Become the ultimate spy, using gear from a regular toolbox.
Find out what’s going on inside Redemption Prison.
Launching today – Feb. 26 – in Fixer Undercover by Creativity AR, you become Agent 404, tasked with going undercover as a maintenance worker, with your sidekick Winston. In this new virtual reality (VR) puzzle adventure, you head into a prison; your goal is figuring out the nefarious plot being perpetrated by the warden.
“Your job is to uncover the dark truth behind the warden’s rehabilitation program “Born Again.” But instead of high-tech spy gadgets, your arsenal is a toolbox – a hammer, an angle grinder, a wrench, duct tape. You solve puzzles by improvising and using everyday tools in ways they were never designed for. And you’ve got Winston, your drone companion, who helps you out, panics a lot, and keeps you company,” said Przemek Koncewicz, CEO of Creativity AR.
Having a background in real life escape rooms, Koncewicz used knowledge of the field alongside that of the lead designer’s to bring this game to life in VR.
“In 2015, I opened an escape room business. Our most popular room was a prison break theme. Years later, when we moved into VR, that setting felt like a natural fit. The real spark came from a conversation with Grzesiek, our lead designer, who also came from the escape room world. We asked ourselves: what would make this game exciting for us? We both loved the same thing – the satisfaction of building something with your hands, finding creative DIY solutions. That became the heart of the game. We wrapped it in a secret agent package because we felt it will his spy secret agent vibe,” he said.
Spanning seven chapters and different settings across the prison, players – as Agent 404 – will have to use their wits – alongside their general toolkit – to solve their way out of each situation.
Whether you’re trying to figure out a code necessary to open a door, or simply brute forcing your way through a grate with your tools, the game provides a number of challenges that will test your cognitive prowess.
Let’s jump into what makes Fixer Undercover a worthwhile title, starting with the mechanics.
While the game is not completely bug free – there are sporadic chances that you’ll suddenly find yourself floating well above where your body should be. This cannot be fixed without exiting to the menu and restarting – the issues are only discovered by sheer chance, to say the least.
The game offers the basic movement sets – snap and smooth turns as well as locomotion and teleportation – and a very simple to understand control set. Grab with the ‘R1’ or ‘L1’ buttons, use your tools with the triggers, and crouch with ‘B.’
Your inventory is your tool belt – anything additional you need along the way is found and discarded as you progress – so there’s no need to worry about opening any added inventory to grab or store items; you’ll just reach for the tools you or Winston are holding.
Now you might be wondering who Winston is, well he’s your robot sidekick. In addition to carrying a few tools and the radio which you can reach out and tune to the music of your liking, he aids you with hints – along with his companionship.
“Winston is your drone companion. We created him because spending hours alone in VR can feel isolating – we wanted someone by your side. Originally, he was going to be cynical with a British accent, but over time he evolved into something warmer – enthusiastic, sometimes cowardly, but fiercely loyal. He delivers tools, helps hack systems, and provides hints. But mostly, he makes you feel like you’re not alone. Based on demo feedback, the Winston relationship is what players connect with most,” said Koncewicz.
Graphically the game is as good as you can expect from a Quest 3, with crisp visuals and gameplay that sees no issues with regards to framerates. You will see flatter textures around some parts of the prison – it is a stone-based structure that’s basically devoid of life for the sake of incarceration after all – but for the most part you’ll feel like you really are stuck in Redemption Prison.
Overall, Fixer Undercover is an excellent escape room title for VR which not only makes players use their brains but offers up a fresh take on figuring out how to progress forward. Whether it’s figuring out how to get past a difficult puzzle, or simply the satisfying feeling of using one of the many tools as your disposal, this is certainly a title that the puzzle aficionados will not want to miss.
“We come from actually building physical rooms – we understand how people interact with objects in 3D space, what makes a puzzle satisfying versus frustrating. That’s baked into every puzzle. We also committed hard to the “tools and improvisation” identity. It would’ve been easier to make a generic escape room with keys and codes. Instead, we built a physics-driven system where your toolbox is your primary interface. Harder to develop, but it’s what makes the game feel different when you pick it up. And we have Winston,” said Koncewicz. “This game was built by people who love creating experiences for others. We started watching people’s faces light up in our escape rooms. That same feeling – the joy of figuring something out with your own hands – is what we tried to put into every moment of Fixer Undercover. We’re a small team, we worked hard, and we’re proud of what we built. We hope players feel that when they pick up that hammer for the first time.
With the game now out on Quest – with a PCVR release down the road – Koncewicz notes that a release for the PlayStation VR2 is also in the cards.
Fixer Undercover was reviewed on the Quest 3 after receiving pre-release access from the developer.
