The Nightmare

Another “live actor” heavy experience, The Nightmare didn’t quite hit the same as its Freakshow counterpart but it was still a solid room overall. As one of the oldest rooms at Padlock’d it felt very basic in its design choices with an array of colour by number 4-digit codes and props that felt out of place but served a puzzle in some way. The concept is fun on paper having players work their way through a series of different “nightmares” but outside of the story intro, it was pretty unclear what was going on once we began. The live actor had a couple good scares but wasn’t as involved as some of the other horror experiences, just there for the vibes apparently. This would be a fantastic room for folks who are just starting out playing escape rooms while looking for something spooky. Good fun, but middle of the road.

I'm generally not a horror person and am very sensitive to scary experiences, but underwent this one for a Spooky Vibes friend's birthday. I managed to survive because the staff were very understanding and fully respected my request not to be the victim of any jump scares or love actors. I was glad I spoke up and I'm really grateful they listened and looked after me.

I'm not usually one for leaving bad reviews, however in this instance I feel that it is relevant. Having just completed 'Nightmare' and 'Museum Heist' as experienced players leading a group of first timers, I was sorely disappointed. The cost of the rooms at $49 each for a group of four, felt overpriced for the quality of the experience on offer. The puzzles and clues felt loosely tied together by a flimsy storyline; and while there were a variety of puzzles - the overuse of red herrings that didn't pertain to any puzzles in the room made it difficult to ascertain what was important or not. The puzzles would be great for first timers or younger players, however some were obscurely clued in the space with little connection from puzzle to clue. In addition to poor maintainence of the props and poor Gamemaster clue communication - with multiple GMs throughout the game - made it difficult to understand some of the puzzles. Usually this would not be enough ruin an escape experience, unfortunately our room wasn't reset correctly and subsequently, we had met the 'win' condition fifteen minutes before our GM noticed, almost immediately after entering the final room. When we were finally greeted by a GM after we had 'won', we were left feeling confused, underwhelmed and without a sense of accomplishment. I don't enjoy leaving a detracting review, but as a person who cares greatly about this industry I believe honest feedback is the best way to help each other grow. Hoping on our next visit for a better experience.

Really cool room, nice and spooky and some nice jumpscares, but overall not tooo scary. There‘s some nice puzzles and they all make sense. Decoration is creepy and fits the theme, the live actors are fun to tease and are doing a fantastic job :)

Just amazing room, was very different with some puzzles we have never done them before but would recommend taking a couple of mates and enjoying the laughs and scares together.

Super creepy, heart racing and adrenaline filled. Loved it!

I really enjoyed the scary vibes of the room!

Cool concept for a room with old school mechanical locks. One of their earlier rooms. GM was great — they could tell my partner was genuinely scared by the music and scaled back the intensity to support a fun, inclusive experience.