Club Drosselmeyer 1942 [Immersive Experience]Greendoor LabsEscape roomOther If you like any one of: immersive theater, solving puzzles, dancing (especially Lindy hopping), The Nutcracker, great cocktails, a fantastic band, seeing an aerialist, dressing up in 1940s period attire, or just having fun, you will like Club Drosselmeyer. If you like most or all of those things (which I do), then this might very well be the most entertaining thing you do all year. I fly up from Atlanta to Boston just for this show and it is 10,000% totally worth it.
Pharaoh's TombWolf Escape Games-OnlineEscape roomVirtual We have played and enjoyed the three previous online games from Wolf Escape Games, and Pharaoh’s Tomb delivers basically more of the same. The graphics are good, the voice acting is fine, the “backpack” system works really well for letting the whole team examine key documents, and the puzzles are mediocre. My only real complaint is that the ending makes almost no sense and introduces a cliche of the Sherlock Holmes homage genre that really does not seem earned by the story. You’ll know it when you get to it. But, for 90 minutes of decent fun that you don’t have to get off the couch for and works really well screencasted to your big-screen TV, I can hardly complain. We’ll keep playing ‘em as long as Wolf Escape keeps making ‘em.
The AlchemistSherlockedEscape roomIRLThe two things an escape room needs to be memorable are a beginning that hooks you right away and an ending that leaves you in awe of what you just accomplished. This room has both. It turns out that everything between the beginning and the ending is also great. The level of craft and engineering that went into the set and the props is incredible. There are at least two elements of this room that I have never seen done in an escape room and I think I am unlikely ever to see them done anywhere else. This is simply a must-play.
The Lost CabinetSherlockedEscape roomPortableThis is a tabletop experience, but it has the feel of a good escape room — there are puzzles, of course, but there are also secrets to find and even somewhat of a scavenger hunt element as you will frequently find necessary objects in surprising places. As I am sure many folks have noted, the cabinet itself is reminiscent of “The Room” games brought to life. The craftwork is top-notch and every place it might be possible to cram in another compartment, they found a way to do just that. Technically a prequel to “The Alchemist” but given the logistics of coordinating to play this (unless you are in town the day before an REA tour arrives, ha) it surely isn’t a must-play for story purposes, but it does hint at what is to come. We had a great time with this experience and would certainly recommend it. The only rough spot was a couple of compartments being sticky to open: the box is unique, and it got its start being taken to people’s homes, so it has accumulated a bit of wear and tear. But this is easily remedied by just asking your host if you should do the thing you want to do, just with a bit more force, and the answer is likely to be yes. :) Highly recommended.
Escape the Ancient Ruins - Online CompetitionRaid the Room - OnlineEscape roomVirtual Note: I can’t speak to the “competition” aspect of this room. We played it as part of some sort of contest but I do not know who won or anything like that. I am just reviewing it as an online escape room (ish) experience. We played as a team of 4; good friends who have done many in-person rooms together. I think that the platform provides enough communication options (including video/live chat and text chat) that coordinating the group is not really a problem. You get a little tutorial with the GM at the beginning, which is useful as a couple of key aspects of the platform pertaining to object manipulation and “ghosting” through other players’ avatars do need a bit of explaining and practice “off the clock” as it were. All in all the platform is okay: you can zoom in/out, there was no appreciable lag, etc. It seems to force the designers to put a lot of text/instructions directly into the game world as writing on the floor. This is probably not ideal for immersiveness but it does the job. Each avatar can carry one object at a time and it did not seem possible to accidentally permanently destroy anything critical. So all in all I thought the platform was fine. If the original NES Legend of Zelda were an online escape room it would look approximately like this. (It’s dangerous to go alone.) As for the specific puzzles on this quest, they were … okay. I found the variety of puzzles to be good enough (all distinct) but the puzzles themselves were more like pencil and paper logic puzzles translated to the online format, for the most part. One puzzle did make good use of the ability to interact with NPCs and another puzzle was a good test of the group’s communication and coordination skills. We finished in about 45 minutes which seemed like it would be about average. There was essentially no story overall. One or two puzzles had a little bit of a frame within that room but nothing really connected to anything outside of its room. I suppose we did “escape the ancient ruins” but I am not even sure why we needed to escape the ancient ruins in the first place. So, it was about on par with any mediocre live escape room in that regard. I won’t describe or comment on specific puzzles as I believe the competition is still live. Would I play another game on this specific online platform, sure. Would I recommend this particular game as a good online escape room experience, not really. YMMV
The Keeper And The Fungus Among UsHeadlock Escape Rooms OnlineEscape roomVirtual Simply delightful. An escape room inside of an immersive story that was built specifically to be played via Zoom. Not terribly difficult but the puzzles are clever and the way everything takes place inside the game world is fantastic. Includes some laugh-out-loud moments. Highest recommendation.
Rise of the FungiHeadlock Escape Rooms OnlineEscape roomVirtual This “prequel” might best be enjoyed after playing “The Keeper and the Fungus Among Us” as it contains a number of easter eggs and nods to the other game, but I don’t think it really matters what order you play them in. This game is just as much fun and just as whimsical. Highest recommendation.
The ObservatoryThe Gate EscapeEscape roomIRLFull review TK but this room has one of the most jaw-dropping moments I have ever experienced in an escape room. It is a pure puzzlefest from start to finish.
The Assistant 2.0The Gate EscapeEscape roomIRLThis was an enjoyable room with an amusing blend of high-tech props used in low-tech ways. You’ll learn more ways to repurpose an old circuit board than you probably ever imagined. Overall the gameplay flows smoothly. One very ambitious physical puzzle is a bit fiddly to get everything aligned just right but the GM (and owner/designer) was able to help us nudge the right pieces into the right places without spoiling anything. We had a lot of fun. Recommended.
Legend of PepePuzzlEscape HudsonEscape roomIRLWe did not know the evidently extensive backstory of Pepe Le Scuzz, but that was no problem in terms of completing the room. There are a series of puzzles to solve, each of which concludes by giving you some information about how Pepe has (or has not) been able to pull off his nefarious schemes over the years. I am sure it would have been very entertaining to experience the series of rooms that have told the story over the years. For this room you reach a decision point where you can choose an easier finale or a harder finale. We had 30 minutes left so we chose the harder finale and barely finished (I think we were technically a few seconds over time) so this is more like opting into an entire second escape room, which we enjoyed very much. Good use of the environment for puzzle content and a nice variety of puzzles. This is clearly a family business and a labor of love, and we appreciated it for what it was rather than trying to compare it to other high-budget or high-tech rooms we have played in the past. On that basis, I give it a thumbs up!
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