The Shed

Basically a series of linear puzzles, each of which either gives you a code or a key to unlock the next one. A couple of non-lock puzzles. More use of blacklight / UV ink than I would like to see in an escape room in 2023. This might have been a passably decent room in 2015, but it doesn’t do anything that you haven’t seen in a dozen other rooms.

Overall the set does enough to convey the theme and that’s about it. Several pieces of scenery are in poor repair. If there was an intro video or any other explanation for why we were in this location, we didn’t receive that story briefing: the game just started. You do find some story as you go along in the form of newspaper articles, police reports, a diary, and so forth, and those at least add something. But overall this could have been any random room full of arbitrarily locked objects.

A few of the puzzles are integrated into the story. Most aren’t. Several are nonsensical (as in, they have no plausible reason to exist within the game world except that four-digit locks need four-digit combinations).

There is a lot to do; though the game is linear and the puzzles are mostly not great, there are a lot of puzzles. This is sort of like the old “the food was bad and the portions were too small” complaint, but I genuinely don’t think the designers set out to make a simple or easy room: there is legitimately a lot of content to plow through in an hour.

It’s a horror theme but unless a few plastic “severed body parts” scare you, you’ll find little to be afraid of.

One “put the objects in the right place” puzzle was exceptionally fiddly, to the point where the game master told us to just keep repeating the same action until the thing finally opened. Several of the locks are in rough shape. Some of the scenery is falling apart.

About a third of the game (including the ending) is in a smaller area that isn’t accessible (it’s not a full hands-and-knees crawl, more of a “stoop and shuffle” situation, but low and narrow nonetheless). They do disclose this on the website, to their credit. About a third of the game takes place in a dark (not pitch black) area. You’re given a lamp but it didn’t do much for us.

Hard to give this a thumbs up just because of the initial reaction I had to the room as we entered. Of course, the atmosphere got better as we played through, so a thumbs up is warranted. I was definitely underwhelmed by the entry.

Welcoming? No. Friendly? Yes. Way too many hints we never asked for. Finished the room in 37 minutes… we felt as though they were pushing us through like cattle. The waiting room was packed at all times and you watch the pre-video in the waiting room with other guests. It was a strange feeling. As we are watching our video, we have another group who just finished their room watching our video with us while their GM was commenting on our game and we were getting their commentary. Not a fan of this method.

There was an element that was broken and when we completed a task, we were told to move the item ourselves even though there is a do not touch sticker on it.