Phenomenal game and absolutely one of the best in the US! I wish I could rate this higher than a single heart because I have not been able to stop thinking about it since we finished.
Escape Ventures has set a very high bar for themselves. Their set design and atmospherics are immaculate, their puzzles are intuitive, often clever, and flow extremely well. But what truly sets them apart is their storytelling and superlative customer service.
Cornstalkers is no exception. This is an expansive game that has a delightfully playful first act serving to disarm you before things take a horrific turn. Chock full of fantastic character interactions that encourage you to play along and interact to your heart's delight. This game demands a lot of it's GMs, but ours, Rina, was an absolute delight.
For those who have played their other games, I'd say this is the perfect marriage of the grand scale and pacing of Arctic Storm with the delightful creepiness of Neighborhood Watcher.
They bill this as their most intense experience, and I would agree with that, but the disclaimers on their site may scare some people off that could likely handle this one. I would say it's on par with, or even a few knotches below, your standard local haunted house. I wouldn't mind if they cranked up the fear factor a lot more, but for the average apprehensive player they probably hit the sweet spot.
I really can't recommend this game enough. While Neighborhood Watcher is my previous favorite game from this company, I think Cornstalkers may have just dethroned it. I can't wait to see what they do next!
Excellent puzzle flow. A mix of classic escape room style puzzles and physical tasks/set interactions.
Customer service
Our GM Rina was excellent! I've come to expect no less from Escape Ventures.
Particularly interesting or different
Yes
This game is more about the narrative, some puzzles are pretty quick to solve and others take a lot more work and intuition but they were all fair.
We played as two and I loved that it enabled us to participate in nearly everything the room has to offer. This is a game that you will almost definitely finish (nudges are mandatory) so if you try to speed through with a large group I think it would really detract from the experience. That being said, there are several sections where you could easily split up and solve multiple puzzles at the same time. Some areas are pretty tight, physically, and I wouldn't have wanted to be in there with more than four. That being said, there were a few elements that they can scale to the player count.
If you can handle a local haunted house with a few jump scares, you'll absolutely be able to ace this one.
The footprint of this game is large, and you will need to go through the titular corn maze multiple times, sometimes at a light jog.
Accessibility
I imagine the maze itself would be difficult to navigate in a wheelchair. One player will need to be able to duck through a doorway that is maybe 3 feet high, and another will need to be able to go up a large step (say, the size of a standard hay bale)
Located in a strip mall shopping center, towards the back. Might take a second to find but overall was done with ease.
Plenty of free parking out front.
