Armoire à Vendre [Wardrobe for Sale]

1) The set design and build quality are amazing. When the lights come up and the space is revealed, I couldn't help but smile. The details, lighting, and sound design all combine to create a magical place that feels real, The puzzles were varied and thematic, and the in-room character was fun to interact with. 2) Our GM was way too aggressive in providing hints. Often we'd barely processed what a puzzle was asking of us before the GM piped in to hand us the key insight. At one point while manipulating a puzzle and talking through it with each othr, after someone said something to the effect of "this goes here", the GM said "Are you sure?" We neither wanted not asked for her advice, and this kind of thing happened throughout the game, often robbing us of an "aha!" moment. It undermined the entire reason for doing escape rooms in the first place, and really frustrated us. 3) The latter part of the game involved multiple occasions where we had to hide and watch actors slowly play out the storyline. Perhaps some people enjoy this, but I come to escape rooms to be the active agent, not a passive observer. I'd have preferred a tightened script that minimized these captive vignettes and left the focus on us as players, rather than actors playing out the telegraphed narrative arc.

This is one of those games you’ll remember for a while. Very whimsical, very story-line heavy, a lot of breaks during the game to follow along with the story, had a live actor, and unique elements. This was a challenging room - we are an experienced team, and some of these puzzles were very layered! Luckily, your adorable little hint giver is with you the whole time.

Another of our favorites now. The room itself has some of the most adorable puzzles we have seen and then another part of game that is very special and unique that surprised us.

Wardrobe for Sale might have been my personal least favorite of the 4 we did at this location, but I think it was one of the top rooms for others in my group. The set design is phenomenal with at least one jaw dropping moment. I also think this room had the most focus on the actual puzzles, and I like how there are lots of sections where you need to solve a bunch of things in parallel. My slight issues with this room were twofold. First, there were a few puzzles where we didn't actually know we solved them, or maybe they were broken. Secondly, I think the story in this room, while very important, was maybe not as interesting as some of the others and often interrupted the gameplay due to some slight pacing issues. To be clear, these are all very minor complaints, and these rooms stand above any others I've ever done. I'm just reviewing the rooms relative to the other 3 I did here: Magnifico , Lost Island of the Voodoo Queen, and the Hidden Cathedral

It was a really great immersive experience, but I was left wanting more in terms of puzzles and the gameplay itself. We often had to wait for the game to trigger the next stage rather than moving forward on our own, and that made it feel like a stage-based challenge. It was really enjoyable, and I’m glad we did it, but the atmosphere was more “childish” than we expected—we were expecting something different.

Well this room is absolutely spectacular - especially the first half of it in particular. The magic is real and we fell head over heels for a character in this story! The puzzles were fun and whimsical and wonderful. Our GM was just fantastic here. I felt in awe of my surroundings for almost all of the game.

Escaparium operates on an entirely different level than any escape room I have done to date. This is something you need to experience for yourself and not let me ruin one moment of it with my review. The story is engaging and it is something you really need to pay attention to as it unfolds. It won't help you solve the puzzles, but it is a major part of the experience. The scenery is absolutely amazing and you can easily lose yourself trying to take in all of the details. The puzzles are great and completely original to anything I have seen before. I have to admit some of them made you really think outside the box and try multiple things to come up with the correct solution. The hint system is unique (and absolutely adorable) and you you won't mind getting a little nudge in the right direction. I cannot get over how much I loved this room!

A timeless classic. Escaparium’s original claim to fame. You can’t go wrong.

Magnifico, it is not. It's still a decent room, but it feels like an earlier version of a build style they perfected later. The best part? Your puppet companion and guide throughout, always at the ready. Notes: One main puzzle room had what appeared to be 10 or so parallel puzzles, but they were actually linear - each one giving a missing piece to the next, which was a bit analysis paralysis and also makes it hard to have everyone help if it's a group. They say the minimum is 4, but we did it with 2 and I don't know what everyone else would be doing. There's a puzzle involving ants I found really kind of random and hard to "solve" conceptually - like it could have meant a lot of things. There's what WOULD be an immersive themed experience between 2 rooms, but the motor that powers it is INCREDIBLY loud whirring and breaks immersion hard. There are prerecorded scenes, so if, say, the French one accidentally plays, it can be very confusing for the players if this is supposed to happen, what are we supposed to do, and the actor has no good way to get out of the scene and fix it until it's done. In the second main puzzle room, there's a lot of devices and I think a couple labels or names would make what one is supposed to do with which part a bit more clear. Nothing a couple puppet hints wouldn't solve, but "hey what if you go back and try that again but slower" doesn't feel as good as the thing you tried magically working. Heck, even the very first puzzle was a bit misleading. What if a secret door had instructions guiding you away from itself? But maybe we're just obtuse on that one. Don't get me wrong - it was a good room and s good experience, but for the ratings accolades and awards it has, especially sharing the same location as Magnifico, it just left us a bit underwhelmed by comparison. The slightly janky precursor. But the puzzles are still creative, heavily themed, mostly sensible and solvable, and a good time. They get you interacting and engaging, and the setting is adorable. Wonderful acting and puppeteering for our show.

It's a nice room, but it's clearly showing its age—several things aren't working. For the price, you'd expect more.