The Cipher Room - La Rebellion Review (Sydney)

 

Hi all

Back in October 2022, the lovely Marise and David, owners of The Cipher Room, invited us back to play their latest room, La Rebellion. If you have read my blog (or you have played any rooms at The Cipher Room), you will know that they have the best themed rooms in the country.  So were we excited to return? Yes, yes we were. 

Their St Peters venue is just as beautifully themed as their Newtown premises.  The experience really does begin when you walk into their reception.

La Rebellion was my 215^th room to date.  The summary of La Rebellion is as follows:

La Rébellion is set in a dystopian France, where a despotic leader is in power. You are part of a brave resistance group known as the Rebelles. The Rebelles have heard about a secret bunker owned by the evil leader. Inside this bunker is something that may help your rebellion, and ultimately bring down the presidency. Your mission is to locate it. And fast. Can you infiltrate the bunker without being detected? What lengths will the other rebels go to, to assist you in your mission?

Here’s what I thought of La Rebellion:

·         this room did not disappoint!  It is as beautifully constructed as all of the other rooms at The Cipher Room.  The theming is phenomenal, the backstory incredibly strong (and borrowing from real historical events), and the attention to detail is off the charts;

·         the puzzles throughout La Rebellion are fantastic.  They all make sense in the space, they are cleverly designed and the construction quality is second to none.  The puzzles are quite diverse, some quite challenging, and all were really fun to solve.  The Cipher Room describes the difficulty level in La Rebellion as a 4.5/5, which I think feels about right;

·         The Cipher Room’s rooms are all visually spectacular, but La Rebellion contains moments that are just magical; and

·         after we completed the room, Marise very kindly spent some time walking us through the puzzles, noting the various easter eggs throughout, and telling us the detail about some of the puzzles and puzzle elements, where different materials were sourced, etc. I always love hearing passionate people speaking about their work.

If you take a look at The Cipher Room’s website, you will see that all of their rooms have been nominated for TERPECA awards in recent years.  These are awards given to the best rooms in the world, as voted by enthusiasts.  In 2021 and 2022, La Rebellion was a finalist in the TERPECA awards, holding the spot of 67^th best escape room in the world. The Cipher Room’s rooms are in a class of their own; they are very deserving of all of their awards.

Where:                       The Cipher Room (St Peters)

Duration:                    60 minutes

Themes:                     8 rooms

TERPECA:                 #159 in 2024 (formerly #67)

Cost:                           $55 per person (assuming 4 players)

Overall Rating:           Another work of art – challenging, spectacular, magical.

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

 

Mission Sydney - The Last Order Review (Sydney)

Hi all

Back in June 2022, some fellow enthusiasts and I met up in the city to play The Last Order at Mission Sydney.  At the time, I had played all other rooms at Mission Sydney.  I think the reason that I hadn’t played The Last Order up until that point is that I had been told that it was a single room experience, which I generally find less exciting than multi room experiences, and that it was a much simpler room than the other rooms at Mission. 

The Last Order was my 214^th room to date. The summary of the room is as follows:

You are a member of an international assassin syndicate. Your superior ‘James’ is one of the syndicate’s highest-ranking members and he is currently in hiding from the police.  One day, you receive an unmarked letter in the mail. The letter’s message reads: “I have kidnapped your family. They are safe, but not for long. If you ever want to see them again, go to level 2 of this hotel before…” You quickly pack your bags and on the way to the hotel, you contact the most trustworthy member in the syndicate you know – ‘David’ – and beg him to help identify the kidnapper. He agrees to help you behind the scenes. Arriving at the hotel, you are ready to do anything to save your family.

Here’s what I thought of The Last Order at Mission:

·         I really enjoyed The Last Order.  One of the things I liked about it was that it was so different to the rest of the rooms at Mission.  Mission was initially known for cornering the high tech market, but in the last few years they have created some really beautifully-themed rooms with some excellent puzzles;

·         The Last Order does not have the dazzling wow factor that some of Mission’s other rooms have, but it does have a strong back story and really strong puzzles.  It reminded me in many ways of old adventure games from the 90s, which is probably why I enjoyed it so much (given that those adventure games are, I think, the reason for my escape room addition today);

·         the puzzles were quite varied and really cleverly put together.  They used a lot of different elements, all of which made sense in the space.  The room flow of The Last Order is particularly strong too; and

·         whilst the theme is not particularly kid friendly, it is not a dark space and there are no jump scares at all.

We really enjoyed The Last Order.  What it lacks in shiny wows, it makes up for in clever puzzle design.  I think newer players are probably more likely to be attracted to the shinier, more visually impressive rooms that Mission has on offer, but I think The Last Order is a great room (perhaps more suited to enthusiasts who enjoy interesting puzzles).

Where:                       Mission Sydney

Duration:                    75 minutes

Themes:                     8 rooms

Cost:                           $46 per person (assuming 4 players) midweek

Overall Rating:           A really unique room with great puzzles

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

 

Icebreak Escape Rooms - Vanishing, X-Case and Silent Reviews (Sydney)

 

Hi all

Back in June 2022, some fellow enthusiasts and I met up in the city to play all 3 rooms at Icebreak Escape Rooms.  I played the first 2 rooms, Vanishing and X-Case with 2 other enthusiasts and then for the final room, 3 other enthusiasts joined us for a total team of 6 players for Silent. 

These 3 rooms were my 211^th, 212^th and 213^th rooms respectively.  My thoughts on all 3 rooms were actually pretty consistent, so that I thought I would take a shortcut and review all 3 rooms together.

Here’s what I thought of Vanishing, X-Case and Silent at Icebreak Escape Rooms:

·         a consistent comment across all 3 experiences was that the backstories were all pretty weak (and weren’t easy to follow). The games themselves each felt like they had been purchased from a catalogue, rather than lovingly designed;

·         of the 3 rooms, I thought that Vanishing was the best room.  It had interesting puzzles and a good flow.  In X-Case, there were some pretty significant safety concerns with parts of their rooms (we had no issues, but I can imagine others could really hurt themselves).  We didn’t have any safety concerns in Silent, but I thought that was the most forgettable of all 3 rooms;

·         as far as the theming goes, none of the rooms are designed for families.  That being said, Vanished is not scary and could be played by families – Silent would definitely be too scary for my kids (and given the safety concerns in X-Case, I would steer clear of taking kids to that one); and

·         with current pricing between $49 and $58 per player (assuming a team of 4), I just don’t see the value here (at all).  That kind of pricing is up there with the better (and more deserving) rooms in Sydney.

The game masters were lovely throughout the experience and (particularly in Vanishing) we had a good time, but overall the rooms at Icebreak are not on par with many other great escape room businesses in Sydney.

Where:                       Icebreak Escape Rooms

Duration:                    60 minutes

Themes:                     3 rooms

Cost:                           $49-58 per person (assuming 4 players)

Overall Rating:           Rooms that are not on par with their competition

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