The Mystery Of Whispering Woods

Good flow, not particularly novel or tricky. Some elements broken and needed a workaround.

Some good elements, but relatively sparse. Too dark overall. Story wasn’t resolved in a clear and satisfactory way

Overall, the game flowed well. There was a lot to it. With only two of us and no note-taking there was a lot to remember while solving a variety of puzzles. There were one or two stops and starts as we attempted to figure out where to go next, and we were given a couple of somewhat confusing verbal clues, but overall the game flowed well.

The atmosphere was varied but supported the story. The props and atmosphere were very immersive...impressively so. The puzzles were fun overall and supported the theme.

Our game master was welcoming and friendly. The location is a little out of the way so he took the time to step out to make sure we were headed to the right place. Our overall impression was that he might have been newer to this room (hard to quantify). At one point we had a mix-up with a couple of his hints alongside a piece of equipment malfunctioning that introduced some confusion into our experience. It slowed things down just enough to throw us off, be we got back on track.

The room supported the story well but there wasn't anything we hadn't seen before. However, a lot of good puzzles.

Some of the puzzle solutions were notably obscure. At over 50 escape rooms complete we like to take something new away when we can, and we did on at least 3 different puzzles. The lack of note-taking method (did I mention that already?) was an added challenge in itself. It caused us to innovate, but with only two of us took additional bandwidth that we didn't fully have available. Additionally, there is a lot to do, and the room is spread out pretty well with a requirement to solve certain puzzles with information, that can't be relocated, spread around the room. Additionally, (maybe because there were only two of us) some of the effects were a challenge to see (did something open, turn on, drop down, etc.?). These might all be excuses but they added to the difficulty.

The game was on the high tech side of mechanical. There were some tech-y puzzles.

There were a lot of spread out clues. However, the game seemed mostly linear. We could have used extra minds to decipher the challenges of certain puzzles.

Challenging puzzles might leave less than a 10-year-old (or 11-, or 12-) behind.

At one point, a door came open in the middle of our game master providing us 2 (involuntary) clues which added a level of confusion. At the end, when we asked what should have happened he explained how the door should have opened, but blamed us for interfering with a piece of equipment which he explained (at the beginning) was a little loose. Overall, the game was in good condition -- this one piece was supposedly sensitive and that slowed us down slightly. The intro to the room also included A LOT of do's and don't's which makes one suspicious of what we're getting into, but the room was in good shape otherwise. There was one piece missing that didn't match a "map" (I use that obscurely based on the specific item) which confused our orientation of the "map" slightly.

A lot of moving throughout the room.

The location is at the back of what used to be a large shopping area. There are directories spread around and the location is marked on them. The first puzzle was finding the place. Once you get close it is easy to find on the side of the building it is on.