Parapark - The Mad Landlord Review (Sydney)

Hi all

Back in January 2022, my usual team of 4 headed back to Parapark to check out Parapark’s latest room, The Mad Landlord.  It was our third time at Parapark and we had always enjoyed their rooms.

Amy and Laszlo, the owners, were kind enough to invite us to beta test The Mad Landlord.  We were able to sit down with them before the game to catch up and have a chat, which was great.

The Mad Landlord was my 208^th escape room experience.  Here’s what I thought about The Mad Landlord:

·         the theming in this really strong.  There were some really lovely puzzle elements throughout the experience – one in particular used technology that we had never seen before (or since, at least at the time or (finally) writing up this review);

·         the room had a really nice mix of simpler puzzles and more complex puzzles.  It was quite a long experience (I think we were in there for about 2 hours)  – given we were beta testing, it is always difficult to judge how long we should take, whether there are too many or too few puzzles, etc;

·         there is also a good mix of high tech and low tech in the room, as well as a little hunt and seek fun;

·         whilst there are no jump scares or particularly dark elements in this experience, there are a couple of moving paintings which might scare younger players; and

·         the puzzles all made sense in the space and followed along nicely with the storyline.

My team enjoyed our time at The Mad Landlord. I would describe it as a well-themed room but definitely on the harder side (and certainly their hardest room at Parapark).  Whilst I really enjoy beta testing rooms, I often feel that my team is probably not the right kind of team to beta test rooms, given we escape most rooms pretty quickly and are therefore not a good benchmark for typical escape times, or determining whether puzzles are too hard, etc.  I also find that that it’s the little details that I love with rooms (which I expect most newer players would be less likely to notice).  Of the various pieces of feedback that we provided, one thing we thought could have been improved was more sign-posting on some puzzles (as it wasn’t clear to us what the next steps were at some points).  But this was something easily fixed.

Please note that since we played The Mad Landlord, Parapark has sold the games at that venue to SCRAM.  Each of the 3 rooms at the Macquarie Park location have been re-badged (eg The Mad Landlord is now called The Motel of Madness).  I have not been back so I am not sure whether there has been a light touch to updating the games, or whether the games have been updated enough to allow earlier players to return and play them again.

Where:                        Parapark (but see note above)

Duration:                    90 minutes

Themes:                     3 rooms

Cost:                           $42 per person (assuming 4 players)

Overall Rating:           A fun, interesting and tricky room!

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