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 90th room in Australia and
our 60th 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/
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