CT Adventures - The Virus review [CLOSED]

Hi all

My team checked out CT Adventures’ The Virus room in December.  We had been to CT Adventures twice before – the first time to check out MU-T (which was a great room) and their Gotcha! Room (which was less great).

CT Adventures is one of those outfits that have high tech rooms without the immersive, layered experience.  I think MU-T is their strongest room, with the best variety of puzzles. 

The theme of The Virus is as follows (taken from their website):

The newest high-tech computer system has been created recently by our research institute and the Doctors named it “LYU”.

However, a computer VIRUS “X” has hacked into our “LYU”System and controlled it all. Please try to enter the control room ASAP and fix all the system. Restart “LYU” and find the way of clear the Virus ......Good Luck!

So in a nutshell, there’s a virus that players have to identify and fix.  It’s not the most unique of storylines unfortunately…

The Virus was our 105th escape room in Australia and our 75^th escape room in Sydney.  Here are my thoughts:

·         there was a mix of mostly high tech puzzles, with a few old-school Hungarian style puzzles.  Many of the high tech puzzles were high tech for the sake of it – given this was a computer virus themed room, it did kind of suit the theme I suppose;

·         the hint system was by way of a walkie talkie – this was effective but not nearly as strong as the more common Voice of God hint system that is common in most rooms these days;

·         there wasn’t too much hunt and seek fun in the room – it was 95% about the puzzles;

·         the theming was ok – certainly not in the same ballpark as some of the stronger rooms in Sydney or Melbourne;

·         this room had replaced the earlier Pokemon-themed Gotcha room, which my team had tried.  Unfortunately, the room layout is identical to the previous room – this was disappointing and a little lazy on the room owners’ part;

·         some of the puzzles were not exactly logical or clear – we had to ask for a hint at one point because we didn’t understand what we were supposed to do with the techy puzzle elements;

·         in the end, we didn’t understand the storyline and whether we had achieved in our quest (although I had kind of got bored by that point and had lost interest in the quest itself).

I would describe this room as being pretty lack-lustre.  We escaped in less than half of the permitted time – it felt like we were running through the motions without a single wow moment or fun element.

As always, the true test of a room for me is whether we had fun.  We didn’t have fun in this room.  The other measure of a room, at least for me, is how well I remember the puzzles.  For my favourite rooms, I can tell you in detail each puzzle in the space 2 or 3 years later. 

With this room at CT Adventures, it has been less than 2 months and I can barely remember any of the puzzles.  Give it a miss.

Where:                                        61 Market Street, Sydney

Duration:                                     60 minutes

Themes:                                      3 themes

Cost:                                            $40pp

Overall Summary:                      Not unique, fun or enjoyable – give it a miss

More details:                               https://ctadventureescapegame.com.au/

Curious Cartel - The Lock In Review

Hi all

My team checked out Curious Cartel's The Lock In in December 2018.  I booked tickets to this experience the second I heard about it (they mentioned "Goonies" in their theme summary on their website, so it was a no-brainer from where I was sitting). 

The theme of The Lock In is as follows (taken from their website):

All friends are welcome at our ultimate night out featuring theatre, cocktails, puzzles and a chunk of 80s sci-fi nostalgia. 'The Lock In' is Sydney’s very own homage to the most awesome of decades and we’re ready to quite literally turn your world upside down.

Booking into The Lock In is accepting a one-way ticket to small town Indiana. Weird stuff has been going on at a top-secret government facility and a kid has gone missing.  You and your associates are invited to step into the story, crack the codes and save the day... This is no PG-13 Goonies adventure.  The lab is fixing up adults only hard liquor - and you’ll be conducting some alcoholic experiments yourself. There’s also a chance to be part of your own high school movie but at Heartstrings High, your teacher is actively encouraging you to make moonshine in science class.

All this to a soundtrack of your favourite 80s movie hits. The Lock In takes  immersive theatre and an experiential bar and cranks it up to Eleven.

So round up your friends, get lost in our wonderful world and see if you have got what it takes to make it to the end.

So in a nutshell, it's an immersive theatre experience with cocktail-making and 80s cliches.

The Lock In was our 104th escape room (or escape room like) experience in Australia (and our 74th experience in Sydney).  I was initially disappointed (and a little pissed off) with Curious Cartel.  Despite having booked tickets months out, I received an email from them a couple of days before our scheduled experience telling me that due to unforeseen circumstances (which they wouldn't elaborate on), our experience had been cancelled and we had to change dates.  Given I had already booked a babysitter, I found this very frustrating.

We ultimately on another night in December.  Here are my thoughts:

·         the backstory was fun – it’s a take on Stranger Things meets Goonies meets Weird Science meets something else;

·         there were about 16 or so people in our group.  As with A Midnight Visit, it was annoying that they didn’t explain on their website the group sizes for the experience – I didn’t mind having a larger size group, but I would have liked to know ahead of time;

·         the storyline sees players splitting up pretty quickly into 2 groups and then at the midway point, the teams swap places so everyone gets to experience the same puzzles;

·         the puzzles were fun but not overly complicated or unique.  It was really interesting solving puzzles with complete strangers; and

·         throughout the experience, one of the challenges is to create a couple of concoctions - these are the cocktails that players then get to drink while solving other puzzles;

·         the experience was on the expensive side compared to other escape room experiences ($65 per person).  Given that each player gets to drink 2 cocktails as part of the experience, for many people the pricing might be ok.

I would describe the experience as more of an immersive experience than an escape room.  It was fun, but there were no real wow moments – I think the actor interaction could have been more fun and engaging and more humour could have been added to the script.

We had fun, but it certainly wasn’t the most fun nor the most immersive experience we have tried to date.

Where:                                      501 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills

Duration:                                  90 minutes

Themes:                                    1 theme

Cost:                                          $65pp

Overall Summary:                    A fun 80s throwback room but without any wow factor

More details:                            https://www.curiouscartel.com/

A Midnight Visit - Review

Hi everyone

My team went to check out A Midnight Visit back in October.  I was really excited to check out A Midnight Visit, as some of the best escape room (or escape room like) experiences I have been to have involved live actors in the space.  The one that comes to mind as my fave live actor experience was Monroe & Associates (which toured in Sydney in January 2018).

A Midnight Visit is an interactive experience, based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe.  It was our 103^rd “escape room” experience.

Firstly, I should make it very clear to those reading this review that A Midnight Visit is not an escape room.  In fact, it is nothing really at all like an escape room.  It is much more akin to interactive performance art, with various actors playing roles throughout many different spaces/scenes.

I found much of the scenery and theming was really well done.  The space looked cool and every prop was appropriate (and in some cases, very detailed). 

However, beyond that, honestly, I didn’t enjoy the experience.  My main bug bear with the experience was that there were simply too many people.  We must have had at least 80 people in our group – it was standing room only.  What annoyed me about this is that nowhere on their website do they disclose the number of people in each group.  I expected there would be maybe 20 or so people, so when I saw 80 I was just annoyed.  This volume of people greatly affected our experience.  As many of the scenes within the experience were quite small, we had to wait in long queues to get into most areas.  

There was only one escape room style puzzle in the experience that we managed to find.  It was an excellent puzzle (no doubt designed by our friends at The Cipher Room).  Unfortunately, the puzzle had been solved (and left in the solved position) by the time we managed to fight the queue into that particular room.  I found that REALLY disappointing.

There were some fun elements and great theming, but overall I found myself not really getting into the performance art.  Parts were interesting but it just wasn’t for me.

Where:                                    655 King Street, Newtown

Duration:                                60-80 minutes

Themes:                                  1 theme

Cost:                                        $64pp

Overall Summary:                  More theatre than escape room and WAY too many people

More details:                          https://amidnightvisit.com/

Expedition Sydney have opened in Redfern

Hi all

Happy new year everyone!  I was contacted recently by LeeOnn and Damien, the owners of Expedition Escape Rooms.  For those of you who are based in Canberra - firstly, my condolences (a cheap shot, I know).  Secondly, you might be aware that Expedition Escape Rooms already have rooms in Canberra.  They partnered with Rush Escape Rooms from Melbourne on the room design for their Canberra rooms.  

My team has been to Rush Escape Rooms and we have tried 4 of their rooms (and loved them all).  They were really fun rooms (and rumour has it my team still holds the record 3 years later for their Mission: Possible room ;-)

LeeOnn and Damien have opened up a Sydney office.  At this stage, they have one room (called The Forgotten Son) but 3 more rooms are on the way.  The Forgotten Son is their own room design, which is awesome.  LeeOnn and Damien are both enthusiasts, who have done over 110 escape rooms between them.  They tell me that what sets their rooms apart from the rest of the pack is that they try to integrate puzzles into the room instead of just having puzzles for the sake of puzzles.  This is absolutely key in my view - when I think back on my favourite rooms (or my favourite puzzles), they all utilise every day objects that absolutely make sense in a space.  

I'm checking out The Forgotten Son tomorrow night so I'll report back shortly with my review.  

For more information on Expedition Escape Rooms, click here.

Thanks
Scott   

Black Prince Productions - The Art of Murder Review [CLOSED]

Hi all

I was contacted by Alex, a film writer and director in October who invited my team to come along and try out a new escape room adventure that he had written. 

His room, called The Art of Murder, is located in a quiet street in Marrickville in Sydney’s inner west.  Unlike most escape rooms where the objective is to escape a room (or rescue a person/item, break into a room, defuse a bomb, etc), The Art of Murder requires players to solve various puzzles to help gather evidence in a murder investigation.  Here is the summary of the experience from their website:

THE ART OF MURDER

An immersive escape room / alternate reality theatre game.

A wealthy old lady has been murdered, her young lover stands accused.

Your small group of investigators enter her magnificent home to build a case.

Lift fingerprints, find clues, pick locks, solve puzzles and locate the bloody murder weapon.

Be warned though, the suspect has a plane ticket to the Carribean in an hour.

You’re on the clock to gather enough evidence before he slips your grasp forever!

The Art of Murder was my 102^nd room in Australia and my 72^nd room in Sydney. 

Here are my thoughts on The Art of Murder:

·        when we arrived, we were greeted by the owner Alex and the experience started immediately.  We were new police recruits that had been called on to investigate and solve a murder.  The Art of Murder is one of very few escape rooms in Sydney where the game master is in the escape room with you.  This is relatively uncommon in Australia, with only a handful of rooms in Melbourne and Sydney using live actors as game masters.  There are some real benefits and some potential pitfalls to this, but more on that later;

·        the building is awesome and the room in which the experience takes place is uber cool.  It is a former art gallery and there is a really eclectic collection of art on every surface – this is the first escape room that I am aware of in Australian that is effectively inside an art gallery;

·        The Art of Murder is one of those rooms where a lot of consideration has been given to the back story (perhaps unsurprisingly given that Alex is a writer).  This really adds to the immersion level of the room (as does the room setting and the artwork);

·        there is a nice mix of hunt and seek fun as well as a mix of interesting puzzles to solve.  Over all, we finished the experience in about half the allotted time, so I would describe it as being a room best suited to beginners/intermediate players (although my experienced team certainly had a lot of fun).  Although the room is about a murder, it is not overly dark and I think it would be suited to younger players (with supervision);

·        there are some interesting elements to various puzzles.  Alex has clearly tried to incorporate some more authentic police investigation techniques into the puzzle and room design, again really adding a layer of depth to the immersion level.  Also, some of the puzzles were unique and of a type we had not seen in over 100 rooms before, which is always really nice;

·        as outlined above, the clue delivery system in The Art of Murder is by way of the game master being in the room alongside players.  Alex plays the role of a helpful police assistant, providing guidance to our team of new recruits.  If you have read my reviews of other rooms where game masters are inside the experience with players, you will see that whilst these can be some of the most enjoyable and immersive experiences, they do lend themselves to a simple problem – the removal of the barrier between players and the game master can sometimes result in it becoming too easy for the game master to provide guidance and hints.  In a more typical setting, it is not quite so easy for hints to be provided – game masters are physically removed from the space and normally a system of providing hints is put in place (where typically, players have to ask for hints).  This is not the case in an experience where the game master is standing beside you.  Respectfully, we found that at times, Alex was a little too quick to provide guidance (which in some instances, took away from our feeling of accomplishment in solving a couple of the puzzles).  This was partly our fault as I should have made it clear beforehand that given we are an experienced team, we prefer to try pretty hard to solve puzzles before asking for help.  I can appreciate that it is hard as a game master to know the solutions and to have to bite your tongue while watching players, but it makes such a big difference to the overall experience.  I think this is something that can easily be improved, perhaps by asking players ahead of time how much guidance they would like.  I have provided this feedback to Alex.

Overall, my team enjoyed REALLY our experience at The Art of Murder.  I would describe this room as a very immersive and cleverly written experience that is suited to players of all levels and is family friendly.    

As always, the main test of a room is whether my team had fun and we certainly did have fun.  Subject to some tweaks to the hint delivery (which is something that could be very easily improved), this is a great, truly immersive room in a fantastic space. 

Some players love high tech locks and automation (above all else) in escape room experiences.  Others, like my team, would prefer a low tech room with high immersion and a strong backstory.  This is definitely our kind of experience.

Where:                                    111 Chapel Street, Marrickville

Duration:                                60 minutes

Themes:                                 1 theme

Cost:                                       $40pp (although we played at the invitation of the owner)

Overall Summary:                  A fun murder mystery in an awesome space

More details:                          https://www.blackprinceproductionscom.com/

Unexpected Exit - Deranged Scientist Review [CLOSED]

Hi all

I recently found myself in Newcastle with some of my extended family members (who I haven't seen for years in some cases).  It was all very last minute, but I thought I would try and get into Unexpected Exit, an escape room outfit I had been trying to get to for over a year without success.

I called and the very kind game master offered to stay open after their closing hours to accommodate my team.  

We were a team of 4 - me, my sister (who had tried 3 rooms), my cousin (2 rooms) and my older cousin, who had never been to an escape room before.  

Given that our team was largely full of newbs, I asked to try Unexpected Exit's simplest room, The Deranged Scientist.  Here is a summary of the room from their website:

Professor Skoda has finally been captured – the mad genius behind the deadly outbreak of Virus X. In just under 100 days the virus has claimed millions of lives across the globe, with a cure still yet to be found. With the location of the Professor’s lab now known, your team has been selected to search the lab for the antidote. When your team arrives and enters the dimly lit room, the door closes and locks behind you. A plume of gas fills the air and a taunting note from the professor reads – “Enjoy your last 50 minutes on Earth…” This room is an excellent starting point for those new to escape rooms or an enjoyable challenge for the more experienced.

This was my 101st room in Australia and my 71st room in (or around) Sydney. 

Here are my thoughts on The Deranged Scientist:

·         the room is a big space and immediately upon entering, there is a lot to see and do;

·         as far as the quality of theming goes, I think this room was about on par with the average room in Sydney.  It was clearly a commercial office space that had been reused for a science-themed room (but which could have just as easily been any other themed room).  The theming was left mainly to the props rather than to the wall treatments, etc;

·         the room theme of a deranged scientist, whilst not an entirely novel room theme (a similar theme has probably made up about 10% of the 100+ rooms I have tried to date), was fun.  The newbs in my team enjoyed the room theme and puzzles;

·         speaking of puzzles, there was a nice mix.  Some were a little “inelegant” (in that they were a little rustic and not 100% perfect), other puzzles were really strong.  There was one puzzle in particular that I can think of that was unlike anything I had seen elsewhere, which was great;

·         the room uses black light in a couple of puzzles.  Anyone who reads this blog knows that I am not a fan of black light UV torches in rooms (because they almost never suit the room theme – I generally find it lazy puzzle design).  That being said, the new players in my team didn’t care the slightest and they enjoyed the puzzles like any other (maybe I should get over my issues with black lights (although at this stage, it seems doubtful…));

·         there is a nice mix of hunt and seek as well as puzzle solving.  I was surprised that this room was pretty tricky – our team only just made it out in the 50 minute time limit.  Whilst this was largely due to our team not finding one particular hunt and seek piece, I do think that this room should have a 60 minute time limit rather than 50 minutes.  This room is clearly aimed at a beginner level (and given it is the only current escape room outfit in Newcastle, I think they are right to aim for the new player market with at least one of their rooms).  The extra 10 minutes would greatly increase the escape (and reduce the number of hints required for newer players);

·         the clue delivery system isn’t great in this room – you ask for hints and a piece of paper is passed under the door with the hint scrawled on it.  This kind of thing breaks the immersion of a room and whilst this was more common when escape rooms first came out in Sydney, most now utilise the voice of God system (or other methods that are even better suited to the theme).  By memory, teams are entitled to 3 hints in The Deranged Scientist;

·         the most interesting props in the room were unfortunately not really used (and were more window dressings).  This was a little disappointing; and

·         this room is child friendly – there are no scary aspects at all.  There is also a lot of space in this room, so although I would recommend a team of 4 players, you could probably go as many as 6 players given the space.

Overall, my team enjoyed our experience at The Deranged Scientist.  I would describe this room as a solid beginner room, suited more to new or younger players.  The quality of the theming is not on par with some of the magical rooms that we have here in Sydney (and many in Melbourne), but this is something that newer players are unlikely to care too much about.

A nice touch is that at the end of the experience, you get a small polaroid photo of your team which you then get to stick anywhere in the premises that you like.

As always, the main test of a room is whether my team had fun and the answer was that yes, we definitely had fun.  I look forward to taking my more experienced team back to try Unexpected Exit’s other three rooms, which I understand are much more difficult.

Where:                                    Level 1 Suite 1/810-820 Hunter Street Newcastle

Duration:                                50 minutes

Themes:                                 4 themes

Cost:                                       $30 per person

Overall Summary:                 A solid room suited to beginners.

More details:                          http://unexpectedexit.com.au/rooms/