Dubbo Escape Rooms - Aunty Edna's Flat Review (Dubbo) [CLOSED]

 

Hi all

Back in April 2022, my wife and I took our daughters to Dubbo for a holiday.  We stayed at the Zoo (which was awesome), we checked out the Dish at nearby Parkes, which was also awesome, and we booked into play some rooms at Dubbo Escape Rooms.  Unfortunately, the experience at Dubbo Escape Rooms was not quite as awesome as the Zoo or the Dish...

We had initially booked in to play all 3 rooms at Dubbo Escape Rooms – Aunty Edna’s Flat, Witch’s Temptation and Counter Intelligence.  We played Aunty Edna’s Flat first (and were due to return 2 days later to play the other 2 rooms). 

Aunty Edna’s Flat was our 210th escape room experience.  The room summary is no longer on their website (as I think they have retired the room), but the gist was that lovely old Aunty Edna wasn’t just a doting old aunty, but she (or her husband, I can’t remember) might have been up to something else in their spare time.

Here’s what I thought of Aunty Edna’s Flat:

·         I really did not enjoy the experience, it’s really that simple.  The theming was well below average, the room was dated, some puzzles were poorly designed, there were puzzles that were broken (and which the game master was well aware were broken), the list goes on;

·         I appreciate that regional escape rooms usually cannot match the quality of theming that we are lucky enough to enjoy in major cities, so I can definitely see past that kind of thing. But it was the broken puzzles (which the game master had to come in to fix) and the poor puzzles that I found the most annoying;

·         there was one poorly-designed puzzle that required players to pull up the carpet (!).  If the owners think that’s clever room design, then they really can’t complain if players start to pull up the entire carpet, or remove the wallpaper, etc.  It’s just not a bright move; and

·         there were some puzzles that were ok, but they were clearly overshadowed by the room's many failings.

This room was incredibly disappointing.  I don’t enjoy writing such negative reviews, but unfortunately this room deserves it. Hopefully since we played, they have improved their game (and I understand that this particular room has now been retired).

It was also disappointing that the game master didn’t seem to care that we had a poor experience.  I am pretty sure he was not an owner and his response about the broken elements was that they are known faults and he usually has to come into the room to fix them mid-game.  That was enough for me – on the way back to the car, I cancelled my other 2 bookings for their other rooms later in the week.  That is something I have never done before.  It was also disappointing that when I wrote to the owners letting them know I would like to cancel my other bookings, they didn’t engage with me at all about my experience (despite having emailed them back and forth before our trip).

Where:                        Dubbo Escape Rooms

Duration:                    60 minutes

Themes:                     3 rooms

Cost:                           $30 per person (assuming 4 players)

Overall Rating:           A run down room with broken puzzles – very disappointing.

 

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

 

 

Parapark - The Mad Landlord Review (Sydney) [CLOSED]

Hi all

Back in January 2022, my usual team of 4 headed back to Parapark to check out Parapark’s latest room, The Mad Landlord.  It was our third time at Parapark and we had always enjoyed their rooms.

Amy and Laszlo, the owners, were kind enough to invite us to beta test The Mad Landlord.  We were able to sit down with them before the game to catch up and have a chat, which was great.

The Mad Landlord was my 208^th escape room experience.  Here’s what I thought about The Mad Landlord:

·         the theming in this really strong.  There were some really lovely puzzle elements throughout the experience – one in particular used technology that we had never seen before (or since, at least at the time or (finally) writing up this review);

·         the room had a really nice mix of simpler puzzles and more complex puzzles.  It was quite a long experience (I think we were in there for about 2 hours)  – given we were beta testing, it is always difficult to judge how long we should take, whether there are too many or too few puzzles, etc;

·         there is also a good mix of high tech and low tech in the room, as well as a little hunt and seek fun;

·         whilst there are no jump scares or particularly dark elements in this experience, there are a couple of moving paintings which might scare younger players; and

·         the puzzles all made sense in the space and followed along nicely with the storyline.

My team enjoyed our time at The Mad Landlord. I would describe it as a well-themed room but definitely on the harder side (and certainly their hardest room at Parapark).  Whilst I really enjoy beta testing rooms, I often feel that my team is probably not the right kind of team to beta test rooms, given we escape most rooms pretty quickly and are therefore not a good benchmark for typical escape times, or determining whether puzzles are too hard, etc.  I also find that that it’s the little details that I love with rooms (which I expect most newer players would be less likely to notice).  Of the various pieces of feedback that we provided, one thing we thought could have been improved was more sign-posting on some puzzles (as it wasn’t clear to us what the next steps were at some points).  But this was something easily fixed.

Please note that since we played The Mad Landlord, Parapark has sold the games at that venue to SCRAM.  Each of the 3 rooms at the Macquarie Park location have been re-badged (eg The Mad Landlord is now called The Motel of Madness).  I have not been back so I am not sure whether there has been a light touch to updating the games, or whether the games have been updated enough to allow earlier players to return and play them again.

Where:                        Parapark (but see note above)

Duration:                    90 minutes

Themes:                     3 rooms

Cost:                           $42 per person (assuming 4 players)

Overall Rating:           A fun, interesting and tricky room!

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

SCRAM Escape Rooms - The Witch's Curse Review (Sydney)

 

Hi all

Back in January 2022, my usual team of 4 headed out to Parramatta to check out the newest rooms at SCRAM.  We were there to play 4 rooms back to back.  It was our third time at SCRAM, having played rooms before at both of their Parramatta locations.

Our fourth room of the day was The Witch’s Curse.  The Witch’s Curse was my 207^th escape room experience.  The theme of the room is as follows:

The magical world is full of good and evil people. The evil preys upon the fragile, and unfortunately that is why you're here. A student at the school for magical creatures has fallen victim to an evil curse. Her soul has been cursed to live inside of five items from her life and were scattered through the school by the new head mistress. You must look for clues in order to manuever through the hidden halls of the school to collect the pieces of her soul. Once you have retrieved them, you must complete a ritual in order to return them to her body.

Here’s what I thought about The Witch’s Curse:

·         the theming in this room was pretty strong.  As with all of the other rooms at SCRAM’s Church Street location, we all noticed a clear step up in the quality of the props and theming compared to their original O’Connell Street location;

·         as with their other rooms at this location, there are no traditional padlocks style locks in The Witch’s Curse, but instead there are a lot of locks with hidden mechanisms (electromagnetic/RFID triggered).  These particularly suited the them (so that things appeared to happen “magically”;

·         we escaped this room in good time, so I would describe this room as about a medium in terms of difficulty;

·         I think this room would be suited for primarily adults, given there are dark spaces in this experience.  There were no jump scares at all, so kids who are ok with dark spaces would probably be fine in this room (although my 7 and 11 year old would not, so use your own judgment); and

·         the puzzles all made sense in the space and followed along nicely with the storyline.

Much like their Pharoah’s Tomb Egyptian-themed room, I have lost count of the number of magic/witch themed rooms that I have played in the past 9 years.  I liked The Witch’s Curse – it was a solid room with decent puzzles.  There were a few puzzle elements that we had seen elsewhere (and this is not that uncommon given the number of rooms we have played).  And although the room didn’t really have a ‘wow’ factor, we did have fun.

Where:                        SCRAM Escape Rooms

Duration:                    60 minutes

Themes:                     Many rooms (over 3 different locations)

Cost:                           $42 per person (assuming 4 players)

Overall Rating:           A solid witch themed room

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

TERPECA 2023

 

Hi all

It's that time of year again.  For those of you who aren't aware, TERPECA is the Top Escape Rooms Project Enthusiast's Choice Awards. 

Each year, those enthusiasts who have played more than 200 escape rooms are asked to nominate their favourite rooms.  Then nominators, together with enthusiasts who have played at least 50 rooms, get to rank those nominated rooms. 

Last year there were a number of great Australian rooms that were nominated, and one (La Rebellion at The Cipher Rooms in Sydney) even made it into the top 100 rooms worldwide.

This is the second year that I am a nominator.  As an enthusiast, the TERPECA results are also really useful when traveling and considering which rooms to play both here and overseas. 

If you have played at least 50 rooms, head to the TERPECA website and sign up as a voter.  If you have played at least 200 rooms, you can sign up as a nominator (you only have until the end of October).

Thanks

Scott