Tesla's Mystery

⭐️☆☆☆☆ (1/5) I’ve done a lot of escape rooms around Australia, including some genuinely outstanding, award-winning ones like Curium’s “Extraction” in Melbourne, so I feel like I’ve got a fair baseline for comparison. We played “Tesla’s Mystery” at Fox in a Box Brisbane, their “hardest” room, and overall we had fun, but it left us feeling a bit underwhelmed by the end. We finished the room with 12:45 left on the clock (47:15 total) and only needed 2-3 clues the whole time. That’s not a brag so much as context: for the venue’s hardest room, we expected a bit more in terms of depth, surprise, and variety. Theming and atmosphere: The theming itself was genuinely great. The set design and overall vibe were on point and it felt like care had gone into the aesthetic. A few of the mechanical and magnetic puzzles were really enjoyable and fit nicely with the Tesla theme. However, the majority of the gameplay leaned heavily on code-breaking and combination locks. After a while it felt like we were just cycling through “find numbers → enter combo → repeat.” With so many locks of a similar style, the puzzle variety started to blur together and become repetitive. By the time we hit the final puzzle and the room ended, we both had that “oh… that’s it?” feeling instead of a big payoff. Immersion issues: One of the biggest things that hurt the experience was that we could clearly hear people shouting, banging, and reacting to jumpscares in other rooms through the walls. The venue was absolutely packed when we visited, which is great for business, but it broke immersion and made it feel more like throughput-focused entertainment than a genuine, contained escape experience. Some soundproofing or staggered start times would go a long way in fixing this. The ‘letter from Tesla’ and intro: Before the room, you’re given a letter “from Nikola Tesla” and told to find your room, which is a nice idea in theory and adds flavour. In practice, our room was literally just around the corner with a big sign on the door, so the “hunt” for the room felt more like a brief gimmick than an immersive moment. Once inside, a staff member essentially repeated what we’d already read on the website and again in the letter. It made the build-up feel redundant, like hearing the same intro three times instead of being drawn deeper into the experience. The team name situation: This was a small thing on paper but honestly the part that really got under my skin. We came up with what we thought was a brilliant themed team name, “Teslaticles”, which fit the room perfectly and gave us a sense of identity and fun. Without asking us, staff changed it to “Peanuts.” It might sound trivial, but after putting effort into the experience, finishing strong, and riding the post-room buzz, seeing our name replaced with something unrelated and generic felt unnecessarily dismissive and patronising. We messaged afterwards to ask why, and never received a reply, the silence made it feel worse than the swap itself. Overall: We still had a good time. The room looks great, the vibes are solid, and there are some fun mechanical moments sprinkled in. But for a venue’s hardest room, the puzzle structure leans too much on repeated lock-based patterns, the finale doesn’t quite land with impact, and the immersion is badly undercut by noise bleed from neighbouring rooms and a rushed, high-throughput environment. Combined with the team-name situation, the experience felt chipped-away by several unnecessary details. With more puzzle variety, stronger sound control, a more climactic ending, and a bit more respect for player experience choices (including how they name their team), this could be a standout room. As it stands, it’s a decent experience with great theming that doesn’t quite live up to its potential. My 1-star rating reflects the cumulative impact of multiple avoidable issues, and at its current standard I would not recommend this room over other options in Brisbane.

Enjoyable room. We did this with a group of 6 and it felt like too many would suggest better for 4 max. Felt immersive and puzzles were difficult without being too hard

Quite enjoyed this one! It was tricky at times but it was designed very well!

It was a beautifully crafted room that is exclusive (at the time of writing) to Brisbane’s Fox In A Box. Props and rooms were great, some puzzles were tricky but ultimately provided a rewarding victory.

They did well setting the scene from the beginning. The puzzles were complicated at times but they gave good hints that didn't give things away but got the game moving. Puzzles were logical, flowed well, and were on theme.

Enjoyed this one! Some great puzzles that we hadn’t seen before, with a good amount of lock and combination ones too!

This was a fun experience and a unique theming, it was also a little difficult for just 2 players but still manageable!

Difficult room, recommend more than 2 players overall good fun