The Basement | My Name Is Jamie

My Name Is Jamie – The Basement Captures the Fast-Paced, Unsettling Spirit of Their Live Escape Rooms

Below is a review of The Basement’s My Name Is Jamie. The review contains minor spoilers regarding mechanics and puzzle themes.

 

We’ve only just met the banged-up girl locked in a basement, but there’s no time for pleasantries. She’s frantically trying to dial the number she found on a blood-soaked scrap of paper, but soon realizes with fresh horror that the phone line is dead – placed in the room purely to mock her. As one of our team members attempts to console her and convince her not to give up, another team member uses her cell phone to call the number from our side. “It’s so good to hear from you,” says the saccharine and chillingly polite voice on the other end of the line, instantly recognizable as Edward Tandy to those in our group  familiar with The Basement universe. The voice coyly instructs us to input “the year he exited his mother’s womb,” and we renew our frenzied search for clues to Edward’s birth year. 

 

My Name Is Jamie

My Name Is Jamie is a remote retelling of the first room (The Basement) in The Basement’s four-room narrative journey. This 45-minute experience maintains the tone and slickness of The Basement’s regular offerings with unsettling and dark themes, live acting, and a high-stakes narrative. Unique puzzles and brief moments of personalization elevate the experience beyond simply talking a character through solving the room. Our group definitely felt the sense of chaotic urgency and pressure, with smaller puzzle countdowns, power outages, live actor panic, and unsettling new rooms painting the picture of Edward’s capabilities and intentions.

 

The Basemenet | My Name Is Jamie

 

Behind the Console

Among all of the remote escape rooms currently available, My Name Is Jamie has by far one of the most intuitive technical set-ups, with both map and inventory views in addition to the main video feed, and a whiteboard/notes area provided to keep teams organized throughout the experience. The pacing of the discovery feels natural, but while the map is incredibly helpful in keeping participants organized, it does spoil some of the room reveals and puzzle locations: Seeing “animal containment room” on the map at the beginning of the game really lessens the shock of the victim encountering dog kennels later on. For the inventory view, screenshots of clues auto-populate as they’re uploaded by the victim, meaning that the team can always readily access information without the actress needing to repeat herself. The technical set-up of My Name Is Jamie paints the victim as reliant on participants for everything from resources to the ability to think straight, and draws them in with striking visuals. The console made for a very polished experience, even if the time pressure resulted in more simplified interactions in comparison to other high-production, remote escape rooms such as Amsterdam Catacombs

 

In almost every way, My Name Is Jamie  lives up to the production value that The Basement is known for. But as with any technology-heavy remote experience, there are hang-ups and factors outside of the production company’s control that can interfere with game-play: Two of our team members had trouble with the experience’s embedded Zoom functionality and audio, with one ultimately calling in from her cell phone and another giving up completely. The Host also seemed to have audio issues at the beginning of the experience, which made it difficult for our group to grasp the relationship between her and Edward, an important piece of context. Additionally, the audio level is fairly low and the setting is…a Basement – it’s very dark, and if you want to get the most out of the well-executed creepiness of the victim’s surroundings, you’re going to want to be able to see everything on the (fairly small) screen. I recommend headphones and a dark room. To The Basement’s credit, a phone number for The Host was provided in case of technical issues, but this was a blip in what was otherwise a nearly flawless interface. Many of these issues are par for the course with remote experiences, and luckily for our team, everything seemed to stabilize once the game started. 

 

The Basemenet | My Name Is Jamie

 

I Woke Up Like This

The premise of My Name Is Jamie is that sadistic, tech-savvy, cannibalistic serial killer Edward Tandy has given his latest helpless victim a one-way video feed lifeline to the outside world with the intention of forcing her into a high-stakes game for her life and his entertainment. While the narrative is chilling and dovetails well with the game’s elaborate console set-up, participants who have done the in-person room may find the experience familiar. Edward begins the game by explaining exactly how the victim will die should we fail, creating tension and a tone reminiscent of a Saw movie: frightening, elaborate, creative, and morbid. He is the quintessential polite psychopath, always one step ahead and happy to watch his victim and her allies squirm as she struggles to escape her fate. 

 

Although My Name Is Jamie has narrative content, the focus is more on the mood and puzzles, and many questions go unanswered. For example, as a result of our successful “escape,” we were informed that Jamie lived, but we were never quite sure who Jamie was. Was that the name of the victim we were following? The host who brought us into the game in the first place? The victim’s fate wasn’t explained and wasn’t clear to those team members who aren’t familiar with The Basement’s four-part Edward Tandy escape plot. This confusion could have been mitigated by a quick acknowledgement or debrief from our ally before she is grabbed and taken to, presumably, The Elevator (the second part of the four-room saga). Instead, all we hear is her scream, juxtaposed against a “You Win” screen that rings a bit hollow in the wake of her obvious distress. Immediately afterward, the team is booted from the system. A moment for decompression and narrative debrief would have been appreciated, maybe even closing contact with The Host, who seems to have had some role in, or motivation for, bringing us there. Although open-ended, this experience serves as a sort of narrative teaser for The Basement’s full experiences, and those members of our team who hadn’t already experienced one of their in-person rooms left determined to do so.

 

The Basemenet | My Name Is Jamie

 

Puzzles from a Gentleman

The puzzles in My Name Is Jamie were enjoyable and worked in service of the tone and narrative. They were fairly simple in comparison to the in-person experiences, but this is to be expected when adapting the game to a remote experience with a single actor – the clues and puzzles have to be tight, transmittable over a laptop, and in reach of the actress at all times. The actress was also able to clarify the status of various puzzles and direct attention within the room where necessary, although she generally took on a more flustered and reactionary disposition. The challenge level is casual enough that our team made it out in twenty minutes (45 are allotted, presumably with cushion for technical difficulties) but non-trivial. We enjoyed the puzzles and felt intellectually engaged for the duration of the game.  

 

The mechanics of the puzzles in the game felt very intentional to the remote format. From phone calls to urgent Googling, they came in many forms and were fun to solve, making the act of being seated by a laptop feel like part of the immersion. Our group particularly enjoyed the cannibalism references and the clue hidden in a cocktail recipe. One thing that wasn’t clear to the team was whether or not there was meant to be a connection between the various puzzle themes. Spanning beverages, racing movies, and the 1972 Andes flight disaster, the themes seemed a bit random (although conceivably a collection of things that would be of interest to a wealthy, tech-savvy cannibal). Overall, the puzzles showed refreshing creativity and flair. 

 

The Basemenet | My Name Is Jamie

 

Being a Lifeline

In typical escape-room fashion, a lot of the interactivity comes from the way that players work together as a team. The console’s intuitive set-up made collaboration somewhat easier than the average escape room. With a small team (we had four) everyone will feel engaged and have something to do (counseling the victim, research, notes, planning the next move). The focus is definitely on the puzzles, but small moments of personalization and interaction are still present. During one scene, Edward informed us that one of the codes consisted in the answers to a series of personal questions about team members. While this trick is easily pulled off in the remote space, it’s unsettling, fun, and results in a sense of vulnerability (the implication being that if we fail, we may be Edward’s next victims). The use of our phones to Google trivia or place calls brings the action into the real world. The methods of immersion pair nicely with the running theme of Edward’s technical prowess. It feels believable that the series’ antagonist could have gained access to our laptops and phones. The level of agency is standard for that of a high-caliber escape room: The actor is responsive to participants. The overall result is an engaging and responsive team experience for long-time fans and new blood alike. 

 

The interweaving of live-actor reactions with puzzles and exploration has always been a highlight of experiences at The Basement. The on-screen victim is dynamic, emotive, distressing, and engaged. The mental and emotional state of the victim players assist also creates a narratively plausible reason for her inability to make any decisions or take any action without explicit instruction from her lifelines. Multiple members of our group commented on how important our tone of communication was, as part of the added challenge of the game was the need to comfort and get through to the frightened girl, making the scenario feel more realistic and adding a layer of well-executed logistical complexity. Both the directions we gave the victim and our choice of tone could have resulted in spin-outs, lost time, and, ultimately, failure. For example, it can be tricky to explain to a trapped and beaten victim that the keyword she’s missing is, well, a body part. In general, the victim is responsive to questions, confusions, and instructions in real time, which heightens the game’s sense of agency. 

 

The Basemenet | My Name Is Jamie

 

Various Victims

The acting style, in general, is in line with the high-production expectations of The Basement. The victim is empathetic and comes across as genuinely frightened and helpless. Our group did regret that we weren’t able to get to know her personality in quite the same way we were able to get to know our guide during Amsterdam Catacombs, for example. We acknowledge that this is par for the course in a game that is a timed escape rather than exploration/decision-focused, but would’ve loved a bit of backstory to add some texture to her character. The nature and format of My Name Is Jamie necessitates a fair amount of exposition (“There are dogs here”) and attention direction (“I see something written on that wall”), but for the most part it makes circumstantial sense as the victim attempts to describe what’s around her and help as much as she can. The victim is a talented actress, and any character development or cut-scenes to showcase more of her emotional spectrum would be a great add-on to help participants connect. 

 

The Host, a personal favorite, has an attitude that felt like a mix of American Horror Story: Asylum and Stepford Wife energy. She presents as a lobotomized victim with a bloody nose who politely responds to our pleasantries by informing us that today is a good day because “Edward loosened the chains.” Her forced smile and vacant eyes were one of the most disturbing parts of the experience for me, and set the tone right out of the gate. She manages to be delightfully off-putting even as the customary rules and guidelines speech is given, and the participants filter in and work through their technical issues.

 

The voice acting we got from Edward was minimal, as usual, but what we did get was a lot of fun. Always the perfectly charming gentleman cannibal (think Hannibal Lecter), we were left wanting more of his character and story, as well. The phone call with Edward was one of the most frightening and delightful parts of the show, and moments like these add a lot to the immersion and investment in narrative stakes. Not everyone who attends the remote experience will have overall context for The Basement’s lore, so a bit more interaction between the actors (their scenes were completely siloed) might help orient participants and further increase engagement. 

 

 

Final Thoughts

The Basement’s My Name Is Jamie is a top-of-the-line, remote escape-room experience. Creepy, intriguing and aesthetic, it has the potential to keep horror-fan friends connected, challenged, and pleasantly panicked from afar. The experience functions well as a mild challenge for a team of friends and a callback to or teaser for the beloved escape room universe that The Basement is known for. The content is unsettling but not graphic, and the game is versatile and suitable for most adult participants. While the actual challenge level and emotional intensity feel mild in comparison to the in-person rooms, the overall game is fun and effective, especially given the unique remote format. It’s certainly one of the top remote escape experiences currently available, and highly recommended to anyone looking for their escape room fix.

 

Find out more about The Basement, and book your chance to save Jamie, by visiting their website, Facebook, or Instagram. Check out our Event Guide for more immersive and horror events throughout the year.

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1 Comment

  • Rick Konczyk on July 29, 2020

    Make sure to check out the MNiJ Discord as well, that has the info on the ARG leading up to the escape room as well as all the info on the characters involved!

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