Hi
everyone!
This
particular review doesn't really fit here on my Sydney-based blog, but I'm not
going to bother setting up an "escaperoomsadelaide" blog for just 2
room reviews.
On a
recent trip to Adelaide, I tried out 2 rooms at Adventure Rooms Adelaide. See my separate blog post about their Gaol
Break room here. This blog post is about
their second room that we tried (back to back) – Black Queen.
My usual
escape room team didn't all come to Adelaide - it was just my wife and I from
our usual team, but we also brought along two first-timers, my cousin and my
mother in law. They both knew about this addiction, er hobby, of ours and
were keen to see first-hand what all the fuss is about.
The Black
Queen was our 40th room in Australia and our second room in
Adelaide.
As usual,
I’ll start with a summary of all of the things that I liked in Adventure Rooms
Adelaide's Black Queen:
- Black Queen was a really interesting room. The theme is that your team finds themselves handcuffed together in a dark castle – the aim of the game is to find the key to escape.
- the puzzles were really varied and well-designed. Like Gaol Break, there were a couple of puzzles we have never seen anywhere in Australia before.
- I think the puzzles in Gaol Break were a little more creative than in Black Queen, but there were a couple that were truly genius (and both a mix of low and medium tech).
- we found that everyone in our team was fully engaged for the whole experience. There is a good amount of puzzles of varying difficulties. We obviously have an advantage over most teams because we have been to so many escape rooms and therefore many of the puzzles are of a type we have seen before, but the first-timers in our team really enjoyed the experience too;
- we broke the record for this room, getting out in about 30 minutes without any clues. Usually I would say that a room where we get out so quickly should have an extra puzzle or two, but this room had a heap of puzzles – we got lucky with a few of them and a couple we had seen elsewhere so we breezed through them;
- it’s hard to describe this aspect, but this room had a good mix of light and shade. By that, I mean that it had very different spaces that had very different feels to them, but all of them worked really well with the theme. The theming in Black Queen was great;
- the price here was about right for the quality of the room;
- there was a really good mix of hunt and seek fun and puzzle solving;
- the location is excellent – there is an almost hidden lift on one side of Rundle Mall between the shops. If you weren’t looking for it, you would easily miss it;
- the game masters were really enthusiastic, which I always appreciate. They were engaged and were watching us the whole time; and
- we didn’t need to communicate with the game masters, but their comms system seemed like it would be useful. They watch and listen to teams and then apparently provide messages on screens within the room – it sounds pretty effective to us.
And as
for what I think could be improved:
- there is a music puzzle in this room. We breezed through it, but I know from other escape room owners that many people are truly tone deaf and therefore even simple music puzzles can be very difficult for some groups. The other difficulty with a music puzzle is that there really isn’t a useful hint that you can give someone – instead, it really is just a matter of giving the answer. That being said, I think this puzzle worked well with the theme and it was a creative use of mixing a music puzzle in with a 4 digit code. But I don’t think this puzzle would be for everyone;
- like Gaol Break, I think the immersion aspect would have been strengthened if we were given a better back story. Instead we were given a very brief back story and found ourselves locked together in a room. It would have been nice to better understand how we came to be handcuffed together, why we only have 60 minutes to get out (ie what is the consequence of not escaping in time), etc; and
- their website says that they take up to 7 people in Black Queen. This is far too many – 4 people is the maximum team size that would allow everyone to be comfortable and fully engaged. The game master was telling us that they also offer teams duels, where half of the escapees will work on one or two rooms within the Black Queen escape and the other escapees will work on the other rooms, and then they will swap. I don’t like this idea at all – it would ruin the flow of the story of the rooms. Stick with 4 people (or maybe 4 adults and 2 kids) at most here.
We really
enjoyed this room. Our first-timers also really enjoyed the experience
and I think one of them in particular is hooked! The game master was also
kind enough to stick around afterwards and chat with us about how we did in the
room and what we thought of the puzzles, which was great.
We got out of both Gaol Break and Black Queen in the same time (30 minutes), so I think for us at least, they were about the same level of difficulty. I think on recollection though that Black Queen felt a little more difficult (we had more time where we were stumped for what to do next, whereas Gaol Break all seemed pretty straight forward). Both are great rooms!
Where:
Level 1, 51-53
Rundle Mall, Adelaide, SA
Duration:
60 minutes
Themes:
3 themes
Cost:
$128 for 4 adults
Overall
Summary:
A great room with some really creative puzzles
More
details:
http://www.adventurerooms.com.au/
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