5 reasons you should experience the Isklander Trilogy
Image from isklander.com
TL;DR The three-part Hitchcockian online immersive theatre-escape game mashup that became a global phenomenon has announced its closing! Here’s why you should probably go if you haven’t already…
If you’ve not yet heard of Isklander, well let me fill you in: Brainchild of Punchdrunk alums Ollie Jones and Clem Garritty, it’s a three-part, story-led escape game with Hitchcockian thrills and a disorienting blend of technological reality (think Facebook, websites and history), British history and mythological fantasy.
The experience has been around since mid-2020 when Plymouth Point was released and final chapter The Kindling Hour came out March 2021. As such, there have been lots of great reviews (my favourites include Reviews by Judith, The Guardian’s and The Sydney Morning Herald).
As it is closing soon (ahh!) I thought I would tell you why you should catch at least the first one before it does.
It’s a global phenomenon
Isklander has been something of a phenomenon in the immersive theatre world, hailed as one of the most successful online immersive theatre and escape game mash-ups. It reached quite literally all around the (Western) world from the US to Australia and as such I have no doubt that it has raised the bar and changed the playing field for all future online immersive theatre because…
It is unlike any online escape game you have played before
This is no romp through a themed land with a set of colourful puzzles thrown in. This is a tight-knit story with puzzles that help uncover it piece by piece. Rather than being sent on a random set of linear tasks, activities build on one another so you’re given much more of a sense of helping uncovering the mystery. While this might have been increasingly been done really well in IRL immersive experiences (Time Run in particular), Isklander is the first online experience that I’ve seen that’s managed this level of story-led experience, this well. No mean feat.
Its use of technology is seriously impressive
Speaking as a bit of a tech nerd, Isklander also makes impressive use of technology. Technology was generally not designed to do things that creators want to achieve with immersive theatre (as we’ve seen with other experiences - I’m not trying to throw shade, I’m just acknowledging that video conference with bells and whistles like embedded video, automated hints and mini-games is really hard).
Isklander manages to navigate this admirably, with minimal fuss and uses inevitable glitches and dodgy connections as part of the story. As such it’s pretty Zoom-doom resistant, even if you’re having a cat lawyer day.
It’s a lot of fun with friends far away
Probably should have mentioned this earlier. It’s great fun. We played the trilogy as a three across Lisbon, Oslo and London with minimal tech problems and we all had plenty to do - it’s always a pet peeve of mine when this isn’t the case. What I also absolutely loved is it really is a team-working game, you chat with your friends pretty much all the way through comparing what you find, hypotheses and next steps, which gave me a sense of really quality time being spent together even when we were far apart.
It’s closing soon!
Not to be alarmist, but it closes 31st January and who know’s when or if it will be back?
As an aside, I would love to know if you have found any IRL escape rooms or other games that come close or have a similar vibe. Please let me know in comments below.
Isklander is running until 31st January, tickets per game £30-£40 or entire Trilogy for £70 - you can book here
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Other immersive shows closing in January: Mulan Rouge, House of Irene Adler