Review of NoWayOut / One Way Out - The Body Shop theme

*** Note:  This outfit has now changed its name to One Way Out***

My group of friends (4 adults) checked out No Way Out’s “The Body Shop” room in September 2015. This was our seventeenth escape room in Sydney so far (and we have now tried at least one room at every escape room outfit in Sydney).

We had previously booked in to try out this room about a month ago.  However, the owner (Mike) has had a lot of problems with the tech in this room (raspberry pi system has been plagued with stability issues) and they have had some bad luck (power outages, escapees accidentally breaking items, etc), so we had to reschedule. 

I can confirm though that we didn’t have any technical issues at all and I understand from Mike that about 100 groups have now gone through the room in the past couple of weeks without any technical issues.  So it seems that everything is back on track.

Having been there before, we found the place very easily.  But the first time it was a little tricky to find (primarily because they do not have any external signage at the moment).  The entrance is via a small car park off of Denison Street – look for the large metal green door.

They currently have just the one room, but Mike has plans to open up a second room (or possibly a consolidated special 2 hour experience room (or series of rooms), which would make it the longest experience available in Sydney).

First off, I'll say what I enjoyed most about The Body Shop at NoWayOut:

• it was a lot of fun.  The room design is simple but clever – there is a good mix of high and low tech puzzles;
• every puzzle worked properly – we had no issues with ambiguous or unclear puzzles;
• some of the puzzles were really creative and different to what we had seen elsewhere;
• the theming was very good - the props all made sense, many of which were bespoke/home-made (which I always really appreciate);
• there was a lot of attention to detail in the design of the props and the puzzles – the puzzles were all challenging but not impossible.  My team managed to escape in about 46 minutes (of the permitted 60 minutes) and we only asked for one clue;
• the use of a walkie talkie for communicating and obtaining clues was simple but effective; and
• the owner is passionate about his business.  Mike also took the time after our escape to run through each of the puzzles, which is something that not all escape room outfits do.

As for some of the improvements that could be made to The Body Shop:

• as I discussed with Mike, I think every escape room needs a countdown clock on the wall.  This really helps with the suspense and it gets the adrenalin going.  Mike’s current system involves him giving the players (via the walkie talkie) a time reminder every 15 minutes.  This is completely adequate, but for a fully immersive experience, there should be a clock in the room;
• I think some more background information on the theme and setting would be good (as you are about to go into the room) – this would help to make this a more immersive experience;
• there were a couple of puzzles that had been excluded from the game due to technical problems.  I understand that these will be reinstated in the future – it was a shame that we didn’t get to try these puzzles though (as they both looked high tech);
• due to the design of some of the puzzles, it was possible to “break” your way through to the solution (eg trial and elimination, etc).  My personal opinion is that the best designed puzzles are not capable of being broken;
• I think this room could do with an extra couple of puzzles – with 4 people, we escaped in about 75% of the allowed time, so I think the room needs a couple of extra puzzles to fill out the full 60 minutes (although I appreciate newb teams would not agree).  The extra couple of high tech puzzles would have further improved our experience I think; and
• they have had a Scoopon campaign with great opening specials (50% off), but I think their standard pricing going forward is high (and certainly more expensive than their competitors).

Over all, I think this is a really good room.  With a few tweaks and a couple of extra puzzles, I think it has the potential to be an excellent room. 

Where:                    Suite 3/57 Denison Street, Camperdown 

Duration:                60 minutes

Themes:                 1 theme (so far) 

Cost:                       $50 to $60 each (4 players) (although 50% opening special)

Overall Rating:      3.75 out of 5 stars

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