Amelia's Escape VR Review: A Promising Escape Room Puzzler Cut Too Short

Amelia’s Escape VR promises more than it ultimately delivers with a story that feels like it was just getting started when it ends.

I am not going to bury the lead here. Amelia’s Escape is too short. I have played a number of environmental puzzle games in VR and can only recall a few that were less than two hours long: The Curious Tale of Stolen Pets, the first A Fisherman’s Tale, Rogue Escape (if you figure out the controls quickly), and this game.

After finishing in just over one hour, I was not even upset at the runtime, though I think for the price, there is nowhere near enough game here. I was frustrated because the story being set up was legitimately fascinating and felt incomplete. You play as the titular Amelia, a young British girl on a train to an unknown location when blue lights and streaks flash all around you. Then, after a few ‘stops’ you end up in the room that comprises the full game, a bunker-like science lab where a seemingly mad scientist obsessed with time travel has brought you. It is impossible to go any deeper into the story here without major spoilers, so I will just say that it feels like the start of a larger story without a proper payoff.

That all said, if you are just there for the puzzles, this is still a good time. Amelia’s Escape is the type of game where you just sit there until you figure it out. The ‘escape’ is through a door locked by multiple keycards scattered throughout the room. To locate them all, you have to pay attention to everything in the room, more specifically any object you can interact with. Most escape room games like this in VR only allow you to interact with things you need to interact with.

That does not mean the game is too easy. Instead, you’ll hold an object and think, ‘What do I do with this?’ There are context clues and Amelia occasionally says a bit too much, but this is still a game that requires you to think logically. Okay, this says the number 1, but what does that mean? There were three keycards I figured out in the first few minutes in the room, with the remaining batch taking the rest of the hour, walking back and forth, holding some random object unsure of its purpose. If you have played Myst or the I Expect You To Die series, this will feel very familiar to you.

Visually, Amelia’s Escape is on the bland side. After a few minutes exploring the room and realizing very little in the room could be interacted with, I started working out keycards with the things I could touch. The grab interactions were mostly jank free, but the hand/grab animations (or lack thereof) stick out. I also had to reset the room when one of the keycards I found fell through the floor and could not be retrieved. Thankfully, I remembered the solutions and caught up quickly even with some objects and lock boxes randomized to new locations.

Amelia’s Escape VR – The Final Verdict

Amelia’s Escape offers a satisfying bit of puzzle gameplay, but it is let down by an abrupt ending and a story that left me unfulfilled. Puzzle game lovers will get something out of this, but even then the short length makes it hard to justify its current $14.99 price tag. There are other similar games in the same price range with more to offer. Hardcore puzzle gamers only.

UploadVR uses a 5-Star rating system for our game reviews – you can read a breakdown of each star rating in our review guidelines.