Escape from the Lockdown: The Demon Fortress (Steam Version) - Day 1

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Note: I could not get the game to work at first. After contacting support I received the following advice which ended up working despite my skepticism: Uninstall the game and delete the files Restart the computer Deactivate the antivirus Install the game I have played SCRAP games before in person (both 10ish person escape rooms and large 2k person events). I have not previously played any of their online/digital content. So far, I have only played the free portion of the game, which includes all of Day 1 and the beginning setup of Day 2. The setup of both days includes a video with some characters, 9 people with special items and the king. It seems from what I have seen so far you will need to defeat 4 monsters with the help of the 9 people. This will let you open a chest to help defeat the demon/escape from the demon fortress/something like that. There's also some mysterious flashing light they ask you to investigate. The puzzles and format closely follow the games I have seen in person. However, in my opinion, this is a mistake to follow that format for a video game. In person, you are with a group of people, under a time limit, and there is a lot of incentive to work together and quickly solve things, run around to look for clues, etc. This formatting of the program is very bare bones. There is no music playing in the background, and you are either interacting with text boxes or watching a video (the first thing you see after the instructions is a 15 minute video). I can understand why they chose this format, but I think it would be better in a standard visual novel format (with either pictures or drawings of the characters) that let you read and advance text at your own speed. Watching a 15 minute video killed some of the enthusiasm I had for the game. Additionally, it seems glaringly obvious to me that certain points would just work better in a traditional video game format with inputs. Instead, they give you a picture of characters' movesets and ask you to Mad Libs-style fill out the battle. There was even one point in the video where a Yes/No input box came up... in the video...as part of a scene...and the user does not get to interact with it. As for the gameplay, the puzzles, if you have played a large event SCRAP game before it is very similar. The game does have a hint button for each puzzle with both a hint and the answer, so you will not get stuck. Even if they want to use this type of puzzle, they could have made it more pleasant to use on a computer game. They just give you a picture of...lets say a crossword puzzle, but instead of being able to fill in the boxes on the puzzle, your only form of input is a textbox on the bottom to enter the one answer. They should have invested more in some sort of interface to interact with the puzzles. And they should consider puzzles that play with the format. Some of my favorite puzzles in Professor Layton were when they used something creatively, maybe dragging some portion of the background or manipulating the DS inputs like the microphone. I have only played the free portion so it is possible something interesting comes up near the end but I doubt it. Due to all the answers being simple textboxes, it limits the type of puzzle they can create, so most of the puzzles were simple word puzzles. These are okay in a setting with multiple people where you are all rushing to solve and bouncing ideas off each other but sitting at home on a PC I would like something a little more interactive. So, to anyone looking for a puzzle game, this is different than what you might expect to see on Steam. I think it is novel and as such I am giving it a positive review, but I think the full game is overpriced from the content I've seen, and I think some of the content does not work well in the medium of a computer game.