Riddle Room - The Hideaway Review (Canberra)

Hi everyone

The third room at Riddle Room that my team played during our March 2021 long weekend was The Hideaway. 

The summary of The Hideaway is as follows:

 

While investigating an elusive criminal, a police detective has gone missing without a trace. We need your help to find her before it's too late.

 

Players: 3 - 6

Recommended Players: 3 - 5

Difficulty: 4 / 5

Scare Factor: 0 / 5

Hideaway was our 6^th room in Canberra and our 173^rd room to date.  Here’s what we thought:

·           Hideaway is one of the latest rooms at Riddle Room (together with Hotel) and it contains a heck of a lot of well-concealed tech;

·           Hideaway is a reasonably large sized escape room.  There were lots of puzzles to solve, with varying levels of difficulty.  As always, the puzzles that slowed our team down were the hunt and seek elements (we often don’t see what is right in front of us, and that was no different in Hideaway);

·           Hideaway is really well-themed.  It is clear that a lot of hard work has gone into the presentation of the room, the props, etc.  There is also a strong storyline that continues throughout the experience;

·           there are no dark areas or scary elements to Hideaway at all, so it is a room that would suit families;

·           my team found Hideaway probably the most challenging of all of the rooms that we played at Riddle Room.  That was in part due to our inability to see what was in front of us, and in part because some the puzzles were quite challenging;

·           as always, the customer service side of things was excellent in Hideaway.  We had a dedicated game master watching our every move.  Chris, one of the owners of Riddle Room, also took us through each of the puzzles in the room after we escaped, which was really great; and

·           I am pretty sure Riddle Room uses the Voice of God system in their rooms.  We did ask for a hint at the end of Hideaway, but I don’t remember for sure whether it was the Voice of God or another method for communicating.

Hideaway is a really strong room.  Some of the theming elements were excellent.  There was a really nice mix of puzzles, of varying degrees of difficulty. We had a chat with Chris, one of the owners of Riddle Room, after we escaped.  We had some ideas for how to improve a couple of puzzles (minor things like changing up some of the iconography to make things clearer in the final puzzle, or having a certain element locked away until later in the game to avoid confusion).  These were all minor in the grand scheme of things (and whilst they would have been useful changes for our teams, perhaps not so much for other teams).

Again, I forgot to write down how long it took us to escape from Hideaway, but I think it was somewhere around the 45-50 minute mark.  I think Hideaway, at least for our team, was the most difficult room at Riddle Room.  And it was also a lot of fun.

Where:                         8 / 160 Lysaght Street, Mitchell ACT

Duration:                      60 minutes

Themes:                      4 themes (with plenty of space for more rooms)

Price:                           $40 per person

Overall Thoughts:        A high-tech, challenging room with great theming

More details:                http://riddleroom.com.au         

 

Riddle Room - The Dungeon Review (Canberra)

Hi everyone

The second room at Riddle Room that my team played during our March 2021 long weekend was The Dungeon. 

The summary of The Dungeon is as follows:

 

Gone mad with power, the old King decided he only wants the greatest minds to dwell within his kingdom. Will you pass his tests, or will you be banished forever?

 

Players: 3 - 7

Recommended players: 4 - 6

Difficulty: 4.5 / 5

Scare factor: 0 / 5

The Dungeon was our 5^th room in Canberra and our 172^nd room to date.  Here’s what we thought:

·           Dungeon is a poorly lit space but I would not describe it as scary. For that reason, I think the room would be suited to families and younger kids, provided they were ok with dark spaces;

·           the room flow and design in Dungeon is really interesting (and a little unlike any other room we have been to).  The room is designed with 2 paths that players must take (each of which is linear, but both paths can be progressed simultaneously).  So I think then I would describe the room as multi-linear, rather than non-linear?  Either way, it was really well designed.  To assist players in understanding the order, the game includes iconography on a wall which signposts each step along the way for both paths, with a convergence point towards the end.  We hadn’t seen this done before and it was really cool;

·           the puzzles in Dungeon are truly varied.  Some of the puzzles involved hunt and seek fun (which held us up for a few minutes), others use spatial awareness, pattern recognition, the works.  It was a great room for enthusiasts like my team, as we really enjoyed the diversity of challenging puzzles;

·           the theming in Dungeon was excellent.  You can really tell that Riddle Room has spent a lot of time and expense in fitting out their rooms.  Dungeon is quite a large space and given the multi-linear paths in the room, I think this room could probably handle up to say 5 or even 6 players;

·           we escaped Dungeon in 32 mins and 22 seconds, which was the monthly record.  Despite escaping so quickly, I still felt that the room had a heap of puzzles and we were all kept very busy throughout.  My team always does better in non-linear rooms, as we can break up and each attack different puzzles at the same time.  The same was true in Dungeon.  The downside to this is that at the end of the room, we then need to walk back through each of the puzzles and see what our team mates solved without us;

·           as with their other rooms, there is a lot of well-concealed tech in Nightmare.  But again, one of my favourite puzzles in Dungeon was a simple, low-tech puzzle that relied on coloured rope.  It was really nicely done.  I also really liked the last minute hunt and seek puzzle thrown in for good measure (which now that I think of it, was a common element in the other RR rooms as well);

·           as far as theming goes, all of the props were of a high quality and both the props and puzzles all made sense in the space.  There was also a strong storyline that continued throughout the experience and brought everything together nicely;

·           again, we had great customer service in Dungeon.  Our dedicated game master watched our every move – she was friendly and helpful and she offered to take us back through all of the puzzles at the end of our experience; and

·           I am pretty sure Riddle Room uses the Voice of God system in their rooms (although we didn’t ask for a hint in Dungeon so I’m not 100% sure).

My team loved Dungeon.  It was themed really well, there were a heap of challenging and varied puzzles and the multi-linear room design was something we hadn’t seen before. 

Where:                         8 / 160 Lysaght Street, Mitchell ACT

Duration:                      60 minutes

Themes:                      4 themes (with plenty of space for more rooms)

Price:                           $40 per person

Overall Thoughts:        Awesome theming and challenging, varied puzzles.

More details:                http://riddleroom.com.au

Riddle Room - The Nightmare Review (Canberra)

Hi everyone

My team of 4 finally managed to get down to Canberra in March 2021 after several years of trying to find a long weekend to get down there.  I had met Chris and Jesse, the owners of Riddle Room at PAX in Melbourne in 2019.  It was awesome to finally go down and check out their rooms.

We played all 4 of the rooms at Riddle Rooms in a single day.  We checked out 3 back to back (with a break for lunch) and then we came back after dinner than night to play the 4^th room.

First up we took on Riddle Room’s first room, The Nightmare.  Before Riddle Room took on commercial premises, their Nightmare room was constructed in a garage.  Things have obviously come a long way since then, given that Riddle Room now has one of the largest commercial premises of any escape room business in the country. 

The summary of The Nightmare is as follows:

The DreamWake Corporation is looking for volunteers to enter the mind of a young girl trapped in an endless nightmare. Can you find the cause, save her, and get out in time?

 

Players: 2 - 6
Recommended Players: 4 - 5
Difficulty: 3.5 / 5
Scare Factor: 1 / 5

The Nightmare was our 4^th room in Canberra and our 171^st room to date.  Here’s what we thought:

·          Nightmare is a dark, scary-themed room but it wasn’t uber scary (there are no jump scares or anyone coming after you, for example).  That being said, I don’t think the room would be suitable for young children (as there are some aspects that are very dark (ie poorly lit) and some of the creepier elements might not go down so well with little ones);

·          as far as room design goes, Nightmare has a really nice flow.  There are interesting puzzles, some of which included elements that we had not seen used before (and that’s becoming pretty rare these days);

·          there is a lot of well-concealed tech in Nightmare (as there is in all Riddle Rooms for that matter).  But one of my favourite puzzles in Nightmare was a simple, low-tech puzzle that relied on following coloured rope.  It was really nicely done;

·          as far as theming goes, all of the props were of a high quality and both the props and puzzles all made sense in the space.  There was also a strong storyline that continued throughout the experience and brought everything together nicely;

·          there isn’t a huge amount of hunt and seek fun in Nightmare, but where it is used it is quite effective (I’m thinking here of the end of the experience);

·          something that Riddle Room does extremely well is the customer service side of things.  We had a dedicated game master watching our every move – she was friendly and helpful and she offered to take us back through all of the puzzles at the end of our experience.  Not all rooms in Australia have dedicated game masters (in fact, not all rooms in Canberra have dedicated game masters) and it always makes a huge difference; and

·          I am pretty sure Riddle Room uses the Voice of God system in their rooms, although I am not 100% sure as we didn't ask for any hints in Nightmare.

Overall, I would describe Nightmare as a really strong room with nice puzzles and theming.  The only puzzle we didn’t love was a puzzle that used black light.  There was nothing wrong or unclear about the puzzle – we just don’t like black light puzzles.  They have been done to death in escape rooms and they very rarely fit the room theme.

I forgot to write down how long it took us to escape from The Nightmare, but I think it was somewhere around the 40 minute mark.  It was a strong room and it proved to be a really good warm up for my team before we took on the rest of the rooms at Riddle Room.

Where:                         8 / 160 Lysaght Street, Mitchell ACT

Duration:                      60 minutes

Themes:                      4 themes (with plenty of space for more rooms)

Price:                           $40 per person

Overall Thoughts:        A fun, well-themed first room from Riddle Room

More details:                http://riddleroom.com.au