This might surprise some of you, but I'm a wrestling fan. I know, I'll give you a minute to get over the shock. Having said that, I was really intrigued by this wacky WWE experiment. First off, I'm not used to "WWE" and "experiment," because the company's rested on its laurels for a few decades now. That's why I was surprised to see a Netflix Interactive Movie on the way, starring some of the company's most vibrant stars.
Escape the Undertaker takes viewers into the haunted mansion of the Dead Man himself. He's apparently working on an evil ritual that will take people's souls through the discarded urn of the late Paul Bearer. This leads to the lovable trio, The New Day, knocking on Undertaker's door, hoping to add the power of the urn to the Power of Positivity™ to make them unstoppable.
What follows is a fun romp through an escape room-style setup. The New Day spend the adventure bantering with each other, while also running through a few Scooby Doo tropes. Along the way, viewers must pick how the story unfolds. They can follow select characters, giving them different perspectives to start. From there, the choices get a little more intense, revealing everyone's deepest fears and ultimately leading to a confrontation with The Undertaker himself. He was already pretty supernatural to begin with, but now he's got movie magic to add to his powers, making him all-powerful!
I really had a blast with this. I'm not gonna lie. The New Day's chemistry is unmatched, Undertaker (in spite of his accent slipping, after having not done this for a while) plays his character like nobody else, and there are even a few different endings to make you want to play the whole thing again. A few nitpicks: A scene will abruptly end when you make a selection, which will often cut off dialogue or make a jarring cut. Plus, the closed captioner really needs to learn the difference between Woods and Kofi. (They're not the same, dude.)
Other than those few minor quibbles, Escape the Undertaker is worth playing through! It'll only eat up about 30-40 minutes and even if you aren't a wrestling fan, the New Day are such fun and wholesome characters that you'll grow attached to them by the end. I don't know what the next frontier is for WWE, but I hope we get more stuff like this. Lord knows if you have characters, use them!
