Pandores et Associes - Review of Reglement de Contes (Paris)

 

Hi all

The second escape room venue that we checked out in Paris during our European adventure in December 2023 was Pandores et Associes.  Their “Fairytale Regulations” room (Reglemen de Contest) had come highly recommended by other escape room enthusiasts, particularly as being a great family-friendly room.  They were correct – here is what we thought:

Regelemen de Contes (Fairytale Regulations) – Pandores et Associes, Paris (Room 270)

This was our favourite children-friendly room not only in Paris, but in our entire European trip.  It was one of our favourite rooms period actually.  This room has previously sat at the 48^th best room in the world according to TERPECA nominees and it is well-deserved. 

This room is a fantasy-lover’s dream.  It’s a huge space that has so many separate elements.  We travelled through a scientific laboratory (my girls had a look of amazement in their eyes the whole time) and then we travelled to 4 different fairytale worlds.  We met characters along the way and found all of the puzzles to be really fun to solve.

The experience was beautiful, visually spectacular and so much fun.  The room design is very clever, leading to a climactic ending that was really satisfying. 

Where:                        102 Boulevard Voltaire, 75011 Paris

Duration:                    60 minutes

Themes:                      2 themes (only 1 in English as present)

TERPECA:                  Fairytale Regs - #245 in 2024 (formerly 48)

Cost:                           160 Euro (4 people)

Overall Rating:           Incredible room – world class and great with kids.

More details:              https://www.pandore-escape.com/

Secrets Hunters, Paris - Review of The Disappearance of the Zanetti Train (Paris)

 

Hi all

During our travels in December 2023 in Europe, after enjoying our time in Finland and Czechia, we then travelled to Paris.  We managed to play rooms at 5 different escape room venues across Paris.  The first venue that we checked out was Secrets Hunters, which was about a 30 min trip on the metro from Paris.  Here is what we thought:

The Disappearance of the Zanetti Train – Secrets Hunters, Paris (Room 269)

This room was beautifully made.  There are many different areas within this experience and they are all themed really well.  I really enjoyed the mix of puzzles – they were really varied but challenging and satisfying to solve.  There were some really impressive elements in the game as part of the story, which was probably one of the stronger stories that we encountered in any of the rooms that we played across Europe. There is a really nice flow to the room, which builds to a great ending. 

This was definitely one of the better rooms that we played in Paris.

Where:                        17 Place de la Nation, 75011 Paris

Duration:                    60 minutes

Themes:                      3 themes

TERPECA:                  Zanetti Train - #252 in 2024 (formerly #197)

Cost:                           35 Euro per person (4 people)

Overall Rating:           Beautiful storytelling and theming

More details:              https://secretshunters.fr/en/

Mind Maze, Prague - Review of Galactic Pioneers and Nautilus (Prague)

 Hi all

During our travels in December 2023 in Europe, we played 2 of the many rooms available at Mind Maze in Prague.  Here is what we thought:

Galactic Pioneers – Mind Maze, Prague (Room 266)

This was a very high tech room.  There were no padlocks to be seen at all.  The room uses an “AI” voice in place of a game master, which worked pretty well.  There were a lot of puzzles in this room, some more challenging than others. The room is largely non-linear, with points of convergence.  We had fun.

Nautilus – Mind Maze, Prague (Room 267)

This was their standout room.  The theming was magical, as was the backstory.  The game master in Nautilus is a head in a jar (it’s beautifully done and not at all creepy).  All of the spaces were beautiful, least of which was the submarine itself. I thought this was one of the best children-friendly rooms we did in all of Europe and definitely the best children’s room that we did in Prague.

Final thoughts

Both rooms were great – nice variety of puzzles and great theming.  We liked Nautilus the most as it was more charming and certainly better suited to our girls.  I would recommend both rooms if you find yourself in Prague.

Where:                        Balbínova 32, Prague 2, 12000

Duration:                    60-90 minutes

Themes:                      7 themes

TERPECA:                 Galactic Pioneers - #355 in 2024 (formerly #46)

                                    Nautilus (formerly #116)

Cost:                           From 1,690 CZK

Overall Rating:           Awesome theming, especially Nautilus!

More details:              https://mindmaze.cz/en/

The Padlock Escape Game, Prague - Review of Mission 53 and Safe: The Secret of Jack Daniel (Prague)

 

Hi all

After our adventures in Finland (in December 2023), we travelled to Czechia.  The first escape room venue that we went to there in Prague was The Padlock.  We were lucky enough to have the escape room designer and owner, Alex, as our game master for the first room that we played.  We went to both of their venues during our stay in Prague, first playing their Mission 53 room and then later their Safe: The Secret of Jack Daniel room.

Both of the rooms were marked as scary rooms or 18+ rooms, but I reached out to Alex ahead of our trip and he confirmed that both were not too scary for our daughters.  Here is what I thought: 

Mission 53 – The Padlock, Prague (Room 265)

This was a really beautifully-themed room. It is a really large space and contains a huge amount of puzzles. The theming was really well done.  Mission 53 previously ranked number 187 on the TERPECA list and I can see why enthusiasts love this room – very challenging puzzles, unique puzzle elements, great attention to detail with theming.  It was a great room – the only aspect to note is that if you are coming with children, there is one section of the experience that is dark and which might scare them – there are no jump scares at all, it’s just dark.

Safe: The Secret of Jack Daniel – The Padlock Prague (Room 268)

At the time that we played this room, it had a TERPECA ranking of 36.  And I think that rating was well-deserved.  The quality of the theming was brilliant, from the second that we entered the space.  There was a really lovely mix of puzzles, that kept us all engaged and challenged.  There were some unique puzzle elements and many that were high tech, as well as some low tech and hunt and seek fun.  The storyline was very strong and the ending was spectacular.  I can’t say too much about this without giving spoilers, but we got to make our own ****** and then ******* what we made and it was awesome 😉

Final thoughts

We really enjoyed both rooms at The Padlock.  They are both packed full of puzzles and the theming is incredibly strong. There are dark sections in Mission 53 which my girls were afraid in, but it was short-lived. The puzzles were all challenging and a lot of fun to solve. I think Safe is the better of the 2 rooms, but both are really strong rooms. In fact, Safe was my favourite room in Prague.

Where:                        Orebitská 2, Prague 3 and Kubelíkova 21, Prague 3

Duration:                    99 mins / 77 mins

Themes:                      3 themes

TERPECA:                 Secret of Jack Daniel - #217 in 2024 (formerly #36)

                                    Mission 53 - #378 in 2024 (formerly #187)

Cost:                           96-109 Euro per team of 4

Overall Rating:           Excellent rooms – challenging and fantastic theming!

More details:              https://www.thepadlock.cz/

Labyrinth Games Room Escape Helsinki - Review of The Flying Dutchman & The Holy Grail (Helsinki)

 

Hi all

In December 2023, my wife and I took our girls to Europe for our first white Christmas.  We had a great time and travelled to Finland, Czechia, Frand and England. 

We managed to play at least a couple of escape rooms in each country, for a total of 22 rooms over a 5 week period.  I know, I am slipping…

Rather than review each room in detail, I thought I would review each escape room business and let you know what my favourite room(s) were at each.

The first venue we hit on our European adventure was Labyrinth Games in Helsinki, Finland.  There are not a lot of escape rooms in Finland, which is surprising given that most European cities have dozens of different escape room businesses. After some digging online, the venue that caught my eye was Labyrinth Escape Rooms.  They are located about a 15 min walk from the city area.  We played two rooms there, The Flying Dutchman and The Holy Grail.

The Flying Dutchman – Labyrinth Games Helsinki (Room 263)

This was a really beautifully-themed room. It was a really nice pirate themed room with interesting puzzle elements.  Our daughters impressed us in this room and they found a lot of the hidden objects almost as soon as we walked in.  The story was strong and the puzzles were a nice mix of low and high tech.  This was a great room.

The Holy Grail – Labyrinth Games Helsinki (Room 264)

The Holy Grail was also a strong room, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as The Flying Dutchman.  It had a lot of high tech in the room and some aspects were pretty visually spectacular (one in particular).  But overall, I didn’t think the story and game flow was as strong (and given pirate themes are one of my all-time favourite themes, it probably never had a chance against The Flying Dutchman to be fair). 

Final thoughts

The rooms at Labyrinth Games in Helsinki were solid rooms.  The staff there were lovely and gave us recommendations on where to eat after our adventure. 

Where:                        Vuorimiehenkatu 3 (Sisäänkäynti sisäpihalta) 00140 Helsinki Suomi

Duration:                    60 mins

Themes:                     3 themes

Cost:                           80 Euro per team (family discount)

Overall Rating:           Solid rooms with great theming

 

More details:              https://lgames.fi

Quest Room Brisbane - Review of 5 Rooms

 

Hi all

The final escape room outfit that we checked out on our 3 days of escape room madness in Brisbane in November 2023 was Quest Room.  They are based in Spring Hill, which is a very short distance from the Brisbane CBD. 

We played 5 rooms at Quest Room pretty much back to back.  Our game master for the day was Lex, who stayed in character throughout the whole day (except when I made him laugh a few times 😉).

Here is what we thought of the rooms at Quest Room:

Darkness (Room 257)

This was a really interesting room.  I had never before played a completely dark room, although I have played rooms that had small sections of blackness.  It meant of course that we had to really focus on our other senses to escape the room.  I was surprised that our team of 4 didn’t bump into each other too often and nobody hurt themselves. We really struggled with one smelling puzzle (as I always have because I find artificial scents to be really difficult to identify, and once you have one smell in your nostrils, all bets are off).  We enjoyed this unique experience, which was very simple and escaped in 27 minutes (of a possible 60 minutes).

Sherlocked (Room 258)

This was probably my favourite room at Quest. Friends of mine had recommended this room and I can easily see why. The quality of the room was excellent – the theming and props were all beautifully done, the puzzles were also interesting and fun to solve and we really felt immersed in the set.  We managed to blitz through this room and escaped in 24 minutes (of a possible 60 minutes) and broke the room record.

Heist (Room 259)

We thought this was the hardest room at Quest Room (or at least it was for our team).  We managed to escape in 45 minutes (of a possible 60 minutes). I thought there were some interesting puzzles in Heist, but there were also some puzzles that had us really scratching our heads.  I have spoken with other enthusiasts who have separately played Heist and they both got stuck on the same puzzle.  The theming in Heist was solid but simple (and I appreciate there’s only so much you can do with an office-themed room).  It was a solid room but probably my least favourite over all at Quest Room.

Steampunk (Room 260)

This is by far the biggest room at Quest Room.  There are a lot of puzzles to get through, ranging from some hunt and seek (and attention to detail) puzzles, through to some dexterity and other really beautiful puzzles.  I always like a good steampunk theme and I thought this room was beautifully done.  I am pretty sure this room exists elsewhere in the world (as I recall a fellow escape room enthusiast friend telling me that they had played this room elsewhere, I think in Europe?).  So if you have played any Steampunk rooms in Europe, you might want to double check with Quest Room before playing this one. We escaped Steampunk in 45 minutes (of a possible 90 minutes) and had a great time.

Flying Dutchman (Room 261)

I thought the theming of this room was excellent - easily one of the best themed pirate rooms I had played to date. The set design and props were all brilliant and the level of immersion was very high.  The puzzles were all on the easier end (and I suspect this room would be really popular with kids for birthday parties or with families).  We escaped this room in 21 minutes (of a possible 60 minutes) and broke the room record.

Final thoughts

We really enjoyed the rooms at Quest Room and it was great to finish our long weekend on a high.  I thought Sherlocked was their best room for enthusiasts, Flying Dutchman their best family-friendly room and Steampunk their best bigger room for larger groups. Lex was an excellent host and ensured that we had a great time over the 6+ hours that we were there.

Thanks

Quester Scott

Where:                        Ground floor, 56 Little Edward Street, Spring Hill

Duration:                    60-90 mins

Themes:                      6 themes

Cost:                           $47.50 per person (assuming team of 4)

Overall Rating:           Some really beautifully-themed and fun rooms!

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

Arcadium Adventures - Review of 3 Rooms

 

Hi all

Another escape room outfit that we checked out on our 3 days of escape room madness in Brisbane in November 2023 was Arcadium Adventures.  They are based in Spring Hill, which is a very short distance from the Brisbane CBD. 

We played the following 3 rooms:

• The Pursuit of the Elixir of Life (Room 254);
• Search for the Stone of Destiny (Room 255); and
• Seeking the Lost Chagama (Room 256).

Here is what I thought of our experience at Arcadium Adventures:

a)    when we sat down in the bar area ahead of playing the first room, I remember googling Arcadium Adventures for the first time and learning that they were affiliated with TRAPT in Melbourne (or at least the owner of Arcadium is or was involved with TRAPT).  I would rate my experiences at TRAPT amongst the worst escape room experiences I have had to date, so my expectations plummeted;  

b)    I tried to keep an open mind though, but then our game master handed us a “magical” item that we should use throughout our adventure.  It was an old smart phone with an app on it.  More about that later…; and  

c)    I thought the theming and quality of puzzles in each of the rooms was reasonably well constructed and designed. However, there are not nearly enough puzzles in each room to justify a full 60 minute room.  I appreciate that the target market for Arcadium Adventures might be newer players or corporates, but we escaped their rooms in less than 1/3 of the allowed time, so that was disappointing.

Whilst the theming was decent in each of the rooms, and some of the puzzles were quite good, there are two fundamental failings of each of the Arcadium rooms that we played:

a)    the magic device they provided (ie the old smart phone) was very gimmicky and detracted from the immersion in the room.  It didn’t work perfectly and its design means that players are somehow supposed to know what items to use it on (which means that players must inevitably place the device onto every item throughout the experience).  You know how it can be annoying to have to shine a blacklight on every surface of a dark room?  Well this was kind of the same, but with a device that is dicky and doesn’t always work (and the device is not a "one and done" single time use, so unlike the blacklight, you're never really sure when the device is no longer needed); and  

b)    the fundamental design of each room at Arcadium Adventures is that 3 separate experiences have been designed to be played in the same physical space.  So, each time you play a room, 2/3 of the puzzles and props in the space are irrelevant to your game. They try to overcome this by using small signs in the room to identify which puzzles do and do not relate to your experience, but this is far from perfect.  There is also something inherently disappointing about seeing many puzzle elements in a space but knowing that the majority are not part of your adventure.  This design also means that if you return to play another experience within the same space, any secret doors are no longer a mystery to you. Also, when you return, you know which puzzles are definitely not part of your experience (because you had solved them last time you were there in a different experience).

I have played rooms before where the same space is utilised for multiple experiences.  I appreciate the commercial benefits to an escape room business under this model, but I thought the execution was very poor at Arcadium Adventures.  If you wanted to do this properly, I think you would need to:

·        completely hide puzzle elements that are not part of the experience being played (rather than instead using a small sign to indicate that they are irrelevant);

·        have multiple hidden door mechanisms, so that return players still get to enjoy the magic of moving from one space to another; and

·        provide enough puzzles to make players feel like they are getting good value for their money.  I honestly think our team could have played all 3 rooms back to back and gone close to escaping in 60 minutes in total.

I walked away thinking we had been given 3 disappointing 20 minute rooms for the price of 3 x 60 minute rooms.  I really did not enjoy the experience here and was very happy when it was time to leave.

Where:                        The Basement, 97 Wickham Terrace, Spring Hill

Duration:                    60 mins

Themes:                     5 themes

Cost:                           $45 per person (assuming team of 4)

Overall Rating:           It’s a hard pass from me - my least favourite Brisbane outfit.

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