Labyrinth Escape Rooms - Japanese Horror Review

Hey all

My group of friends (4 adults) checked out Labyrinth Escape Rooms’ Japanese Horror room in April 2018.  We hadn’t been to Labyrinth since September 2015, soon after they opened, when we tried their Insane Asylum room (you can read my review of that room here).

The summary of Japanese Horror is below (taken from their website):

Many moons ago, it is rumoured that four Japanese Kogal girls were kidnapped and murdered in the home of a depraved and sinister ghost. Decades later and the girl’s bodies remain, overcome by the evil spirit who captured them and tormenting all who enter.

As darkness takes over, it’s up to your team to brave the house of horrors. Outsmart the wicked and release the girl’s bodies from evil before you too are trapped inside. The Kogal are waiting, will you deliver them to peaceful slumber?

Labyrinth has now been open for more than two and a half years.  They previously had a Mad Scientist room, which we didn’t manage to check out before they replaced the room.  They currently have three rooms open – Insane Asylum, Japanese Horror and Mexican Cartel. 

Japanese Horror was our 92^nd room in Australia and our 62^nd room in Sydney.

First off, I'll say what I enjoyed most about Japanese Horror at Labyrinth Escape Rooms:

a)     we had a lot of fun in Japanese Horror;

b)     the room design is well-considered.  They have managed to fit a lot of puzzles into a relatively small space;

c)     the theming is strong – the props all look good in the space and lighting/audio all help to set the scene.  I would describe Japanese Horror as spooky or eerie, rather than incredibly scary.  For those who are worried about rooms being too scary for them, I can report that there are no jump scares in this room.  By contrast, I have been to some truly scary rooms (one in particular in Melbourne comes to mind) – I can report that Japanese Horror will not make you need a change of underwear.  However, it is definitely not suited to young kids;

d)     I think Labyrinth are very clever at including a great mix of high tech and low tech puzzles.  Some are fiendishly simple – the type that make you want to give yourself a forehead slap when you figure out the solution.  Others require more than one step. Some of the puzzles in Japanese Horror (and in all of the Labyrinth rooms) have elements that remind me of more traditional Hungarian escape room style puzzles – these are typically lower tech puzzles that are quite manual and visual.  They were a lot of fun and there were a couple of elements that we had not seen used in escape rooms before, which was cool; and

e)     Labyrinth use the voice of God system for communications between players and the game master.  We didn’t ask for any hints during our game play, but the voice of God system is the best form of communications in escape rooms in my view (except perhaps for those few rooms where the game master is an actor inside the room with you, but these are currently very rare).

As for some of the improvements that could be made to Japanese Horror, there isn’t much to report here.  There was some automated audio that we couldn’t quite understand at one point (it was a little muffled) but it didn’t affect our game in any way (we guessed what was being said and we were right). 

We managed to escape in around 37 mins 20 secs, which meant that we broke the then current record by about 11 minutes.  I understand from Labyrinth that this is their hardest room with a very low escape rate and I can see that it is a harder room than most escape rooms in Australia.   I especially enjoyed reading all of the comments on a Facebook from Labyrinth about our beating the record – so many players who hadn’t been able to escape didn’t believe our time (or said that it must have been our second attempt).  Even though the time was good, I didn’t feel like we rushed our way through. We enjoyed the puzzles and plodded along.  I expect that the record will be broken again in the future – I can absolutely see a team rushing through and escaping in around 30 minutes. 

Japanese Horror is a great room.  I am often asked for room recommendations and Japanese Horror ticks many of the boxes that most people are looking for – dark/eerie theme, great puzzles, good storyline and challenging puzzles.  Go and check it out and see if you can beat our record!

Where:                    Suite 3/85-93 Victoria Road, Parramatta

Duration:                60 minutes

Themes:                 3 themes

Cost:                       $38pp (or $152 for a team of 4)

Overall Rating:      An eerie room with great puzzles

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

Room Eight - Review of Entombed

Hey all

My usual team of 4 went out to Manly in March 2018 to check out the 2 escape rooms at Room Eight.  They are based at the end of The Corso at Manly.  We parked at the nearby Council carpark on Whistler Street (first 2 hours are free).

Room Eight is owned/run by Steve, Rafael and Stephane.  Steve was there on the day and we had a long chat with him about the process of designing their rooms and then constructing them.  

After having escaped from their “Indisposed Escape from the Aussie Dunny” room (the review of which is here), we then tried their “Entombed – The disappearance of Dr. Smith" room.  The theme of the room (from their website) is as follows:

Amidst the dry arid deserts of Egypt a lone building stands. It was once the study of renowned archaeologist Atlanta Smith, who has been missing and presumed dead for several months, in his quest for the treasure of Khufu. Your search for answers has taken a turn for the worst, and you're going to need to draw on all your investigative nous and powers of deduction to solve this mystery, evade an ancient curse and escape this room alive...

Entombed was our 91^st room in Australia and our 61^st room in Sydney.

Here’s what I liked about Entombed:

a)     much like Indisposed, Entombed is a really fun room.  Whilst the theme of Entombed is not quite as original as Indisposed, it was done well (and who doesn’t like an archaeological mystery)…;

b)     the clue system and room flow are quite unique.  The room is largely linear in design and the clue system matches this.  Rather than compete for the best time, at Room Eight players are competing for the best score.  Players start with 200 points and then points are deducted for each minute that players take to escape (as well as for any hints provided).  The hints are automated – the first hint for each puzzle is free and then players can ask for a second or third hint (but each comes with a higher point penalty).  There is also a dedicated game master watching your team, who will step in and provide guidance where needed;

c)     I am generally not a huge fan of linear rooms, given that they often create bottlenecks (with some players standing around watching because they can’t break up and attach different puzzles at the same time).  However, this room had a good flow and there were a number of puzzles that could be attacked in any order.  At no point did any of us feel like we were just standing around watching;

d)     the theming and props are nicely done – all of the props work well in the space;

e)     there were a couple of puzzles in Entombed that we had not seen anywhere before - this is always such an awesome thing (and after 90+ rooms, it is becoming more and more of a rare occurrence);

f)       there is a nice mix of hunt and seek fun in this room, together with a nice mix of low and high tech puzzle elements throughout;

g)     as with Indisposed, the owners have done a good job of integrating humour into the introductory video;

h)     both Indisposed and Entombed are well suited to families and kids.  I’m often asked to recommend family-friendly rooms and I can now add both of the rooms at Room Eight to that list; and

i)       Room Eight have designed both of their rooms as multi-lingual rooms – Steve mentioned half a dozen or so languages that this room can be run in.  It is quite unusual in Australia to have rooms that are suited to so many languages, but again given their touristy location I think it’s a great idea.

I have two minor criticisms of this room.  The first is that I think my team escaped in about 32 minutes or so (our score was 168 points), which is generally a sign that a room could do with another puzzle or two. That being said, I understand from Steve that given their location, the vast majority of teams are new players and many teams do not escape within 60 minutes.  This is something faced by all escape rooms – the difficulty of designing a room that newer players can escape from and which challenges enthusiasts.

I think both Entombed and Indisposed are “easy to medium” level rooms which are therefore best suited to newer players.  Given the touristy location of The Corso at Manly, I agree with Steve that this difficulty level is well-suited to the bulk of their customers. 

My only other criticism of the room is that it utilises black light (UV torch) in one particular puzzle.  From an escape room enthusiast’s perspective, my view is that  whilst UV light puzzles are very common in escape rooms, they are not strong puzzles (in that they are typically pretty inelegant and are not satisfying to solve).  All of the other puzzles suit the room theme really well (and the theming is great).  

We really enjoyed ourselves in Entombed – the treasure hunt mystery theme was great fun (who seriously didn’t enjoy Indiana Jones (at least the first 3 anyway) or Goonies (which was clearly the best film ever made)….  I’m also happy to report that each room at Room Eight is quite different to each other, which is great (particularly if, like us, you do their rooms back to back).  

As always, the biggest test of a good escape room for me is whether or not we had fun.  Entombed was great fun.  We will be back in the near future to try their third room, Targeted, once it opens.

Where:                                    2B, The Corso, Manly

Duration:                                60 minutes

Themes:                                 2 themes (and 1 more currently under construction)

Cost:                                       $40 per person ($160 paid for our team of four)

Overall Summary:                 Another fun, high quality, family-friendly room from Room Eight

More details:                          https://www.escaperoomeight.com.au/

Twitter account

Hey all

I have set up a twitter handle (@escaperoomsyd).  Each time I post a new entry here on my blog, I’ll post a link to it there.

So, follow the blog on twitter if you’d like.

Thanks

Scott

Room Eight - Review of Indisposed

Hey all

My usual team of 4 went out to Manly in March 2018 to check out the 2 escape rooms at Room Eight.  They are based at the end of The Corso at Manly.  We parked at the nearby Council carpark on Whistler Street (first 2 hours are free).

Room Eight is owned/run by Steve, Rafael and Stephane.  Steve was there on the day and we had a long chat with him about the process of designing their rooms and then constructing them.  

We started out with their “Indisposed Escape from the Aussie Dunny” room.  The theme of the room (from their website) is as follows:

Trapped in the outhouse of famous, if somewhat deranged Aussie celebrity Huge Axeman, can you free yourself before the Axeman returns. In an Escape Room like no other, you'll need to think and act quickly as a team to solve puzzles and challenges as the clock ticks down. Even if you can escape the Dunny, you'll still need to survive the Australian wild, and contend with an array of deadly Australian fauna.

Indisposed was our 90^th room in Australia and our 60^th room in Sydney.

Here’s what I liked about Indisposed:

a)     it’s a really fun room.  I always enjoy a unique room theme and escaping from an Aussie outhouse certainly is original;

b)     the clue system and room flow are quite unique.  The room is very linear in design and the clue system matches this.  Rather than compete for the best time, at Room Eight players are competing for the best score.  Players start with 200 points and then points are deducted for each minute that players take to escape (as well as for any hints provided).  The hints are automated – the first hint for each puzzle is free and then players can ask for a second or third hint (but each comes with a higher point penalty).  There is also a dedicated game master watching your team, who will step in and provide guidance where needed;

c)     I am generally not a huge fan of very linear rooms, given that they often create bottlenecks (with some players standing around watching because they can’t break up and attach different puzzles at the same time).  However, this room had a good flow and at no point did any of us feel like we were just standing around watching.  There was also one puzzle that we were able to work on early (and which we solved ahead of time);

d)     the theming and props are nicely done – all of the props work well in the space;

e)     there is a nice mix of hunt and seek fun in this room, together with some primarily low-tech puzzles with little bits of tech throughout;

f)       they have done a good job of integrating humour into the room (and into the introductory video);

g)     Indisposed is one of the few rooms in Sydney that is very well suited to families and kids.  I’m often asked to recommend family-friendly rooms and I can now add Indisposed to that list; and

h)     Room Eight have designed Indisposed as a multi-lingual room – Steve mentioned half a dozen or so languages that this room can be run in.  It is quite unusual in Australia to have rooms that are suited to so many languages, but again given their touristy location I think it’s a great idea.

My only minor criticism of this room is that I think my team escaped in about 37 or 38 minutes (with one non-free hint) - based on that timing, I think the room could probably do with another puzzle or two.  That being said, I understand from Steve that given their location, the vast majority of teams are new players and many teams do not escape within 60 minutes.  This is something faced by all escape rooms – the difficulty of designing a room that newer players can escape from and which challenges enthusiasts.

I think Indisposed is an “easy to medium” level room which is therefore best suited to newer players.  Given the touristy location of The Corso at Manly, I agree with Steve that this difficulty level is well-suited to the bulk of their customers. 

The room theme is really novel, there are some nice laughs throughout and the overall quality of the theming and puzzles is strong.

As always, the biggest test of a good escape room for me is whether or not we had fun.  We certainly had a lot of fun in Indisposed.

Where:                         2B, The Corso, Manly

Duration:                     60 minutes

Themes:                      2 themes (and 1 more currently under construction)

Cost:                            $40 per person (although we played at the invitation of Room Eight)

Overall Summary:       A fun, well executed, family-friendly escape room on the easier side

More details:                https://www.escaperoomeight.com.au/