Hope EndThe Ministry Of PeculiaritiesEscape roomIRLThe LOBBY- the game itself is fantastic and a must do, the introduction you get to the company before your game even starts makes it a truly unique experience from any other game I’ve played
Himitsu Station - The Forgotten MarketsHimitsu StationEscape roomIRLHimitsu Station is a stunning, immersive, and playful room that was built without fully considering the player count that would be leveraged. Good enough that I will be excited to go again once the second part is fully built out, but the price for the player experience is lacking. Starting with the pros: the set is among the best I’ve seen. I loved the layers of detail and the clear vision that went into the build. You can tell the creators poured so much love into this room. The staff are amazing- booking was easy and the lobby experience blends beautifully into the room itself. The takeaways are fun and the atmosphere is generous- it’s a great vibe and I would generally recommend it, with some caveats. Cons: the puzzle density is light for my taste, I do think it’s reasonable to balance for newer players, so this is only a mild con in my opinion- but with the point system set up the way it is more could certainly be added without hindering escape. The major flaw of this room is how the space impacts player experience: which is devastating considering how much I love the build. For context- we had a full booking at 7 people (I went in with 1 other person on a fresh booking for a less popular interval, the other 5 joined last minute) and escaped with a 38 points. Public bookings aren’t my favorite, so there is some bias there, but we had a relatively considerate group with some moderate experience. Gameplay was smooth and we didn’t get stuck for long at any point. The problem is the game just isn’t physically designed for 7 in my opinion. There were multiple points where it felt cramped, several spaces that did not allow for more than one person at a time, character story where the audio was too quiet to make out with 7 people (2 or 3 quietly talking several feet away and the rest of us quiet). One room in particular had a point where it was incredibly difficult to move around people, so I was stuck in a 2 ft space unable to interact with the room for four or five minutes. This eased as other people opted for corners and as gameplay transitioned to other spaces- but only 4 of us were really able to engage at any time. Cost is a real factor in escape rooms, and the space that is being used is in a major downtown area— but there are several small things that could have been done (like volume for spoken sections or even an additional foot of space in some of the more narrow sections) at the prices being charged that just were not well enough executed to protect gameplay in higher numbers: and that is a design flaw. This is a good room, but it could be great with some modifications.
