Mission Sydney - The Sacrifice Review (Sydney)

Hi all

My team returned to Mission Sydney in April 2021, having last been there in October 2019 when we played Trapped.  You can check out my reviews of all of the other Mission Sydney rooms here:  Vampire Castle, Dr M, The Lost Mine, Unstoppable and Trapped.  This time we were back to play their latest room, The Sacrifice.  All 5 of our previous experiences at Mission were really enjoyable, so we had high expectations going in to play The Sacrifice.

The Sacrifice was my 183^rd room to date.  The theme of the room is as follows:

Your friend who loves investigating old folk tales and mysteries, tells you about an old legend that he is looking into. He travels to where the legend originated, but disappeared and never came back.

He never said too much on what the investigation was about, only ever mentioned that it was an old legend involving a mythical creature. If this creature was to be found, then any wish can be granted.

With limited knowledge on the situation, you go to his studio hoping to find out more about his investigation and his whereabouts.

Here’s what we thought of The Sacrifice:

• this experience is enormous.  I lost count of how many different rooms/areas there were in The Sacrifice, but I’m pretty sure it’s the largest escape room I have played in Australia;

• the theming is really impressive.  I think ever since their Unstoppable room, Mission Sydney really stepped up its game with respect to the quality of its theming and props.  The Sacrifice is a step up again – there are sections that are truly beautiful and where an incredible amount of attention to detail has been applied.  In several areas of the experience, we had totally forgotten that we were in the Sydney CBD, which is really hard to achieve – the level of immersion was excellent;

• at 100 minutes, I think The Sacrifice is the longest duration room in Sydney (and possibly the country – if anyone knows of a longer room currently available, please let me know).  The downside is that The Sacrifice is also the most expensive escape room that I am aware of in Sydney, at $67.50 per player.  My view is that the room is strong enough to justify the price tag (especially given that it is 2/3 longer than most rooms in the market);

• the puzzles in The Sacrifice were all really strong and made sense.  There isn’t an old-school padlock to be seen in this room (as is typical of Mission Sydney’s rooms).  They have carved out the “high tech” section of the escape room market in Sydney;

• another unique aspect of The Sacrifice is that it contains a live actor.  This is something that’s really common overseas but not that common here in Australia.  I have probably paid 10 or so rooms to date here that have live actor interactions.  It was a really cool interaction in The Sacrifice; and

• this room is scary, really scary.  There were certain elements that had some in my team screaming and grabbing each other (and running).  So the room definitely is not family-friendly, but if you’re into scary themes like me then I’m sure you will enjoy it.

My team all really enjoyed The Sacrifice.  I think it’s probably my equal favourite Mission Sydney, together with Unstoppable.  The theming is excellent, the immersion is up there with the best and the puzzles are all really strong.  It’s not for the faint of heart, but if you enjoy a good scare and a great, immersive escape room experience, this room is definitely for you.

Where:                         Suite 502, 724 George Street, Sydney

Duration:                      100 minutes

Themes:                       7 themes

Cost:                             $67.50pp (but we played at the invitation of the owners)

Overall Rating:             Scary, immersive and enormous – I loved it!

More details:                https://www.missionsydney.com/

 

Mission Sydney - Trapped Review

Hi all

The second room that my team ever did in Australia was Vampire Castle at Mission Sydney, which we tried back in November 2014.  I enjoyed Vampire Castle, which was my first experience of a high tech escape room.  I also really enjoyed Dr M at Mission Sydney, which we did a little while later.  My team also enjoyed The Lost Mine at Mission Sydney, which we did about a year ago at the time of writing this review.  And finally, my team absolutely loved Unstoppable, which we escaped from in January 2019.

This time we were invited back by the owners to check out their brand new room, Trapped.  We were our usual 4 team of players.  Trapped was our 123^rd room in Australian and our 80^th room in Sydney. Here's the summary of Unstoppable from their website:

One day at a commercial building, a lift carrying passengers malfunctioned, resulting in 2 casualties.

You are detectives who are in charge of this accident. Although this was classified as a human error accident, the investigation has little progress due to lack of evidence.

You have recently received an anonymous message, which claims that a piece of crucial evidence was left at the building. Now, you and your team are heading to the scene for a further investigation.

Here’s what I thought:

·         the theming was really well done.  So many details were really well considered and well designed;

·         as mentioned in my earlier reviews, I have always enjoyed Mission Sydney rooms – they own the “high tech” corner of the escape room market in Sydney (and always have).  Although I have really enjoyed all of their other rooms, I found that at times, whilst really cool, some of the high tech elements didn’t always completely suit the theme;

·         both Unstoppable and Trapped are a step up in my view on the theming and storyline side of things.  There is some very clever use of items in the space in Trapped that make sense and are cleverly designed as puzzle elements.  This is an element that the majority of escape rooms get wrong – even though the puzzle elements can be great, if they don’t make sense in the room then they aren’t thematic.  I am happy to report that the puzzle elements in Trapped made sense in the space;

·         it feels to me like Mission Sydney has really appreciated the importance of a strong back story with Trapped – in many ways I think elements are more subtle and more natural than in their earlier rooms.  The storyline is strong and the puzzles make sense in that storyline;

·         they utilise walkie-talkies in their rooms.  Although not as good as the voice of God system that is quickly becoming the industry standard, it worked well; and

·         this room is family friendly – there are no dark rooms or scary elements.  I would suggest children over about 8 years old would be fine if supervised.

We really enjoyed Trapped.  On the constructive side, there was one puzzle in Trapped that we didn’t love.  It was not an awful puzzle by any means, but compared to the rest of the puzzles, it was a weaker puzzle.  Most people who have been to escape rooms will know what I mean – you see a puzzle, you solve it (or you are given a hint) and you look back at the puzzle and think the solution is not a perfect fit for the puzzle.  The industry term for this I think is an “inelegant puzzle” – it’s not wrong, but it doesn’t quite feel 100% right either.  We were also told by the game master that at the time that we escaped the room, there had been no teams before us who had solved that puzzle without a hint.  That confirmed for me (as I think it should for the owners) that the puzzle might need to be reworked. 

As always, the best measure of a great room was whether my team enjoyed it.  I'm pleased to report that we really enjoyed Trapped!

******NOTE that Mission Sydney currently has 2 different locations.  Trapped is at their new George Street premises*******

Where:                        Suite 502, 724 George Street, Sydney 

Duration:                     70 minutes

Themes:                      6 themes

Cost:                           Price:                           $45pp (but we played at the invitation of the owners)

Overall Rating:            A clever room with nice tech and strong puzzles

More details:               https://www.missionsydney.com/

Expedition Escape Rooms - The Forgotten Son Review

Hi all

I was contacted by LeeOnn and Damien, the owners of Expedition Escape Rooms with an invitation to come and check out their new room in Redfern. 

This is Expedition’s second location, as they already operate rooms in Canberra.  Whilst the Canberra rooms are largely based on rooms designed by Rush Escape Rooms in Melbourne, the Redfern rooms will be designed by LeeOnn and Damien.

We checked out Expedition Escape Rooms’ room, entitled The Forgotten Son, on my birthday, having tried out Mission Sydney’s Unstoppable room beforehand with a quick dinner in between the rooms. 

We were our usual 4 team of players.  The Forgotten Son was out 107^th room in Australian and our 77^th room in Sydney. Here's the summary of The Forgotten Son from their website:

The sun is low on the horizon on your return trek in the High Country. As the cold starts to bite you notice a faint smell of wood fire lingering in the air and a flickering flame can be seen between the haze in the distance.

Seeking shelter you make way towards the light where you come upon an old wooden, rusty, tin house. The sounds of a sobbing child emanate from within. In sensing its distress and unable to leave the child you look for a way in.

Here’s what I thought:

• owners LeeOnn and Damien are fellow escape room enthusiasts – they have escaped from over 100 rooms together.  I think I can pretty much always tell when owners are true enthusiasts – it generally shows;
• the theming was really strong in The Forgotten Son.  The storyline is well-considered and continues throughout the experience (with some twists and turns).  I always appreciate attention to detail in the backstory (and this is something that many escape rooms don’t invest much time in);
• the quality of the props was fantastic.  For much of the experience, we all felt like we were in the middle of the bush and 1,000 miles aware from suburbia.  This is not easy to achieve in a commercial building on a busy road – the owners have cleverly utilised lighting and sound to great effect;
• the room flow is really well-designed.  There is a natural flow to the experience;
• The Forgotten Son is one of those rooms that does high tech very well. Many rooms in Sydney have targeted the “high tech” segment of the escape room market, with much of their high tech very much on display.  The problem I have with this is that the majority of room themes don’t suit showy high tech.  The better rooms know how to utilise high tech elements in a seamless fashion.  The Forgotten Son contains several high tech puzzle and other elements, but the tech is all well-concealed;
• in addition to the very strong theming, I think the greatest strength of The Forgotten Son is its puzzles.  There is a really nice mix of high-tech puzzle elements, together with some more traditional puzzle elements (what I perhaps incorrectly refer to as “traditional Hungarian” style puzzles, that are typically hand-made, low tech and quite visual in nature (often utilising special awareness skills).  I was really impressed with the puzzles in The Forgotten Son – they worked really well, both individually and on the whole;
• there were a couple of puzzles in The Forgotten Son that were of a type that we have not seen before.  After 100+ rooms, this is becoming rarer and rarer; and
• the voice of God system is utilised for communication between players and the game master in this room.  It is among the best methods of communication and for delivering hints and it worked well on the day.

We had a long chat both before and after we escaped from The Forgotten Son with Damien, one of the owners and our game master for the evening.  He took us through each of the puzzles and was very interested in receiving our feedback.

I am not sure now of our exact time, but I think we escaped in about 45-50 minutes, which indicates that this was a pretty difficult room.  We did get stuck on one particular puzzle, but we managed to get through the balance of the experience pretty quickly.  I would describe this room as a reasonably challenging room.

As always, the best measure of a great room was whether my team enjoyed it.  We very much enjoyed The Forgotten Son. 

Where:                   11A Cope Street, Redfern

Duration:                60 minutes

Themes:                 1 theme (but more on the way)

Cost:                       $46pp (but we played at the invitation of the owners)

Overall Rating:        An immersive, well themed experience with great puzzles

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

Mission Sydney - Unstoppable Review

Hi all

The second room that my team ever did in Australia was Vampire Castle at Mission Sydney, which we tried back in November 2014.  I enjoyed Vampire Castle, which was my first experience of a high tech escape room.  I also really enjoyed Dr M at Mission Sydney, which we did a little while later.  My team also enjoyed The Lost Mine at Mission Sydney, which we did about a year ago at the time of writing this review.

This time we were invited back by the owners to check out their brand new room, Unstoppable.  A year ago to the day, we had tried their The Lost Mine room.  I know the date because it was my birthday.  Now, a year later, again on my birthday, we checked out Unstoppable.  

We were our usual 4 team of players.  Unstoppable was out 106^th room in Australian and our 76^th room in Sydney. Here's the summary of Unstoppable from their website:

You are special forces code-name Skyfall from the Australia National Security Agency. There is a secret mission for you:

A terrorist has placed bombs containing a mutated virus on a train departing from Sydney. With limited clues, you must find the train and defuse the bombs as soon as possible.

The bombs are in place, and the train is about to leave. You must act quickly to prevent a tragedy.

Here’s what I thought:

• spoiler alert - it was a frikkin' awesome room;
• the theming was SO well done.  So many details were really well considered and well designed;
• I have always enjoyed Mission Sydney rooms – they own the “high tech” corner of the escape room market in Sydney (and always have).  Although I have really enjoyed all of their other rooms, I found that at times, whilst really cool, some of the high tech elements didn’t always completely suit the theme;
• I am truly delighted report that his is not the case with Unstoppable at all.  Even though Unstoppable is completely full of high tech puzzles and design elements, they all support the storyline and make sense in the space;
• it feels to me like Mission Sydney has really appreciated the importance of a strong back story with this room – in many ways I think elements are more subtle and more natural than its earlier rooms.  The storyline is really strong and the puzzles completely work for that storyline;
• the game flow is also really well-considered.  I really enjoy clever puzzle design – this includes individual puzzles of course, but also elements between multiple puzzles and spaces that work together.  They had built-in fail safes in the room design, that were very cleverly-designed.  It’s obviously really difficult to go into any details here, but suffice it to say that I was very impressed with this aspect of Unstoppable;
• the quality of the props and theming in this room was unbelievably strong.  Unstoppable does not feel like you are in a commercial building in George Street.  They have spent a lot of time (and no doubt a lot of money) in building this room and it shows;
• there were several puzzles that were of a type that we have not seen before.  After 100+ rooms, this is becoming a rare thing indeed;
• they utilise walkie-talkies in their rooms.  Although not as good as the voice of God system that is quickly becoming the industry standard, it worked well;
• this room is family friendly – there are no dark rooms or scary elements.  I would suggest children over about 8 years old would be fine if supervised.

After escaping from Unstoppable (which from memory we did in about 60 mins of the allowed 80 mins, we were lucky enough to speak with the owner and room designer (who I remembered from Vampire Castle 4 years earlier).  It was really cool to have the opportunity to discuss puzzle elements and room design with an experienced owner/designer.  We all congratulated him on such a wonderful room.

For those of you who have been to Mission Sydney before, you know that they are the kings of high tech – much of their advertising refers to items like “padlock free”, as a point of difference.  Now imagine you have a room that is completely high tech, but with the tech woven into a great storyline with theming and props that rank up there with some of the best rooms in Australia.  That is Unstoppable.

As always, the best measure of a great room was whether my team enjoyed it.  Well, we very much did – in fact, I was raving about this room over dinner to my team for an hour afterwards ;-)

******NOTE that Mission Sydney currently has 2 different locations.  Unstoppable is at their new George Street premises*******

Where:                   Suite 502, 724 George Street, Sydney 

Duration:                80 minutes

Themes:                 5 themes

Cost:                       $45pp (but we played at the invitation of the owners)

Overall Rating:        High tech with brilliant theming and execution

More details:           https://www.missionsydney.com/