Monster Mania

I had high hopes for Monster Mania, having played all of White Rabbit's other rooms, including their retired games, and thoroughly enjoyed every one of them. Unfortunately, this room fell far short of the standard they had previously set. For context, we've played over 50 escape rooms and have enjoyed games across all budgets and production levels. We don't need elaborate sets or expensive technology to appreciate a good room. Creative puzzles, intuitive gameplay, and an engaging experience matter far more to us. Unfortunately, Monster Mania failed to deliver on those fundamentals. The entire experience felt unfinished, from the set design to the puzzles themselves. The game is completely linear, and many of the puzzles are unintuitive. We had to request a hint on the very first puzzle simply to understand what we were supposed to be doing. What made the experience even more disappointing was the GM. When we asked for clues, we received vague responses like "You're in the right location" or "Just follow the clue," without any meaningful guidance or context to help us understand the puzzle. Then, after a minute or two, he would simply trigger the prop and move us forward without us actually solving anything. This continued throughout the game, with the GM repeatedly triggering puzzles before we had solved them, even when we hadn't requested assistance. It felt like he was more interested in getting us through the room and out the door than allowing us to actually experience the game. Rather than helping us understand the puzzle and giving us the satisfaction of solving it, he simply bypassed the experience altogether. Despite not understanding what we were supposed to be doing for nearly half the puzzles, we somehow "finished" with more than 10 minutes remaining. There was very little satisfaction in completing the room because so much of the experience was taken out of our hands. Overall, this was the worst room we have played. Given how much we enjoyed White Rabbit's previous games, Monster Mania was an especially disappointing experience. We know this company is capable of delivering great rooms, which makes this one all the more frustrating.