Wednesday 17 December 2014

Review of Mission Escape - Vampire Castle Theme





My group (of 4 adults) checked out Mission Escape Sydney back in September, not too long after they had opened.  We had all previously tried out Sydney Escape Hunt and were excited to see what other escape room outfits had to offer in Sydney.

Firstly, they can be a little tricky to find (although we had no problems).  You enter through glass doors on Pitt Street into a small foyer area between a hairdresser and a Vodafone store.  You then take the lifts up to level 3.


The atmosphere there is cool.  When you arrive, you sit down in a small waiting area where you are given instructions.  We did the Vampire Escape theme.

First off, I'll say what I enjoyed most about Mission Escape Sydney:


  • to be honest, I had some initial concerns (based primarily on their website) that language barriers might have been an issue for us.  However I can confirm that I worried for nothing and this was all fine;
  • the atmosphere was really cool.  To be fair, this place was not run nearly as "professionally" as Escape Hunt Sydney in that they had much less staff members than other outfits (but I found this a plus).  We had a lot of fun.  We were blindfolded and had to walk from the waiting room into the hunt room - which was both silly and fun (and a nice way to start the room);
  • the quality of the puzzles was far better and more high tech than I had envisaged.  In fact, we spent too much time thinking about the puzzle mechanisms (and how they worked) rather than just getting on with the puzzles; 
  • we had a heap of fun even though we didn't escape in time.  What I really liked was that the owners let you keep playing beyond the clock and give you hints so that everyone can see how to escape the room; and
  • the theme was incredibly well done.  I can't overstate this enough.  It was eerie, at times scary and the high tech puzzles made the over all theming 100% perfect.  

Now, for what could have been improved:


  • to be honest, not much could be improved here;
  • the only item we had issues with was one puzzle, which has a delay before it activates.  This was confusing for us because we had it all correct, but when we didn't get an immediate reaction, we assumed we were wrong and tried different things.  After some time, we realised that we had it right all along, but there was about a 10 to 15 second delay before the puzzle reacted.  This was frustrating, because it was the very last puzzle and if we had not taken so much time on this one, we would have easily escaped in time; and
  • the only other negative here is the price, which is the highest of all escape rooms in Sydney. The price of the Dr M theme in particular is very steep (at $45 a head).  It is a little hard to justify $90 a couple for a 70 minute escape.  I think if their price on each room dropped by $5 to $10 per person, they would increase their patronage.

This outfit was my favourite escape room in Sydney, hands down (at least of those that I have tried as at 18 December 2014).  I've already booked in for their next room, Dr M in January and can't wait!

Their tripadvisor reviews also rank them as the best escape room in Sydney, which was completely unsurprising to me.  

If you think that you might only ever do one escape room, then I would choose either this one or ParaPark (although I bet that if you try Mission Escape, you will get the bug and will come back too!)  


Where:                   Suite 301-303 Pitt Street, Sydney

Duration:               60 to 70 mins (depending on theme)

Themes:                 Currently 2 (Dr M and Vampire Castle)

Cost:                       $35-45 each (4 players)

Overall rating:      4.5 out of 5 stars

More details:         http://www.missionsydney.com/

8 comments:

  1. We tried this room as our first ever escape room and really enjoyed it. Took us (two people) much longer than I expected but on analysis afterwards, we made two stupid rookie errors which cost us lots of time. Regarding the issue you had at the end, I believe they've rectified it.

    Overall:
    - very glad this was our first room
    - very keen to try more places
    - kinda wished the whole puzzle room was in reverse. I found the latter puzzles easier than the beginning.

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    1. Hi K

      Thanks for coming back to me with your experience of Mission Escape's Vampire Castle. We too got stuck on the first puzzles and then moved pretty quickly through the rest (I think most people have a similar experience).

      If you're keen to do other rooms, I think good options are ParaPark, PanIQ Room (either room) and Enigma Room (either room) - ParaPark probably being the easier of these options (and a really great room).

      Let me know how you go with other rooms - it's hard not to get addicted once you start ;-)

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  2. I completed this at the weekend & absolutely loved it! I was slightly concerned we would find it a litte too easy but those fears quickly disappeared! Best parts about VP are the clever puzzles (Particularly enjoyed the last room), props & atmosphere. Mission Sydney clearly love what they do... We left the room to poppers, usual pics & they even walked us through each of the rooms afterwards explaining certain puzzles (Incl Dr M too, which we'd already done before). Eager for their two pending rooms! Easily the best Escape Room outfit I have come across, so far.

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  3. Hi Andy. Glad to hear that you enjoyed Vampire Castle. Mission Sydney definitely do a great job of puzzles and customer service. We had an issue with the final puzzle (it took about 10-15 seconds to react, which was really confusing). I understand that they have fixed this now. If you liked the Mission Sydney rooms, then I'd also try both Enigma Room rooms (which are high tech and excellent), both Paniq Room rooms (a mix of high and low tech with excellent design and puzzles) and ParaPark's room (high tech, low tech and great theming/puzzles). Please let me know what you think of those rooms if you do them/have done them. Thanks. Scott

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  4. They are all on my To-Do list! I have already completed Military Bunker @ Paniq, which is great but not a patch on Mission Sydney imo. I'm eager to experience Enigma rooms & also Forensic at Escapism :)

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  5. Just did this and escaped with 2 minutes to go! I know what you mean about the delay for something to work that was a little annoying just because it wasted time and thinking we did something wrong! It's up there with the top escape rooms

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  6. Took my very small senior chemistry class for an excursion here to test their problen solving and build teamwork. They weren't very interested at first but by the end of it they were buzzing!! Came out with 7 mins to spare! Ahaha. They want to go back to try out the DR M room which i'm excited for! A bit steep for an excursion but whatever engages them!

    This was my second escape room and this has formed the standard. The puzzles were well crafted and not to mention the high tech involved. Very impressive! Loved it! Kids got a scare at the end of it as well! Haha

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  7. Hi there,

    This was good though, we didn't past the first puzzle. What did you do?

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