Escape or Die - The Haunted House of Horror 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 (among other rooms) Escape or Die.

When planning our trip to Melbourne, I asked a few escape room friends of mine for recommendations.  Each of them suggested Escape or Die as being a really fun room, so I added it to the list.

Escape or Die has just the one room on offer (and it takes up all of their space, so I don’t think there will be any more rooms on offer at that venue in the future).  The name of their room is the Haunted House of Horror.  HHoH was our 224^th room to date.  The summary of the room from their website is as follows:

WHO IS THE UNFINISHED THING...?

The tale of the Unfinished Thing is an old Story told to scare children...

but what if it's all real? Will you uncover the mysteries of the Haunted House of Horror's murderous past, inspired by this old folk story, and Escape with your lives?

Here is what I thought of HHoH:

·        this room was incredibly fun! There is a lot of humour woven into the experience.  The room utilises a number of audio/visual cut scenes throughout, after certain puzzles have been solved.  At times the room felt like it was a spoof of the typical escape room/horror genre;

·        the puzzles in the room were really strong.  There was a nice variety of puzzles of different times and difficulty levels, as well as some hunt and seek fun;

·        the flow of the room is excellent.  It results in a real sense of suspense that builds throughout the experience, with music, sounds and volumes playing a big part;

·        the theming and props were all strong in HHoH as well – it was nice seeing interesting props being used as puzzle elements;

·        the experience was a mix of old style padlocks together with a reasonable amount of hidden tech.  It was all put together really well and made for a great experience.

Escape or Die was the last stop on our weekend away in Melb.  It was a great room to finish on – excellent, challenging puzzles, a really strong backstory and a nice mix of horror and humour in equal parts.  That being said, the room was not uber scary – there was a jump scare or two, but certainly wasn’t as horrifically scary as some other rooms out there.  We loved it.

Where:                        Escape or Die, Melbourne

Duration:                    90 minutes

Themes:                      1

Cost:                           $65 per person (assuming team of 4)

Overall Rating:           Incredibly fun – a humorous spoof of a horror room

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

Ukiyo - The Crumbling Prince (Episode 2) 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 (among other rooms), the rooms at Ukiyo.

The Crumbling Prince (Episode 2) was our 223^rd room to date. 

We played The Crumbling Prince Episode 2 immediately after Episode 1, so I confess I find it a little difficult now to differentiate between the 2 rooms.  You can read my review of The Crumbling Prince Episode 1 here – the majority of my comments apply to both Episodes.

My additional thoughts on The Crumbling Prince series are as follows:

·        one of the episodes (I think Episode 2) contains a musical puzzle. The puzzle requires players to listen to a musical pattern and then repeat the pattern by “playing” certain musical notes scattered around the room.  The pattern starts off with only one or two notes, but then gets progressively longer.  I am not a fan of musical puzzles in escape rooms – I think people either have the ability to hear and differentiate between notes, or they simply don’t.  Musical puzzles, especially long puzzles here, can be difficult for some players and there is no way to provide a subtle hint in the right direction.  With trial and error we managed to solve the music puzzle, but I would describe it as more of a chore than a fun experience; and

·        one interesting aspect of the Crumbling Prince series is that both Episode 1 and Episode 2 are played in the same physical space.  I have played rooms that adopt this space-saving approach elsewhere.  The biggest issue I have had in the past with this model is that the different puzzles between each experience can be confusing.  That is, there might be puzzle elements in one experience that are clearly puzzles, but they are not part of that experience (but instead are part of the second experience), so you have to ignore them.  I have found that confusing and quite distracting.  I did not have that experience in The Crumbling Prince series – I think they did well to camouflage those puzzle elements that did not relate to the game we were currently playing. 

As with TCP Episode 2, the pace in Episode 2 was just too slow for me. I enjoyed the theming and the interesting interactions with the NPC, and each character having their own special power, but it missed any sense of excitement or urgency for me. I look back and would describe both Episodes as more interesting than fun, which is a shame.  I think escape rooms should be immersive and interesting/engaging, but most importantly, they need to be fun (especially at this very high price point).

Where:                       Ukiyo

Duration:                    90 minutes

Themes:                      5 (but more planned)

Cost:                           $81.25 per person (assuming team of 4)

Overall Rating:           An interesting take on the escape room experience

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

 

 

Ukiyo - The Crumbling Prince (Episode 1) 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 (among other rooms), the rooms at Ukiyo.

I had played other rooms by Ukiyo before (including Deep Space (in person) and their online “Ukiyo at home” experiences).  I had mixed experiences on those earlier occasions, but I had heard good things about Ukiyo’s Crumbling Prince series so I went it with an open mind.

The Crumbling Prince (Episode 1) was our 222^nd room to date.  Before we played the room, players are asked to go online to play a short room called The Sound of Spring (A Crumbling Prince Tale).  Unfortunately, much like the Ukiyo at home experiences I had played before (and never again), we had issues with the execution of the online experience.  One of our players was stuck in a never-ending loop in the game (and was really frustrated with it).  The Sound of Spring experience was very similar to my criticisms of the 2 Ukiyo at home experiences I had played – they needed a lot more beta testing.

However, here is what I thought of The Crumbling Prince (Episode 1):

·        the experience begins well before players enter the room.  Players sit down in a separate space and are provided with tea and mochi – it is all very calming and does well at setting them scene for the room to come;

·        the theming in TCP was really nicely done.  The designers have applied a high level of attention to detail with all aspects – the sounds, the props, the overall feel were very nicely done;

·        the biggest drawcard of TCP is that each player has their own role to play – some can commune with nature, others can provide light, and so on. I thought this was executed well.  The second main drawcard of TCP is that players have the opportunity to interact with a NPC throughout the experience.  We were told that the more we interact with the animatronic NPC, the more immersive the experience would be (and this was certainly the case);

·        whilst I enjoyed those elements, I found the room overall to be very slow paced. I really enjoy immersion in escape rooms, and perhaps it was because we had a lot of other rooms to play that weekend on our Melb trip, but I felt like the experience could have been 60 mins not 120 mins.  The tea and mochi were nice, but given we played this room back to back with TCP Episode 2, I felt like we spent a lot of our day in a dark room (which felt like a bit of a waste of time for me).  I have no doubt other players really enjoyed the tea and the slower pace of this room, but each to their own; and

·        the price of The Crumbling Prince is very expensive (certainly the most expensive room I had played at the time).  The price was $81.25 per player, which I think personally is a lot of money for the experience on offer.

Whilst I enjoyed aspects of TCP Episode 1, the pace was just too slow for me. I enjoyed the theming and the interesting interactions with the NPC, and each character having their own special power, but it missed any sense of excitement or urgency for me. I look back and would describe the experience as more interesting than fun, which is a shame.

Where:                        Ukiyo

Duration:                    90 minutes

Themes:                      4 (but more planned)

Cost:                           $81.25 per person (assuming team of 4)

Overall Rating:           An interesting, immersive but slow paced experience

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

 

The Curium Experience - Extraction 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 (among other rooms), The Curium Experience.

The Curium Experience has just the one room available at the time that we played, but they have more rooms planned.  We had heard nothing but great things about Curium (with many of my escape room friends telling me it is the new must do room in Melbourne), so it was at the top of our list.

Their first room is called Extraction.  Extraction was our 221^st room to date.  The summary of the room is as follows:

Extract the artefact and don't get caught...  easier said than done when the item is held in a secret lab in Area 51.   Our technology can get you in, but after that, you're on your own.  We hope you have what it takes... after all, the future of the planet is at stake!

Here is what I thought of Extraction:

·        Extraction was phenomenal! Of all of the rooms that I have played to date, this one most made us feel like we were on a movie set.  The tech and theming were off the charts;

·        Extraction is one of the biggest experiences we have played to date.  We were told afterwards how many metres players traversed in this experience was (I have forgotten the precise amount, but it was enormous);

·        there are so many puzzles in Extraction, many of which were really challenging.  Some of the puzzles required dexterity, others more typical escape room brain burners.  The visuals are so impressive that I found in some parts of the experience, it took a minute or two to take in all that there was to see before I could get my brain focused on the task at hand;

·        the experience starts off quite unassuming, in what looks like a typical escape room, but it builds (and builds) from that point right up to the ending.  It has a really good room (and suspense) flow in that regard;

·        the amount of tech that goes into this experience is mind blowing. I understand it took a long time for Curium to construct this room, but it very clear why (and the effort certainly paid off); and

·        we were lucky enough to get to speak with owners Charlie and Rohan after our escape.  It is always great to talk to owners who are enthusiasts and who generally care about ensuring that players all have a great experience in their rooms. 

I had one reservation going into Extraction and that is that I had heard that the room pushes players through.  That is, if you are taking too long on puzzles, the game can move you along (whether or not you have completed the relevant puzzle(s)).  I had had a really bad experience with this model of escape room before, where the room had arbitrarily decided that we had taken too long on a puzzle and solved it for us.  I found that model thoroughly frustrating and unsatisfying.

I am really pleased to report that we did not have this issue at all in Extraction.  There was just the one puzzle that we didn’t solve (very early on), but the game moved us on and we certainly didn’t feel that we had been deprived of solving the puzzle.  Other newer players might however feel that frustration though if they are pushed through multiple puzzles, so it’s something to be aware of.

Extraction is a big-budget, movie-set quality experience.  It is jam packed full of challenging puzzles, the backstory is strong and the tech is off the charts.  It has clearly been designed and built by enthusiasts

Where:                        The Curium Experience

Duration:                    90 minutes

Themes:                      1 (but more planned)

Cost:                           $59 per person (assuming team of 4)

Overall Rating:           The best room in Melbourne, hands down.

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