Escape Rush - Submarine Bunker, Tokyo Lab, The White House and Botanist Manor Reviews (Belgium)

Hi everyone

The nineteenth to twenty-second (and final) rooms that we played on our May/June 2024 child-free trip to Holland were all of the rooms at Escape Rush Brussels. Their rooms are located a short drive south of the Brussels city centre (about a 10 minute uber trip).

We played the rooms as a duo and a trio (another escape room enthusiast and I played Submarine Bunker together and we were joined by another player for the other rooms). I had heard great things about Escape Rush’s latest room, Botanist Manor, so we decided we would come and play all 4 of their rooms back to back. Here is what I thought:

Submarine Bunker – Room 308

• I really did not enjoy this room. Some aspects of the theming were nicely done, but that was probably the only strong aspect about this room;
• the major flaw I think with this room was the puzzles. One puzzle in early part of the experience we just couldn’t solve due to very low light. Even when we were told where to look, it still wasn’t obvious given the low lighting – I thought this really needs to be improved;
• in the final section of the experience, there were some puzzles that I found were more of a chore than fun to solve. I didn’t find those puzzles particularly logical and I thought they really ruined the experience.

Tokyo Lab – Room 309

• Tokyo Lab was a much better experience (and it was my second favourite room at Escape Rush);
• There was some really nice theming, particularly in the first section of the experience. I liked the puzzles, which were fun and really suited the theme;
• I thought the second half of the experience was not as strong as the first, both in relation to the quality of theming/set design and the quality of the puzzles. The puzzles were good overall, but there was also a dexterity style puzzle thrown in (the type where players mash buttons on walls for 5 minutes). I didn’t think much of that ‘puzzle’, which was more busy work and definitely did not suit the theme (at all).

White House – Room 310

• The best aspect I think of the White House experience was the theming. There were nice details in the set design and props;
• we had one issue in that we left a walkie talkie in an earlier room (which was needed in a later room), but the design meant that we were unable to go back to retrieve it. We therefore had to have the GM break immersion and come into the room to hand it to us. Whilst this was on us, I think good room design (and a more attentive GM) might have avoided this;
• in the later section of the room, there were some puzzles that were ‘inelegant’ (which is a nice was of saying pretty illogical and required real leaps). Firstly, from a design perspective, the mechanism to input a solution is really unclear (and there is also a delay of a few seconds even when the correct combination is entered) – I really disliked this and I could not see how many players would know what is required without getting a direct hint. Again, I didn’t think this was particularly strong design;
• there was another puzzle in particular (again no spoilers) which was very poor – it didn’t make sense and was one of those puzzles when you get the solution you just look at your fellow players, with that look. You know the look I am talking about…

Botanist Manor – Room 311

• I am happy to report that although we didn’t have a fantastic experience with the rest of the rooms at Escape Rush, the exception was Botanist Manor. It was almost like Botanist Manor had been created by a completely different puzzle designer/ER business, given just how different the quality was between this and the other rooms;
• one of the clear aspects that Botanist Manor has over the other rooms at Escape Rush is pure scale. Botanist Manor is an enormous adventure (I lost count of how many spaces we explored our way through). The theming in Botanist Manor was also excellent and quite varied throughout the different spaces;
• the puzzles in Botanist Manor were also really strong (and I thought were better than their other rooms). There is also a really nice room flow in Botanist, which really evolves throughout the experience into something I didn’t expect or see coming;
• I thought many of the puzzles were on the medium to difficult end, which I really enjoyed. There was a really big variety across all of the puzzles as well, which was fantastic. As for the story behind the room, that too was far stronger than Escape Rush’s other rooms. The story grew and strengthened throughout the experience I thought, right through until the very impressive ending;
• I don’t have much on the negative to report with this experience. There was one ‘busy work’ puzzle (a bit like Tokyo Lab) which had players mashing buttons at one point. Whilst this was slightly more linked to the theme, it was still a pretty weak ‘filler’ puzzle in my view. But other than that one puzzle, I can’t recall anything that stood out.

Overall, the rooms at Escape Rush really vary in quality. I would give White House and Submarine Bunker a wide berth (pun very much intended on the latter).  When each of those rooms debuted, they were #188 and #236 on TERPECA. I don’t think they deserved to be in the top 300 at all (and I have certainly played many Australian rooms that were far better). Tokyo Lab was stronger and is worth your time (and its current TERPECA rank at #183 feels about right), but clearly Botanist Manor is the magical room here. An enormous set with really varied, strong quality puzzles and a great story that builds through to a kick-arse ending. It was a great room to finish our trip on.

Where:                 Rue de l’automne 30 – 1050 Ixelles

Duration:            60 minutes

Themes:              4 themes

TERPECA:             Botanist Manor #18

              Tokyo Lab #183 (formerly #74)

Price:                    135 - 180€ (3 players)

Overall Rating:     Botanist was fantastic, the others not so much

More details:         https://escaperush.com/  

Dystopia Escape Rooms - Dystopia Review (Belgium)

Hi everyone

The eighteenth room that we played on our May/June 2024 child-free trip to Holland was Dystopia at Dystopia Brussels in Belgium. The room is located a little south of the Brussels city centre.

I played Dystopia as a duo with a fellow enthusiast. To be honest, I hadn’t heard much about the room but it was geographically located near a bunch of rooms we were going to play, so we thought we could check it out. There is a 3 player minimum for this room, but they allowed us to play as a duo (as long as we paid for 3 people).

Dystopia was my 307^th escape room and here is what I thought:

• finding this place was the first challenge. We walked through a muddy industrial area and found our GM sitting on the ground (kind of in the middle of nowhere). He then took us around the industrial area to the escape room. I am not sure we would have found it without a guide;
• the room was very unspectacular, and by that I mean that it is not a modern polished escape room experience with a nice reception area, lockers for your things, etc. Instead, the reception is in a very cramped old building. This did not detract from the rest of the experience;
• there is a lot of high tech in this room. We thought most of the tech was well done, but the room was a little lacking overall in the quality of puzzles. Most were ok, but some were a little illogical for me (and there are areas of low light which was a bit of an annoying puzzle in its own right).

Overall, I would give this room a miss. It had some interesting tech but beyond that, there wasn’t anything else here to write home about. This room is not in the same league as many of the best (or even best-adjacent) rooms that we played elsewhere in The Netherlands/Belgium.

Where:                 Avenue de la Couronne 227, 1050 Ixelles Belgique

Duration:            60 minutes

Themes:              1 theme

Price:                    120€ (3 players)

Overall Rating:     Give this one a miss

More details:         https://dystopia.brussels/

De Gouden Kooi - Secret of St Rumoldus and Han's Revenge Reviews (Belgium)

Hi everyone

The fifteenth and sixteenth rooms that we played on our May/June 2024 child-free trip to Holland were The Secret of Saint Rumoldus and Han’s Revenge at De Gouden Kooi in Belgium. Their rooms are located in Mechelen, which from memory was about a 45 minute train and bus trip from Brussels city centre.

I played these rooms as a duo with a fellow enthusiast. I had heard great things in particular about Han’s Revenge, which was TERPECA #5 at the time that we played it. Here is what we thought about each room:

Secret of Saint Rumoldus – Room 305

• The theming in St Rumoldus was well done. We could tell though that this was an older room, based on some of the tech and set design;
• initially I was concerned that St Rumoldus might be a pretty scary room, but I can report that it is more spooky than scary. There are no character interactions at all – there are loud and dark moments which really add to the spooky atmosphere, but nothing super scary;
• we room flow was nicely done, which involved a reasonable amount of crawling by the end of the experience. The puzzles all made sense and were satisfying to solve; and
• overall, I thought St Rumoldus was a strong room. I understand that it previously sat at #22 on the TERPECA list, but I think its current position at #176 is probably about right based on its current competition.

Han’s Revenge – Room 306

• Han’s Revenge was the main draw card for us (and the reason we took a train and a bus from Brussels all the way out to Mechelen). To start with, I can, to some extent, understand why Han’s Revenge has an enthusiast following, which has resulted in a high TERPECA rating. It has a really nice room flow, a really large scale set and some really nice set design;
• the puzzles throughout Han’s Revenge were all quite varied. I really liked the room flow, which started slower and eased you into the more dramatic end game shenanigans. The puzzles were all satisfying (and fun) to solve;
• playing as a duo, we both managed to see pretty much all of the puzzles and we escaped with a reasonable amount of time to spare. There are no character interactions in Han’s Revenge and it was not a dark or scary room (although there were some quite loud moments which younger kids might not enjoy so much).

Overall, Han’s Revenge was clearly the better room of the 2 rooms that we played at De Gouden Kooi. St Rumoldus was strong, but no longer in the same league as the best rooms in Europe. And whilst I enjoyed Han’s Revenge, I also do not think it deserves the spot of #5 (as it did when it debuted), nor do I think it even deserves its current #11 spot. I have now played many of the rooms that sit beneath Han’s Revenge on the top 100 TERPECA rooms list and my honest opinion is that I think it probably deserves a ranking more like #50 or so. Don’t get me wrong – it is still a great game with some nice set design and effects, but I was surprised to see it quite so high on the TERPECA ranking given all of the other amazing rooms in Europe.

Where:                 Haverwerf 7, 2800 Mechelen

Duration:            70 minutes

Themes:              7 themes

TERPECA:          Han’s Revenge #11 (formerly #5)

                            Secret of St Rumoldus #176 (formerly #22)

Price:                    160€

Overall Rating:     Han’s Revenge is a great (but not top 11) room

More details:         https://www.degoudenkooi.be/en/

Push Escape Rooms - The Movies Experience Review (Belgium)

 

Hi everyone

The fourteenth room that we played on our May/June 2024 child-free trip to Holland was The Movies Experience by The Push Mystery Rooms, located at Dudzele, bout a 20 minute bus ride outside of Bruges.

My wife and I played The Movies Experience as a duo. I had heard great things about the room from so many enthusiasts, so I knew it had to be on our list. One of the challenges in playing The Movies Experience is that there are very few slots each day that it is run and usually, it is booked out well in advance. Each slot is available exactly one month before, midnight Belgium time. I vividly remember walking around The Easter Show in Sydney desperately logging in and grabbing my spot. All spots were gone that day within 2 minutes, but luckily we managed to get a spot too. A tip with this is that the owner recognises how difficult it can be to get a booking so he encourages enthusiasts to contact him early to try to secure a timeslot.

We caught a bus from Bruges to Dudzele, which from memory took around 20 minutes or so. We arrived at a home with a very large, modern garage roller door. We hit the intercom button and then the fun began.

The Movies Experience was our 304^th room and here is what we thought:

• so much care and effort has been put into the entire experience here. Anthony Boelaert, the owner and our GM, is an interior architect by trade and the attention to detail that he puts into every single aspect of the experience is crazy. The reception area is really cool and so too is the bar where we had a drink after our game;
• the Movies Experience involves players stumbling onto a magic golden ticket which takes players through several different movies during their adventure. I can only recall one other similar-ish concept, which was Pandores et Associes in Paris, where players travel through different fairytale stories. The Movies Experience excelled at the really strong backstory and storyline throughout;
• I do not want to give any spoilers, so rather than let you know the many movies that are involved throughout the adventure, I will say that there are a lot of them and that anyone playing is likely to have seen most of them (or at least have heard of them all). The scale of this adventure is fantastic;
• the puzzles throughout The Movies Experience are all really varied and were a lot of fun to solve. Most were medium level difficulty – not too easy and not too hard, but all satisfying to solve. The room flow is also really strong. Given we were only a team of 2, I was worried that we might have bitten off more than we could chew, but we managed to escape with a reasonable amount of time left on the clock;
• I think the biggest drawcard in this experience is the set design. Anthony clearly loves attention to detail and all of the spaces were movie-set quality. Every piece made sense in the space and was really nicely integrated into the puzzles/puzzle elements; and
• one thing to note is that there one scary movie that players will encounter during The Movies Experience. This can be played in one of two modes – the full experience or lite mode. The difference, as I understand it, is that the full mode involves a scary character interaction, with this being toned down considerably in the lite mode. We bravely went with the full version and although I don’t love super scary rooms, that part was probably my favourite moment of The Movies Experience. So if in doubt, be brave and go for it. [Following this trip, I have been to Spain and Greece and played some of the scariest rooms in the world – I can confirm that The Movies Experience is not nearly as scary as those Spanish/Greek rooms]

The Movies Experience is currently TERPECA #21. I think there are many reasons for this – the pure scale of the adventure, the quality of the puzzles and the unbelievable quality of the set design and props. The character interactions were also excellent. The Movies Experience was our favourite room on this trip and I would rate it within the top 10 rooms that I have played at the time of writing this review. Go and check it out, if you can get a booking.

Where:                 Damse Steenweg 28 8380 Dudzele

Duration:            100 minutes

Themes:              1 theme

TERPECA:          #21 (formerly #22)

Price:                    250€ per team (full experience)

Overall Rating:     An epic adventure with unmatched set design

More details:         https://www.pushpushpush.be/rooms/the-movies-experience/