Escaping Wonderland brings much-needed variety to a Virtual Reality dominated by shooters
One of the best VR adventures of all time is getting a spiritual successor. We tried out Escaping Wonderland on Meta Quest 3.
Fans of Down the Rabbit Hole have had to wait four years for a sequel. On September 26th, Escaping Wonderland, a new VR tale in the Alice universe for Meta Quest and Pico, will finally be released. I was able to play the sweet diorama adventure at Gamescom and talk to the developers about their work.
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Escaping Wonderland will not be a sequel
Escaping Wonderland is not really a sequel to Down the Rabbit Hole. Instead, the developers want to tell a new story in the same universe. So if you haven't played the 2020 adventure, you can easily dive into the new part. However, fans of the first part can look forward to small easter eggs.
By the way, there were no licensing issues. The Wonderland series of novels is in the public domain, which allows you to create your own interpretations of the story in the world created by Lewis Carroll. Only the characters created by Disney or other interpreters are protected.
The finished game will keep you entertained for about three to four hours. If you want to explore every nook and cranny and collect all the collectibles, you can play Escaping Wonderland for up to five hours. But there will be no alternate endings. "We have written a moving story that is very important to us and that we believe players will enjoy. That's why we didn't want to dilute it with alternate endings," says Max Huusko Svederoth, concept artist and designer.
Molly follows in Alice’s footsteps
In Escaping Wonderland, the main character is not the iconic Wonderland protagonist Alice, but dark-haired Molly. She begins by falling into a seemingly endless hole, surrounded by flying books, playing cards, teapots, and wall clocks, while a narrator introduces the story.
Molly eventually lands on rocky ground and has no idea where she is when she is greeted by a friendly mole and invited to his cottage for tea. Throughout the story, there are reunions with many familiar faces, such as the Red Queen or the Cheshire Cat from the Wonderland stories.
If I grab the blue roots below the play area with the grip buttons, I can change the perspective seamlessly. | Image: Beyond Frames
As in its predecessor Down the Rabbit Hole, I control Molly from a VR diorama perspective with the left joystick. I can look around freely in the small sections of the level. If I want to change the perspective, I grab one of the roots sticking out of the dark area below the "showcase" Molly is in. This allows me to freely move the size and position of the visible area in the VR environment and always have an optimal view of the action.
However, there will be no mixed reality mode. "We thought about a pass-through mode, but that would break the immersion. We wanted to keep the world of Escaping Wonderland together, and seeing your own living room in the background would be more distracting than helpful," explains Svederoth.
Outstanding voice actors and a fairytale atmosphere
As I walk Molly through a lovingly designed cave with lots of little details in the background, a fairy tale melody accompanies me, and the narrator describes what I have to do from off-screen. For example, when Molly is standing in front of a ravine, I help her by pressing the A button. In this way, I magically build a bridge out of individual stones.
In important dialogs, Escaping Wonderland switches to the first-person perspective | Image: Beyond Frames
If I find items that Molly can't reach, I touch them with the cursor, and they fall to the ground. Collectibles such as pictures, notes, or audio recordings contain little snippets of stories and end up in a diary that I can open and flip through at any time using the menu button.
When I arrive at the mole's house, he gives me my first task after a brief conversation: I have to find his glasses, which I discover in the bedroom after a small clue. During the following fully voiced and excellently spoken dialog, Escaping Wonderland switches to the first-person perspective. A scroll unfolds in front of the mole, and I can choose from several possible answers. Although these can open up different paths in the game, they have no effect on the ending.
Logical puzzles with a change of perspective
The next step is to make an old machine work. I end up in front of a pipe system that is missing some parts. Here, too, the game switches back to the first-person perspective, and I am presented with various pipe parts one after the other. To repair the pipe system, I have to connect the pieces in three-dimensional space with the pipes of the same color. This requires a bit of brain power, but is not too difficult even for adventure game newbies.
In some puzzles, I have to work as a team with Molly. I move ladders for her, she operates switches. | Image: Beyond Frames
Next is a classic switch puzzle. Three levers are connected to a three-part cylinder, and a piece of ladder hangs from each part of the cylinder. When I activate one of the levers, one of the parts of the cylinder rotates. To join the ladder together, I have to rotate the cylinder sections with the correct lever movements. Again, logical thinking and a little trial and error will help.
My first impression of Escaping Wonderland
After about half an hour, my trip to Wonderland was over. But I can hardly wait to return to the lovingly designed diorama world with Molly. Cortopia Studios has once again created a fantastic fairytale world that is wonderfully easy to navigate and features interesting characters with excellent voice acting. On September 26th, we will see if Escaping Wonderland succeeds in maintaining the balance between challenge and variety in the puzzles and in telling an exciting and touching story. I think we can look forward to an incredible adventure.
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