Defeating Taken Escape Manor’s New Online Escape Room

Virtual escape rooms, have you tried this latest trend? I consider myself an escape room pro after completing most of the experiences available in Ottawa. So when I heard the brand new Escape Manor online escape room Taken: The Swiss Account, I had to give it a try.

Escape Manor Online Escape Room Review

Taken is a radically different experience, as it is an online escape room. So together with your friends, you’ll tackle problems and find clues just you can do so from your house while wearing comfy clothes.

Entering Taken, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Part of what I love about escape rooms are the hidden rooms or interactive elements like pressure plates on the floors. Naturally, those elements couldn’t be available, so I was having a hard imagining what it was like (short of those old video games where you click on things to escape).

Before we go further, I’ll keep things as spoiler-free as possible. I’ve done my best to blur significant clues in photos but left enough minor elements to help you visualize what it is like.

In Taken, you pay $15.99 for up to four players. But it easily could be done solo if you prefer.

Your group will need to meet up using a video chat like Zoom, Facetime, or, in our case, Discord. To streamline things, you’ll want someone to be able to screen share, this way everyone can look at the same thing.

The game begins with you getting a link, and from there, the mystery starts. The task is you are to help Interpol save a high-ranking official at the United Nations. As a detective, you need to be able to determine the user name and password of a Swiss bank account to transfer 10 million dollars in ransom money.

To figure out the password, you need to answer a long list of security questions such as:
What company did you first work for?
Who was your childhood hero?
What is the name and species of your favourite pet ever?

help Interpol save a high-ranking official at the United Nations

To do so, you’ll need to search on Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, Linkedin, Google Maps, and Google Drive to get all the clues.

As you will need multiple tabs open, it would be much easier if at least one person is on a computer (and that is the person sharing their screen).
At some points, I had nearly ten tabs open and was flipping between them.

Escape Manor estimates you will need between 60-90 minutes to solve everything, and that would be true with our experience. Overall the problems were simple, but there were a few that took a bit longer. We took roughly 50 minutes to complete the task, but I imagine it would go faster if you were all in the same room.

I certainly think beginners could tackle this room, but experts like me enjoyed it. For those worried about getting stuck, you’ll also get a list of clues or the answers if you need help.

My only complaint was all the clues were solved similarly. I know the internet limits what can be done, but I hope future online escape rooms demonstrate a bit more creativity.

For $16 for a group, I thought the amount of entertainment we got was well worth the money, and I’d like to try something similar in the future.

Try Taken: The Swiss Account by Escape Manor.