Tales of Torchdale - Hunting Season and The Toy Factory Reviews (The Netherlands)

 

Hi everyone

The twelfth and thirteenth rooms that we played on our May/June 2024 child-free trip to Holland was Hunting Season and The Toy Factory at Tales of Torchdale, located in Zoersel, about a 35 minute bus ride from the centre of Antwerp.

My wife and I played these rooms as a duo. I had heard great things about The Toy Factory in particular, so we added a couple of days to our trip in Antwerp both to play these rooms but to also check out Antwerp city. I am really glad we did because Antwerp was beautiful and the statue Nello & Patrasche was phenomenal:

You can see that the cobblestones are wrapped up and over the sleeping boy and dog. We loved it.

I had read that at peak hour, catching an uber from Antwerp was difficult, so we decided to jump on a bus. This worked out well, although I had to allow extra time because were capturing public transport, which meant that we arrived very early and ended up standing in light rain outside Tales of Torchdale. The setting for Tales of Torchdale is a lovely old town with lots of wild flowers and animals, so there were worse places to be.

Hunting Season and The Toy Factory were our 302^nd and 303^rd rooms and here is what we thought:

Hunting Season – Room 302

• Hunting Season, which I understand has now closed, was an older room that I would describe as being a more gen 2 or gen 3 room. It was certainly not as high tech as many other rooms that we played on our trip;
• the experience starts in a cosy home, which we have broken into. The quality of the theming is strong. There are some nice puzzles and hide and seek fun, which we enjoyed;
• at about the half-way point, the mood of the room shifts and becomes much darker. There was one very short/minor character interaction, but there were very few jump scares or anything overly scary really at all;
• I remember a couple of really interesting puzzles in the end of the experience, one of which I apparently brute forced (I used one tool in a way that it wasn’t designed to be used); and
• We escaped Hunting Season with just over 5 minutes left on the clock.

Overall, Hunting Season was a solid room. The backstory was fine and the theming and puzzles were also good. We could see though why they had decided to retire the room, as it was ageing and it didn’t really keep up with other rooms out in the market.

The Toy Factory – Room 303

• This was the room we had travelled all the way to Antwerp to play. And I am really glad that we did;
• our game master, Emree, was our favourite GM of the trip. He was a young guy who was completely engaged in his experience and he had us laughing very quickly;
• the quality of this room is excellent. The theming of each space is so well done – it was amazing that on the other side of the door from our experience was a very quiet, suburban street in the middle of nowhere. The quality of the set, the props and puzzles was impressive;
• the storyline was also very strong and was woven seamlessly throughout the experience. The only live actor interaction was at the very beginning and then again at the very end of the experience, but we enjoyed that aspect the most;
• the puzzles in The Toy Factory were also excellent – really varied, generally medium level difficulty and all were really satisfying to solve. One of the most impressive puzzles is more of a dexterity puzzle, which we both thought was great fun; and
• there was one moment of separation, which was more eerie than scary. It involved a communication puzzle which was tricky, given it was hard to hear each other. But we did manage to solve it and ultimately escaped in 63 minutes of a possible 75 minutes.

The Toy Factory was easily one of the best rooms we played on our trip. The quality of the room design, theming and puzzles were excellent, as was the fun live actor interaction. The Toy Factory debuted at #16 on TERPECA a few years ago and currently sits at #45. I think it deserves that spot (or even a top 30 spot). It’s a brilliant room! I was still finding ‘items’ in my hair and clothes a few days afterwards… 😊

Where:                 Herentalsebaan 47, Zoersel, België

Duration:            60 – 90 minutes

Themes:              2 themes

TERPECA:          The Toy Factory: #45 in 2024 (formerly #16)

Price:                     169€ per team

Overall Rating:     Toy Factory was a superb room (and our favourite GM of the trip)

More details:         https://torchdale.be/en/home

Dark Park - The End Review (The Netherlands)

Hi everyone

The eleventh room on our May/June 2024 child-free trip to Holland was The End at Dark Park, located in Zoetemeer, about a 15 minute uber ride from the centre of The Hague.

The End was our 301^st room. The story behind The End is as follows:

“Your order is ready”, a creaky voice on the other end of the phone tells you right before hanging up. Before you know it, you find yourself trembling in front of an old casket store. The door squeaks as you open it and an enormous coffin stares you right in the face from square in the middle of the shop. What did you get yourself into and where will this adventure lead you?

And here is what I thought:

• I played this room with my wife as a duo.  The experience begins in a funeral home, standing alongside an empty casket.  The theming in this experience was strong, with all items making sense in the space;
• the experience starts off quite simple and straight forward, with an eerie undertone. However, things change significantly about one third the way into the experience. I would describe that section as being pretty full on ‘scare wise’, with live actor interactions. I think playing as a team of 4 would have been a lot less scary;
• we survived that section though and from that point on, the scare level decreased significantly. There were some nice live actor interactions in this experience – in fact, that was probably the most unique element of The End;
• the puzzles were all well-considered and all made sense. There was a mix of simple low tech puzzles, through to some quite high-tech puzzles towards the end of the experience;
• the finale of The End is pretty special – it was certainly one of the more memorable finishes to an escape room we had played; and
• overall, I thought this was a strong room but I did not think that this room deserved #65 on the TERPECA ranking, which was its ranking at the time that we played it. The End debuted at #13 in its first year in 2020 – perhaps back then it deserved that ranking, but since the time that we played it, The End currently sits at #91. I think that’s probably about right, based on various rooms I have played since.

Overall, we enjoyed our experience, although during the scary section I was wondering whether we had bitten off more than we could chew. We did survive it though. Whilst I would probably rank The End in the bottom half of the rooms that we played on this trip, we still enjoyed it and could appreciate those elements that other enthusiasts clearly loved about The End.

Where:                 Dorpsstraat 33A, 2712 AB Zoetermeer

Duration:            60 minutes

Themes:              6 themes

TERPECA:          #91 in 2024 (formerly #13)

Price:                    From 135€ per team of 2

Overall Rating:     Great live actor interactions and a great finale

More details:        https://www.darkpark.com/en/escape-room-zoetermeer-the-end/

Down the Hatch - Molly's Game Review (The Netherlands)

 

Hi everyone

The tenth room on our May/June 2024 child-free trip to Holland was Molly’s Game at Down the Hatch, located in Voorburg, about a 15 minute uber ride from the centre of The Hague.

Molly’s Game was the number 1 room in the world (on the TERPECA list) at the time that we played it. I was so incredibly excited to play this room. In fact, I planned the whole trip around this room and I managed to tee it up so that it was my 300^th room. 

As like many of the best rooms in the world, Molly’s Game has been constructed entirely within a large warehouse in a very unassuming industrial area. There is a gym in front of Down the Hatch and when we arrived, there were sweaty people both inside and out the front of the gym. We saw the Molly’s Game sign on a side gate and headed around the back.

The reception area is really beautifully-made and I was VERY excited when I recognised the backdrop I had seen in so many team photos online of players who had been lucky enough to play Molly’s Game.

Molly’s Game was phenomenal – more specifically, here is what I thought:

• Molly’s Game is incredibly special. I would not describe it as an overly scary room, but rather a narrative-driven experience that has a pretty dark story at its core. There are certainly eerie moments, but this is achieved not by live character interactions or jump scares, but by really well-designed audio and visual effects;
• the theming in Molly’s Game is off the charts. I lost count of how many spaces we walked through during our experience, but the scale of Molly’s Game is enormous. The way in which the various puzzles were woven seamlessly into the storyline was incredibly impressive;
• the room flow is also excellent – things start off relatively slowly, with tension building (and building) throughout until the finale. Molly’s story is at the heart of the experience. It is really multi-faceted story, with more details being revealed slowly during the duration of the experience. Lovers of narrative-driven rooms with intricately-told stories will love Molly’s Game;
• one of the most impressive elements of the best rooms in the world, I have come to learn, are the ‘wow’ moments. These come in all shapes and sizes – sometimes it is memorable character interactions, other times it is a moving wall (or ceiling, or floor!), or something simple like an unassuming door that opens up to a full-scale pirate ship sitting at a dock in water. I think of the latter ‘wow’ moments as ‘sleight of hand’ or misdirections. I can recall 2 specific moments in Molly’s Game where the misdirections genuinely amazed me; and
• I think what puts Molly’s Game ahead of so many other rooms is that not only does it have an enormous set full of high tech ‘wow moments’, but the puzzles are all excellent too. There is the typical hunt and seek fun, but then as players venture deeper into the experience, the difficulty and level of immersion/theming with the puzzles grows. We used so many of our senses, in interesting ways, in playing Molly’s Game and solving her mystery.

Molly’s Game was a fantastic room and at the time that I played it, it was hands down my favourite room I had played anywhere in the world. The reasons for this were many: the really strong storyline that is woven throughout the experience, the quality and uniqueness of the puzzles that are again seamlessly woven into the experience, the clever use of lighting/sounds to create an experience that is full of tension, which builds steadily throughout, the incredibly quality of the theming in all respects and the ‘wow’ factor moments. This experience ticks all of the boxes, not to mention the pure scale of the experience, which is enormous.

Molly’s Game debuted on the TERPECA list at #3. The following year it was #2, and then #1 in 2023. In 2024, Molly’s Game was #4. There aren’t too many escape rooms that can say that they have sat in the top 5 rooms for 4 years in a row.

Where:                 Populierendreef 966, 2272 HW Voorburg

Duration:            90 minutes

Themes:              1 theme (1 more opening 2025)

TERPECA:          #4 in 2024 (formerly #1)

Price:                    200€ per team of 4

Overall Rating:     A near perfect room – top 5 TERPECA room 4 years running!

More details:        https://www.down-the-hatch.nl/

Outerground Escape Rooms - Jason's Legacy Review (The Netherlands)

 

Hi everyone

The ninth room on our May/June 2024 child-free trip to Holland was Jason’s Legacy at OuterGround Escape Rooms in Rijswijk, which is about 5km south of the centre of The Hague.

I had heard about OuterGround from their Jason’s Curse room, which was a popular earlier room. We learned from our chat with the game master after our experience that that earlier room had, in real life, burned to the ground. They then decided to build a new room, Jason’s Legacy, which is the room we played.

Jason’s Legacy was our 299^th escape room and here is what I thought: 

• this room is really impressive. As with many rooms in both The Netherlands and across the world, the experience has been constructed inside a large warehouse in an industrial area. What is most impressive with Jason’s Legacy is that they have constructed a free-standing, two storey house! I don’t mean a façade or a studio set of a two storey house – it’s an actual, fully constructed house. Every space feels just like you would expect an old scary house to feel like as well;
• the theming is very impressive. All of the spaces made sense and the experience had a really nice flow throughout;
• there is a VERY short character interaction at the very beginning of the experience. I would describe Jason’s Legacy as one of the scarier rooms that we played on this trip, but compared to Athens/Spain rooms it wasn’t overly scary at all. We also played with 4 players, which made it much less scary (given that the ‘courage tests’ were executed in the safety of a duo, not solo). Jason’s Legacy is scary, but it is more about the darkness/audio/vibe than about being chased by characters. In fact, I can only recall a couple of minor jump scares;
• there are some really nice puzzles in Jason’s Legacy, including hunt/seek fun (which slowed us down a little at the beginning). Overall I would describe the puzzles as largely medium-level difficulty – challenging and fun to solve but not impossibly difficult. They were all pretty intuitive; and
• after our experience, we sat down with one of the managers to chat about the history of their rooms and escape rooms generally in Europe. We also had drinks with the manager, which we were learning was a pretty common thing in The Netherlands (but I have since learned is pretty unique to The Netherlands).

We all really enjoyed Jason’s Legacy. The most impressive aspect is the pure scale of the two storey house that they have constructed. It really is phenomenal. The theming and quality of puzzles were all first rate too. Jason’s Legacy debuted at #71 on the TERPECA list and in 2024 sits at #131. It is far better than many other rooms I have played in the top 100, so I highly recommend checking it out.

Where:                 Diepenhorstlaan 11c, 2288 EW Rijswijk

Duration:            75 minutes

Themes:              5 themes

TERPECA:          #131 in 2024 (formerly #71)

Price:                    165€ per team of 4

Overall Rating:     They built a full 2 storey house!

More details:        https://www.outerground.com/en/jasons-legacy/ 

Escape Room Katwijk - Pray Review (The Netherlands)

 

Hi everyone

The eighth room on our May/June 2024 child-free trip to Holland was Pray at Escape Room Katwijk, which is located about a 40 minute drive south-west of Amsterdam (or about 60-75 minutes by train).

I had learned about Pray from other escape room enthusiasts (I always ask Heiner Stepen for room recommendations when I head to Europe and this was one of the newer rooms that he said was a must play). For those of you who don’t know Heiner, he runs the Escape Roomers blog (https://escaperoomers.de/) and I am pretty sure he holds the record for having played the most escape rooms of anyone in the world (he has played more than 3,000 rooms at the time of writing this review). Unbelievable (I know), but true.

Pray proved difficult to book into, not because of their booking system, but because they were booked out during our trip. I contacted the owner, Johan, who kindly opened up a slot for us.

Pray was our 298^th escape room and here is what I thought: 

• we ended up taking an uber from Amsterdam to Katwjik, which took about 35-40 minutes. Escape Room Katwjik is located in an industrial estate. We had luggage with us, which we stored in the main reception building and then we headed outside to wait for our cue that our room was ready for us. A quick note on this aspect – we had to climb a long, external staircase to play this room, so less-abled players should be aware of this when booking;
• Pray is marketed as a scary room. At the time that I played Pray, it was probably one of the scarier rooms that I had played. After having since played rooms in Athens and Spain, I have a little more perspective on what a scary room is. According to TERPECA, Pray is “passively scary, which means that the game uses darkness, intimidation, simulated danger, hide and seek and other techniques to create anxiety, but doesn’t startle players much”. I think that is pretty accurate. Whilst there are interactions with a character during the experience, we were not being actively chased or touched by any characters;
• Pray is more focused on scary music and dark settings, with a few jump scares thrown in for fun. I think the anticipation was ultimately scarier than the reality in Pray, at least for me. I would rate it at about a 4 out of 10 for scary factor;
• the set and theming is beautifully done in Pray. The village scene and the various buildings within the village were incredibly thematic – we really did forget that we were in an industrial warehouse building throughout our experience;
• as seems to be the case with most scary rooms, there were moments of separation and ‘courage tests’ in Pray (where I was the ‘lucky’ chosen one who was separated for a period from the group), but it was fun and in fact allowed me to solve puzzles that the rest of my group weren’t able to access;
• the puzzles in Pray were, on balance, on the easier side. There was also a nice variety to the puzzles, with a mix of clever tech and more straight forward manual puzzles;
• after our experience, we were able to sit down with Johan and discuss his room and escape rooms generally across Europe. It is common in The Netherlands to have a drink after the experience. Johan’s integration of his bar area within the Pray world was my favourite integration I have seen to date.

We all really enjoyed Pray. One of our team members doesn’t like scary rooms but she did pretty well with Pray. The main drawcard for Pray is the theming and quality of the sets, which really are beautiful. Pray is a new room and scored the very impressive spot of #13 on the TERPECA ranking. I think it is well-deserved.

Where:                 Naast Gelegen Gebouw, 2223GG Katwijk (Z-H)

Duration:            80 minutes

Themes:              3 themes

TERPECA:          #13 in 2024

Price:                    190€ per team of 4

Overall Rating:     Phenomenal theming and great puzzles

More details:        https://escaperoomkatwijk.com/

Sherlocked - The Lost Cabinet Review (The Netherlands)

Hi all

The seventh room on our May/June 2024 child-free trip to Holland was The Lost Cabinet at Sherlocked Escape Rooms. It is located in Amsterdam, but the specific location where the game can be played is subject to change.

Having previously played Sherlocked’s The Vault room online during the pandemic, and then having played The Alchemist room the night before, we were excited to get our hands on The Lost Cabinet.

The Locked Cabinet is a unique experience. It is steeped in secrecy – in fact, if you go and take a look at Sherlocked Escape Rooms’ website, you won’t find any mention of The Locked Cabinet. I only learned about The Locked Cabinet from a review by Room Escape Artist, which you can check out here. Sherlocked - The Lost Cabinet [Review] - Room Escape Artist

The only way to (attempt to) book in The Locked Cabinet is by sending an email to lostcabinet@sherlocked.nl. You cannot book this experience on their website.

The Lost Cabinet was our 297^th escape room experience. We played as a team of 4 and here is what I thought: 

• one of the owners of Sherlocked Escape Rooms, Victor, was our host. The Lost      Cabinet can be moved and played in different locations, but our experience was enjoyed at Sherlocked Escape Rooms’ offices, which are located about a 15-20 min walk south of their main Amsterdam location. From memory, we played on a Sunday morning, so the office was empty and after setting us up with tea/coffee, Victor walked us into a separate room where The Lost Cabinet was waiting for us;
• the experience is a locked box experience. At the time of playing The Lost Cabinet, I had played a number of different locked box experiences, of varying levels of quality and difficulty. The Lost Cabinet was easily the best experience of that type we have played to date;
• the quality of craftmanship in The Lost Cabinet is unrivalled. There were so many intricately-constructed elements and so many concealed items. My only concern was that some of the elements felt like they could easily be broken with a modest amount of force, so we were VERY careful at every step. This did not detract from the experience at all, but it did explain why Sherlocked is careful to screen those players that they allow to play The Lost Cabinet;
• the puzzles within The Lost Cabinet are varied, intricate and of varying difficult levels. There were nice ‘wow’ moments with certain elements that I will not forget. The puzzles all made sense to us, although there were a few that had us scratching our heads for a little while;
• thematically, the story of The Lost Cabinet is a precursor to the Alchemist. We ultimately played the experiences in the opposite order, but this did not detract from our enjoyment of either;
• I do not recall how long it took us to work our way through The Locked Cabinet, other than being told that our time was better than a certain legend…..ary actor 😉 I would allow yourselves around 2 hours for this experience.

We all really enjoyed The Lost Cabinet. If there is a better 'escape room in a box' anywhere in the world, we are yet to see (or hear anything about) it. 

Where:                 Beurs van Berlage, Damrak 247, 1012 ZJ Amsterdam

Duration:            Allow 90-120 minutes

Themes:              4 themes

Price:                    Prices from 249€ per team

Overall Rating:     The best ‘locked box’ experience we have played

More details:        https://www.sherlocked.nl/  

Sherlocked - The Alchemist Review (The Netherlands)

Hi everyone

The sixth room on our May/June 2024 child-free trip to Holland was The Alchemist at Sherlocked Escape Rooms. It is located in the centre of Amsterdam in a lovely old former stock exchange building.

I had previously played Sherlocked’s The Vault room online during the pandemic, which at one point involved our game master/live avatar exiting the building and walking down the main street of Amsterdam. So it was a little surreal to be there in person this time, standing in front of the same (very impressive) building. The Vault was one of the most fun online escape rooms I played during the pandemic, so I had high hopes going into The Alchemist.

The Alchemist was our 296^th escape room and here is what I thought: 

• the venue is great. It is such a beautiful, historic building. Whilst this no doubt would have thrown up many challenges for the owners in designing the room, they did a great job. One thing to note is that we had to walk up a number of stairs to play this room, so keep that in mind;
• the theming in The Alchemist is incredible. There was some really nice misdirection (although we had been to enough Dutch rooms at that point to spot it coming) and then we entered the main escape room area. It was amazing. The scale was impressive and all elements suited the theme beautifully;
• the room contained a really nice mix of varied puzzles of varying levels of difficulty. There was also a nice variety to the puzzles – several relying on some clever tech and others more straight forward. There were some unique puzzles thrown in as well (of a type we had not seen anywhere else); and
• there are 3 specific moments in The Alchemist that are honestly spectacular. I won’t give anything away, but the most visually impressive moment is the ending which is honestly the most impressive sequence I have seen to an escape room (before or since).

We all really enjoyed The Alchemist. The room flow and puzzles were excellent. The main drawcard here though is the spectacular moments, which are the reason why The Alchemist is currently holding the #32 TERPECA ranking. It is well-deserved.

Where:                 Beurs van Berlage, Damrak 247, 1012 ZJ Amsterdam

Duration:            90 minutes

Themes:              4 themes

TERPECA:          #32 in 2024 (formerly #31)

Price:                    Prices from 39€ per person

Overall Rating:     A truly spectacular room!

More details:        https://www.sherlocked.nl/experiences/the-alchemist

Escape Room Junkie - Corpse Inc Review (The Netherlands)

Hi everyone

The fifth room on our May/June 2024 child-free trip to Holland was Corpse Inc at Escape Room Junkie. It is located in Baarn, which is about 45-60 minute drive from Amsterdam.

We arrived a few minutes late (this wasn’t our fault – our previous room The Dome was running behind) but the owners of Corpse Inc were very kind and allowed us to start a few minutes late.

The story of Corpse Inc is that players are hired by an anonymous source for an extraordinary mission: to steal a body from a morgue. And in broad daylight no less.

Corpse Inc was my 295th escape room and here is what I thought: 

• If rooms were scored purely on ‘fun factor’, I think Corpse Inc was the most fun room of the trip. I remember laughing at several points and genuinely loving every minute.
• The quality of theming in Corpse Inc was strong. I also really liked that they utilised several parts of their property in a truly unique way.
• There was a really broad mix of puzzles – some were more traditional and others were more challenging. We really enjoyed all of the puzzles. There was one puzzle that we thought could have been clearer (which we apparently solved in a way that no other team had solved to date). The puzzles over all were very strong.
• The standout for me in Corpse Inc was the actor engagement. We each played different roles at one point in the escape, which involved interacting with an actor. This was so much fun. I was lucky enough to have to engage with the actor the most, including tip toeing around a sleeping security guard. The actor was very clever and wove into the story line the various stupid things that I was doing. Again, I laughed a lot in this room. The actor afterwards was very gracious after he learned that I had added a few random numbers to the sudoku he was attempting to solve (something I am VERY PROUD to confirm that no player had done before). To me, it was an obvious move…
• From a room flow perspective, Corpse Inc is really well designed. There are lovely laugh out loud moments, to more hard-core concentration moments and finally a really awesome finale. Corpse Inc also has a really cool ‘scoring’ system too that we all really enjoyed.
• As is common in The Netherlands, we enjoyed a Coke afterwards with the owners as we discussed both their room and all things escape rooms. They were lovely hosts.

I thought Corpse Inc was phenomenal. It was so much fun. The quality of the puzzles was great, the novelty of playing a character was awesome and the actor interaction made this such a memorable experience. This room deserves to be much higher on the TERPECA rankings in my opinion.

Where:                Oud-Eemnesserweg 5D, 3741 MP Baarn

Duration:            75 minutes

Themes:              1 theme

TERPECA:          #150 in 2024 (formerly #82)

Price:                    159-169€ (for a team of 3)

Overall Rating:    So. Much. Fun.

More details:        https://escaperoomjunkie.nl/en/  

Mama Bazooka - The Dome Review (The Netherlands)

Hi everyone

The fourth room on our May/June 2024 child-free trip to Holland was The Dome at Madam Bazooka. It is located in Utrecht, which is about 45-60 minute drive from Amsterdam.

I had VERY big expectations going into The Dome, given it debuted in 2020 as the number 1 escape room in the world on the TERPECA list. It has maintained an incredibly high standing since then, currently sitting at #7 in 2024. At the time that I played The Dome, it was #2.

The backstory to The Dome, which I do not think was its strongest point, is that players are participating in tests at The Dome Research Facilities, whilst a criminal cyborg Hector is undergoing ‘controlled molecular neuro transmission’ treatment. When a substance is released into the research facility, players are intoxicated and begin to hallucinate, not being able to tell reality from fantasy.

The Dome was my 294th escape room and here is what I thought:

• The quality of theming in The Dome was very strong. At times we felt like we were on a movie set. There was some really cool misdirection at the beginning of the experience that was really fun.
• There was a really broad mix of puzzles – in fact, probably a broader mix of puzzles of any room I can think of at the time of writing this review. Not all of the puzzles were brilliant (or even suited the theme), but I think where The Dome really shines is in a few select puzzles that are some of the best puzzles I have seen anywhere in the world. For those who have played The Dome, their design of a computer game in a real world escape room environment in the game was phenomenal (as was their shadow puzzle as well as a couple of others). In fact, I wonder how much that single 'real world computer game' puzzle contributed to their spot in TERPECA…
• Where I think The Dome does not shine though is in the backstory and how some puzzles fit into that story line. The story line, ie that all players are hallucinating, felt like a cop out to me – it also seemed to be a bit of a crutch from a design perspective, as it allowed the designers to include puzzles that just didn’t make sense (both in the space and in the story). More importantly, there were aspects of the story that I am pretty sure I still don’t understand more than 6 months later.
• We had an additional issue with The Dome that was a little unfortunate. We arrived early and were told that there was an issue with the game/previous team, which meant that we didn’t start until about 25 minutes past our scheduled starting time. That was a little disappointing for a few reasons – it meant that I spent a lot of time quite distracted right before (and after) the room contacting the next room we were going to to let them know we might be a little late (I had only allowed just enough time to get there), and it also meant that after playing The Dome we did not get to watch back our experience. I understand that most players go into a quiet room where they get to watch back video of themselves during their escape. That would have been really cool but alas it wasn’t to be for our team.

I thought The Dome was a really strong room. Some of the puzzles were truly unique and easily some of the best I have seen to date. However, from a room flow and story perspective, I did not think The Dome was nearly as strong. I understand that whilst The Dome has a huge following in the enthusiast world, there are also many enthusiasts who do not think it ever deserved its #2 TERPECA spot. I fell into the latter category at the time that I played The Dome and having played another 100 rooms since The Dome at the time of writing this review, I think there are a lot of rooms that deserve the top 10 spots ahead of The Dome. The idea that “you’re all hallucinating so we can get away with anything in our room flow and story line” definitely let them down in my view. But hey, the room is worth playing just for the couple of world class puzzles.


Where:                        Nijverheidsweg 5b, 3751 LP Bunschoten, Utrecht

Duration:                    60 minutes

Themes:                      3 themes

TERPECA:                 #7 in 2024 (formerly #1)

Price:                          199€ (for a team of 4)

Overall Rating:          Really unique ER with some standout puzzles

More details:              https://escaperoom.nl/en/