Firstly, I should apologise to Narrow Escape Rooms for taking so long to write up this review. This year has been hectic and I’m sure I’m not the only one that has had their hands full with juggling work, home-schooling and life in general.
We went
and checked out Narrow Escape Rooms’ second room, The Inheritance back on my
birthday in January. Every year I always
try to leave a couple of rooms to do on my birthday that I have heard great
things about and The Inheritance was at the top of our list.
This was
our second time to Narrow Escape Rooms – the first time having been a couple of
weeks earlier with our kids where we checked out Launch. You can read my separate review of Launch
here.
This time
we brought our usual team of 4 adults.
We again spent some time before The Inheritance chatting with Shelley
and Craig and we also got to meet Kit, another owner. I always love a
family-owned and run escape room, particularly where the owners design their
rooms themselves.
The
Inheritance was our 135th room to date and our 87th room in (or around)
Sydney. Here is the room description, from their website:
You receive word that your Aunt May
has passed away.
She was fun, loving and RICH!
She was your favourite Aunt & she
wants YOU to inherit her FORTUNE!
But first you must find her will!
Here is
what we thought:
· this room was so very well-designed. The flow is really nice
and they have managed to include linear elements together with sections where
players can break off in pairs (or solo) to complete puzzles. I
think The Inheritance is similar to Launch in that regard;
· however, The Inheritance is significantly more challenging than
Launch. Whilst Launch is aimed more at newer players and families,
The Inheritance is not as simple a room. My team has been to many
rooms to date and we found elements of The Inheritance quite challenging. The
room has a 4/5 difficulty (according to their website), which I think is about
right. I don’t recall how quickly my team escaped from The
Inheritance, but I recall feeling like we had plenty to do the whole
time. There are a lot of puzzles to get through in the 75 minutes
allowed time;
· there was a really nice mix of puzzles in The Inheritance. As
with Launch, we found some puzzles that we had not seen used before, which is
always awesome. There is a great mix of hunt and seek fun, together
with some really unique and challenging puzzles. There is again a
nice mix of high tech and low tech puzzles;
· there are no scary or dark sections of the room, so it is fine for
younger players. I would describe this room as being at the trickier
end of the spectrum though, so if you’re new to escape rooms, I suggest warming
up with their Launch room before tackling The Inheritance. And don’t
be deterred from trying The Inheritance if you are a new player – the owners
are very experienced and can help guide you along with some nudges and hints
when needed;
· I don’t remember asking for hints during our experience (I don’t think
we did?), but I recall from our time in Launch that Narrow Escape Rooms use the
"voice of God" system for communication, which is the best system
available;
· the theming in The Inheritance is really nicely done. All
props and puzzles pieces are completely appropriate to the theme and are really
well integrated. There are few things better in an escape room than
having a back story that makes sense (why are there puzzles there for players
to solve in the first place?), and having puzzles that are designed from items
that you would expect to find in the space. Narrow Escape Rooms has
again done this really well. This really steps up the immersion of
the room;
· the back story to the room is well-considered and the strong storyline
continues right throughout the experience; and
·
Shelley, Craig and Kit took us through all of the puzzles in the room
after we finished and explained different aspects of
the puzzles, how they came up with puzzles ideas, how they had adapted puzzles
over time, what additional puzzles ideas they have, etc. I really enjoy
debriefing with game masters after a room and hearing about how they came up
with puzzles or how their puzzles have evolved over time.
The
Inheritance is a truly awesome room.
As
always, the true test of a great room is whether we had fun. My team
raved about The Inheritance for some time afterwards – not only was it a
well-designed room that had us scratching our heads a several points to try and
solve their very clever puzzles, we also had a heap of fun along the way.
I also
know from speaking with other experienced players who have tried The
Inheritance that they absolutely loved it as well.
It really
is a fantastic room. My team cannot wait
to head back out to Narrow Escape when they open more rooms.
-Team Shah ;-)
Where:
Suite 4, First Floor, 2
Castlereagh St, Penrith
Duration:
75 minutes
Themes: 2 themes
Cost:
Price: $45
each (4 players)
Overall
Rating:
One of my favourite rooms to date – challenging and fun!
