Yeah, I have a small group that only manages to get together (digitally) for games occasionally, so we're fairly selective about the games we choose. This one is perfect for us, because by now we're scattered all over the world and really missing the time (20 years ago) were we would all just hang around in some forest or dive bar seemingly all the time. The puzzles are great because of the reliance on communication, often reminding me of the goofiness and inventiveness of the British show Taskmaster, but the real joy is just sitting around a campfire (well, glowing orb) and talking about nothing. I think we all fell in love with it pretty quickly.

One example of a small but genius puzzle: (and this is a spoiler for a fun part, so please ignore this bit if you feel inclined to): we all walk into this small room containing nothing but a couch, a chair and a big tv. Once we closed the door, a big 5 minute countdown started on the tv. We couldn't do anything in the room except open the door, which would turn off (and then reset) the timer. The solution? Just hang out and have a conversation with each other for 5 minutes. It's a small idea, but genius in its own way. We loved it.

But yeah, the frustrations you mentioned are very real. Once it gets dark, it gets very dark, and its super easy to get turned around and fall down a thing and losing the rest of your friends for ages. It resulted in some fun moments though. At one point I was wandering around a forest after losing the group, only to run into a friend who was sent out to look for me, but she had also lost her way. We spend some time desperately looking for whatever gathering point they had chosen, until we suddenly saw some fireworks the others had found, and heard one of my friends singing a silly song over a megaphone (just to make sure he could keep making noise). It was kind of magical and funny in its own way.

Of course, that was an example of it turning into a fun story with a lot of things coming together. There are a lot of frustrating versions that happened often as well. I wish the distance your voices carry was just a bit larger (if only to be able to follow conversations easier), and it's very easy to get stuck on things in the environment.

Still, it's not perfect, but when it works it's pretty amazing.