Thursday 23 June 2016

Outlast Escape Room - Silent Hospital Review


Hi everyone!

My wife and I brought along 2 newbies to try out a new escape room in Ashfield called Outlast Escape.

I wrote to the owners last year when they opened, asking for more information about their escape room business and despite a follow up, I'm still waiting on a response.

One of their rooms requires someone in the group to be able to read Chinese characters, which made me a little worried that the other rooms might have translation issues.

This was our 29th room in Sydney and 41st room in Australia.

As usual, I’ll start with a summary of all of the things that I liked in Outlast Escape's Silent Hospital: 
  • some of the technology was cool (there was one thing we hadn’t seen anywhere else), but it didn’t really fit the theme at all (it was high tech for the sake of high tech);
  • a couple of the puzzles were pretty good;
  • there was a reasonably good mix of hunt and seek and puzzle fun; and
  • it was an ok room to bring beginners to.

And as for what I didn’t like:
  • there is no back story – you are instead handed a poorly translated laminated card and are asked to read it for yourself;
  • there are many puzzles that just do not fit the theme in any way;
  • some of the puzzles are very clunky – they aren’t clever but instead feel very forced an incredibly disjointed;
  • we had a torch with flat batteries, so they had to come in and hand us the new one, which ruined the flow and immersion;
  • in one room, there are various bags of blood (it is a hospital theme after all).  One of these bags burst open all over my wife’s clothes – she was not impressed;
  • one of the locks between rooms had been left open, so we didn’t need to open it properly;
  • the price of this room is about the most expensive in Sydney at $40 per person.  This is about double what it should be for the quality of this room (and the location).
This room was just “ok”.  As always, I judge rooms based on how much fun I had and overall, this was not a memorable room.  Our first-timers seemed to enjoy the experience, but it definitely was not a great room for anyone who has seen a truly great room before.  The puzzles didn’t make sense in the space, the room flow was not well-considered and felt like it had been thrown together and they used high tech just for the sake of it, rather than weaving a clever story with great immersion. 
Give this place a miss.

Where:                        Suite 2, Level 1, 251 Liverpool Road, Ashfield, NSW, 2131

Duration:                    60 minutes

Themes:                     3 themes

Cost:                           $160 for 4 adults

Overall Summary:      Very overpriced and average

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

9 comments:

  1. Hi Scott,

    Thanks for your review! There's a deal on groupon for this escape room at the moment, and I was about to buy it until I read your review! Also sorry for commenting on like 2 other posts of yours, but I'm keen on looking for a good escape room that currently has a discount voucher haha, so I have been browsing the Internet a fair bit.

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    1. Thanks Natasha. I heard that Outlast has a Groupon on at the moment. At $20 per head, it's probably an ok deal - it's definitely not the worst escape room we have tried, but it's pretty average. Thanks for getting in contact!
      Scott

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  2. And they have another room called Annabel, Scott. FYI

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    1. Hi Andi - thanks. I saw the reference to "Annabel" on the Groupon site, but there is nothing about it on their website, which is weird.

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  3. I did this room last night with some friends - thanksfully with the groupon discount. It would NOT have been worth $40 a head.
    Most frustratingly we had to call for assistance to open the safe - we had worked out the code but the instructions for how to enter the code had been vitally damaged.
    And the customer service sucked. The time we booked on the online system wasn't actually available so we had to change that, then on the night, we got a message saying that our start time would be delayed by 30mins for "reasons" and then we still had to wait another 15 mins on arrival.

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    1. Hi K

      Thanks for getting in contact. Your comments seem pretty consistent with our experience too. Unfortunately, Outlast is not a good outfit. I recommend CT Adventures' MU-T room in the city if you're after a really fun high tech room.

      Thanks
      Scott

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  4. Just did the Silent Hospital and Annabelle rooms at Outlast using Groupon. Had no problem with the service or any broken puzzles. Annabelle was pretty decent but very short. Fun but easy with standard types of puzzles and one innovative twist - good for beginners. They say that it's their easy room. Silent Hospital was a bit of a disappointment - the first half had nothing to do with the theme and the puzzles were disappointing. The "blood bag" room you mentioned was the best part, and I actually enjoyed the innovative tech in it and found that it fit. Other than that room, I found the puzzles were unrelated, and some were on the lazy side of puzzle design. Was fun for the price (two rooms for $35pp), but would be upset at full price. However having also done MU-T, I'm not sure how you can recommend that over Outlast, as I didn't find it to be much better. Would suggest Vampire Castle or Dr. M at Mission.

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    1. Hi

      Thanks for your comments. It's always nice to hear a different view to mine. For what it's worth, I thought MU-T was maybe 3 or 4 times better than Silent Hospital. All of the puzzles were bespoke and fun and the high tech was cleverly hidden as part of the room design. I also judge a room by the fun factor - some of the puzzles in MU-T were heaps of fun and gave us a laugh, whereas Silent Hospital was a snore fest, at least for me.

      Thanks
      Scott

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  5. I was thoroughly disappointed with this room. I booked thinking it would be cool to have an escape room nearby and then read your review. I wish I had read it before booking. One vital clue was missing and after looking for awhile the guy was like O are you having trouble, yeah I haven't has a chance to fix that clue yet. The lack of back story created a real disconnect as well.
    Next time I look at doing an escape room I will read your reviews first

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