airees

Reviews

Reviews

EXTERMINATED: Terror at the Junkyard

EXTERMINATED: Terror at the Junkyard

Evasive Escape Rooms [prev. Escape Rooms Unlocked - Sarasota]

  • Escape room
  • IRL
What a fantastic showcase of the passion and talent of the team at Evasive Escape Rooms! Having done Fallout shelter just the night before, we were convinced by Trevor to try out this one despite my uncertainty with doing a scary escape room. I can confidently say that while I did indeed jump and get spooked, it was such an incredible and enjoyable experience that I am glad I gave it a go! So if you are worried about the level of scary, I think it was the perfect balance of spook that was timed well and thematic with the overall story. But the GMs are very accommodating to tailor the experience to your needs. The puzzles were original and so creatively mixed in with each room—like everything was on theme and made sense being there. For an experienced player, they were complex, but we were able to logic them given the context clues around the room, and without any nudging/GM clues. However, for more novice players, we can see this room being quite challenging. To emphasise the care that the team put into building immersion, every room even had a scent! This room was clearly built by escape room enthusiasts for escape room enthusiasts. It oozes originality from the story, the environment, to the puzzles. And we had a great time discussing the behind the scenes with our GMs Trevor and Chris.
Phantom Files: The Investigation Of Lockturne Manor

Phantom Files: The Investigation Of Lockturne Manor

The Escape Ventures - Port Charlotte

  • Escape room
  • IRL
This was an incredible room from the atmosphere, quality of the set design, to the incorporation of a live actor throughout parts of the experience. This really wasn’t something we had experienced before and we can see why it’s so highly rated! It really felt like we were ghost hunters. Our favourite part would be the start where there was a clear flow of logic behind each puzzle, and everything was connected. The latter part seemed to lack this flow, with a bigger room and a bunch of random locks to attend to—there wasn’t a clear connection between the answer to the puzzle and its corresponding lock (you had to just kinda assume). But the theming was so strong throughout the whole experience, even before you step through to the initial room. Just a lot of cool parts throughout, that will stick with us for a long time. One of them being the theme song.
Crazy Train: The Ballad of Skeemin' Plotz

Crazy Train: The Ballad of Skeemin' Plotz

Doldrick's Escape Room

  • Escape room
  • IRL
The set design and theming really elevated this room above the other escape rooms we’ve tried around the area. I appreciate the linearity and flow of puzzles. There were clear story objectives set at each part that then leads to the final task, making each puzzle have a logical progression and all contributing to the overarching story. Unlike Spoopy Bones, the theme and story are intertwined nicely throughout, making the experience cohesive and like we’re really on a train and we’re really training raptor riders! Some areas of improvement: certain puzzles were quite tedious and repetitive, and the final puzzle also appeared to not require all elements to be used to work properly (we forgot to switch some things and it still worked fine?). It appears Doldrick’s has a strong emphasis on making kid-friendly, “goofy” themed rooms with stories that are meant to be humorous/satrical. While these aren’t the type of rooms that we love, this one was still very enjoyable and fun to be in.
Extraction

Extraction

The Curium Experience

  • Escape room
  • IRL
We are still quite new to the escape room scene so The Curium has blown our standards out of the waters. The quality, the thought, and the genuine passion that was felt from the experience was palpable. The puzzles were logical and flowed very well. Having the puzzles be not entirely linear also meant that, that you could focus more on enjoying interacting with the whole place rather than hyper-focused on one lock. Really couldn’t recommend it enough!!
A Not So Fairytale Ending

A Not So Fairytale Ending

Lock, Clock, and Peril Escape Rooms

  • Escape room
  • IRL
Our hearts are so full after doing this room! While we were initially meant to do Teleporter Trials (but cursed traffic caused us to miss the booking), it appears the fairy magic 🪄 pushed us to do this room instead—and I can wholeheartedly say we do not regret it one bit. This whole room was endearing, feeling like a cozy homecooked meal. Even down to the little details, like with crocheted characters by Sarah (our GM). The story is child friendly and lighthearted but that does lessen its enjoyment. The whole set design and puzzles are full of character, it really felt like we fell into a children’s fairytale. Puzzles themselves aren’t too difficult, very intuitive and logical, which meant that we had time to take in the setting. The GM also keeps watch throughout, and you can have fun little banter with them in character. There are multiple rooms of different styles, so the scale and adventure felt huge! I couldn’t recommend LC&P enough, it’s clearly made with love. Take your time in the room, enjoy the beautiful design. Also make sure when you’re there to take a trip to the bathroom to see the shark toilet roll holder 🫡
Deep Space: Divinity

Deep Space: Divinity

Ukiyo

  • Escape room
  • IRL
Honestly coming from the other space-related escape rooms around Melbourne and The Crumbling Prince series, the introduction to the Deep Space series leaves us wanting a bit more. Unfortunately, it felt more like the AI was a guide, directing us to specific actions, rather than a being to interact with to understand more lore of the story. So it didn’t feel like we had much opportunity to interact with the lil guy, but perhaps that’s because there was only two of us. Outside of that, the puzzles were unique but simple and minimal. The overall experience felt a bit short, and we didn’t come out of it with a full appreciation for the story as we had hoped. As two people, the recommended minimum group number of four seemed quite a lot given the small space and puzzle amount. But maybe the larger group numbers allow for better interaction with the AI. That being said, the set design and the overarching story is intriguing. It is a good introduction to the series, and to story-based escape rooms for those who are less experienced. Although, as a standalone experience, we would like to see more.
Gold Rush

Gold Rush

The Escape Game - Pigeon Forge

  • Escape room
  • IRL
This was just an overall solid escape room! It had a blend of traditional puzzles but some unique ones that we have not seen before. Unfortunately, one wasn’t working. But the GM was very attentive throughout our time, making sure that one of our muses of “should i put my mouth on that” was very quickly met with a “please DO NOT”. The room begins with a video to set the scene which was very immersive, comedic, and added to the atmosphere of the theme. One of the most unique things with this room is that it’s not centred around escaping, but rather, finding treasure! Our main critique is that puzzles flowed into one another, which does make doing multiple puzzles simultaneously as a group not really possible. There were a few puzzles that did not follow logic and was based around whether you straight up knew it or not. But we left feeling satisfied with this solid escape room!