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 250th 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/
No comments:
Post a Comment