without teleport. Most of which look better.

A good small and short escape room (multiple small rooms), with only a time limit in the last room. The puzzles are a bit repetitive. [spoiler]It's mostly just find a key, which is not really hidden and easy to spot, open/activate something with it and one small puzzle combined with it.[/spoiler] It even works with smaller rooms. The description says 2.1m x 1.8m. My room is 3m x 1.6m and it would probably also work with a with of only 1.5m. Before you start you are in a room that shows you the required size, so you can see if your room fits before playing. In the last room I've got some performance issues. When solving the first puzzle [spoiler]and the fire starts, including the smoke,[/spoiler] the game starts to lag and I get bellow 90FPS, which makes it quite hard [spoiler]to get the crowbar and escape[/spoiler]. My system has an Intel Core i7 4930k clocked around 4.3GHz, an overclocked nvidia GeForce GTX 1080, 64GB RAM and the game was running from an SSD, so no hardware problem. All in all the game is worth it's money.

The puzzles in The Cabin are pretty basic, and revolves around finding the right pieces instead of thinking about complex solutions. I’d say the main focus here is the story telling, and it’s delivered mainly through inner dialog with great voice acting, but also with set pieces in the game. There’s no locomotion nor teleportation, instead you’ll use your real space to walk around the rooms. And the 4 rooms are designed in such a way that they feel varied and spacious, even though they’ll fit into small play areas (2.1m x 1.8m and upwards). I really love how the forest looks in this game, and it’s a pity that not more was done with it. Inside of the cabin itself the graphics looks ok. There’s some rough textures and sharp edges, but good enough to keep a high level of emersion. All in all this sums up to a great experience that I highly recommend to try out. Unfortunately it’s extremely short, and it took me less than 30 minutes to complete it. And even though the game is really cheap, I’m feeling almost like a hypocrite giving a recommendation for a paid game with such short duration. But dammit it was worth it!

+ Room scale games with no telporting are great because you do no have that worry about banging into things in your play area - which adds to the immersion massively. + Looks great + Price point is spot on for a short, but quality game (£3.99) + The first VR game to make me duck cause I thought I was going to bang my head - Okay the puzzles are quite simple, this is not Myst, but they are not as simple as some make out. I had to use the help forum twice. - I wish this was an early access with more to come; a story, more puzzles, Summary - great job by the developers, I could lose myself in a game like this - isn't that what VR is about?

The only thing I can give it credit for is the use of utilizing a full play space, but that's the only remotely positive thing to say. This game is a complete piece of garbage. The graphics are lackluster with awful lighting, there's missing textures, broken post processing and ghosting shaders. It doesn't help that there's only 15 mins of playtime tops and the puzzles are just lazy; How many times can you pick up the same key? Finding a billion keys in your shitty enviroment isn't a puzzle. You can tell the developer is either inexperienced or just incredibly lazy. So many corners are obviously cut and feels like a game jam title, not a something you pay money for. Don't waste your money.