Nucléaire prev. Chernobyl [Nuclear prev. Chernobyl]

Phew.... Honestly, I REALLY didn't like this room. We'd just done "Asylum" and had enjoyed that experience quite a bit, so we decided to give another one of their rooms a try. First off, let's talk about the storyline. I’m not exactly an expert on Chernobyl to begin with.... and I didn’t learn or understand anything new in this room. I don’t necessarily expect to learn something when I play an escape room, but what I mean is that I didn’t understand anything about what we were doing or what we were seeing! We see a photo... Okay, but who is that? Never mind, now that you’ve seen it, let’s move on... And it was like that the whole time! We write something down, but we have no idea what it means... Never mind, next puzzle! But why show us things that seem important to the history of this event if it’s just to prevent us from understanding them? Second, the puzzles. One of the first puzzles was way too long for no reason (we really felt like we were wasting our time; it had more or less nothing to do with the room’s theme...). Also, when we did something, when we completed a step, the reaction it triggered made no sense to us, which really broke the flow of the game. We were at the second-to-last step before escaping, and we couldn’t tell if we were almost done or not because the puzzles made no sense in relation to each other—that gives you an idea! Third, you know when the room basically comes with an instruction manual on “how to solve the puzzle”...... for me, that’s a big, fat no. What’s the point of figuring out how to escape if you have to follow a step-by-step guide to do it? Fourth, the location: Having to play a game in front of an audience wasn’t my goal when I went to this room....... Seriously, why didn’t they cover the windows??? Not only does seeing random people walking 30 cm away from us and watching us while we try to escape from a lab completely ruin the atmosphere, but it’s also very uncomfortable! I don’t understand the point for the owners to display this so obviously—it completely ruins the surprise for visitors! Finally, the clues........ What kind of idea is this?! To ask for clues, you have to knock on the door and wait for a game master (someone wearing the branch’s uniform, who isn’t in costume or playing a character) to come INTO the room to answer our questions...... Why not use a phone or walkie-talkie like all the other locations??? That, on top of the fact that three different people came to see us to give us clues, makes us lose both the immersion AND the connection we’d built with the game master during the experience—I really didn’t get it! If there’s one positive aspect to our experience, it’s the friendliness of the staff at this location. Although we had three game masters, they were all very patient and friendly, which was really nice! I think this room could have had great potential since the ideas are there and the decor is relatively good, but unfortunately, in my opinion, the ideas are poorly executed, which ruins the gaming experience. I hope an employee or owner reads this review and has the opportunity to improve the room based on these comments!

The biggest problem with this room—and with the company in general—is their communication method. You have to knock on the door and wait for the game master to come into the room to ask a question, which isn’t great. Especially since it takes anywhere from 30 seconds to even a full minute for them to arrive, and as everyone knows, every second counts in an escape room. The room itself is fine, except for the fact that there’s a big window facing the street, so passersby can watch you play (which is awkward) and end up spoiling the whole room for you.