A not so stellar game that doesn’t do much to stand out.

It seems like more developers have finally realized that escape rooms do well in virtual reality (VR).

While this can seem like a good thing for those who enjoy the genre, it only takes a quick peek at the Meta Quest or PlayStation VR2 store pages to see the abundance of bad games and overpriced demos, that are being released by many developers.

While 2024 brought some pretty big wins to escape room gaming (The House of Da Vinci VR), there were releases that shall forever be remembered as stains on the genre. In case you’re new to the VirtualRealities column, this game – which is one of many to be avoided at all costs – is Escape Simulator.

While this game we’re about to talk about is certainly not as bad as the aforementioned pile of doggy doo, it is by no means a good game.

Exit Condition One, the latest attempt at enticing the escape room enthusiasts, was released on Jan. 23 for the Quest series of headsets. Developed by Damon Poole, the game has been a long time coming as it was originally conceived as a single-level game during the pandemic.

Now, in its final release form, the game boasts about eight levels – including an “interactive” intro level where you are subjected to sit through tedious music and a poor attempt at setting up a story, all while being unable to skip through to the actual game.

The story, puzzles, and overall aesthetics are middle of the road at best, with not much standing out to make this a worthwhile gaming experience.

To sum up what’s going on when you start up the game: you are the human curator, awoken from cryo-sleep to fix what is broken in the strange facility where you find yourself. After a robot catches you up, you begin to solve puzzles to move onto the next area.

These puzzles are by no means difficult. You’ll find yourself doing a lot of finding & connecting wires, turning knobs, and other things which may require more brainpower if you’re a fan of games involving gorillas and cats.

In case you’re a little more mature than those lot – and let’s be real, it’s not exactly difficult to clear that bar – you may find that puzzles get rather repetitive and boring quickly. By the third level of knob turning, you may wish that you can rush through the game to finish and delete it forever.

If you do manage to push through the repetitiveness of each level and make it through, you’ll find that there are very few unique puzzles throughout. Some of these even hold a modicum of excitement – while some are just silly – but overall, the puzzles are certainly not to the bar that the better games of the past have set.

But fear not, for even though this is a short game – comprised of lackluster puzzles and a lot of tedium – the developer decided – or rather hoped – that some minigames would add depth. For the record, they do not.

Some may find these a welcome addition, however, they’re really just something extra added on to justify the price.

If you’re a fan of rhythm games where each hand is a different colour and you need to grab, touch, or align those hands with flying objects, then you’re in luck. Here, you need to match your hands with the colour-coded ones flying at you. Exciting right… There are other games including a shooting one and climbing one, but honestly, they’re all pretty much just nonsense.

Interactions with the world are done the way VR is intended – you reach out and grab/touch things. Of course, the implementation is not as good as it could be.

Often, grabbing an item when it’s mixed in with others, can become a hassle. Now, this happens and you can’t really hold it against any developer – the technology has advanced greatly over the years, but it’s by no means stellar. To try and help with your interactions, a very poorly done distance grab feature is implemented. Problem here is that the distance over which you can grab items is rather short, meaning you do still need to be rather close to the item to get it.

Also, that whole mixed in with other items thing is just as much of a hassle with distance grab as it is doing it the regular way – and you’ll probably find yourself grabbing and chucking useless items until you get the one you want.

As mentioned earlier, this game is tedious – and it doesn’t really get any better.

Graphics aren’t the worst thing in the world, at least when it comes to this game. Things are clear and while not a lot of interesting stuff happens throughout a full playthrough, there was never a noticeable framerate drop.

In fact, the only thing which one could complain about – and at this point, it would really just boil down to personal opinion – would be the art style. To sum it up quickly, it’s not awful.

Overall, Exit Condition One is a game that does not do a lot to make itself standout from its brethren. There is nothing here to write home about and even at a $12 price point, what you get is not worth the price of admission. If you have high standards – or have played some of the better games for VR – then you’ll know that this game just doesn’t cut it.

The developer has spent at least three years working on this game, growing it to what it is now. Damon Poole should be commended for, at the very least, sticking it out and creating something about which they are passionate. However, this dude clearly realized that you could only repeat the same thing so many times before it got boring.

Even after all the outside the box thinking, what gamers are left with is something that only looks good because paid reviewers and bots fill up the store page with five-stars it doesn’t deserve.

It’s a shame that the first escape room of 2025 is a clear miss. Here’s hoping that the remaining 11 months of the year turns out at least a few that are worthy of some real praise.

Exit Condition One, was reviewed on the Quest 3 after receiving a pre-release key.