Escape Rooms Canberra - House on the Hill Review (Canberra)

Hi everyone

My team of 4 played Escape Room Canberra's House on the Hill on the last day of our long weekend in Canberra in March 2021. 

House on the Hill (also known as "Salem") was our final room for the trip.  The summary of the room is as follows:  

There is a heavy cloud that covers the town of Salem, Massachusetts. Livestock have been struck down by sickness and townsfolk complain of molestations from the invisible world. They fear the occult; arts of malignant evil and wicked vengeance, and all fingers seem to point to The House on the Hill. Rumour has it that the widow who lives there is using witchcraft to try and summon a portal from the natural world to the unnatural one.

​They have sent you to the house to investigate. You have 70 minutes to find your evidence and escape the house. But be forewarned, if a portal does open, then you will need to shut it quickly, for the demons that have been in there the longest will be the most eager to escape.

Salem was our 9th and final room in Canberra and our 176th room to date.  Here’s what we thought:

• the theming and production value in Salem was brilliant.  Personally, I loved the theme, which always helps, but I think it would have been hard to not have liked the theming and immersion.  The sounds, lighting and quality of the fit out was excellent.  There were a few dark moments and jump scares, so the room isn't suited to younger audiences (but it certainly was not ridiculously scary like various other rooms we have played);

• the puzzles in Salem were excellent.  There was a really nice variety, with some lower tech puzzles and some much higher tech puzzles in the mix.  The puzzles all made sense in the space and were perfectly suited to the room's theme.  There was one puzzle element that we thought could be improved (we stopped progressing that particular puzzle because because we thought the particular puzzle piece required more pieces to be added to it, only to finally realise that it was whole) - I think that piece could be improved (the piece itself looked either unfinished or not whole); and

• the only issue we had with the experience again came down to there not being a dedicated game master at Escape Rooms Canberra.  We were having difficulty with a particular puzzle - I jumped on the walkie talkie to ask a question - the game master asked if I wanted a hint and I said "no, I just want to know if when the lights are all on (on a particular puzzle) does it mean that we have solved it or we have not yet solved it?").  The game master then told me that I was doing the puzzle wrong  that I needed to pull not push.  Anyway, long story short we escaped in record time and the other game master (Bronte) who hadn't been on the walkie talkie denied us the record because I had "asked for a hint".  I really hadn't, and the experience left a sour taste in our mouth, which was a real shame because it was such a fantastic room.  For the record, our time was 33:10. 

Overall, I would describe Salem as a brilliant room.  The theming was excellent, the puzzles were varied (and there were a heap of them) and they all fit in really well with the theme.  My team really enjoyed Salem and all agreed it was in our top 3 rooms in Canberra.

Of all of the escape room businesses in Canberra, I think Escape Rooms Canberra does some aspects really well - like theming the foyer and the hallway areas, and having a bar area out the back with a chill area stocked board games for customers to play while they wait between rooms.  However, they then drop the ball by not having one dedicated game master per room, which is fundamental to ensuring a high quality experience for players.  

I appreciate that having a dedicated game master is not the best financial model to adopt from the escape room business' perspective, but as a player and a member of a team that is paying upwards of $160 per hour for an escape room experience, dedicated game masters are rightfully expected (and their absence almost always lessens the experience). 

Where:                        2/24 Dundas Court, Phillip ACT

Duration:                     60 minutes

Themes:                      2 themes

Price:                           $40 per person 

Overall Thoughts:        Excellent theming and excellent puzzles – a great room

More details:                https://www.escaperoomscanberra.com/

Escape Rooms Canberra - The Vault Review (Canberra)

Hi everyone

My team of 4 finally managed to get down to Canberra in March 2021 after several years of trying to find a long weekend to get down there.  I had been liaising with the owners of Escape Rooms Canberra for a couple of years online, so it was great to finally go down and check out their rooms.

We played both of their rooms back to back on our last day of our long weekend in Canberra. 

First up we took on Escape Rooms Canberra’s The Vault, the summary of which is as follows: 

 

The world has already ended. The promise of mutually assured destruction wasn't enough to stop the superpowers of the USA and the USSR from unleashing their nuclear arsenal. Now there is only desolation and waste. But there's still hope. Small bands of survivors have emerged into the wasteland; the human race survives by a thread but the rebuild has begun. Still, the threat of destruction lingers on.

In the wasteland, a madman has taken control. He believes that the human race is a disease and the only way to save the world is to finish the work of our predecessors and wipe the human "parasite" from the face of the earth. He has gathered an army, found the last Nuclear Vault and flipped the doomsday switch. You are part of a small band of survivors who have infiltrated the Vault, and it is up to you to cancel the launch and stop the apocalypse.

The Vault was our 8^th room in Canberra and our 175^th room to date.  Here’s what we thought:

·          on the plus side, for those who like tech in rooms, there was a lot of tech in this space.  Some of the time it was really nicely-concealed tech, but other times I found that it didn’t really fit brilliantly with the theme (or it was there just for the sake of it);

·          the production quality of the space was very high.  In fact, from the moment you enter Escape Rooms Canberra from the street, you are in a different world.  The owners have clearly gone to a lot of time and expense in fitting out the entire premises (which is a pretty bit space).  The Vault is no exception and the props and fit out are excellent;

·          on the puzzle side of things, I wasn’t a huge fan of this room.  I think the puzzles were ok, but they really felt like they had been done before.  With the exception of one high tech puzzle towards the end of the experience, the puzzles didn’t feel unique or particularly well-related to the story.  I would probably describe the room as being medium to hard in difficulty – I don’t recall what time we escaped in, but I am pretty sure we had a reasonable amount of time left on the clock;

·          we needed a hint with one puzzle.  They use walkie talkies instead of the voice of God system that is used at pretty much all escape rooms these days.  I was surprised that for a venue that only has two rooms (and on the day 2 employees working as game masters), we didn’t have a dedicated game master watching our every move.  I think this is one of the things that differentiates the best escape room business from the rest of the pack – when players are paying $40 per person or more for a room, that should include a dedicated game master.  This was a shame.

Overall, I would describe The Vault as a well-themed room with high production quality, but a little lacking in puzzle depth and overall immersion. 

Where:                         2/24 Dundas Court, Phillip ACT

Duration:                      60 minutes

Themes:                      2 themes

Price:                           $40 per person 

Overall Thoughts:        High production value but lacking in the puzzles department.

More details:                https://www.escaperoomscanberra.com/