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