inssia
1 escape room
A classic escape room experience. Lots of mechanical locks and keys, with a well-paced narrative. Nothing too novel, but everything in the room is done very intentionally and thoughtfully. The storyline and ending payoff could definitely be stronger — fans of plot won’t find much of substance, but the thematic elements work together fairly well for what they are. Very accommodating venue with great staff. Overall, a great beginner room or simple experience, doable with 2-3 people.
Gameplay
The gameplay was very intuitively understandable, in that it was often immediately obvious what puzzle we were meant to solve. The only wrench in that flow was the sheer number of locks in the room! I don’t know if anything was especially novel in the gameplay — I didn’t have a moment where I was like “Wow, I’ve never seen this before.” But I will say that despite the lack of novelty (or perhaps because of it), this felt like an ode to the art of escape rooms, with well crafted puzzles and simple but enjoyable rooms.
Atmosphere
The storyline of a cursed movie set had a lot of potential, but the rooms were somewhat barebones. The later ‘crypt’ room tried to do more with decorations and was the most successful. I didn’t really find the idea of the set being a movie set believable for the first few minutes of the game, and the storyline was quickly forgotten once I was immersed in the lovely gameplay. I think that the major aspect that made it hard for me to believe in room as a movie set (atmospherically) is that there were no movie props lying around. Almost everything tied directly to a puzzle. Real movie sets backstage are chaotic and brimming with random items. While that might be hard to mimic in an escape room, some inspiration from that would help.
Customer service
We did a venue rental and the GM was great. He was super helpful in figuring out which rooms to play and starting the games.
Particularly interesting or different
No
Nothing different or out of the norm, but what was there was done well.
Story
I think the story was the weakest element of this room. That’s not to say it wasn’t an engaging concept, but I think the ending didn’t have the payoff that the story wanted. I also think it was a bit confusing what the curse even was — more lore is always nice.
Difficulty
Medium
Not too bad! There were a couple moments where you had to think outside the box, but overall the progression and pacing was really good. Spatial and visual thinkers would both be required to do this room faster — many puzzles that used one or the other (or both) in a tricky way!
Game tech
Mechanical
A lot of mechanical locks and keys! Some fancy moments but fairly limited, overall.
Ideal number of players
3
We played with 5, but people were standing around at times. Could easily be solved by 2 or 3.
Scary
Spooky
One memorable jumpscare moment and an overall spooky ambience due to the ‘curse’ storyline.
Minimum age
9
It could be a bit frightening for kids that are too young, but tweens/teens would enjoy the spookiness as it never gets truly scary (just enough to be thrilling!) Some puzzles do require someone tall enough to reach them, but overall most puzzles are solvable by kids, nothing too complicated.
Was anything broken?
No
Live actors
No
Physically active
Not at all
Small rooms! Not a lot of moving around needed.
Accessibility
To access the venue you must walk down stairs, meaning it isn’t very mobility friendly. I believe that the venue would make accommodations for people with other disabilities. There is a colour-dependent puzzle and vision-dependent puzzles.
Easy to find location
Yes
Parking
Limited
Busy street, very limited parking. Might have to park elsewhere and walk.
Safety
Yes
