Hi all
My team checked out Curious Cartel's The Lock In in December
2018. I booked tickets to this
experience the second I heard about it (they mentioned "Goonies" in
their theme summary on their website, so it was a no-brainer from where I was
sitting).
The theme of The Lock In is as follows (taken from their
website):
All friends are welcome at our ultimate night out featuring
theatre, cocktails, puzzles and a chunk of 80s sci-fi nostalgia. 'The Lock In'
is Sydney’s very own homage to the most awesome of decades and we’re ready to
quite literally turn your world upside down.
Booking into The Lock In is accepting a one-way ticket to small
town Indiana. Weird stuff has been going on at a top-secret government facility
and a kid has gone missing. You and your
associates are invited to step into the story, crack the codes and save the
day... This is no PG-13 Goonies adventure.
The lab is fixing up adults only hard liquor - and you’ll be conducting
some alcoholic experiments yourself. There’s also a chance to be part of your
own high school movie but at Heartstrings High, your teacher is actively
encouraging you to make moonshine in science class.
All this to a soundtrack of your favourite 80s movie hits. The Lock
In takes immersive theatre and an
experiential bar and cranks it up to Eleven.
So round up your friends, get lost in our wonderful world and see
if you have got what it takes to make it to the end.
So in a nutshell, it's an immersive theatre experience with
cocktail-making and 80s cliches.
The Lock In was our 104th escape room (or escape room like)
experience in Australia (and our 74th experience in Sydney). I was initially disappointed
(and a little pissed off) with Curious Cartel.
Despite having booked tickets months out, I received an email from them
a couple of days before our scheduled experience telling me that due to unforeseen
circumstances (which they wouldn't elaborate on), our experience had been
cancelled and we had to change dates.
Given I had already booked a babysitter, I found this very frustrating.
We ultimately on another night in December. Here are my thoughts:
·
the backstory was fun – it’s a take on Stranger
Things meets Goonies meets Weird Science meets something else;
·
there were about 16 or so people in our
group. As with A Midnight Visit, it was
annoying that they didn’t explain on their website the group sizes for the
experience – I didn’t mind having a larger size group, but I would have liked
to know ahead of time;
·
the storyline sees players splitting up pretty
quickly into 2 groups and then at the midway point, the teams swap places so everyone
gets to experience the same puzzles;
·
the puzzles were fun but not overly complicated
or unique. It was really interesting
solving puzzles with complete strangers; and
·
throughout the experience, one of the challenges
is to create a couple of concoctions - these are the cocktails that players
then get to drink while solving other puzzles;
·
the experience was on the expensive side
compared to other escape room experiences ($65 per person). Given that each player gets to drink 2 cocktails
as part of the experience, for many people the pricing might be ok.
I would describe the experience
as more of an immersive experience than an escape room. It was fun, but there were no real wow
moments – I think the actor interaction could have been more fun and engaging
and more humour could have been added to the script.
We had fun, but it certainly wasn’t
the most fun nor the most immersive experience we have tried to date.
Where: 501 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills
Duration: 90 minutes
Themes: 1 theme
Cost: $65pp
Overall Summary: A fun 80s throwback room but
without any wow factor
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