Escape Room Melbourne - Fractured Review (Melbourne)

 

Hi all

Back in February 2023, my usual team of 4 took a kid-free trip down to Melbourne over a long weekend.  After hitting the Mornington Peninsula, we headed to the city and checked out Fractured, the only physical room at Escape Room Melbourne that we hadn’t played on one of our previous trips.  We had always enjoyed all of our experiences in the past at ERM.

Fractured was our 220^th room to date.  The summary of the room is as follows:

Enter the mind of Robert, a World War 2 war veteran, who has fallen into a coma. In this surreal escape room experience – unlike any other – you will need to spark his consciousness by reconnecting his most important memories…

Here is what I thought of Fractured

·        we had high expectations going in, both from our earlier experiences at ERM and from word of mouth.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have the best experience - the main issue was that we had broken puzzle elements (more than one), which really impacted the immersion.  The game master had to come into the room to fix the problem (which “happens a fair bit” apparently).  It seemed to me that ERM needs to put more effort into the upkeep side of their games;

·        the story and mixed media elements of the room were excellent.  There was a really strong back story, which was really enforced by various different elements; and

·        the puzzles were strong and varied, with a lot of different elements.  The theming in the actual space was on the simpler side, but it did suit the theme (and the other theming elements more than made up for this aspect).

We really enjoyed the use of mixed media, the really strong back story and the variety of puzzles.  The experience was clearly let down by the issues we had with broken puzzles, which really did mar the immersion.  I had heard how great this experience was from friends who had played it before, but unforunately we didn't have the same experience.

I really hope that ERM focuses on some of these maintenance items, as it's that type of thing that can really ruin their excellent reputation.  I have had a look at recent TripAdvisor reviews (in particular of their Fractured room) and it seems that we are not the only team that had similar problems.

Where:                        Escape Room Melbourne (ERM

Duration:                    60 minutes

Themes:                      4

Cost:                           $44 per person (assuming team of 4)

Overall Rating:           A beautiful room, but needs upkeep.          

More details:              https://escaperoom.com.au/