Scram Escape Rooms - Toy Rescue Review (Sydney)

Hi all

In January 2021, on my birthday, my wife and I took our girls to play one of Scram’s newest rooms, Toy Rescue at their new Church Street, Parramatta premises.  We had previously played 2 of the rooms at Scram’s other venue (at O’Connell Street) and had enjoyed both games.

Toy Rescue was my 164^th room to date.  The theme of the room is as follows:

It is your kid’s birthday and you are his toys. He is super excited to open one present in particular.  However, his jealous neighbour has snuck in and stolen the present! You can't let this happen! You, as his toys, must retrieve the present and return it to his room before he gets home from school. You have one hour.

Here’s what we thought about Toy Rescue:

• it was immediately clear on entering the room that Scram has significantly improved its theming compared to its earlier rooms at its O’Connell premises.  The theming is much more prominent and clearly a lot of time and effort has been spent;

• Toy Rescue is a room that has clearly been designed for kids.  Our daughters, who were 4 and 8 at the time, really enjoyed the theme.  My wife and I largely sat back and let our girls solve as many puzzles as they could (and only stepped in to help when they weren’t sure what to do next); 
  

• there are some really cool puzzles in Toy Rescue, including some puzzles that we haven’t seen used elsewhere (which is pretty rare);

• the puzzles were all on the easier side and our girls largely managed to escape in about 40 minutes or so; 
  

• we did have a couple of issues with 2 puzzles.  It’s hard to give too much away on that front, but one related to an electronic mechanism not being triggered.  This was actually also a design flaw, because it wasn’t clear that we had solved the puzzle (and had we known, we would have sought help earlier – but given the design of the puzzle, it wasn’t until our game master realised the faulty electronic trigger that we were able to progress.  This was a little disappointing.  The second puzzle I didn’t like was simply a weak puzzle.  It was a puzzle written on a piece of paper and given the quality of the theming throughout the rest of the room, it felt like this was maybe a last minute replacement puzzle for something else that perhaps had broken.  It definitely wasn’t a strong puzzle (and of all of the puzzles, it did not fit the theming of the room at all); and

• the game flow worked well and our girls had a lot of fun.

Where                          240 Church Street, Parramatta 2150 (Level 1)

Duration:                      60 minutes

Themes:                       9 rooms

Cost:                             $168 (team of 4)

Overall Rating:             Well-themed, family-friendly room suited to beginners

More details:                http://www.scramescaperooms.com.au/

 

 

 

Narrow Escape Rooms - Undetected Review (Sydney)

Hi all

In December 2020, my usual team of 4 returned to Narrow Escape Rooms in Penrith to play their latest room, Undetected.  We had previously been to Narrow Escape to play both Launch and The Inheritance.  We had really enjoyed both of our earlier experiences at Narrow Escape, particularly The Inheritance which is still one of our fave rooms in Sydney.

Undetected was my 161^st room to date.  The theme of the room is as follows:

Narrow Tech Systems is largely known as being at the forefront of scientific discovery.  Your team has been handpicked to steal a revolutionary piece of technology that will change the world. It’s the Biggest Score of your lives, it’s your chance to prove your skills. Stealth is key to the success of this operation. Can you get in, steal the item and get out Undetected?

As the game summary sets out, Undetected involves players trying to break into a building to steal special technology.  Here’s what we thought about Undetected:

•  Undetected has some really interesting tech throughout the entire experience.  There is a nice use of pre-recorded video at one point as well;
  

• the game flow is really nicely designed in Undetected.  I am writing this review about a year after I was there (sorry for the delay!), but my recollection is that Undetected is a much more linear room in design than The Inheritance.  My team usually does best in non-linear rooms, as we typically divide and conquer;
  

• there was a really nice mix of puzzles in Undetected, ranging from relatively low-tech, to very high tech (and even some dexterity puzzles where players need to show their coordination skills).  As with all tech in Narrow Escape Rooms’ rooms, it’s all completely seamless and well-concealed;
  

• as always with Narrow Escape Rooms’ rooms, the props all made sense in the space (some of which were very geeky (and therefore uber cool)) and were well-integrated into the storyline; and
  

• Undetected is a family-friendly room.  There are no dark or scary spaces so the room would be fine for little ones.

My team really enjoyed Undetected.  As a team of geeks, we really enjoyed the various easter eggs and geek references throughout, as well at the interesting puzzles and storyline.

Since playing Undetected, I had the pleasure of catching up with owners Shelley, Craig and Kit at an escape room enthusiasts catch up in December 2021.  It was awesome to talk about all things escape rooms, as well as 1980s and 1990s PC adventure games that we loved.  We also spoke about some potential future escape room plans for Narrow Escape, which sounded exciting.  I also (very subtly) pitched my own thoughts on great room ideas ;-)

Where                           Suite 4, First Floor, 2 Castlereagh Street, Penrith

Duration:                       60 minutes

Themes:                        3 rooms

Cost:                              $40 per player

Overall Rating:             A fun, geek-lovers room with interesting puzzles and lots of tech

More details:                https://narrowesc.com.au/

 

Enter Mission - Timeline Review (Live Experience)

 

Hi all

In October 2020 I played Timeline, a non-live avatar live experience from Enter Mission based in Melbourne. I played Timeline with my fellow escape room enthusiast friend Philip.

Timeline is a Live Experience room, meaning that whilst we did have to play at a designated time and we did have a host, there was no live avatar in the room.  Timeline was my 160^th room to date and my 16^th virtual room.

The theme of the room is as follows:

In the not-too-distant future, the world is in chaos. Your father, has developed a time machine to go back in time and fix what went wrong but he has gone missing. It’s now up to you and your friends to activate the time machine and go back to the 80’s to finish what your father started. Do you have what it takes to go back to the past and save the future? Good luck time traveling dudes!

Timeline is based on a real-life room (which I understand is somewhere in the USA).  The room has been turned into a point-and-click style game, where 360 degree photographs (“photospheres”) have been taken of each of the spaces throughout the experience. 

To be honest, I don’t recall a great deal from this room, so in many respects it clearly was not overly memorable.  In good news, I don’t remember there being any major issues with any puzzles, the game flow or interacting with the spaces. 

After having completed many online rooms at the time of writing this review (which is over a year later), I have found that the only online rooms that I seem to really enjoy are live avatar rooms. 

I found the experience of Timeline to be a mid way between a true live-hosted experience and the type of escape room you can play at your leisure without a host.  The difference is that games like Timeline charge significantly more money because you have a live host who can assist you.  The reality is that we interacted very little with the host during the experience (other than at the very beginning and end, outside of the true escape room).

To be quite honest, there are many similar point and click style games available around the world where you can play at your leisure (and they are significantly cheaper).  I have played a few of these non-live avatar but live hosted games and I have consistently found that I would have preferred to have played without the host (and saved sometimes up to 60% of the price). Timeline is $35 per player, which in my honest opinion is far too expensive for a point and click game - that kind of price is not far off a real life room! 

Timeline was an ok experience but it wasn’t really my thing.  Enter Mission also have 2 other similar non-live avatar rooms, which I decided not to play.

Where                           Virtual room (online)

Virtual Room Type:      Live Experience

Duration:                      60 minutes

Themes:                        3 virtual games

Cost:                             $35 per player (!)

Overall Rating:            Just OK - there are many better, cheaper non-hosted options around)

More details:               https://enterthemission.com/

 

60 Out - Orion's Ridiculous Revenge Review (Live Experience)

Hi all

In October 2020, I played Orion’s Ridiculous Revenge by 60 Out with some escape room enthusiast friends of mine.  Orion’s Ridiculous Revenge is an escape room business based in LA. 

Orion’s is a Live Experience room, meaning that whilst we did have to play at a designated time and we did have a host, there was no live avatar in the room.  Orion’s was my 159^th room to date and my 15^th virtual room.

The theme of the room is as follows:

Afraid of Miss Jezebel? Meet her crazy cat!

Orion, Miss Jezebel’s favorite feline, is on the mission to protect his home from threats, both foreign and domestic, and Miss Jezebel’s newest suitor is definitely the cat’s meow when it comes to evil plans. Will you be able to assist Orion in thwarting the dastardly actions of this bombastic beau?

For those of you who have played 60 Out’s Miss Jezebel room, this the sequel.  You can check out my review of Miss Jezebel here.

I enjoyed many aspects of Orion’s, the least of which is of course the crude humour throughout.  There were also a number of interesting puzzles and some questionable challengers that players needed to complete.

Overall, Orion’s unfortunately wasn’t half the game that Miss Jezebel was.  The reason for this is that the fundamental appeal of Jezebel is the interaction that players have with the Live Avatar, who was incredible.  The level of crude humour, fun and immersion of the original Jezebel was unlike anything else I have played.  Although Orion’s was fun, I think 60 Out made a big mistake in following up Miss Jezebel with a non-live avatar experience. 

Where                           Virtual room (online)

Virtual Room Type:      Live Experience

Duration:                      60 minutes

Themes:                        2 virtual games

Cost:                             $15USD per player

Overall Rating:             Fun but not a pinch on the original Miss Jezebel room

More details:                https://www.60out.com/