Quest Room Brisbane - Review of 5 Rooms

 

Hi all

The final escape room outfit that we checked out on our 3 days of escape room madness in Brisbane in November 2023 was Quest Room.  They are based in Spring Hill, which is a very short distance from the Brisbane CBD. 

We played 5 rooms at Quest Room pretty much back to back.  Our game master for the day was Lex, who stayed in character throughout the whole day (except when I made him laugh a few times 😉).

Here is what we thought of the rooms at Quest Room:

Darkness (Room 257)

This was a really interesting room.  I had never before played a completely dark room, although I have played rooms that had small sections of blackness.  It meant of course that we had to really focus on our other senses to escape the room.  I was surprised that our team of 4 didn’t bump into each other too often and nobody hurt themselves. We really struggled with one smelling puzzle (as I always have because I find artificial scents to be really difficult to identify, and once you have one smell in your nostrils, all bets are off).  We enjoyed this unique experience, which was very simple and escaped in 27 minutes (of a possible 60 minutes).

Sherlocked (Room 258)

This was probably my favourite room at Quest. Friends of mine had recommended this room and I can easily see why. The quality of the room was excellent – the theming and props were all beautifully done, the puzzles were also interesting and fun to solve and we really felt immersed in the set.  We managed to blitz through this room and escaped in 24 minutes (of a possible 60 minutes) and broke the room record.

Heist (Room 259)

We thought this was the hardest room at Quest Room (or at least it was for our team).  We managed to escape in 45 minutes (of a possible 60 minutes). I thought there were some interesting puzzles in Heist, but there were also some puzzles that had us really scratching our heads.  I have spoken with other enthusiasts who have separately played Heist and they both got stuck on the same puzzle.  The theming in Heist was solid but simple (and I appreciate there’s only so much you can do with an office-themed room).  It was a solid room but probably my least favourite over all at Quest Room.

Steampunk (Room 260)

This is by far the biggest room at Quest Room.  There are a lot of puzzles to get through, ranging from some hunt and seek (and attention to detail) puzzles, through to some dexterity and other really beautiful puzzles.  I always like a good steampunk theme and I thought this room was beautifully done.  I am pretty sure this room exists elsewhere in the world (as I recall a fellow escape room enthusiast friend telling me that they had played this room elsewhere, I think in Europe?).  So if you have played any Steampunk rooms in Europe, you might want to double check with Quest Room before playing this one. We escaped Steampunk in 45 minutes (of a possible 90 minutes) and had a great time.

Flying Dutchman (Room 261)

I thought the theming of this room was excellent - easily one of the best themed pirate rooms I had played to date. The set design and props were all brilliant and the level of immersion was very high.  The puzzles were all on the easier end (and I suspect this room would be really popular with kids for birthday parties or with families).  We escaped this room in 21 minutes (of a possible 60 minutes) and broke the room record.

Final thoughts

We really enjoyed the rooms at Quest Room and it was great to finish our long weekend on a high.  I thought Sherlocked was their best room for enthusiasts, Flying Dutchman their best family-friendly room and Steampunk their best bigger room for larger groups. Lex was an excellent host and ensured that we had a great time over the 6+ hours that we were there.

Thanks

Quester Scott

Where:                        Ground floor, 56 Little Edward Street, Spring Hill

Duration:                    60-90 mins

Themes:                      6 themes

Cost:                           $47.50 per person (assuming team of 4)

Overall Rating:           Some really beautifully-themed and fun rooms!

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

Arcadium Adventures - Review of 3 Rooms

 

Hi all

Another escape room outfit that we checked out on our 3 days of escape room madness in Brisbane in November 2023 was Arcadium Adventures.  They are based in Spring Hill, which is a very short distance from the Brisbane CBD. 

We played the following 3 rooms:

• The Pursuit of the Elixir of Life (Room 254);
• Search for the Stone of Destiny (Room 255); and
• Seeking the Lost Chagama (Room 256).

Here is what I thought of our experience at Arcadium Adventures:

a)    when we sat down in the bar area ahead of playing the first room, I remember googling Arcadium Adventures for the first time and learning that they were affiliated with TRAPT in Melbourne (or at least the owner of Arcadium is or was involved with TRAPT).  I would rate my experiences at TRAPT amongst the worst escape room experiences I have had to date, so my expectations plummeted;  

b)    I tried to keep an open mind though, but then our game master handed us a “magical” item that we should use throughout our adventure.  It was an old smart phone with an app on it.  More about that later…; and  

c)    I thought the theming and quality of puzzles in each of the rooms was reasonably well constructed and designed. However, there are not nearly enough puzzles in each room to justify a full 60 minute room.  I appreciate that the target market for Arcadium Adventures might be newer players or corporates, but we escaped their rooms in less than 1/3 of the allowed time, so that was disappointing.

Whilst the theming was decent in each of the rooms, and some of the puzzles were quite good, there are two fundamental failings of each of the Arcadium rooms that we played:

a)    the magic device they provided (ie the old smart phone) was very gimmicky and detracted from the immersion in the room.  It didn’t work perfectly and its design means that players are somehow supposed to know what items to use it on (which means that players must inevitably place the device onto every item throughout the experience).  You know how it can be annoying to have to shine a blacklight on every surface of a dark room?  Well this was kind of the same, but with a device that is dicky and doesn’t always work (and the device is not a "one and done" single time use, so unlike the blacklight, you're never really sure when the device is no longer needed); and  

b)    the fundamental design of each room at Arcadium Adventures is that 3 separate experiences have been designed to be played in the same physical space.  So, each time you play a room, 2/3 of the puzzles and props in the space are irrelevant to your game. They try to overcome this by using small signs in the room to identify which puzzles do and do not relate to your experience, but this is far from perfect.  There is also something inherently disappointing about seeing many puzzle elements in a space but knowing that the majority are not part of your adventure.  This design also means that if you return to play another experience within the same space, any secret doors are no longer a mystery to you. Also, when you return, you know which puzzles are definitely not part of your experience (because you had solved them last time you were there in a different experience).

I have played rooms before where the same space is utilised for multiple experiences.  I appreciate the commercial benefits to an escape room business under this model, but I thought the execution was very poor at Arcadium Adventures.  If you wanted to do this properly, I think you would need to:

·        completely hide puzzle elements that are not part of the experience being played (rather than instead using a small sign to indicate that they are irrelevant);

·        have multiple hidden door mechanisms, so that return players still get to enjoy the magic of moving from one space to another; and

·        provide enough puzzles to make players feel like they are getting good value for their money.  I honestly think our team could have played all 3 rooms back to back and gone close to escaping in 60 minutes in total.

I walked away thinking we had been given 3 disappointing 20 minute rooms for the price of 3 x 60 minute rooms.  I really did not enjoy the experience here and was very happy when it was time to leave.

Where:                        The Basement, 97 Wickham Terrace, Spring Hill

Duration:                    60 mins

Themes:                     5 themes

Cost:                           $45 per person (assuming team of 4)

Overall Rating:           It’s a hard pass from me - my least favourite Brisbane outfit.

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

Project Immersive - Review of The Portal and Nuclear Enrichment

 

Hi all

Another escape room outfit that we checked out on our 3 days of escape room madness in Brisbane in November 2023 was Project Immersive.  They are based in Yeronga, which was about a 15 min drive south of Brisbane city.  We ended up playing both of their rooms back to back (as part of our 13 rooms in a single day record attempt insanity).

One of my favourite elements of the Project Immersive experience occurred before we had even walked inside. Our game master, Damian, was in character before our car was parked.  He played the role of a sort of android who was there to assist us by providing information in relation to the facility (and general background to the storyline of our adventures).  He met us in the car park, at dusk, wearing a white lab coat – it was really cool because it immediately set the scene (and an awesomely high level of immersion).

The Portal (Room 250)

The first room that we played was The Portal.  We played the role of “expendable contractors” who were tasked with entering a research facility to resolve a power surge (and to perhaps find the missing Dr Verdant). 

The setting of the experience was fantastic.  Project Immersive has been constructed inside an old paint factory, so the hallways and rooms within the experience felt brilliantly authentic (there were no fake bricks or wallpaper in this space).  I recall the room being largely linear, with players having to work together to complete certain tasks in order to progress through the room.  There is an enormous amount of tech going on in The Portal – lots of audio-visual effects are used, which also really adds to the immersion.

The puzzles in The Portal were also very varied and fun to solve.  There was one phenomenal puzzle in particular that I have not seen before (or since).

The Portal is one of those rooms that has a movie set feel to it – the theming and audio-visual effects are all first rate. It is a must-do room (and it was awesome that it was my 250^th room!).

Intermission between rooms

In addition to writing about the wonderful rooms at Project Immersive, I thought I would also write about one of my favourite memories of our Brisbane trip, which occurred that night at Project Immersive. Long-time readers will know that I very much enjoy making game masters/actors break character (in fact, sometimes I focus more on achieving that goal than I do on escaping the room). During our pre-game briefing before The Portal, our android game master Damian was unflappable (despite our many attempts to flap (?) him…).

However, in between playing The Portal and Nuclear Enrichment, our android left us in the waiting area while he went to “look into something”.  We seized the opportunity and decided we needed to step things up a little if we were going to succeed in making him break character. So we ducked out of the waiting area and went and hid out of sight. We heard our android walking slowly and in a controlled manner back to the waiting area (in keeping with his character).  But we then heard his footsteps stop as he reached the waiting area and we could almost hear the gears in his android brain turning as he was thinking where the heck we were.  After a few seconds, we then heard our android begin to run around the facility trying to find us.  Meanwhile, we were hiding on the stairs laughing – he then heard us and immediately returned to his android character, with slow, methodical footsteps and a monotone voice.

We later laughed with Damian about this and he said he initially thought we had gone to the toilets, but when he heard us laughing, he thought “you fuckers are hiding on the stairs”. 

Our mission was a success - we absolutely made him break.  

Nuclear Enrichment (Room 251)

The second room we played at Project Immersive was Nuclear Enrichment.  This was my favourite room at Project Immersive (and my favourite room in Queensland of those that I have played to date).

The storyline is a continuation of The Portal’s storyline, with our fearless group of “expendable contractors” returning to the reactor facility to regain control from a disgruntled employee.  Our job was to bring everything back online.

The tech in Nuclear Enrichment was even more impressive than the fantastic tech in The Portal.  I felt that Nuclear Enrichment had a stronger storyline with a more narrative feel.  This was achieved through the use of a non-player character “AI” computer, which players can interact with at any time throughout the experience.  The interactions were all a lot of fun and were incredibly well-considered. 

As with The Portal, Nuclear Enrichment is a largely linear game (with a couple of points where players can tackle different puzzles at the same time).  We divided and conquered where we could.  The puzzles were again really varied, ranging from more traditional logic puzzles and some hunt and seek fun through to incredibly high-tech (and visually brilliant) puzzles. 

The theming and quality of props were again first rate in Nuclear Enrichment.  Again, there was a lovely authentic feel to the space given its history as an old paint factory – everything felt, smelled and sounded like the real deal (and the level of immersion was off the charts).  It was all brilliant.

Final thoughts

The rooms at Project Immersive are special. There is a lot of clever high-tech, really interesting puzzles, intricate storylines, top-quality theming and effects and great game master interactions.  Their rooms have been created by escape room enthusiasts for escape room enthusiasts and it shows.

I really hope more TERPECA nominators and voters are able to play the Project Immersive rooms as I think they deserve to make the list.

Where:                        The Paint Factory, 115 Hyde Road, Yeronga

Duration:                    60 mins

Themes:                      2 themes

Cost:                           $49 per person (assuming team of 4)

Overall Rating:           Our favourite rooms in Brisbane!

More details:              https://projectimmersive.com/  

Puzzled Room Escape - Review of All Rooms

 

Hi all

Another escape room outfit that we checked out on our 3 days of escape room madness in Brisbane in November 2023 was Puzzled Room Escape.  They are based in Holland Park West, which was about a 10 min drive south of Brisbane city.  We ended up playing all 7 rooms available at Puzzled Room Escape pretty much back to back, with a short break for lunch. 

On the day that we played their rooms, we also played 6 other rooms at other locations, which meant that we ended up playing 13 rooms in a single day.  We had initially aimed to play 10 rooms, which I think would have equalled what we think is the Australian room record for most amount of rooms played in a day.  But after we began escaping rooms early, we managed to find some extra space and so we just kept adding more.  Let’s see how long the 13 rooms in a day record stands….

Here is what I thought of each of the Puzzled Room Escape rooms that we played:

Puzzle Tech Murder (Room 243)

The first room of the day was Puzzle Tech Murder.  This room was based in an office space, so the theming was pretty simple.  There were some nice puzzles (and some were a unique take on what we had seen elsewhere).  On one particular puzzle, one of my fellow players tried to convince me of something that she could see (but which I could not).  Thankfully, she persevered and proved me wrong.  The room was pretty straight forward on the difficulty side of things and we escaped in 17 minutes and 50 seconds (of a possible 60 minutes) and broke the room record by about 7 minutes.

Dr Irov’s Laboratory (Room 244)

We found this room probably the most difficult of all 7 rooms available at Puzzled Room Escape, at least if you go by our escape time (we escaped Dr Irov’s in 37 minutes and 10 seconds of a possible 60 minutes). The room initially was pretty non-linear and we broke out into 2 teams and worked our way through the puzzles.  However, the final puzzle, which is a kind of meta puzzle, was more of or a chore than a fun puzzle.  There was a lot of trial and error (and I largely left if to much more capable team members to solve this one).  One cute element of this room is that there is glass between this room and their Monkey Run room and you can both see each other while playing the rooms. The rooms are also linked thematically (we were the scientists and those in Monkey Run were the subjects).  In fact, you can even throw bananas to the monkeys through a hole in the glass…

Haunted Academy (Room 245)

This was probably our least favourite room at Puzzled Room Escape. The puzzles themselves were fine, but it was one of those rooms where there is such a low level of light that it makes it hard to read or see anything. I appreciate that game designers are aiming for a certain ambience, but there really does need to be a minimum level of lighting, otherwise it seriously detracts from the enjoyment of the room.  We managed to escape this one in 39 minutes and 53 seconds (of a possible 60 minutes).

Monkey Run (Room 246)

Monkey Run was a fun but very simple room.  On the day that we played, we saw two kids birthday parties and Monkey Run was their room of choice.  It’s a really bright and colourful room.  We felt like we were on fire in this room and we escaped in 15 minutes and 27 seconds (of a possible 60 minutes), and broke the room record.

Mirrored (Room 247)

Mirrored was one of their better rooms I thought.  The premises of the room is that you attend a Professor’s office in light of a recent breakthrough that he has had, only for the Professor to be nowhere to be seen.  The puzzles in this room were really nicely done, but the standout aspect of this room is that as part of the story, you step into a different dimension, with that dimension being a mirror image of the first room you were in.  It’s really nicely done and it makes for interesting puzzle design.  We escaped in 21 minutes and 29 seconds (of a possible 60 minutes).

Treasure Hunter (Room 248)

This was probably my favourite room at Puzzled Room Escape.  This room is quite unique in that players are not trying to escape, but are instead trying to find as many artefacts as they can in 60 minutes (with each artefact having a prescribed monetary value).  Before we played the room, we were told by our friendly game masters that no team has ever found all artefacts – challenge accepted! This room is packed full of puzzles – we started off by getting stuck on a map puzzle and then we picked up our pace.  The room is very much non-linear, which meant that we were able to divide and conquer.  We managed to find all artefacts in about 61 minutes, but in fairness to us we had a technical issue with one of the puzzles (something was supposed to open but didn’t), which slowed us down by a few minutes).  Luckily, we had an escape room owner in our team who identified the fault and fixed it, securing our victory.  I really liked this unique take on an escape room, which I had not seen too many times before.  We managed to earn $653,500, and were the first team to score a perfect game 😉

Operation Check  In (Room 249)

Operation Check In was the final room that we played at Puzzled Room Escape. Needless to say, we were a little tired (and I would be lying if I said that I didn’t take a little rest on the bed in this room at one point).  There were some nice elements to this room, which reminded me of different puzzle elements I had seen around the country.  The quality of the puzzles and theming were strong and we managed to escape in 42 minutes (of a possible 60 minutes).

Final thoughts

I thought Treasure Hunter and Mirrored were the standout rooms at Puzzled Room Escape. I would also recommend Monkey Run for newer players, especially families and younger players.

Where:                        5/1177 Logan Road, Holland Park West

Duration:                    60 mins

Themes:                     7 themes

Cost:                           $37 per person (assuming team of 4)

Overall Rating:           A well-themed, fun mix of games at different difficulty levels

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

Seraphim Escape Rooms - Review of All Rooms

Hi all

Another escape room business that we checked out on our 3 days of escape room madness in Brisbane in November 2023 was Seraphim Escape Rooms in Ipswich.  On the day that we played all 3 Seraphim rooms back to back, we ended up playing 10 rooms in total all up that day (which was my record by a long margin).  Spoiler alert though – we broke that record the following day….

I had been itching to check out the rooms at Seraphim for years.  I had met Keziah, the owner, years before at a meet up in Melbourne.  In fact, I think one of the main reasons that this trip of ours was organised was to check out Seraphim before they closed their doors (and I am aware of a bunch of other enthusiasts and owners who have also been to Ipswich recently for the same reason).

We played all 3 Seraphim rooms back to back.  Here is what I thought:

Santa’s Cottage  (Room 238)

Santa’s Cottage was a fun Christmas-themed room.  It was a largely linear room, designed more for families and players who are newer to escape rooms.  There was a really nice mix of puzzles in this room and despite being linear, we were all kept pretty busy.  There was a standout logic puzzle that I recall that we solved a little differently to others who had come before us.  Our team blitzed through this room in 16 minutes and 50 seconds (of a possible 60 minutes).   

The Executioner’s Toolshed (Room 239)

The Executioner’s Toolshed was the room that I had heard was very scary, so I was a little apprehensive going in.  In good news for our team, we managed to escape the room so quickly that our Executioner friend was only able to come and scare us just the one time (I understand that most teams get multiple scares).  We managed to escape the room in 19 minutes and 20 seconds (of a possible 60 minutes), which meant we had broken the room record by 2 minutes.  The room was very dark and pretty scary and we spent most of it handcuffed to a fellow team member.  The puzzles all very much matched the theme and were a lot of fun to solve.

Atonement (Room 240)

Atonement was another pretty scary room, although it didn’t contain the jump scares or live actor interaction that we encountered in The Executioner’s Toolshed.  Something our team is incredibly proud of is that before the intro to the room had finished being explained to us, we had already made our way into the second room(!). We were told by Keziah that that was a first 😊

The room was uber spooky without the jump scares.  One aspect of Atonement that was interesting is that before going in, players draw tarot cards and they then have to follow instructions on those cards during the game.  This might explain why at one point I was dancing (which I am not known for)….

There are some really bespoke elements of Atonement which we all REALLY liked too.  We escaped Atonement in 26 minutes and 57 seconds (of a possible 60 minutes), which meant we had broken the room record by about 5 minutes.

Final thoughts

The rooms at Seraphim were all awesome.  They offer a nice range of family-friendly rooms right through to pretty scary adult rooms. 

We really enjoyed all of the puzzles, which were really varied and fun to solve.  The standout aspect of the Seraphim Rooms experience though is that our game master Keziah spent her time during our experience typing up very detailed notes of our every move – what funny things we each said, the unusual ways that we solved puzzles, what our time was at each of the main puzzles.  It was something truly unique – I have never seen this level of detail in a debrief anywhere else to date.  And as well as our game master reading through the notes at the end, the notes were handed to us to take away with us as a memento.

Also, in good news Seraphim Escape Rooms is not closing down after all and has instead found new owners.  If you’re heading to Brisbane or Ipswich, I highly recommend checking out their rooms!

Where:                        1 Prasser Lane, Ipswich

Duration:                     60 mins

Themes:                      3 themes

Cost:                           $55 per person (assuming team of 4)

Overall Rating:           From Christmas fun to a scary executioner!

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